RMS Carinthia was first laid down in Barrow-in-Furness in 1924 with the yard number Hull 586. Originally she had the name Servia but was renamed at the time of her launching on 24 February 1925. She made her maiden voyage on 22 August 1925 from Liverpool to New York City. At her launch she was the largest of the five post First World War intermediate size liners.[1]
RMS Carinthia was noted for her comfortable accommodation in 3rd class. The dining room provided small tables for travelling parties of family and friends, an innovation at the time.[1] There was also a smoking room and small library and a shop for the third class passengers needs. The first class restaurant was called the Adams room and had silver lamps on each table. The ship was also well equipped for sport with an arena that covered 5,000 square feet (460m2) over two decks and included a swimming pool, gymnasium, racket courts and shower and bath rooms for massage treatments. On the "A" deck there was the 1st class smoke room which had been modelled after the house of El Greco, the Spanish painter, the room also contained an American bar. The first class lounge was furnished and decorated to represent the period of King William of Orange.
Service
The Carinthia plied the Atlantic on the Liverpool-Boston-New York route. She was also used for cruising. In 1931 her passenger accommodation was altered. Instead of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Classes, she now had Cabin Class, Tourist Class and 3rd Class. During 1933 she made a world cruise calling at 40 ports including Tristan da Cunha, (known as the remotest island on the planet) covering 40,000 miles (64,000km). In 1933 RMS Carinthia received an SOS from the Latvian steamer Andromeda which had struck an unknown submerged object. The incident had happened eighty miles from Ushant in the English Channel but Carinthia had been too far away to make a rescue and the ship sank. The crew of the steamer were rescued by the steamship Hartside.
In 1934, she was transferred to the London–Le Havre–Southampton–New York route. From 1935 until 1939 she was reverted to New York and used for Winter cruising. As she no longer carried the Royal Mail across the Atlantic, she was re-designated as the SS Carinthia. Her hull was painted white with a green boot-topping for the cruising duties. On 20 September 1938, the Carinthia was on a cruise from New York to the Caribbean, 150 miles north of Florida when she was warned of bad weather ahead, the infamous 1938 hurricane. She turned to avoid the storm, but the storm also turned and she sailed right into it. Despite category 5 winds and huge seas, she survived the storm with only cosmetic damage and sick passengers.
RMS Aquitania was an ocean liner of the Cunard Line in service from 1914 to 1950. She was designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. She was launched on 21 April 1913 and sailed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on 30 May 1914. She was given the title of Royal Mail Ship (RMS) like many other Cunard ocean liners since she carried the royal mail on many of her voyages. Aquitania was the third in Cunard Line's grand trio of express liners, preceded by RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania, and was the last surviving four-funnelled ocean liner. Shortly after Aquitania entered service, the First World War broke out, during which she was first converted into an auxiliary cruiser before being used as a troop transport and a hospital ship, notably as part of the Dardanelles Campaign.
RMS Laconia was a Cunard ocean liner built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, launched on 27 July 1911, with the wife of the U.S. Ambassador Mrs. Whitelaw Reid christening the vessel. Laconia was delivered to the Cunard Line on 12 December 1911, and began service on 20 January 1912. She was the first Cunard ship of that name. She was torpedoed and sunk on 25 February 1917 during World War I; 12 passengers were killed.
RMS Laconia was a Cunard ocean liner, built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson as a successor of the 1911–1917 Laconia. The new ship was launched on 9 April 1921, and made her maiden voyage on 25 May 1922 from Southampton to New York City. At the outbreak of the Second World War she was converted into an armed merchant cruiser, and later a troopship. She was sunk in the South Atlantic Ocean on 12 September 1942 by torpedoes. Like her predecessor, sunk during the First World War, this Laconia was also destroyed by a German submarine. Some estimates of the death toll have suggested that over 1,658 people were killed when the Laconia sank. The U-boat commander Werner Hartenstein then staged a dramatic effort to rescue the passengers and the crew of Laconia, which involved additional German U-boats and became known as the Laconia incident.
RMS Republic was a steam-powered ocean liner built in 1903 by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, and lost at sea in a collision in 1909 while sailing for the White Star Line. The ship was equipped with a new Marconi wireless telegraphy transmitter, and issued a CQD distress call, resulting in the saving of around 1,500 lives. Known as the "Millionaires' Ship" because of the number of wealthy Americans who traveled by her, she was described as a "palatial liner" and was the flagship of White Star Line's Boston service. This was the first important marine rescue made possible by radio, and brought worldwide attention to this new technology.
Orion (HSK-1) was an auxiliary cruiser of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine which operated as a merchant raider in World War II. Blohm & Voss built her in Hamburg in 1930–31 as the cargo ship Kurmark. The navy requisitioned her at the start of World War II, had her converted into the auxiliary cruiser Orion, and commissioned her on 9 December 1939. Known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 36, her Royal Navy designation was Raider A. She was named after the constellation Orion.
RMS Transylvania was a British ocean liner. She was launched on 11 March 1925 for the Anchor Line and was the sister ship to the SS California and RMS Caledonia. She was converted into an armed merchant cruiser, pennant F56 during World War II. On 10 August 1940, HMS Transylvania was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat U-56.
RMS Empress of Britain was a steam turbine ocean liner built between 1928 and 1931 by John Brown shipyard in Scotland, owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company and operated by Canadian Pacific Steamship Company. She was the second of three Canadian Pacific ships named Empress of Britain, which provided scheduled trans-Atlantic passenger service from spring to autumn between Canada and Europe from 1931 until 1939.
SS Deutschland was a passenger liner built in Stettin and launched on 10 January 1900 for the Hamburg America Line (HAPAG) of Germany. She was officially the second ocean liner to have four funnels on the transatlantic route, the first being Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse of 1897.
Asashimo was a Yūgumo-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was among the several ships sunk during Operation Ten-Go by attacking US aircraft in 1945.
RMS Cedric was an ocean liner owned by the White Star Line. She was the second of a quartet of ships over 20,000 tons, dubbed the Big Four, and was the largest vessel in the world at the time of her entering service. Her career, peppered with collisions and minor incidents, took place mainly on the route from Liverpool to New York.
RMS Viceroy of India was an ocean liner of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). She was a British Royal Mail Ship on the Tilbury–Bombay route and was named after the Viceroy of India. In World War II, she was converted to and used as a troopship. She was sunk in the Mediterranean in November 1942 by German submarine U-407.
RMS Empress of Asia was an ocean liner built in 1912–1913 by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland for Canadian Pacific Steamships.
RMS Campania was a British ocean liner owned by the Cunard Line, built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Govan, Scotland, and launched on Thursday, 8 September 1892.
HMS Forfar (F30) was a British ocean liner that was commissioned into the Royal Navy as an armed merchant cruiser in 1939 and sunk by enemy action in 1940. She was launched in Scotland in 1920 as a transatlantic liner for the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company as Montrose. She was one of three sister ships. The others were Montcalm, also launched in 1920, and Montclare, launched in 1921.
SMS Yorck was the second and final ship of the Roon class of armored cruisers built for the German Kaiserliche Marine as part of a major naval expansion program aimed at strengthening the fleet. Yorck was named for Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg, a Prussian field marshal. She was laid down in 1903 at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, launched in May 1904, and commissioned in November 1905. The ship was armed with a main battery of four 21 cm (8.3 in) guns and had a top speed of 20.4 knots. Like many of the late armored cruisers, Yorck was quickly rendered obsolescent by the advent of the battlecruiser; as a result, her peacetime career was limited.
The second SS Laurentic was a 18,724 GRT steam ocean liner built in 1927 by Harland and Wolff, Belfast, for White Star Line. She was the last steamship to be built for White Star Line.
USS Hisko (ID-1953) was a tanker that served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919.
RMS Orcades was a British passenger ship that Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd of Barrow-in-Furness built as an ocean liner in 1937. Her owner was Orient Line, which operated her between Britain and Australia 1937–39, and also as a cruise ship. The British Admiralty then requisitioned her and had her converted into a troopship.
RMS Tahiti was a UK Royal Mail Ship, ocean liner and refrigerated cargo ship. She was launched in 1904 in Scotland as RMS Port Kingston for a subsidiary of Elder Dempster Lines. In 1911 the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand bought her and renamed her Tahiti.
I-64 was an Imperial Japanese Navy Kaidai-class cruiser submarine of the KD4 sub-class commissioned in 1930. During World War II, she supported the Japanese invasion of Malaya and conducted war patrols in the Indian Ocean before she was sunk in May 1942 while deploying to take part in the upcoming Battle of Midway. Just after her loss, and before her loss became known to the Japanese, she was renumbered I-164.
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