TOWARDS the end of 1911 the Cunard Steam-Ship Company obtained financial control of the Anchor Line and the following year ordered from Scott's Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. Ltd. of Greenock, a new liner, the Transylvania, for a joint Cunard-Anchor service between Mediterranean ports and New York.
A little later the Anchor Line, which retained its identity in spite of Cunard control, ordered a sister ship, the Tuscania, for the same service. The route was from Naples, Genoa, Marseilles, possibly Barcelona, and Gibraltar to the U.S.A.
The Transylvania was originally designed to be driven by two quadruple-expansion engines but Cunard were so impressed by the economies claimed for geared turbines that the design was changed to this type of machinery with the ship already on the stocks and so the Transylvania became the first Atlantic liner to be fitted with geared turbines. The Tuscania was also given the same power plant.
The Transylvania was a ship of 14,315 gross tons, 8,714 net, and on a load draft of 27 ft 6 in had a displace¬ment of about 19,400 tons and a deadweight capacity of 8,700. She was 567 ft in overall length, with registered dimensions of 548.8 ft x 66.6 ft x37.2 ft, and had a total of eight decks, four of them full length.
There were seven holds and hatchways and 13 main watertight bulkheads. The design was typically "Cunard" with a long closed bridge deck and two open decks above and, in fact, the ship was in most ways a slightly enlarged and improved An¬dania, one of the ships built for the Canadian service the year before.
Her twin screws were driven by single-reduction geared turbines developing 10,000 s.h.p. for 152 knots, with a maximum output of about 11,000 for 16 knots. Each main gear wheel was 10ft in diameter, 5 ft. wide, with helical teeth, and driven by two Parsons turbines, the h.p. on the inner side and the l.p. and condenser on the outer side of the wheel. An impulse type astern turbine was incorporated in each l.p. turbine.
Piping and valves were so arranged that if one of the turbines failed and was out of action for any reason the other one, coupled to the same gear wheel, could still be used and the ship continue to operate on twin screws.
The normal revolutions were 15,000 r.p.m. for the turbines and 120 for the gearwheel and propeller, with a max¬imum of about 1,630/130 and thus both turbines and propellers were operating at far more suitable speeds than was the case with the large and heavy direct drive machinery, where the turbines ran too slowly and the propellers too fast.
Six double-ended coal-burning boilers, 16 ft. in diameter and 21 ft. long, were carried in two boiler rooms, with cross coal bunkers forward of, between and abaft them. Coaling was by way of 17 coaling doors on each side of the hull.
It was found that this adoption of geared turbines saved 12 ft. 6 in. in the length of the engine room while there was a saving of 10% in the cubic capacity of the machinery space, 12 % in the weight of the main engines and, at full speed, an economy of 15% in coal consumption. There was also a notable absence of vibration and it was found that the ship manoeuvred quite rapidly and easily.
The accommodation was for 263 first-class, 260 second and 1,900 third class, really emigrants. The first-class had excellent public rooms on the promenade deck, with both first and second saloons on the shelter deck. The second-class accommodation was mainly on this shelter deck while the emigrants were quartered on the main and lower decks with promenade space on the weather decks fore and aft. This accommodation was very reasonable for the times and there were many three and four-berth rooms in addition to the usual large dormitories.
In appearance the ship was certain¬ly a very handsome "good looker", with excellent proportions, a good sheer and beautiful lines. Her sister Tuscania, built for the Anchor Line by Alexander Stephen and Sons, Ltd. of Linthouse, was almost exactly the same.
Launched on May 23, 1914 the Transylvania was registered on Oc¬tober 19 and ran her trials on the 28th, doing a little over 16 knots. On November 7 she left Liverpool on her maiden voyage to New York and followed this up with two more voyages in the same Cunard service. She does however, seem to have had black Anchor Line funnels during this period though I am not certain of this.
However in February of next year she was "sold" to the Anchor Line and in March made her first Anchor Line voyage from Glasgow, though routed via Liverpool to back up the Cunard service. She made one more similar voyage, with the Tuscania and Cameronia on the same run, and then on May 19 was chartered by the Government as a troop transport.
Fitted out to carry 200 officers and 2,860 other ranks she was based on Liverpool but spent the whole of her transport time on Mediterranean services, normally embarking her troops at Plymouth or Devonport for Salonica and Alexandria.
In September 1916 she returned to Liverpool after seven trooping voyages and on September 20 left again with more troops. Having disembarked these at Salonica and Alexandria she then operated for several months between Marseilles and Salonica.
On May 4, 1917, two days out of Malta, she was torpedoed and sunk in the Gulf of Genoa, South of Cape Vado, with the loss of 402 troops and 11 of her crew.
The names Transylvania and Tuscania were soon revived when the company's post-war construction was taken in hand, the new Transylvania of nearly 17,000 tons coming into service in 1925. She too was to be torpedoed and sunk by an enemy sub¬marine in 1940.
See also:
http://www.shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewt ... 6370#p6370
The stamp shows the second Transylvania.
SG2680 Sea Breezes 11/73 by J.H.Isherwood