LACONIA HMS 1911

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aukepalmhof
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LACONIA HMS 1911

Post by aukepalmhof » Mon Jun 20, 2016 8:34 pm

Built as a passenger-cargo liner under yard No 877 by Swan, Hunter & W. Richardson, Wallsend, Newcastle for Cunard Steam Ship Company Ltd., Liverpool.
27 July 1911 launched as the LACONIA.
Tonnage 18,099 gross, 11,226 net, dim. 190.5 x 21.7 x 12.3m. Length bpp. 183.1m.
Powered by two triple expansion steam engines manufactured by Wallsend Slipway Company Ltd., Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 18,000 ihp, twin shafts, speed 17 knots.
Accommodation for 300 first class, 350 second and 2,200 third class passengers.
10 December 1911 completed.

RMS LACONIA was a Cunard ocean liner built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, launched on 27 July 1911, delivered to the Cunard Line on 12 December 1911, and began service on 20 January 1912 from Liverpool to New York. She was the first Cunard ship of that name.
27 October 1914 chartered as an Armed Merchant Cruiser by HM Government and armed with 8 – 6 inch guns. 24 November 1914 commissioned as a HMS LACONIA in Liverpool. From 29 November till 05 December 1914 loading stores and ammunition at Portsmouth, three Short Folders planes (no 119, 121,122) were also taken on board at Portsmouth bound for Durban. 16 December 1914 sailed from Portsmouth bound for South Africa.
On the outbreak of World War I LACONIA was converted into an armed merchant cruiser in 1914 and based at Simon's Town, South Africa in the South Atlantic, from which she patrolled the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean until April 1915. She was then used as a headquarters ship for the operations to capture Tanga and the colony of German East Africa. She continued to serve on the East Africa station, before returning to the UK with a convoy in June 1916. She was handed back to Cunard in July 1916 and on 9 September resumed North Atlantic service.
On 25 February 1917 she was torpedoed by SM U-50 6 nautical miles (11 km) northwest by west of Fastnet while returning from the USA to England with 75 passengers (34 first class and 41 second class) and a crew of 217 commanded by Captain Irvine. The first torpedo struck the liner on the starboard side just abaft the engine room, but did not sink her. 20 minutes later a second torpedo exploded in the engine room, again on the starboard side, and the vessel sank at 10:20 pm. 12 people were killed, six crew and six passengers, including two American citizens, Mrs. Mary Hoy and her daughter, Miss Elizabeth Hoy, who were originally from Chicago. The death of the Hoys stirred up public opinion in America against the Germans, and raised public support for the United States entering the war.
Chicago Tribune reporter Floyd Gibbons was aboard LACONIA when she was torpedoed and gained fame from his dispatches about the attack.
Rediscovery
In March 2009, it was announced that the wreck of the LACONIA was located and claimed by Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc., a commercial archaeology company in Tampa, Florida. She was found about 160 nautical miles (300 km) off of the coast of Ireland. "Britain claims it is the legitimate owner of the wrecks because, under a wartime insurance scheme, it paid the owners of the vessels when they sank, in effect making the remains the property of the taxpayer." The search for the wreck was featured on an episode of Discovery Channel's Treasure Quest titled "The Silver Queen". One of the artifacts recovered during their investigation of the wreck happened to be the remains of a left shoe that likely belonged to one of the ship's female passengers.

Liberia 2015 $30 sg?, scott?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_LACONIA_(1911) Armed Merchant Cruisers 1878=1945 by Osborne, Spong and Grover.
Attachments
Laconia_1912.jpg
2015 laconia(2).jpg

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