Builder: Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd, Glasgow, Scotland. Completed :,March 1893 Gross tonnage: 12884. Dimensions: 622ft x 65ft. Depth 45ft.
Engines: Two three-cylinder triple expansion. Screws: Twin.—
Watertight bulkheads: Twelve.
Decks: Three.
Normal speed : 21.50 knots. (She attained a
speed of 23.02 knots during her trials.)
Officers and crew: 386.
Passenger accommodation : 526 first, 200 second and 300 third class.
Maiden voyage: Liverpool—NewYork on April 22, 1893.
Engaged in the Liverpool—Cobh—New York run. The Campania won the Blue Riband from the Inman Line's City of New York in May 1893 by making the run from Sandy Hook to Cobh in 5 days, 17 hours, and 27 minutes at a speed of 21.09 knots on her return maiden voyage.
She was the first Cunarder to have twin-screws and had a prom¬enade deck 370ft long. There were 12 main boilers and 96 furnaces which consumed over 20 tons of coal every hour to make her fast runs across the North Atlantic. In 1900 she rammed a sailing vessel in the St George's Channel sinking the ship and with the loss of all her crew. Still another mis¬hap occurred in 1905 when an immense wave swept five persons overboard and injured several others.
She made her 250th and last voyage in April 1914 and was withdrawn from service on May 12, 1914, but made five Atlantic cross under the management of the Anchor Line ending on October 15, 1914, at Liverpool.
Sold to T W Ward in 1914 for scrapping, but reprieved from shipbreaker's yard when she was resold to the Admiralty and converted to a seaplane carrier with considerable alterations forward and her fore- funnel replaced by two others side by side. This now gave her three funnels which looked somewhat odd. Broke from her moorings on November 5, 1918, and foundered after colliding with battleship Revenge in the Firth of Forth, Scotland. The half-submerged wreck was subsequently blown up, being a danger to navigation in the Firth of Forth.
Sister ship: Lucania.
Maldive Islands SG2690
North Atlantic Passenger Liners since 1900. N.T. Cairis