RMS Franconia (1910)

This article is about the 1910–1916 ship. For other ships with the same name, see RMS Franconia.

RMS Franconia passing Castle Island in Boston Harbor
History
United Kingdom
NameRMS Franconia
NamesakeFranconia
OwnerCunard Line
Operator Cunard Line
Port of registryUnited Kingdom Liverpool, United Kingdom[1]
Ordered28 August 1909
BuilderSwan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Newcastle upon Tyne
Yard number857[2]
Laid down8 October 1909[3]
Launched23 July 1910[4]
Christenedby Lady Elizabeth Forwood
Completed21 January 1911 [3]
Maiden voyage25 February 1911, Liverpool to New York[5]
Identification
FateTorpedoed and sunk, 4 October 1916
General characteristics
TypeOcean liner
Tonnage
Length
Beam71.3 ft (21.7 m)[1]
Height
  • 90 ft (27.4 m) (keel to top of deck houses)[7]
  • 149 ft (45 m) (keel to top of funnels)[7]
  • 200 ft (61 m) (keel to top of masts)[7]
Draught29 ft (8.8 m)[1]
Depth44 ft (13.4 m) (depth moulded to Upper Deck)[1]
Decks
  • 7 passenger decks
  • 9 decks overall
Installed power
PropulsionSteam quadruple expansion engines geared to twin propellers
Speed18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)[7]
Capacity
  • 2,610 passengers total
  • 174 First Class
  • 492 Second Class
  • 1,944 Third Class
NotesSister ship to RMS Laconia (1911)
At dry dock, 1910

RMS Franconia was a British ocean liner owned and operated by the Cunard Line, built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson of Wallsend, England, and launched in 1910.

Franconia was intended for the line's Boston service, being the largest ship of the time to enter Boston harbor, with winter service in the New York-Mediterranean cruising service.[7]

Design and Construction

Conception to Launch

Construction began as the keel was first laid down on 8 October 1909 in the covered slipways of the shipbuilder's East Yard.[3]

The launch took place on 23 July 1910, with Lady Elizabeth Forwood, wife of the Cunard Director William Bower Forwood, christening the ship Franconia.[4]

Franconia was placed in dry dock of John Readhead & Sons in Hebburn on the south bank of the Tyne on 13 January 1911. Her hull was painted over four days, before being released on 16 January and prepared to set out on her delivery voyage to Liverpool on 21 January.[8][3] Officials from Cunard and Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson joined the ship from North Shields in a fog, which impacted her sea trials.[9]

Equipment

From launch, Franconia had an antenna for the Marconi wireless radio system strung between her masts. She had a range of approximately 250 miles, and used the call sign 'MEA', inherited from RMS Etruria taken out of service in 1908.[6][10][11] She had two Marconi operators and backup equipment on board, allowing radio service at all times for safety and passenger convenience.[11]

Deck plan

A longitudinal section plan of the Franconia at launch in 1910, showing deck and bulkhead layout
A longitudinal section plan of the Franconia at launch in 1910, showing deck and bulkhead layout

From top to bottom[12]:

  • Deckhouse Top, with the officers' quarters, officers' mess, chart room, and the wheel house.
  • 'A' Deck / Boat Deck, containing the gymnasium, first class saloons, the captain's quarters, and access to lifeboats.
  • 'B' Deck / Promenade Deck, containing first class cabins and access to additional lifeboats from the first class promenade.
  • 'C' Deck / Bridge Deck or Saloon Deck, consisting of a main house accommodating first-class cabins, first and second class dining saloons, and second class cabins at the rear on a narrower deck house surrounded by the second class promenade.
  • 'D' Deck / Shelter Deck, spanning the full length of the ship and mainly housed the second class passengers, with some third class passengers and a third class social hall at the front and an exposed weather deck at the rear.
  • 'E' Deck / Upper Deck, fully enclosed and housed crew, and the third class promenade.
  • 'F' Deck / Main Deck, which housed third class cabins and two large third class dining saloons.
  • 'G' Deck / Lower Deck, third class cabins at the front followed by refrigerated goods up to the fourth bulkhead. Insulated stores between the sixth and seventh bulkheads containing the galley stores. Cargo storage from the tenth bulkhead to the rear of the ship.
  • Orlop Deck, between the first and second bulkheads, housing further cargo.
  • Two boiler rooms each sat behind a coal bunker in the middle of the ship. The engine room sat behind the rear boiler room on the Tank Top, the top of the double bottom. Cargo holds and ballast tanks fill out the remaining space.

The lower portion of the ship had 12 watertight bulkheads extending up to the Upper Deck, and dividing Ivernia in 13 watertight compartments.[12]

Interiors

She was nicknamed the "bathroom ship" as she had more bathrooms and showers on board than Mauretania. She had one on the Deckhouse Top in the officers' quarters, one on 'A' Deck in the captain's quarters, 13 on 'B' Deck and five on 'C' Deck for first class passengers, 14 on 'D' Deck for second class passengers, and 12 on 'E' Deck for crew and third class passengers.[12]

She was unusual, as she did not have staterooms on the uppermost passenger deck, instead she had a library, gymnasium and a lounge and smoking room.[13]

Operational History

Commercial Service

Franconia undertook her maiden transatlantic voyage on 25 February 1911 from Liverpool to New York City under the command of Charles Appleton Smith.[5] This voyage was continued from New York to the Mediterranean as part of Cunard's expansion into the emigrant trade, following success with RMS Carpathia on the route since 1904.[14]

Her first voyage on her regular summer route from Liverpool to Boston began on 18 April 1911, after her return from New York and the Mediterranean.[15]

She completed her final crossing from Liverpool to Boston on 22 September 1914, by which time she had carried 52,695 passengers westbound to Boston.[16] Her final crossing from Liverpool to New York was completed on 1 February 1915 at which point she had carried 18,505 passengers to New York (7,096 on her Liverpool service, 11,409 on her Mediterranean service)[17] for a combined total of 71,200 westbound passengers. Additionally, between Cunard's New York and Boston services, Franconia also carried 26,328 passengers eastbound to Liverpool.[18]

World War I and Sinking

Franconia was taken into service as a hospital ship in early 1915 and sailed to Alexandria from the Dardanelles.[19]

In June 1915, a seaman from Franconia was sentenced to three months imprisonment with hard labour for failing to join the ship. He expressed sorrow and claimed he was drunk. Around 30 men in total failed to join, which delayed her departure carrying troops to the Dardanelles, prompting the Admiralty to make an example of the seamen.[20]

On 4 October 1916, while heading for Salonika, she was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat UB-47 195 miles (314 km) east of Malta. She was not carrying any troops but out of her 314 crew members, 12 died.[13] One of those lost was a boilermaker, one a greaser, four were firemen/stokers, and six were trimmers.[21] The others were saved by the hospital ship HMHS Dover Castle.[22] The surviving crew returned home to Liverpool on 24 October.[23]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Franconia (131315)", Lloyd's Register of Steamers, Lloyd's Register, 1911
  2. ^ "Record Yard no. 857, Franconia". Tyne and Wear Archives Catalogue. Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums. Retrieved 30 September 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d "The Cunard Twin-Screw Steamer "Franconia"". The Shipbuilder. 5: 198.
  4. ^ a b Maw, W H; Dredge, J (29 July 1910). "New Cunard Liner "Franconia"". Engineering: An Illustrated Weekly Journal. 90: 163.
  5. ^ a b "BT27/700/3/35/1 - Franconia, Liverpool to New York", UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, The National Archives, Kew, 25 February 1911
  6. ^ a b "Vessels Equipped Subject to the Act and Inspected by the Radio Inspectors", Annual report of the Commissioner of Navigation yr.1911/12
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h "The New Cunard Liner Franconia". International Marine Engineering. 33 (September). Marine Engineering, Inc., New York—London: 44–47. 1910. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  8. ^ "The Franconia". Liverpool Journal of Commerce. No. 26, 289. 14 January 1911. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
  9. ^ "Guests Board the Vessel In A Fog". Shields Daily Gazette. No. 17530. 23 January 1911. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
  10. ^ "List of Marconi Telegraph Stations of the World, 1908".
  11. ^ a b "List of Marconi Telegraph Stations of the World, 1912".
  12. ^ a b c Hood, A G (1911). "The Cunard Twin Screw Steamer 'Franconia'". The Shipbuilder. 5: 188–199.
  13. ^ a b "The Lewiston Daily Sun". Maine: Sun Journal (Lewiston). 4 October 1916. p. 14. Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  14. ^ "Franconia's Maiden Voyage". Liverpool Courier and Commercial Advertiser. No. 20, 550. 23 February 1911. Retrieved 8 August 2025.
  15. ^ "BT27/704/3/11/1 - Franconia, Liverpool to Boston", UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, The National Archives, Kew, 18 April 1911
  16. ^ Massachusetts, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963
  17. ^ New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1957
  18. ^ UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger and Crew Lists, 1878-1960
  19. ^ "From A Hospital Ship". Rochdale Observer. No. 4, 636. 26 May 1915. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  20. ^ "Defence of the Realm - A Seaman's Offence". Birkenhead News. Vol. 38, no. 3, 611. 7 July 1915. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  21. ^ "Missing From the Franconia". Daily Express. No. 5, 150. 9 October 1916. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  22. ^ Hocking, C. (1969). Dictionary of Disasters at Sea during the Age of Steam 1824–1962. London: London Stamp Exchange.
  23. ^ "The Franconia Crew". Liverpool Echo. No. 11, 503. 24 October 1916. Retrieved 9 August 2025.

35°33′9″N 18°26′0″E / 35.55250°N 18.43333°E / 35.55250; 18.43333


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