Mauretania

1907 · Boat Deck · Work 184 of 1,871

Mauretania, 1907, Boat Deck

The boat deck of the Mauretania lined with lifeboats under their davits, four funnels rising above wire stays and ranks of cowl ventilators, promenaders and deck chairs on planked decking.

What it was used for
Sister to the Lusitania, built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend, yard no. 735, launched 20 September 1906, maiden voyage Liverpool–New York on 16 November 1907. She ran under the same 1903 agreement as the Lusitania: a £2.6 million loan for both ships, £75,000 a year in subsidy each, and a mail contract worth £68,000. Capacity was 563 first-class, 464 second-class and 1,138 third-class berths with 802 crew. National Museums Liverpool gives a build cost of £1,812,252, The Lusitania Resource a consumption of 910 tons of coal a day. She stayed in service until September 1934 and was scrapped at Rosyth in 1935.
What was new
She showed that the turbine in the largest express liner was not only fast but durable: the plant gave 68,000 horsepower on delivery, 76,000 on the record run, and up to 90,000 after conversion to oil in 1921/22 — the same ship, two fuels, no new engine. How long she held the Blue Riband is told differently: Grace's Guide says 22 years, The Lusitania Resource 20. The barb lies in the business, not the machinery: the money was made in steerage, and when emigration collapsed after the US Quota Law of 1921, the shipping companies, according to an NBER working paper, turned that very space into tourist third class for lower middle-income travellers. The fastest ship in the world had to find a new clientele.

Further reading