Campania: Cunard Line's First True Steamship

The Campania was Cunard’s first true steamship and one of the first liners with no handy means to be rigged for sail.  Following the HAPAGs’ Augusta Victoria (1889), Cunard competed for passengers and speed records with a twin-screw liner.  When Campania departed for her maiden voyage in 1893, the Blue Ribband was in the hands of the Inman Line’s City of Paris (1889), an elegant twin-screw liner that looked both to the past and the future.  Her hull was clipper shaped and she carried masts that could be rigged for sail.  Inside, her machinery was state of the art- with immensely powerful engines and dynamos for electricity.  Inman built the most luxurious interiors for the City-class liners and featured a tremendously popular froward dining saloon capped with an ornate skylight.  Cunard had stiff competition from Inman, White Star (Teutonic and Majestic) and HAPAG.

RMS Etruria (1884) with sails set.  Photographer and date unknown.

Cunard’s 1880s vessels were blend of past and future.  The crack shops, Umbra (1884) and Etruria (1884), had steel hulls, electricity, and two towering funnels. Yet, the ships masts had yards for sail and the engine, though powerful, ran a single propellor.  Single-screw ships suffered badly from propellor failures, as the were literally dead in the water until sails picked up wind or the vessel was towed.  Twin-screw vessels, of course, avoided these embarrassing problems and were proven superior in speed and reliability. 

RMS Campania, a true steamship.  1:1250 model by Navis. 

Campania and her sister ship Lucania introduced the most innovative features to Cunard ships and reflected the rapid advances in naval technology.  The builders, Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, were at the forefront of ship design and the engineers accumulated two generations of steamship know-how.  With Cunard’s naval architects, they turned out outstanding vessels with impressive statistics.  The ships were nearly 13,000 tons and over 600 feet long.  They were the largest vessels of the day.  The engines generated 30,000 ihp and required 13 boilers with 100 furnaces.  To reach speeds of 22 knots, 20 tons of coal were needed for each boiler every hour.

One of the triple-expansion engines of RMS Campania and RMS  Lucania.

The exterior design featured a simple, balanced design of two masts and two funnels.  With sails no longer needed, steamship masts supported cargo booms, positions for lookouts, kept wireless ariels aloft, and hoisted signal flags.  Rather than a series of deckhouses, low to the boat deck as in the earlier liners, Campania and Lucania had true superstructures and tiered decks.  The forward superstructure was gracefully curved, a hint at future designs.  The bridge, properly forward, supported a pilot house five decks above the waterline.  At this height, the helmsmen could see over bow.  In 1901 Lucania was the first vessel equipped with wireless telegraphy and maintained constant contact with shore stations.  Similar radio equipment was later installed in Campania and the rest of the Cunard fleet.

Campania and Lucania had balanced profile of two masts and two funnels.

Campania’s interiors marked the apex of Victorian styling in ocean liners.  The ship had an elegant and unified design the presaged Art Nouveaux.  The first class spaces had walls of oak or mahogany and plush carpets.  Velvet curtains covered portholes and windows in the upper deck public rooms.  These were the first liners to include single cabins in first class, a separate children’s dining saloon and working fireplaces in the lounge and smoking room.  The first class dining saloon stretched nearly the full width of the ship and was crowned by a domed skylight.  This was the most splendid room on both vessels.

Campania in the Mersey, ca. 1900. 

Reproduction number: LC-DIG-ppmsc-09098 from Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Campania won the Blue Ribband (westbound record) from Inman Line’s City of Paris in June 1893. This was the first time the record was achieved with speeds in excess of 21 knots. She also made a record eastbound passage with a run from Sandy Hook to Queenstown (Cobh) in 5 days, 17 hours, and 27 minutes at an average speed of 21.09 knots.  In 1894, Lucania took the Blue Ribband from her sister and beat Campania’s eastbound record by 9 hours.  Over time, Lucania proved to be the faster vessel.

Neither vessel sailed long and competition on the Atlantic rendered them antiquated.  They were taken off the premier run from Liverpool to New York in 1907 when Lusitania and Mauretania entered service.  Many of the smaller “intermediaries” of the early twentieth century were technologically superior as well with more comfortable passenger accommodations and much more cargo space than the older vessels (or the new super liners for that matter).  In 1909 the Lucania was severely damaged by a fire in Liverpool.  Rather than restore the vessel Cunard sold her for scrap.  The engines remained functional and she sailed under her own power to the breakers in Swansea. 

Diorama of Campania in harbor.  Accessories by Tri-ang Minic.

Campania continued on the secondary runs longer than her sister.  When war erupted in 1914, she returned to the New York run briefly, but proved too old and slow to safely make passages under war clouds.  After 250 voyages, she was retired from service.  While destined for the scrapyard, the Royal Navy purchased Campania and converted her into a seaplane carrier.  Her conversion consisted of installation of massive booms to assist hauling planes, a flight deck, and the forward funnel was divided in two small, thin pipes.  Painted in a dazzle scheme, HMS Campania, she served virtually the entire war.   On November 5, 1918, her mooring broke in a storm and she collided with the battleship HMS Royal Oak in the Firth of Forth.  The damage was severe and she slowly sank by the stern.  The half-submerged remains were a hazard to shipping and were cut down on the spot.

RMS Campania (1893-1914, as HMS Campania, 1914-1918).  Built for Cunard Line by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company; Govan, Scotland.  12,950GRT, 622 feet long, 65 feet wide.  Steam triple expansion engines, twin screw.  Service speed 22 knots.  2,000 total passengers (600 first class, 400 second class, 1000 third class).