RMS Virginian was a steam turbine ocean liner. One of the earliest of her type, she was designed as a transatlantic liner and mail ship for Allan Line, built in Scotland, and launched in 1904.
In the First World War, the Virginian spent a few months as a troopship, then was converted into an armed merchant cruiser (AMC). In August 1917 a U-boat damaged her with a torpedo.
In 1920 she was sold to the Swedish American Line and renamed SS Drottningholm. As a neutral passenger ship during the Second World War she performed notable service repatriating thousands of civilians of various countries on both sides of the war.
In 1948 Drottningholm was sold to a company in the Italian Home Lines group, which renamed her Brasil.
In 1951 Home Lines chartered her to Hamburg America Line, which renamed her Homeland. She was scrapped in Italy in 1955.
Background The world's first steam turbine merchant ship, , was launched in 1901. She was a technological and commercial success, but was only a excursion steamship making short-sea trips in and around the Firth of Clyde, and her running costs – and hence passenger fares – were higher than those of her competitors with conventional reciprocating engines.
However, in October 1903 Allan Line announced that it had ordered a pair of new liners, that they would be turbine-powered, and that they would have the same three-screw arrangement as King Edward. And on 28 January 1904, seven months before Victorian was launched, the Government of Canada announced it had awarded Allan Line a transatlantic mail contract.
The Canadian contract required a regular scheduled service with four ships. Allan Line allocated the new Victorian and Virginian, which were still being built, and its existing 10576 GRT liners Bavarian and Tunisian. The subsidy would be $5,000 per trip for Bavarian and Tunisian, and $10,000 per trip for each of the new turbine ships.
Design and construction Allan Line ordered both Victorian and Virginian from Workman, Clark and Company in Belfast. But Workman, Clark did not find enough labour to build both ships in time, so the order for Virginian was transferred to Alexander Stephen and Sons at Linthouse on the River Clyde.
Virginian was launched on 25 August 1904, four months after Victorian. But Victorian completion was then delayed by performance problems with her turbines. Both sisters were completed in March 1905.
As built, Virginian had three Parsons turbines. A high-pressure turbine drove her middle screw. Its exhaust steam was fed to a pair of low-pressure turbines that drove her port and starboard screws. The three turbines combined gave her a total power output of 12,000 IHP.
Virginian was long, her beam was and her depth was . She had berths for 1,912 passengers: 426 in first class, 286 in second class and 1,000 in third class. Her holds had of refrigerated space for perishable cargo. As built, her tonnages were and .
RMS Virginian Virginian began her maiden voyage from Liverpool on 6 April 1905, a fortnight after Victorian. She called at Moville in Ireland the next day and reached Halifax, Nova Scotia on the morning of 14 April. Two months later Virginian set a westbound record, leaving Moville at 1400 hrs on 9 June and reaching Cape Race at 2100 hrs on 13 June. This was despite having to slow down for a bank of fog.
The speed at which steam turbines run efficiently is several times faster than the speed at which marine propellers work efficiently. But the turbines in Victorian and Virginian, like those in King Edward, drove the propellers directly, without reduction gearing. As a result, Virginian suffered cavitation, which not only impedes propulsion but also damages propellers.
Virginian and her sister ship gained a reputation of having the tendency to roll violently in heavy seas.
Titanic sinking By 1912 Virginian was equipped for wireless telegraphy, operating on the 300 and 600 metre wavelengths. Her call sign was MGN.
When RMS Titanic sank on 15 April 1912, Virginian was about north of her, steaming in the opposite direction. At 2310 hrs (0040 hrs ship's time) the Marconi Company radio station at Cape Race relayed Titanics distress messages to Virginian, whose Master, Captain Gambell changed course to try to reach Titanic. Virginian also received Titanics distress signals. The last signal Virginian received from Titanic was at 0027 hrs (0157 hrs by ship's time) at 2:17 AM. these signals were blurred and ended abruptly.
reached the position of the sinking and rescued 712 survivors. There was a false report that Virginian rescued some passengers and transferred them to Carpathia. In fact Virginian did not arrive in time to assist.
There was also a false report that Virginian had taken Titanic in tow, that all of Titanics passengers were safe, and that Herbert Haddock, Master of , was the source of the report. Haddock, however, dismissed the report as "a flagrant invention".
Captain Gambell said Virginian passed where Titanic sank "at a distance of six or seven miles", but could get no closer as "The ice was closely packed... and there would have been great danger in going nearer. No boats, packages or wreckage were to be seen." Gambell said Virginian steamed toward Titanic, until at 1000 hrs Carpathia signalled Virginian "Turn back. Everything O. K. Have 800 on board. Return to your northern track".
Substitute for Empress of Ireland On 29 May 1914 Canadian Pacific lost the liner in a collision with the collier , and 1,024 people were killed. Canadian Pacific chartered Virginian from Allan Line to replace her. The charter was cut short by the First World War, which began on 28 July.
First World War
From August 1914 the UK Government used Virginian as a troop ship. Then in December the British Admiralty requisitioned her and had her converted into an armed merchant cruiser (AMC). Initially her armament was eight 4.7-inch QF guns and her pennant number was M 72. She was commissioned as HMS Virginian on 10 December 1914.
Virginian joined the 10th Cruiser Squadron, with which she was on the Northern Patrol from December 1914 until the end of June 1917. She patrolled mostly around the Faroe Islands and the northern part of the Western Approaches. In 1915 she occasionally patrolled the Norwegian Sea and the east and south coasts of Iceland.
By October 1915 two of Virginians 4.7-inch guns were replaced with six-pounder guns. On 16 June 1916 Virginian arrived in Canada Dock in Liverpool to have her remaining 4.7-inch guns replaced with six BL 6-inch and QF 6-inch naval guns. She was there for just over two months, until 18 August, and the Admiralty became concerned that the conversion took an inordinately long time.
By October 1916 Virginians armament also included depth charges.
Convoy escort From the beginning of July 1917 Virginian escorted transatlantic convoys.
On 19 August 1917 Virginian left Liverpool escorting a convoy, which called at Lough Swilly on 20–21 August. U-boats attacked the convoy off the coast of County Donegal. torpedoed Leyland Line's liner Devonian at 1152 hrs, and she sank at 1245 hrs about northeast of Tory Island. U-53 also sank the Union Steamship Company's cargo liner Roscommon.
At 1312 hrs Virginian sighted a periscope off her starboard bow and turned to engage the submarine. hit Virginian with a torpedo on her starboard quarter, killing three of her crew. The magazines for her six-inch guns and part of her number five hold were flooded, but Virginian remained afloat. Virginian tried to return to Lough Swilly, but found it very difficult to steer. The destroyer tried to assist but failed. Nevertheless Virginian managed to reach Lough Swilly, and anchored at 2048 hrs.
Virginian underwent temporary repairs, and then on 4–5 September 1917 returned to Liverpool, where she was dry docked from 7 September until 16 November and returned to sea on 4 December.
In 1918 her pennant number was changed twice: to MI 95 in January and MI 52 in April. She continued to escort transatlantic convoys until just after the Armistice. She reached Liverpool on 30 November 1918 and was decommissioned some time thereafter.
Canadian Pacific had taken over Allan Line in 1917. The Admiralty released Virginian to her new owners, and in 1919 she was registered in Montreal.
Drottningholm
In 1920 Swedish America Line bought Virginian, reportedly for the equivalent of $100,000, and renamed her Drottningholm, after a small community near Stockholm that includes the royal Drottningholm Palace. Götaverken in Gothenburg refitted Drottningholm, and particularly improved her third class accommodation. As refitted she had berths for 280 cabin class, 300 second class and 700 third class passengers. Drottningholm sailed from Gothenburg for the first time at the end of May, and arrived in New York for the first time on 9 June. She retained her notoriety for rolling, and her new name inspired the nickname "Rollingholm" or "Rollinghome".
SAL had carried significant numbers of Swedish migrants to the USA, but in the 1920s new US immigration laws affected the transatlantic trade. In May 1921 the Federal Government implemented the Emergency Quota Act, and allotted Sweden a quota for 20,000 migrants a year. Barely two months later, on 15 July, immigration authorities in New York detained 78 of Drottningholms second-class passengers on arrival. After four hours a message from Washington, D.C. confirming that the quota for Sweden had not been fulfilled, and all 78 were allowed to land.
In 1922 Götaverken re-engined Drottningholm with new A/B De Lavals Ångturbin turbines. They were less powerful than her original Parsons turbines, because SAL wanted better fuel economy, but she could still do . Götaverken also replaced her direct drive with single-reduction gearing, which at last solved her cavitation problem. At the same time Götaverken enlarged her superstructure by extending her bridge deck aft. Drottningholm returned to service in 1923.
By 1930 Drottningholms tonnages were and . In 1934 her Swedish code letters KCMH were superseded by the call sign SJMA.
On 8 January 1935 while Drottningholm was docking in fog at West 57th Street Pier in New York a steel cable fouled one of her propellers. Her return sailing was deferred from 12 to 15 January to allow time for her to be repaired in dry dock.
In 1937 Drottningholms hull was repainted white.
Notable passengers
In 1925 Greta Garbo and Mauritz Stiller sailed to the USA on Drottningholm, leaving Gothenburg on 26 June and arriving in New York 10 days later.
On 30 December 1928 the newly-wed Count and Countess Bernadotte left New York for Gothenburg on Drottningholm. The couple returned to the USA on Drottningholm in June 1933.
In 1932 Drottningholm took Swedish athletes home from the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
In January 1939, Niels Bohr sailed to the USA on Drottningholm, carrying with him the news about the discovery of nuclear fission.
Second World War In the Second World War Sweden was neutral, and until December 1941 so was the USA. At first Drottningholm continued the service between Gothenburg and New York.
By the end of January 1940 Drottningholm was the only SAL passenger liner still operating between Gothenburg and New York. On 3 February, 150 Finnish-American and Finnish-Canadian volunteers to fight for Finland in the Winter War sailed on Drottningholm from New York.
In March 1940 Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn from German-occupied Poland reached New York aboard Drottningholm.
Later in the war the US, UK and French governments each chartered Drottningholm to repatriate civilian internees, prisoners of war (PoWs) and diplomats between the two belligerent sides. She also carried PoWs and civilians for the Red Cross.