RMS Ivernia was a British ocean liner built for the Cunard Line by C. S. Swan & Hunter of Wallsend, England, and launched in 1899. The Ivernia was one of Cunard's intermediate ships that catered to the vast immigrant trade between Europe and the United States of America in the early 20th century. She saw military service during World War I and was sunk by a torpedo from a German U-boat on New Year's Day 1917.
Ivernia was the first of three related liners of the Ivernia class. Saxonia was her larger sister ship, and was launched three months after her at John Brown & Company of Clydebank, leaving Ivernia the largest Cunard steamer during those months. Carpathia, later to be made famous for rescuing the survivors of the Titanic disaster, was a smaller half-sister of Ivernia and Saxonia, built at the same yard as Ivernia and launched in 1902, to a modified design based on her older half-sisters.
Background
In the late 1890s Cunard had only a small number of vessels running on the transatlantic trade, with , Cephalonia and Pavonia operating the passenger service on the Boston route. These were introduced in the early 1880s and were around each.
In 1893 Cunard had also introduced and as fast express liners between Liverpool and New York, with these winning the Blue Riband speed record, but this was later won by Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse of the Norddeutscher Lloyd line in 1897.
White Star Line had also recently introduced the liners and . These were known as 'intermediate' liners, and were economical and did not consume much fuel for their speed, but they were not as luxurious or as speedy as the German record-holders or British express liners. Instead they focused on increased cargo space where the express liners would have had additional engine machinery and boilers.
Cunard decided to follow White Star Line in producing smaller, more profitable liners of more moderate speed, oriented at the Liverpool–Boston service, to replace Catalonia, Cephalonia, and Pavonia. These were the Ivernia-class: Ivernia, Saxonia and the later, smaller Carpathia. These followed the smaller which was the first new liner on the route.
Design and construction Conception to launch
In 1898, the Cunard Line commissioned C. S. Swan & Hunter, based on the North bank of the River Tyne in Wallsend, to construct one of two new intermediate-sized liners intended to work the Liverpool-Boston route across the North Atlantic. She would target compared to Lucanias .
Cunard produced a plan on 3 August 1898 at their Derby Road works in Liverpool to accompany a contract specification for Swan & Hunter, and this was reviewed by William Denton, director of the yard, three days later with some adjustments that led to the appearance of Ivernia diverging from that of her sister Saxonia. The design was of a vessel with passenger and cargo capacity over 8 decks.
On 6 December 1898, the keel of Ivernia was laid in the west slipway of a large shed in the shipbuilder's East Yard. Alongside her were two other ships already under construction, the Ultonia and the smaller SS Idaho on the slipways to Ivernias east. All three slipways were equipped with electric overhead cranes, which were a new innovation in the shipbuilding industry.
Construction was rapid and nine months later, on 21 September 1899, Ivernia was christened by Emma, Countess of Ravensworth and released into the Tyne. The fitting out quay was by the slipways, and work continued into early 1900 to complete the superstructure and fit Ivernias machinery, including her engines and boilers.
Deck plan
From top to bottom: Deckhouse Top, with the chart room, a glass dome lighting the first class saloon, and the wheel house. Promenade Deck, containing first class saloons and access to lifeboats. Bridge Deck, long and consisting of a main house accommodating first-class cabins, a separate rear house for second-class cabins, and a small forward house for the officers' mess. Shelter Deck, spanning the full length of the ship and mainly housed the second class passengers, along with the first and second class dining saloons within a central house under the Bridge Deck. Upper Deck, fully enclosed and housed crew, some cargo, and the third class promenade. Main Deck, which housed third class cabins forward, and third class dormitory accommodation aft. Lower Deck, housing cargo and refrigerated goods. Orlop Deck, forward of the boiler room only, housing further cargo and refrigerated goods. Tank Top, with the Boiler room and engine room sat back-to-back in the middle of the ship on top of the double bottom, and between deep cargo and ballast holds forward and aft.
The lower portion of the ship had 10 watertight bulkheads extending up to the Upper Deck, and dividing Ivernia into 11 watertight compartments. The ship was designed to stay afloat with any two of her compartments flooded.
Rigging Four staysails and two jibs were included in the rigging plan for Ivernia. Sails were unlikely to see use on twin-propeller steamships of this era, and would not have been able to propel the large steel ship.
Once installed, the antenna for the Marconi wireless radio system was strung between the masts of Ivernia. The halyard that would have originally been between these masts, allowing signal flags to be hoisted from the bridge, would have been moved lower on the second mast.
Lifeboats At launch, Ivernia was equipped with 18 lifeboats, with 8 on the Promenade Deck, two just forward of the bridge on the Bridge Deck, four atop the second class accommodation on the Bridge Deck (paired and served by only two, not four, davits), and four at the aft of the Shelter Deck.
As was common at the time, and is now part of the regulations, lifeboats were given even numbers on the port side and odd numbers on the starboard side. They were numbered from 1 & 2 aft to 17 & 18 forward.
Each boat was about long with a capacity of around 55-60 people. This meant Ivernia had space for about 1,050 people in her boats, less than half her maximum passenger capacity.
Lifeboats 5 & 6 above the second class cabins at the rear of the bridge deck were used as emergency cutters. They were often left swung out during voyages to allow quick action in case of an incident like a man overboard.
Power and propulsion
The engines were designed and built by Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company, neighbours of C. S. Swan & Hunter on Tyneside, and were quadruple-expansion engines. The designer was Andrew Laing, who also designed the triple-expansion engines that powered the RMS Lucania to capture the Blue Riband accolade for fastest average speed crossing the Atlantic in 1894. The quadruple-expansion design could output 12,000 indicated horsepower, with cylinders of 28, 41, 58.5, and 84 inches in diameter, from high to low pressure, and a common stroke of 54 inches. These were fed by nine single-ended scotch boilers in diameter and deep and equipped with the Howden forced draught system with air drawn into the furnaces with use of a fan. The two engines were connected by Armstrong Whitworth shafts to twin three-bladed manganese bronze propellers on a pair of steel bosses.
Starting and reversing of the direction of the propeller shaft was conducted by a separate, small engine. An additional larger donkey boiler was situated behind the funnel across the Main and Upper decks to provide steam for deck machinery and other uses.
These engines allowed Ivernia to achieve a speed of 16.8 knots when completing her deep-sea trials in late March 1900, after fitting-out was complete. This exceeded the design contract stipulation of a 16.25 knots top speed, and made Ivernia the fastest of the three sisters.
Electric lighting throughout the ship was fed from a dynamo generator providing direct current from a dynamo room just behind the funnel on the Upper Deck.
Sister ship design differences Saxonia
At the same time Ivernia was ordered from C S Swan & Hunter, Cunard also ordered an identical sister from John Brown & Company of Clydebank, Glasgow. The sister, named Saxonia, was launched on 16 December 1899, 87 days after the launch of Ivernia.
By the time she launched, Saxonia was visually similar to Ivernia, but was no longer identical. She was also in length although three inches narrower at in breadth. The most visible difference between the sisters was Saxonia'''s raised navigating bridge, spanning her full width, rising one deck level above the bridge of Ivernia, and featuring more curves. This more prominent bridge was part of the original design specification from Cunard, which C S Swan & Hunter chose to modify on Ivernia but was left unchanged on Saxonia.
Other key differences include the greater size of the Bridge Deck forward deck house on Saxonia, and raised platforms for lifeboats not on the Promenade Deck.
Carpathia
Following the success of Ivernia and Saxonia, Cunard commissioned another intermediate liner of the same type from Ivernia's builders. She was launched on 6 August 1902 and was named Carpathia.Carpathia differed from both her sisters significantly, making her a half-sister. She was only in length between perpendiculars and in breadth, making her the smallest of the three. Her Bridge Deck was longer than the central superstructure of her older sisters at . She also had a shorter uppermost Boat Deck with no passenger facilities, where her sisters had Promenade Decks hosting first class passenger amenities, effectively making Carpathia one deck shorter and lowering the base of her funnel by about
The navigating bridge of Carpathia resembled that of her yard-sister Ivernia, being straighter in shape and shorter than that of Saxonia. She had raised lifeboat platforms on her aft Shelter Deck, like Saxonia.
She also had less powerful engines than her sisters with only seven to her sisters' nine boilers, smaller engine cylinders, and a lower top speed.
Operational history
Early historyIvernia arrived on the River Mersey on 27 March 1900, after a five-day journey from the Tyne, and her passengers complimented her stability in rough weather during her delivery voyage.Ivernia undertook her maiden transatlantic voyage on 14 April 1900 from Liverpool to New York City, as the liners that were intended to work that route were conducting troop transport duties for the Second Boer War. On board for this maiden voyage was Charles Sheriton Swan, son of Charles Sheridan Swan, co-founder of the builder's yard. Two months later, on 12 June, the Ivernia began working on Cunard's service from Liverpool to Boston, together with her sister ship RMS Saxonia.
Wireless In 1901, Cunard began outfitting its ships with a Marconi wireless system, beginning with RMS Lucania on 21 May, followed by RMS Campania, RMS Umbria and RMS Etruria.
With a longer-than-usual stopover in Liverpool of 14 days between February 4 & 18 1902, construction of a hut for a wireless operator would have been possible in preparation for Ivernia's Marconi equipment. Two months later, Ivernia arrived from Boston on April 10, when the Cunard engineers at Liverpool had the opportunity to complete the fitting of the wireless apparatus. Ivernia sailed with a Marconi system installed and operational for the first time on 15 April 1902, with her first broadcast from 30 miles off shore reporting "All well" back to Liverpool.
In 1909, sending a message to the United States from Ivernia would cost a passenger 8s. 4d. for a ten-word message, or 6s for 12 words to the UK.