RMS Campania
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | RMS Campania |
| Owner: | Cunard Line |
| Port of registry: | Liverpool, United Kingdom |
| Builder: | Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, yard in Govan, Scotland |
| Laid down: | 22 September 1891 |
| Launched: | 8 September 1892 |
| Christened: | Lady Burns |
| Maiden voyage: | 22 April 1893 |
| Fate: | Sunk in a collision with HMS Glorious, 5 November 1918 |
| Status: | Wreckage at 56°02′N 03°13′W / 56.033°N 3.217°WCoordinates: 56°02′N 03°13′W / 56.033°N 3.217°W |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | Gross 12,950; net 4973 |
| Displacement: | 18,450 tons |
| Length: | 622ft (189.6m) |
| Beam: | 65 ft 3 in (19.9m) |
| Draft: | 29.9 feet |
| Depth: | 41 ft 10 in (13.7m) |
| Installed power: | 12 double-ended Scotch boilers, 102 furnaces. Two five-cylinder triple expansion engines producing 31000shp direct to twin screws |
| Propulsion: | Two triple blade propellers |
| Speed: | Service speed 22 knots (40.5 km/h / 25.3 mph); top speed 23.5 knots (43.3 km/h / 27 mph) |
| Capacity: | 600 first class, 400 second class, 1000 third class. 2000 total |
| Crew: | 424 |
RMS Campania was a British ocean liner owned by the Cunard Steamship Line Shipping Company, built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Govan, Scotland, and launched on Thursday, 8 September 1892.
Identical in dimensions and specifications to her sister ship RMS Lucania, Campania was the largest and fastest passenger liner afloat when she entered service in 1893. She crossed the Atlantic in less than six days; and on her second voyage in 1893, she won the prestigious Blue Riband, previously held by the Inman Liner SS City of Paris. The following year, Lucania won the Blue Riband and kept the title until 1898 - Campania being the marginally slower of the two sisters.
Campania and Lucania were partly financed by the Admiralty. The deal was that Cunard would receive money from the Government in return for constructing vessels to admiralty specifications and also on condition that the vessels go on the naval reserve list to serve as armed merchant cruisers when required by the government. The contracts were awarded to the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, which at the time was one of Britain’s biggest producers of warships. Plans were soon drawn up for a large, twin-screw steamer powered by triple expansion engines, and construction began in 1891, just 43 days after Cunards' order.
Campania and Lucania had the largest triple expansion engines ever fitted to a Cunard ship. These engines were also the largest in the world at the time, and still rank today amongst the largest of the type ever constructed. They represent the limits of development for this kind of technology, which was superseded a few years later by turbine technology. In height, the engines were 47 feet, reaching from the double-bottom floor of the engine room almost to the top of the superstructure - over five decks. Each engine had five cylinders. There were two high pressure cylinders, each measuring 37 in (940 mm) in diameter; one intermediate pressure cylinder measuring 79 in (2,000 mm)in diameter; and two low pressure cylinders, each measuring 98 in (2,500 mm) in diameter. They operated with a stroke of 69 in (1,800 mm). Steam was raised from 12 double-end scotch boilers, each measuring 18 ft (5.5 m) in diameter and having eight furnaces. There was also one single-ended boiler for auxiliary machinery and one, smaller donkey boiler. Boiler pressure was 165 lbs, and enabled the engines to produce 31,000 ihp (23,000 kW), which translated to an average speed of 22 knots (41 km/h), and a record speed of 23½ knots. Normal operating speed for the engines was about 79 rpm.
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