RMS Victorian
Encyclopedia
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...
of the Allan Line, built for service between Great Britain and North America. Launched in 1904, the ship was the first large civilian ship propelled by steam turbine
Steam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
s. The liner remained in service for almost a quarter-century, and was broken up in 1929.
Background
Canadian Pacific Steamship CompanyCP Ships
CP Ships was a large Canadian container shipping company, prior to being taken over by Hapag Lloyd in late 2005. CP Ships had its head office in the City of Westminster in London and later in the City Place Gatwick development on the property of London Gatwick Airport in Crawley, West Sussex.The...
purchased the Beaver Line in 1903, and entered the transatlantic trade. To compete, in October 1903 the Allan Line ordered two large new liners. Originally intended to be conventional twin-screw ships powered by reciprocating
Reciprocating engine
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common features of all types...
steam engine
Steam engine
A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...
s, the ships were changed to triple-shafted vessels propelled by steam turbine
Steam turbine
A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts it into rotary motion. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884....
s, in light of the great success of King Edward
TS King Edward
TS King Edward was an excursion steamer built at Dumbarton for service down the River Clyde to the Firth of Clyde and associated sea lochs on the west coast of Scotland, as far as Campbeltown...
, a turbine-powered excursion vessel in service on the Clyde
Firth of Clyde
The Firth of Clyde forms a large area of coastal water, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran.At...
since 1901. The Allan Line ordered a power plant similar to that of King Edward from the same manufacturer, the Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company
Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company
Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company was a British engineering company based in Wallsend, North England, on the River Tyne.-History:The company was founded by Charles Algernon Parsons in 1897 with £500,000 of capital, and specialised in building the steam turbine engines that he had invented for...
. Victorian therefore became the first three-shaft ship and the first turbine liner in Atlantic service, and with sister ship became the first large turbine-powered commercial vessels of any kind, at a time when others doubted the wisdom of using the new technology in large ships.
Design
The machinery in Victoria was a scaled-up version of that in King Edward. Coal-fired Scotch marine boilerScotch marine boiler
A "Scotch" marine boiler is a design of steam boiler best known for its used on ships.The general layout is that of a squat horizontal cylinder. One or more large cylindrical furnaces are in the lower part of the boiler shell. Above this is a large number of small-diameter fire-tubes...
s supplied steam at 180 psi
Pounds per square inch
The pound per square inch or, more accurately, pound-force per square inch is a unit of pressure or of stress based on avoirdupois units...
(12.66 bar
Bar (unit)
The bar is a unit of pressure equal to 100 kilopascals, and roughly equal to the atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea level. Other units derived from the bar are the megabar , kilobar , decibar , centibar , and millibar...
) to Parsons
Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company
Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company was a British engineering company based in Wallsend, North England, on the River Tyne.-History:The company was founded by Charles Algernon Parsons in 1897 with £500,000 of capital, and specialised in building the steam turbine engines that he had invented for...
turbines. The smoke was exhausted through a large single stack. The high-pressure steam from the boilers was fed to a turbine directly driving the centre shaft; from the centre turbine steam was reused at a lower pressure in flanking turbines, each directly turning a wing shaft. Each shaft has a single screw.
This plant was housed in a hull 520' (158.49m) long, 60' (18.29m) in breadth, and 38' (11.58m) in depth. The vessel registered 10,629 gross tons. There were orlop decks fore and aft of the machinery spaces, and three full decks within the hull fitted to carry 240 second-class passengers on the main and upper deck and up to 940 in third class. Atop the hull, a forecastle was followed by forward holds, a long superstructure with passenger accommodations and public spaces for 470 first-class passengers on bridge and promenade decks, an after hold, and a poop deck. A combination cargo and passenger liner, Victorian could carry 8,000 tons of cargo and had refrigerated space for fruit and dairy products of Canada.
Performance
The liner was designed for a service speed of 17 knots (31.5 km/h) and achieved 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h) in trials, with the turbines developing some 12,000 shaft horsepower and spinning the directly coupled screws at 260 rpmRevolutions per minute
Revolutions per minute is a measure of the frequency of a rotation. It annotates the number of full rotations completed in one minute around a fixed axis...
. In 1905 the ship set an eastbound record of 5 days and 5 hours from Rimouski in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
to Moville
Moville
Moville is a town and coastal resort on the Inishowen Peninsula of County Donegal, close to the northern tip of Ireland.-Location:...
in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, which stood for some time.
Career
Victorians maiden voyage took place in 1905, from LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
to St. John's
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...
in Newfoundland
Dominion of Newfoundland
The Dominion of Newfoundland was a British Dominion from 1907 to 1949 . The Dominion of Newfoundland was situated in northeastern North America along the Atlantic coast and comprised the island of Newfoundland and Labrador on the continental mainland...
. The ship was an immediate success, and after some adjustments to the machinery, settled into transatlantic service to Canada until August 1914.
In World War I the vessel was commissioned into the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
as an auxiliary cruiser, serving with the Ninth and Tenth Cruiser Squadrons. Soon assigned to escort duty, Victorian also transported troops and cargo.
Following the Allan Line's absorption by the Canadian Pacific, and the end of the war, the ship resumed civilian service in 1920. At the end of the following year the direct-drive turbines were replaced by geared turbines and oil fuel supplanted coal. The liner became a single-class vessel, and was renamed Marloch. In the mid-1920s the liner was in reserve service (although often used) until sold for breaking in 1929.