In every respect except speed these two vessels will bear comparison with the most celebrated Atlantic liners, and in comfort and extent of passenger accommodation the Franconia excels any ship of her size afloat.
The Shipbuilder
Like many Cunarders, they both maintained traditions and established new ones, being the first newly designed and built "dual purpose" ships intended for not one but two distinct trans-Atlantic services as well as the infant cruise trade. Laconia was, in fact, the first Cunarder ever to perform a one-class cruise. They set new standards for "intermediate" liners and introduced new concepts in ship interior architecture and decor. And were exemplars of a confident era of progress, elegance, craftsmanship and aesthetics.
In wide-ranging war service for King & Empire, they were destined not to survive The Edwardian Age they so perfectly summed up, but the Royal Mail Steamers Franconia and Laconia were, by any standards, among the most beautiful ships ever to fly the Cunard houseflag.
 |
| Contemplation of Perfection. R.M.S. Franconia in Boston Harbor in 1911. Credit: Detroit Publishing Photo, U.S. Library of Congress Collection. |
Ties extending over eighty years bind the Cunard Company to this great American port, for the first sailings of the “Britannia” from Liverpool in 1840 were to Boston.
It is interesting to recall that when, on February 1844, the “ Britannia ” was icebound in Boston Harbor, the merchants of that city, at their own expense, liberated her by cutting through the ice a channel seven miles long and a hundred feet wide, and courteously refused to accept any refund of their disbursements.
Before the War, the Liverpool-Boston Service had attained immense popularity.
Cunard brochure, 1922
Designed and built for two of Cunard's more overlooked routes... those to Boston and the Mediterranean... Franconia and Laconia were among the few ships specifically built for them and indeed, the only pair to be constructed for both. As such, they were destined to live in relative obscurity, away from the glamour and Blue Ribands of the express New York route.
Of course, Boston was not always on the fringes of the Cunard story, indeed the aptly self described Hub was the terminal point of Samuel Cunard's original Liverpool-Halifax-Boston route in 1840. And whilst Boston as such had as much to do with its geographic proximity to Halifax, facilitating the steamers to call at both on the same voyage (one of the original concepts of Sir Samuel's when negotiating the contract), the port still then figured prominently in the Eastern Seaboard commerce of the United States. Boston was gradually overtaken by New York and its port traffic diminished during the Age of Steam, not steamships, but rather the railroads that connected the eastern ports with the Midwest and beyond. It simply cost more for trains to climb the Berkshires to reach Boston than it did to approach New York via the Hudson valley. Topography and cheaper freight rates ensured New York's primacy.
So it was that on New Years Day 1848 R.M.S. Hibernia sailed from New York for Liverpool, making the first eastbound crossing by a Cunarder from the city. By 1850, Cunard were maintaining separate services to New York and Boston, it soon evolved that the later got the smaller, older ships and became a secondary service.
 |
| Cunard poster for the Boston service, c. 1870. The Queenstown call dates from 1859. |
Boston's real strength lay in emigrant traffic and it remained a true hub of Irish immigration as it had been since sailing ship days. Indeed, its proportion of steerage to saloon traffic was far greater than the New York route. Reflecting this, Cunard, which had never stressed the steerage trade, fitted their 1895-built 5,598-ton cargo and cattle boat Ultonia with 675 steerage berths and she made her first passenger voyage on the Liverpool-Queenstown-Boston run in February 1898.
Cunard rang in the New Century by introducing their largest ships to date both in size and capacity, purposely designed and built for the Boston service: the 14,000-grt Ivernia and Saxonia with berths for 164 First, 200 Second and 1,600 Third Class as well as tremendous cargo space. What they lacked in speed (15 knots), they exceeded in profitability and were among the most successful Cunarders ever, beginning a new era of building vessels to suit specific routes and markets. The Boston Service was renewed, revised and prospered accordingly.
 |
| A wonderful Charles Dixon painting depicting R.M.S. Ivernia and Admiral Dewey's flagship U.S.S. Olympia in Boston Harbor. Credit: author's collection. |
It might come as a surprise that Cunard established their first service to the Mediterranean within of a dozen years of that to North America. That was in 1852 when British Queen made the first voyage from Liverpool to Gibraltar, Malta and Constantinople. And while Cunard maintained the UK-Mediterranean run for a century, it was a cargo operation.
Like so much else of trans-Atlantic passenger shipping, the decision to start a Cunard passenger service from the Mediterranean to America lay in the epic pre-World War One immigration tide which now came from Central Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean not just the British isles and Northern Europe. In 1903 Cunard secured a contract to carry Hungarian immigrants to New York from the then Austrian ports of Trieste and Fiume (Rijeka) in what is now Croatia. This was when the fleet was at low ebb and although the service commenced with the venerable Aurania (b.1883) that October, Cunard had to cobble together a fleet quickly to maintain it and purchased ships from other lines or even on the stocks. Ultonia, too, was seasonally put on the route, beginning a sharing of tonnage between the Boston and Mediterranean services.
 |
| Lovely Odin Rosenvinge poster for Cunard's Mediterranean service featuring Slavonia and listing the other ships in the somewhat motley fleet... only two of of which (Ultonia and Carpathia) were actually laid down for Cunard)... which maintained it. |
The "Cunard Hungarian-American Line" (as it was officially named) reflected pre-war geopolitics and the ethnic groups submerged by them. The initial service was Fiume to New York via Palermo, Naples and Gibraltar westbound and Gibraltar, Genoa, Naples and Trieste eastbound. Westbound, the Cunarders carried Hungarians, ethnic Italians living in the Austro-Hungarian controlled Trieste and Fiume (now Rijecka, Croatia) and later, Greeks from Patras to the United States. And it did a roaring eastbound Third Class trade. And like anything in the run up to the War, it furthered friction and often ruinous rate wars with the Germans competing for the same trade.
Operationally, it resulted in challenges arising from a Liverpool based line operating far from its homeport and opportunities in employing some of the New York and Boston route ships on it during the winter "off season". Moreover, Cunard were tipping their toes into the trickle of leisure cruising to the Mediterranean arising from the late Victorian and Edwardian fascination with the ancient wonders (and weather) of Italy, Adriatic and Egypt and fill otherwise underutilised saloon accommodation on the immigrant trade dominated Med route ships.
 |
| Cunard's new Mediterranean service introduced "cruising" for the company for both the British and American market. The offerings for the British one were a bit limited and complicated, entailing sailing outbound from Liverpool on a ship just starting her Mediterranean deployment after drydocking or coming from the New York or Boston run and sailing as far as Naples to connect with another ship heading back to Liverpool. So not quite "cruising" as it came to be known. Credit: eBay auction photos. |
So it was that Cunard's newest ship, Caronia, barely three months old, was dispatched from New York on 9 January 1906 on the first of two voyages to Trieste, Fiume and Naples. The main reason was better filling her Third Class capacity from the Mediterranean in the off season, but now Cunard had a brand new ship with superior saloon accommodation for those wishing a respite from winter weather. In winter, ports with touristic appeal like Madeira, Algiers, Villefranche and later Monaco were added and, most significantly, Alexandria in 1908. This coincided with the new Egyptian Mail Steamship Co., which built the lovely Cairo and Heliopolis in 1907 for an express Marseilles-Alexandria service, going spectacularly bankrupt and Cunard were quick to pick up and develop the winter Egypt traffic left behind.
Seventy years after they invented the practical and reliable North Atlantic "ferry", Cunard were introducing other elements: pleasure and destination. Before long, they would design and build ships that could cater to them both.
 |
| For the American market, the Cunard Mediterranean service was more readily adaptable as a cruise by simply taking the full round voyage or, stopping off in Italy or Egypt and returning in another vessel to New York. |
Demonstrating that great things are often occasioned by troubled times, the gestation of such vessels started in 1909, at the height of The Edwardian Era, yet a challenging period for trans-Atlantic shipping and business in general. If 1907 brought with it the triumph of Mauretania and Lusitania, it was the near collapse of the American economy in the wake its first great depression that year and spreading into 1908 that decimated trans-Atlantic traffic for Cunard and its German rivals, HAPAG and NDL.
The 1907 Depression saw Third Class arrivals at New York and Boston plummet from 1,116,000 in 1907 to 335,000 a year later or an astonishing 70 per cent drop. Third Class trade on the Mediterranean run was less impacted by passengers carried and more by the dearth of profits earned due to lingering rate war with the German lines also on this route.
On 13 April 1909 Cunard released its Annual Report and the balance sheet for 1908 showed a total profit after taxes, depreciation etc. of £3,582. There was obviously no dividend paid that year, but these results were, in fact, more sanguine than NDL's which had to use all their reserve and renewal funds to meet a deficit of £892,000 or HAPAG which, for the first time in 15 years, could not declare a dividend.
 |
| Cunard's Annus horribilis of 1909 included the grounding and loss of Slavonia in the Azores in what was the first negative consequence of the "cruising" element on the new Mediterranean run. Her loss accelerated existing plans for new tonnage. |
Then disaster struck when Cunard's copy book for safety and seamanship was blotted with the grounding of Slavonia on 11 June 1909, bound from New York to the Mediterranean, off Flores, Azores. The loss was attributed to her captain who, to please his First Class passengers, charted a new course to close cruise the islands and then a navigation error which put his ship on the rocks at high speed. The entire compliment was rescued, but the five-year-old vessel was lost.
This was followed on 14 August 1909 by the gutting by fire of Lucania laid up at Huskisson Dock, Liverpool. Declared a total loss, she was sold to breakers. Earlier that summer there had been rumours that Lucania might be transferred to Cunard's Boston service. Before the year was out, two other Cunard past greyhounds, the 1884-built Umbria and Etruria went for scrap. Cunard had broadened their markets and expanded their routes, now it was time to renew and expand a depleted and dated fleet.
The Franconia will be primarily attached to the Boston service, hitherto carried on by the Ivernia and Saxonia. She will be larger and faster than either of the two latter boats, in fact, she will be the largest boat to enter Boston harbor when she is permanently placed in that service. During the winter months she will be attached to the Cunard fleet cruising between New York and the Mediterranean.
Marine Review, April 1911
Now, with the urgent need to replace Slavonia, Cunard quickly set to work finalising the design of updated replacements for Ivernia and Saxonia which, in turn, would be transferred to the Mediterranean run, while the new ships plying the Boston route and cruise/cross to the Mediterranean in winter.
Clearly, these plans predated the loss of Slavonia for as early as 4 August 1909 it was reported in the press that "The Cunard Company have invited leading firms the Clyde, on the Tyne and in Belfast to tender for steamer to replace the Slavonia, which was recently lost at the Azores." (Aberdeen Press & Journal). Other press accounts took a wholly different tack: "The new vessel will not quite as large as Mauretania and the Lusitania, but she will be splendidly equipped and will be able take the place of one or other the larger boats when they are being repaired or overhauled." (Northern Daily Telegraph, 18 August 1909).
Tenders were invited from Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, John Brown and Co., Armstrong, Whitworth, and Co., and Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson. The Wallsend Slipway Company was asked to tender for the machinery. Quotes were asked for reciprocating, combination reciprocating/turbine and turbine plants.
 |
| Early rendering of the new ship showed her with massive Lucania/Campania funnels. |
On 28 August 1908 it was announced that Cunard had placed an order for one new ship with Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson and, for her machinery, with Wallsend Shipway and Engineering. Reporting on the order, Lloyds List of 30 August wrote:
The order has perhaps come along a little more quickly than was at first anticipated, for it was naturally thought that the specifications would take some time, especially in the matter of machinery, the important point to settle being whether the vessel was to have turbines or recipro-turbine engines. Morever, the question of speed was another point to settle, for while the new Cunarder is not to be so large as the Mauretania and Lusitania there was reason to believe that she might be faster.
But these problems have evidently been solved far enough to permit of the contract being placed, for, although it is not officially confirmed, no doubt is now entertained that the builders of the ship will be Messrs. Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson (Limited), and of the engines the Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company (Limited). A telegram from Liverpool on Saturday confirms the placing of the order, but indicates that the details as to the machinery have still to be arranged, and this accords with the latest news I have on the subject. I suspect, however, that the Cunard Company will, if they have not already done so. give their verdict in favour of turbines as preferable from a speed point of view to the combination of turbines and reciprocating engines. That, however, is rather a side issue. The important fact is that the builders of the Mauretania have succeeded in securing this envied order in spite of the keen competition they have had to face from rival firms on the Tyne and on the Clyde alike. The first effect of the news was to stimulate the inquiry for shipbuilding and iron and steel shares, particularly those of the firms who are to build and engine the new Cunarder, and prices on Saturday underwent an appreciable rise. For the workmen of Wallsend the news is the most welcome they have bad for a long time.
Nowhere else was the news greeted more enthusiastically than in Boston, her intended American destination, although oddly none of the British papers specifically referenced the new ship's route.
"Boston is to have a new ocean liner, which the Cunard Line will place in the service between Liverpool and this port early in 1911.
The new leviathan will be 20,00o-tons and will have turbine engines, which will send her across the ocean in faster time than has ever been made to Boston. She will be 600 feet long and 70 feet beam, and will accommodation for a large number of passengers of all classes.
Charles H. Stewart, the agent of the Cunard line, announced yesterday that he had been advised by the directors of the company than a contract had been awarded to the shipbuilding firm of Swan & Hunter of Wallsend, Newcastle-on-Tyne, for the 20,000-ton steamer for its Boston service.
The work on the new steamer will be begun at once and will be pushed steadily. It will be the largest steamer in the Boston service.
Boston Globe, 1 September 1909
It was indeed an eventful 1909. On 4 October Cunard Chairman William Watson died suddenly at his Cheshire home, aged only 65. He was succeeded on the 12th by Alfred A. Booth. Booth proved to be one of Cunard's most able and ambitious leaders although Franconia/Laconia which are often associated with his leadership, of course, predated his assuming the Chairmanship.
Between Watson's death and the election of Booth, the keel of Swan Hunter no. 857 was laid down at Wallsend on 8 October 1909 on the same slipway upon which Mauretania was built.
The Engineer (29 October 1909) reported that the decision had been made to fit the new vessel with conventional reciprocating machinery and released preliminary specifications: 600 ft. (b.p.), 622 ft. (o.a.) and 71 ft. beam. "The ship is primarily intended for the Liverpool-Boston service, and in certain seasons she will make voyages to the Mediterranean, chiefly to take part in the emigrant trade between Hungary, Austria, Italy and North America." Her passenger capacity was then cited as being 250 First, 500 Second and 1400 Third Class although it was mentioned that "further space" (presumably in "portable" accommodation) for 900 more was under consideration.
The new ship's name was revealed on 28 November 1909: Franconia, "after an ancient Roman province which is what is now central Germany and Bavaria." Even better, given her intended route, it was also the name given to a famous area of natural beauty in New Hampshire.
 |
| Franconia under construction showing (left) hull frame well along (January 1910) and (right) completion of shell plating forward in May 1910. Credit: The Shipbuilder. |
On 15 April 1910 the Liverpool Echo reported that Cunard had or would shortly place an order for a second Franconia from Swan Hunter. During the Annual Meeting at Liverpool on the 21st, Chairman Alfred A. Booth announced that tenders had been invited for the "construction of another vessel of the Franconia type." for the Boston service. Her contracting, with Swan Hunter, was reported on 6 June. In announcing her name, Laconia, the Fall River Evening News of 9 July stated that it had been suggested by Charles Stewart, Cunard's Boston agent. "Thereby the two new liners for the Boston service will have something of a 'home flavor,' with two good old New Hampshire names on their bow and stern."
 |
| Franconia ready for launching. She and Laconia went down the ways with their hulls painted grey for maximum visibility in photographs, but their sterns painted in black to show their names and registry already picked in gold. Credit: The Engineer. |
The new ship's launch was set on 9 July 1910 for the 23rd of that month and Mrs. Alfred A. Booth, wife of the Cunard Chairman, was to perform the ceremony.
 |
| Franconia starts down the slipway. Credit: Photoship |
Franconia was duly launched on 23 July 1910 but not by Mrs. Alfred Booth as planned. When she fell ill just before the event, her place was taken by Lady Forwood, the wife of a Cunard Board Member.
The vessel, while still on the stocks, was visited this morning by a large company of guests from Liverpool, Newcastle, and other places, among them being Sir William Forwood, Lady Forwood, Mr. Booth (Chairman of the Cunard Company), Alderman Maxwell, Mr. Mearns (general manager of the company), members of the shipbuilding firm of Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson etc.
The weather was glorious and an inspection of the ship proved a great source of gratification. Many passed right under the keel of the leviathan, and occasionally a match to light a cigarette was struck on the level bottom of the ship as a record of the liner's last moments before the huge vessel took the water.
Luncheon was served on the ship some time before the launch, and was attended by a brilliant company.
Liverpool Echo, 29 July 1910
 |
| Franconia clear of the ways and afloat for the first time. Her launching was favoured with superb English summer weather. Credit: The Engineer, courtesy William T. Tilley. |
It was mentioned that some 3,500 men had been at work in the construction of her hull which entailed four miles worth of girders and 100,000 sq. ft. of scaffolding to accomplish. Franconia's launch weight was 10,655 tons and she took 69¾ seconds to enter the water at a velocity of 12.3 knots.
 |
| Launch card for Franconia by Frank & Sons, South Shields. Credit: eBay auction photo. |
When complete and ready to start on her voyage early next year, the Franconia will have been constructed and fitted out in something like record time. It is expected that she will be finished in little more than fifteen months, counting from the time when her keel plates were laid.
Carlisle Journal 29 July 1910
Assigned Yard No. 877, Laconia was laid down on 25 July 1910 on the Wallsend slipway just vacated by her sister ship.
 |
| Franconia fitting out at Wallsend. Credit: Ships Nostalgia.com, member 'dom' |
Franconia's maiden voyage was set on 17 August 1910: from Liverpool to New York on 25 February 1911. Proving her dual purpose bona fides straight away, she would then sail on a Mediterranean voyage that would end back at Liverpool on 10 April. Her maiden trip to Boston would then commence on the 18th. Despite a rash of strikes effecting the shipbuilding industry at the time, this schedule was reconfirmed on 23 November.
 |
| It wouldn't be an Edwardian Liner without the formal and "touched up, just right" portrait in The Shipbuilder. Franconia as photographed off on her delivery voyage to Liverpool. Credit: The Shipbuilder. |
After being painted in Messrs. R. Stephenson and Co.'s dock in Hebburn, four tugs took Franconia across the river Tyne on the afternoon of 16 January 1911 where she moored opposite the yard in which she was built. It was planned to run trials on her delivery voyage to Liverpool which commenced early morning on the 20th, but she did not get far when heavy fog enveloped the river and coast.
After a safe passage down the river the Franconia arrived outside the Tyne pier shortly after eight o'clock this morning, in charge of three of the Dry's steam tugs. When the vessel passed down the lower reaches of the river a thick fog prevailed, and the few spectators gathered on the bank tops at the Lawe were only able to catch a faint view of the magnificent ship. Outside the Franconia immediately brought to, but nothing could be seen of her as the weather was too foggy.
At 9.30 a steam tug called at the North Shields New Quay, where several officials of the Cunard Company and also from the builders embarked and proceeded out to the Franconia. A further company of ladies and gentlemen will join the Franconia tomorrow morning to accompany her on the run to Liverpool.
Shields Daily Gazette, 20 January 1911
THE FRANCONIA. DEPARTURE OF THE CUNARDER FROM THE TYNE Not much interest was aroused in South Shields yesterday by the departure from the Tyne the Cunard steamer Franconia. The fact that she was timed to leave Wallsend about 6 a.m. was sufficient to indicate that, at best, very indistinct view of the great ship would be obtained; and. consequently, there were very few people about the riverside. It was not till 7.45 o'clock that the vessel, attended by three tugs, belonging Messrs Dry. South "Shields, and with Mr William Young—son of the late Mr. Thomas Young, who took the Mauretania pilot, and Captain White, North Sea pilot, on board, was seen between the two harbour towns. A fog. which continued during the remainder of the day, hung over the harbour, and scarcely anything could seen of the Franconia as it passed down the river, and she was quite lost to view when she got the open sea. After getting outside the anchors were dropped, and. later in the morning, the chairman of the Cunard Company (Mr A. A. Booth), several of the chief officials of the company, the chairman of Messrs Swan, Hunter, Wigham Richardson and Co. (Dr G. B. Hunter), other members of the firm, and a number of guests, proceeded on board the Franconia, which remained at anchor until the weather cleared. Having undergone a series trial runs along the coast for the purpose of testing her machinery, the vessel anchored off the Tyne and at daybreak this morning will proceed to Liverpool.
Newcastle Journal, 21 January 1911
 |
| The new Franconia in the Mersey. Credit: Photoship |
After averaging 17 knots on her delivery voyage/trials, Franconia arrived at Liverpool the afternoon of 23 January 1911. There, her furnishings would be embarked completing her fitting out and she would be stored, bunkered and prepared for her maiden voyage on 25 February. Her permanent master had yet to be appointed and the Boston Globe reported on the 26th that it was thought be a choice between Capt. Irving of Pannonia or Capt. Smith of Carpathia. Captain Charles A. Smith, R.D., R.N.R., was duly appointed in command. Originally joining Cunard in 1894 as Fourth Officer of Lucania and later serving in Scythia, Pavonia, Servia, Umbria, Etruria and Pavia, the latter being his first command, he went on to captain Altonia and Carpathia.
 |
| Franconia's first Master, Capt. Charles A. Smith. |
On 22 February 1911 Franconia was opened to inspection by 80 members of the British Press and, according to the Belfast Telegraph "presented a magnificent picture as she lay gracefully in mid-river." Cunard General Manager A.D. Mearns hosted a luncheon aboard afterwards.
Franconia sailed on her maiden voyage on the afternoon of 25 February 1911. After the call at Queenstown, she had 98 First, 320 Second and 558 Third Class passengers aboard. Encountering strong westerly gales and head seas from Queenstown to Sandy Hook, she averaged only 14.69 knots across. She docked at New York at 10:00 a.m. on 6 March.
 |
| Franconia at New York. Credit: William B. Taylor photograph, Mariners' Museum. |
The interest of her passengers was centered in the race with the White Star liner Baltic, which called from Queenstown two hours ahead of the Cunard liner and had a lost an hour and a half of her lead before the two ships passed the Ambrose Channel yesterday morning. Wireless messages were exchanged frequently and the exact positions of the ships was posted aboard the Franconia.
When the passengers on the Cunarder went on the upper deck yesterday morning they could see the Baltic right ahead. In spite of the efforts of the Franconia's stokehold crew, the Baltic retained her lead and arrived at Quarantine thirty minutes ahead. Capt. C.A. Smith, who commands the Cunarder, said he was confident that in fine weather his ship will walk away from any of the Baltic class off ships.
The New York Times, 7 March 1911
Cunard Line's New York Manager Charles Sumner gave a reception aboard Franconia for invited guests followed by luncheon in the saloon soon after the ship's arrival.
 |
| An early Cunard advertisement for their winter programme of Mediterranean cruises using the scheduled liner service from New York to Italy and the Adriatic by Carmania, Caronia and the brand new Franconia sailing 11 March 1911. Credit: Century |
 |
| Early poster for Franconia/Laconia on the Mediterranean run by Odin Rosenvinge and opposite a press release by Cunard promoting these for the British market. |
Franconia left New York for the Mediterranean on 11 March 1911 with 414 First and 463 Second and 180 Third Class. She passed Gibraltar (21) and called at Algiers (22), Genoa, Naples (26), Alexandria and made a second call at Naples (2 April). There, she embarked passengers who had been cruising in the Mediterranean in Carpathia and would trans-ship to Franconia for the return to Liverpool and she also called again at Algiers on the 5th. Making her first call at the Welsh port (which was used as "short cut" for London-bound travellers), Franconia anchored at Fishguard the morning of the 8th.. Among those landing were Sir Henry Bell and Miss Bell, Lady Bocklehurst, Lord Carnarvon, Major Clifford and Sir W.B. Forwood and Lady Forwood, the ship's godmother. The special train for London was dispatched at 12:08 p.m. Continuing to Liverpool, Franconia docked there on the 9th.
 |
| Early postcard for Franconia for her introduction on the Boston service, painting by Odin Rosenvinge. Credit: author's collection. |
What was justifiably her second "maiden" voyage followed on 18 April 1911 when Franconia sailed for Boston and took up her main service as the largest and finest liner on the route. After calling at Queenstown the next day, she had 50 First, 596 Second and 1,656 Third Class passengers aboard.
 |
| Franconia at Boston. Credit: Boston Library. |
The Cunard liner Franconia, the newest ship afloat and the biggest thing that ever floated into Boston harbor, arrived in the lower harbor last evening and at 9:15 anchored at quarantine. The massive steamer arrived abeam of Boston lightship at 8:22 last night and from the deck of the tug Junio, which conveyed the local Cunard officials and the towboat officers on the trip down to welcome the great liner, the massive hull with its myriad lights from the six decks, mounting high into the air, resembled a floating city.
The Franconia sailed from Liverpool at 5:08 on the afternoon of April 18, and from Queenstown the next day, so that the voyage of seven days nine hours from Daunt's Rock to Boston Lightship, while not a fast one, was a record-breaker in some respects.
The ship, constantly combating head winds and seas, maintained an average speed of 15.41 knots an hour, and from noon Tuesday until noon yesterday traveled 407 miles. At 8:22 last night she added 143 miles more to her log, marking the total of 550 miles for the 28 hours, the best performance of her trip. The huge vessel will dock in East Boston at 7 this morning.
The Franconia carried the third largest number of passengers in the history of Boston. Capt. Charles A. Smith, who was in command of the Cunarder Carpathia, will be greatly relieved when the last of the 2328 being over which he has held almost constant vigil for more than a week, steps ashore.
Only twice before has this number been exceeded at the port of Boston-- in May, 1908, when the Saxonia landed 2348, and in 1903, when the Republic, landed 3500 passengers from Mediterranean ports....
Capt. Smith, the master of the largest vessel that ever sailed into Boston harbor, extended a cordial greeting. He was proud of his ship and he plainly showed it… 'the ship is a dandy.' he said. 'She is very steady and able and an excellent seagoing boat. She weathered the storms in fine style.'
Boston Globe, 27 April 1911
 |
| Coverage of Franconia's maiden arrival at Boston. Credit: Boston Globe, 27 April 1911. |
A later edition of the Boston Globe described Franconia's docking:
The screeching of the whistles of scores of harbor steam craft announced the coming up the harbor early this morning of the mammoth new Cunarder Franconia, which arrived at quarantine late last night on her maiden trip from Liverpool and Queenstown. The noisy welcome was kept up until the leviathan was safely berthed at her pier at East Boston. Capt. Smith of the Franconia was kept busy responding to the welcoming toots and the deep blasts of the liner's whistles reverberated through the harbor.
The Franconia presented a magnificent sight as she moved majestically up to her berth. Her high decks were lined with passengers, and the officers, in their bright new uniforms, were conspicuous on the bridge and at their other posts. The brasses scintillated in the early morning sunlight, and the big funnels appeared higher than any ever seen here.
With unusual smoothness the great bulk was placed alongside her berth. The lines were made fast, the gangways were swung out from the pier, and preparations were made for landing the great throng of passengers.
Among the passengers in Second and Third Class was a record 842 Irish, the largest number from the country yet to arrive at Boston in one ship, 644 English, 222 Swedes, 83 Norwegians and 64 Scots.
The official run for the maiden voyage to Boston was 7 days, 3 hours and 12 minutes, 12 hours late owing to headwinds. Her average speed was 15.41 knots.
 |
| Franconia during her maiden call at Boston with her crew touching up and cleaning her funnels. Credit: pininterest. |
That evening the ship was the setting for a banquet in the First Class saloon for 250 guests, hosted by Charles Stewart, Cunard's Boston General Manager. "The banquet was served in typical Cunard manner. Throughout the dinner the Franconia orchestra played patriotic airs of England and the United States." (Fitchburg Sentinel 28 April 1911). This was followed by a luncheon aboard on the 29th for 300 steamship agents followed by a two-hour inspection of the new vessel.
 |
| The Boston Globe afforded Franconia a congratulatory editorial. Credit: Boston Globe 28 April 1911. |
With 119 First, 169 Second, 470 Third Class passengers and a capacity cargo totalling 8,000 tons including grain and agricultural implements, the new Cunarder commenced her homeward run on 2 May 1911. "The Franconia sailed from her berth at East Boston at 12:05 p.m., just five minutes late. Over 1000 persons on the pier cheered and waved flags, hats and hankerchiefs as the biggest liner in the Boston service started on her first eastward from here." (Boston Globe, 2 May 1911). Her passage out was interrupted 30 minutes later when hot engine bearings caused her to anchor for half an hour off Long island head. She anchored so close to Deer Island that she had to back away and it was noted "The position was not one that would have been selected by the pilot had not some emergency compelled him to order out the anchor for some important reason." (Boston Globe). She resumed her passage without further incident at 2:00 p.m.
On 10 May 1911 Franconia inaugurated the first call at Fishguard, Wales, on Cunard's Boston service. This had begun in 1909 by Mauretania and Lusitania to "cut the corner" for London destined travellers as well as the express mails to get them to the Capital well in advance of going up the St. George's Channel and into the Mersey and then by train from there. Franconia anchored at 5:00 a.m., had her London-bound passengers and their luggage and the mails ashore and aboard the special GWR train which left at 6:40 a.m. and arrived at Paddington at 11:28 a.m.
The inauguration of Fishguard as a port of call on the homeward trip of the vessels engaged in the Cunard Company’s Boston service took place this morning under the most happy auspices. appropriately enough it fell to the lot of the magnificent new Cunarder Franconia, on completion of her maiden voyage to Boston, to initiate this further extension of the Cunard Company’s patronage of the Welsh port. The Franconia, the largest vessel in the Boston trade, dropped anchor in the bay shortly after five o’clock, and within a short space of time a large number of passengers were brought ashore in the tender and left for London in the special train provided. (Pall Mall Gazette, 10 May 1911).
 |
| This painting by Sam J.M. Brown was one of Franconia's earliest postcards. Credit: author's collection. |
Franconia's second voyage to Boston got underway 16 May 1911 and meeting the vessel on her arrival on the 24th, the Boston Herald reporter clearly had other things on his mind than Cunard's newest liner:
More handsome women arrived here yesterday on the new Cunarder Franconia than have been seen on a liner in years. They were in all the cabins and pretty girls fairly thronged the steerage. The liner berthed at East Boston at 2:10 p.m. after an uneventual passage from Liverpool and Queenstown.
She brought 105 saloon, 391 second cabin and 1285 third-class passengers. It was said on the pier that saloon passengers represented more wealth for the number than ever arrived here on one vessel, judging from the amount of duties paid on effects and jewels.
One young woman, who wore beautiful gowns on the way over, indulged in an occasional cigarette in the smoking room. She used a solid gold cigarette holder, some observant men said, and did not seem in the least concerned when the other women stared at her.
Many handsome women arrive on the Franconia.
Boston Globe, 25 May 1911
The liner had a record breaking passenger list for the time of year aboard when she sailed from Boston at 11:50 a.m. on 30 May 1911: 257 First, 409 Second and 1,124 Third Class for Queenstown, Fishguard and Liverpool. In fact, it was the largest number of Second Class passengers to embark from the port to date. Many of the saloon passengers were bound for the Coronation of H.M. King George V and Queen Mary in London on 22 June.
More than 2000 passengers were on board and they crowded the decks as the big ship cast off and moved into the stream. The sailing attracted a crowd of fully 10,000 people to the Cunard wharf and the adjoining piers, and they cheered when the liner started. It was the largest crowd ever seen at a sailing here, except possibly when the Servia left here with Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company several years ago.
The Franconia was scheduled to sail at 11 a.m., but it was 50 minutes later before the gangways were lowered and the lines cast off. The delay was occasioned by visitors remaining too long on board. Some of them were unable to find their way off the big vessel. Even after the delay five were discovered in the second cabin while on the way down the harbor and Capt. Smith had to signal for a tug to take them off.
Boston Globe, 31 May 1911
In addition to record number of passengers, Franconia took 12 large touring cars in her holds belonging to passengers off on long motoring holidays in Europe, "40,000 bushels of grain and an immense amount of provisions, cotton, leather, lumber, etc."
The advent of Franconia was fortuitous indeed when, on 25 May 1911 the eastbound Ivernia ploughed into Daunts Rock coming into Queenstown in fog and was very seriously damaged. She was out of service for three months and with Saxonia already reassigned to the Mediterranean run, Franconia was left on her own for the whole of the summer season.
 |
| Wonderful Odin Rosenvinge painting of the new Franconia. Credit: author's colleciton. |
On her third trip to Boston, Franconia arrived there the morning of 21 June 1911 after a very smart passage (and close to the record) of 7 days 17 hours and 5 minutes from Liverpool, averaging 16.14 knots. "The event of the passage was the coronation dinner given at 5 o'clock Monday [19 June] Monday afternoon. An elaborate menu was arranged and during the dinner the orchestra under the leadership of conductor Pat O'Day, played special coronation music and Scotch, Irish and English ballads." (Boston Globe, 21 June 1911). She landed 115 First, 364 Second and 856 Third Class passengers. Several of the passengers had been aboard Ivernia when she grounded at Queenstown.
With the largest saloon list (361 First plus 372 Second and 912 Third) ever carried by a steamship from Boston, Franconia sailed on 27 June 1911. Among those swelling the First Class list was Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald and his two daughters, Rose (the future Rose Kennedy) and Agnes, off with the Boston Chamber of Commerce on a tour of Europe. The liner was escorted out of the harbor by the city boats Monitor and Cormorant packed with the friends of the Mayor and city officials who, as the liner dropped her pilot off Boston lightship, struck up the mayor's favourite song, "Sweet Adeline" and the mayor joined in through a megaphone.
Sailing from Liverpool on 11 July 1911 and from Queenstown the following day, Franconia docked at Boston at 9:20 a.m. on the 19th. "It was a record-breaking crowd of saloon and second cabin passengers for this season of the year. She had 176 first cabin, 516 second cabin and 632 steerage...The steamer brought in a valuable cargo of wire rods, mahogany, pitch, cotton waste, paper stick, bristles, steel, onions, bleaching powder, palm oil, wine, iron, salted mackerel, earthenware, brandy etc." (Boston Globe, 19 July 1911)
To avoid a repeat of her last visitor-mobbed sailing, they were not permitted aboard before Franconia sailed from Boston at 9:00 a.m. on 25 July 1911 for Queenstown, Fishguard and Liverpool. She sailed right on time (so much so that one lady passenger missed the boat and was rebooked from New York the next day) with 171 First, 344 Second and 526 Third. The Second Class list was the largest ever from Boston to date. Her outbound cargo including 16,000 bushels of wheat. Franconia arrived at Fishguard at 2:50 a.m. on 2 August and Liverpool that same evening.
 |
| Laconia just after her launch (left) and before, again with the stern painted black but the rest of the hull in grey. She went down the ways with more of her upperworks completed than Franconia with a corresponding greater launch weight: 11,150 tons vs. 10,650 tons. Credit: The Engineer. |
 |
| Laconia afloat for the first time and being taken in charge by tugs following her launching. She was the second largest British ship launched in 1911. Credit: The Engineer |
Capping that splendid, matchless Coronation Summer of 1911, at 4:07 p.m. on 27 July Laconia was launched at Wallsend by Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, wife of the U.S. Ambassador. The selection of the second American (the wife of the American Ambassador doing the honours with Caronia in 1904) to christen a Cunarder was announced on the 20th and the launch was preceded by a luncheon at the yard during which the line's role in bridging Great Britain and her trans-Atlantic cousins was stressed by Chairman Alfred Booth. The 11,150-ton hull took 75 seconds to clear the slipway. There was disappointment that owing to the boilermaker lock-out the previous autumn, the rapid pace that marked her sister's construction could not be matched and it was just over a year since she was laid down.
 |
| Laconia alongside the fitting-out quay of Wallsend Slipway & Engineering for the installation of her machinery. Note the black-painted stern. Credit: The Engineer, courtesy William T. Tilley. |
Cunard announced on 12 August 1911 that owing to the great demand for passage on the new ship that Franconia would remain on the Boston run through the end of year and, with Ivernia back on the service with her 17 October sailing from Liverpool, maintain a fortnightly frequency.
 |
| Mayor John F. ("Honey Fitz)" Fitzgerald of Boston (right) and Ambassador John Hays Hammond aboard Franconia in August 1911. The Mayor was returning from the Boston Chamber of Commerce tour of Europe and Ambassador Hammond from the Coronation of H.M. King George V. This photo is from an album belonging to Mayor Fitzgerald's daughter... the future Rose Kennedy and mother of President John F. Kennedy... who was also aboard. Credit: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. |
Franconia sailed from Liverpool on 9 August 1911 and after clearing Queenstown, had 278 First, 389 Second and 818 Third Class aboard. She docked at East Boston at 10:00 a.m. on the 16th. Among her First Class passengers was Boston Mayor John F. Fitzgerald and John Hays Hammond, special ambassador of the United States to the coronation. Heavily laden with enough coal and provisions for a round trip owing to fears a strike in Liverpool might prevent her from reprovisioning on the other side, Franconia departed Boston at 8:00 a.m. on the 22nd with 64 First, 140 Second and 320 Third Class passengers. In the event, she reached Queenstown at 6:00 p.m. on the 29th and with the Merseyside strike withering, she was able to proceed to Liverpool and dock the following day.
The Cunarder left Liverpool on 5 September 1911 and Queenstown the next day by which time Franconia had 392 First, 314 Second and 1,416 Third Class aboard, a total of 2,122. It set a record number of saloon class passengers to ever cross to Boston in one ship, exceeding Servia's mark of 387 set in 1896. Franconia anchored off Boston lightship before 1:00 a.m. on the 13th, her crossing time of 6 days 18 hours and 35 minutes from Daunts Rock, Queenstown, to Boston Light was the fastest yet by a Cunarder to Boston, but still six hours shy of the mark set by Dominion Line's New England (now White Star's Romanic).
It was only a matter of time before Franconia won the "Boston Blue Riband" and by arriving off Boston Lightship at 2:00 p.m. on 10 October 1911 and doing the passage from Daunt's Rock (Queenstown) in 6 days 10 hours and 34 minutes, she bested New England's 12-year record by two hours four minutes. Despite frequent gales en route, she average 16.89 knots for the passage. "Early in the passage it became noised about among the passengers that the Franconia was out for the record, and there was intense excitement among the men. When the steamer was near enough to port for those on board to realize she had made the fastest time on record, George T. Coppins, a Boston merchant, one of the directors of the Chamber of Commerce, drew up a set of resolutions congratulating Capt. Charles A. Smith upon the splendid performance of his ship and thanking him and the officers for their courtesy and kind kindness." (Boston Globe, 10 October 1911) The days runs were 425, 418, 402, 420, 418 and 418 nautical miles respectively. She brought in 194 First, 544 Second and 1,131 Third Class.
 |
| Franconia passes Castle Harbor, Boston. Credit: U.S. Library of Congress. |
Franconia sailed eastbound at 4:30 p.m. on 17 October 1911 with 65 First, 150 Second and 350 Third Class passengers and a heavy cargo of 12,000 barrels of apples, 68,000 bushels of corn, 500 tons of provisions, 100 tons of flour, 300 bales of cotton, 100 tons of lumber and two refrigerators of beef.
There were no records broken on Franconia's next crossing to Boston and instead of arriving on 8 November 1911 as scheduled, heavy headwinds and seas encountered most of the way across made her not come in until the following morning with 88 First, 345 Second and 512 Third Class passengers. Her homeward crossing, beginning on the 14th, took away 33 First, 90 Second and 350 Third Class and a capacity cargo including 16,000 barrels of apples, 41,000 bushels of wheat and 300 tons of syrup. Indeed, 40 carloads of merchandise had to be left on the dock owing to lack of space.
 |
| Franconia was the 'Christmas Boat' from Boston in 1911. Credit Boston Globe, 8 December 1911 |
Finally arriving in Boston on the morning of 7 December 1911, a day late, Franconia set a new record: her slowest crossing to date owing to severe gales and high westerly seas most of the way across. On the 1st she logged just 263 nautical miles and 225 the following day and averaged only 13.93 knots the whole crossing. She had a typically light list for the time of the year of 52 First, 172 Second and 350 Third Class. She had to make a quick turnaround to sail on the 9th as that year's "Christmas Boat". Working night and day, more than 175 stevedores unloaded her 1,800 tons of inbound cargo and then set to work to take on the 7,500 tons for England including 65,000 bushels of wheat, 400 tons of provisions, 2,000 bales of cotton, 100 tons of flour, 100 tons of hay, 5,000 barrels of apples and 300 barrels of syrup. She also took on a very heavy consignment of Christmas mail and parcels. With 39 First, 158 Second and 610 Third Class, Franconia got away right on schedule at noon.
In 1911, Franconia completed 18 crossings to/from Boston carrying 21,865 passengers, one crossing to New York carrying 976 and 1 to the Mediterranean carrying 657.
 |
| An idyllic portrait by Sam J.M. Brown of Franconia at Fiume in the Adriatic where she made her maiden call on 12 February 1912. Credit: author's collection. |
On 16 January 1912 an ice-encrusted Franconia arrived at a frigid New York from Liverpool with 84 First, 233 Second and 299 Third Class. Destined for warmer climes, she was off four days later for the Mediterranean with 306 First, 29 Second and 408 Third Class. Her voyages called at Madeira 28 January, Gibraltar (30), Algiers (1 February), Villefranche (3), Naples (5), Alexandria (9), Fiume (12), Palermo, Naples (18-19), Gibraltar (21), returning to New York on 1 March with 59 First, 223 Second and 741 Third Class.
A very busy and successful year for Cunard ended with the completion of Laconia whose fitting out was accomplished at a fast pace to make up the delays in her construction. On 18 November 1911 Laconia was docked at Hebburn for painting before proceeding on her trials. Her maiden voyage, to New York, was set for 13 January 1912 and like her sister, followed by a voyage to the Mediterranean before taking up her place on the Boston run.
Laconia left the builders yards at 2:00 p.m. on 8 December 1911 in charge of the tugs Great Emperor, Prince, Gauntlet, and Snowdon. After passing the Tyne piers, she then anchored off Tynemouth Castle for the night.
Unfortunately, the weather was very hazy when the huge liner's mooring were cast adrift and the view was not as satisfactory as had been hoped for. The passage down the river was cautiously made, the Laconia passing the Mill Dam at half past three o'clock precisely. The hull of the Laconia was just discernible to the large numbers of people who had gathered on the quayside. Nevertheless a pretty sight was seen by the spectators for during the journey the vessel's cabins were illuminated. On clearing the piers, the vessel dropped her anchor.
Shields Daily Gazette 8 December 1911
 |
| Laconia on her trials on 9 December 1911. Credit: The Shipbuilder |
Running her trials on the measured mile on 9 December 1911, Laconia anchored off the Shields bar until the next day when she embarked a party of line and yard officials and other invited guests for her delivery trip to Liverpool. It had been hoped to prove the effectiveness of her novel Frahm anti-rolling tanks (Laconia being, in fact, the first British ship so fitted) but as described in a detailed account in the Belfast Telegraph of 20 December, this was frustrated by too calm sea conditions:
Unfortunately, however, there was not at any time a really heavy swell at sea. Going through the Pentlands in the early hours of Monday [11 Dec] there was a 10-mile head-sea running, giving the ship a list. The effect of the contrary wind on the 'mill-race' offered opportunity for trying the effect of the tanks, although this was not by any means completely suitable. 'Engineering' reproduce the graph taken by a gyroscope pendulum. The result gives confidence in the belief that the anti-rolling tank will be thoroughly effective when the vessel is subjected to Atlantic waves. As to the speed performance of the ship little need be said; the feature was the remarkable agreement between the Laconia's steaming and that of her sister-ship, the Franconia, on the corresponding trip early this year. We had the times when the latter passed many cross-bearings, and allowing for the difference in the early departure from the Tyne, there was striking agreement throughout the 685 miles' run. This regularity in steaming is a desideratum in all mail and passenger liner ensuring punctuality in arrival.
Laconia arrived in the Mersey on the morning of 12 December 1911 and docked that afternoon.
 |
| Laconia at Liverpool with the Cunard tender Skirmisher alongside, 1912. Credit: Merseyside Maritime Museum. |
Then on 21 December 1911 her maiden voyage to New York date was set back to 20 January 1912. This was blamed on the mishap to Mauretania which ran aground in the Mersey earlier that month and caused a reshuffling of schedules. Laconia's departure for the Mediterranean on 3 February was unaffected.
 |
| Capt. W.R.D. Irvine, R.N.R., one of Cunard's great Captains, was Laconia's commander for her entire career and went on to command Berengaria after the War as he shown here. |
LACONIA’S MAIDEN VOYAGE. The new Cunard liner Laconia, which was built Messrs Swan, Hunter, and Richardson, Wallsend, for the Liverpool-Boston trade, left Liverpool on Saturday, on her maiden voyage. Prior to sailing the Laconia was inspected by number of privileged guests, who saw for themselves the remarkable progress, admirably illustrated by this vessel, in the direction ensuring increased ease and comfort for passengers. The whole the internal fittings are of the most luxurious character, while additional facilities have been introduced into the second and third-class quarters. The vessel carried large number of passengers on her maiden trip to Boston.
Shields Daily News, 22 January 1922
"The new Cunard Laconia arrived here yesterday morning on her maiden voyage from Liverpool covered from stem to stern with snow and ice." The New York Times, 30 January 1912
 |
| Credit: Quad Cities Times, 28 January 1912. |
Commanded by Capt. W.R.D. Irvine, R.N.R., formerly of Ivernia, Laconia sailed from Liverpool on 20 January 1912, the second largest British ship launched in 1911, she was first to make her maiden voyage in 1912. "During the her passage from Liverpool her machinery worked smoothly and gave every satisfaction, the vessel's seagoing qualities as well as her interior, pleasing the passenger greatly." Belfast News-Letter, 22 January 1912. After calling at Queenstown on the 21st, she had 160 First, 285 Second and 394 Third Class passengers and docked at New York on 29 January. "The new steamship Laconia of the Cunard Line arrived at this port today with a heavy cabin list and a record for seaworthiness during unusually heavy that has seldom been eclipsed in naval architecture.Although never before out of port she made an average off more than sixteen knots per hour during the trip across from Liverpool and arrived here on time. Her steadiness in heavy seas is partly attributed to her equipment with the Frahm anti-rolling tanks, and which are said to have worked perfectly in all stages of hard weather. "(The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 29 January 1912).
 |
| One of the wonderful "Cunarder at..." series of cards, by Sam J.M. Brown, featuring Laconia anchored off Madeira. Credit: author's collection. |
Laconia sailed from New York 3 February 1912 with 356 First, 44 Second, 757 Third Class on her first voyage to the Mediterranean. This called at Madeira (11th), Gibraltar (13), Algiers (17), Naples (19), Alexandria (24) and she returned via Fiume 2 March, from Naples (6) to arrive at New York on the 17th with 42 First, 185 Second and 1,180 Third Class aboard.
Franconia arrived Boston from New York on 6 March 1912. Empty except for 32,000 bushels of wheat loaded at New York for Liverpool, she embarked 20 First, 44 Second and 176 Third Class at Boston and sailed at 4:30 p.m. on the 12th. Among the First Class passengers was A.W. Perry, owner of the Plant Line, who was travelling to Britain in connection with the construction on Clydebank of the steamer Evangeline for the Boston-Halifax run. The coal strike in England occasioned her taking on 4,000 tons, enough for a round voyage. In addition to this and the wheat loaded in New York, she also took away 200 tons of provisions, 34,000 bushels of corn, 1,500 bales of cotton, 150 tons of flour, 1,600 boxes and 700 barrels of apples and 200 tons of oilcake.
 |
| Laconia's maiden arrival at Boston was major news. Credit: Boston Herald, 22 March 1912. |
Deadheading from New York, Laconia docked "gaily bedecked with flags and bunting" at East Boston at 10:30 a.m. on 22 March 1912. With the coal strike in Britain not settled, she bunkered with 4,500 tons of coal in New York, sufficient to take her to Liverpool and return. Press and steamship agents were invited to tour the vessel and take luncheon aboard at 1:00 p.m. "The guests inspected the monster liner, all expressing delight at the comfort and luxury of the ship. During the meal the ship's orchestra played several selections. Later coffee and cigars were served in the magnificent smoking room, one of the finest compartments in the vessel. It is panelled in sycamore, had an open fireplace and comfortable chairs and settees. At the after end a large bay window looks out to sea." (Boston Herald, 23 March 1912).
With 77 First Class, 79 Second and 179 Third Class passengers, Laconia sailed from Boston on 26 March 1912. In her holds was a good first cargo of 100,000 bushels of wheat, 17,000 bushels of corn, 300 tons of provisions, 600 tons of flour and oatmeal, 3,000 bales of cotton, 400 tons of hay, 1,000 barrels of apples and 1,500 tons of San Domingo sugar. With 4,500 of coal in her bunkers, she was well and truly loaded to the marks. Laconia arrived Queenstown at midnight 3 April and Liverpool at 5:00 p.m.
 |
| A new era for the Boston-Liverpool run. Credit: Hartford Courant, 28 January 1912. |
 |
| R.M.S. Laconia sails from East Boston, 26 March 1912. Credit: Nathaniel L. Stebbins photographic collection Historic New England. |
April 1912: Cunard's Liverpool-Boston service, the world's first regularly scheduled steam trans-Atlantic passenger and mail service, was now held down by the newest and finest intermediate steamers in the world, which were also the among the largest and finest on the Mediterranean route. It was a service of matchless "matched pairs" with Mauretania and Lusitania on the Liverpool-New York express service, Carmania and Caronia on the secondary New York service and now Franconia and Laconia on the Boston run. Just a dozen years previously, the Cunard fleet was at its nadir, now it was one of the glories of the British Merchant Navy and an Era at its absolute zenith.
Both ships were really magnificent examples of North Atlantic liners, of the intermediate type, at their best. In my opinion they were better looking than the Carmania and Caronia. These two always appeared to be lacking in sheer forward while in the Franconia and Laconia both sheer and flare were considerably greater. The design was clean and straightforward and the outline beautifully and proportioned. They were to 'revolutionise' the Boston service and probably did so.
J.H. Isherwood, Sea Breezes, July 1969
 |
| Portrait in Perfection: The Edwardian Ocean Liner: the brand new R.M.S. Franconia in the Mersey. Credit: shipspotting.com |
If nothing else, Franconia and Laconia represented the Epitome of Edwardian Liners-- their perfect proportions, the dignity of their purposeful design, the elegant ease of their décor, the finish and workmanship of every fitting and furnishing-- reflected a gloriously confident age that seemed incapable of producing anything else be it an ocean liner, tramcar, bicycle or gramophone. They were astonishingly beautiful and graceful ships when Great Britain, The Workshop of the World, was churning them out like sausages. They were probably too Edwardian and it was possibly a blessing they did not survive the War that ended both the Age and their short lives, sparing both of the compromises and indignities of the inter-war era-- foul smelling oil smoke, "flappers" in the smoking room and the shabby necessity of "booze cruises." Their original beauty was never diminished, but sadly, they are also all but forgotten today and never had a chance to make a name for themselves. Boston got a new trio of Cunarders after the war and there were many more Cunarders to follow but no two were as nearly so handsome as these.
Franconia/Laconia had principal measurements of 18,150 (Franconia) 18,099 (Laconia) (gross), 7,220 tons (deadweight) and 24,300 tons (displacement), 625 ft. (overall length), 600 ft. (length between perpendiculars), 71 ft. 4 ins. (beam) and 29 ft. 6 ins. draught.
 |
| R.M.S. Franconia...grace and beauty coming.... Credit: Library of Congress |
Proportion. Of all the attributes of architecture, ashore or afloat, it is the one essential element and the hardest to achieve. It is a quality as lacking in passenger vessels today as coal smoke and the Marconigram. But achieved with apparent effortless ease in the decade leading to First World War-- Cairo, Carmania, Cameronia, Edinburgh Castle, Medina, Orvieto, Prince George, St. Patrick, Olympic and Aquitania-- being just some of more sigh inducing examples. But surely no two sister ships were as prettily proportioned as Franconia and Laconia. The spacing and rake of the masts and funnels, both just right in angle and height, the neat, clean simplicity of the upperworks and more sheer and camber than in the last 150 passenger ships built since. Eschewing pretense, artifice, fussiness, their real attribute was the innate dignity that comes from working ships of the Atlantic Ferry, the "intermediates", a type they helped redefine.
 |
| Or going... Franconia departing Boston 2 May 1911. Credit: Nathaniel L. Stebbins photographic collection Historic New England. |
They were seven decks in all-- Boat (A), Promenade (B), Bridge or Saloon (C), Shelter (D), Upper (E), Main (F) and Lower (G) and 14 watertight bulkheads. The block co-efficient was .68.
The Boston route was one of Cunard's busiest in terms of cargo...especially eastbound with a typical bill of lading including wheat, corn, apples, pears, syrup, tobacco, flour, lumber, cotton, hay and canned goods. Franconia and Laconia whilst improving enormously on Ivernia and Saxonia in their speed and the quality of their passenger accommodation, emulated them in their cargo space. Six holds, worked by mast booms (what appeared to be a pair of short kingposts forward was in fact a cradle for the long booms when shipped for sea), had a 7,220-ton capacity.
 |
| The Lines of a Greyhound: Franconia in dry dock just before handing over. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. |
If there was a modestly controversial aspects of these ships, it was the choice, after much consideration, of conventional reciprocating machinery. It is telling that the famous "Cunard Experiment" in 1905, fitting triple-screw direct-drive turbines in Carmania and twin-screw reciprocating engines in Caronia resulted in the decision to power Lusitania and Mauretania with turbines and the next four intermediate Cunarders with reciprocating machinery. Actually, the results of trials were hardly as conclusive as Cunard publicity and later accounts would suggest. Carmania's fuel consumption was far higher and contemporary accounts said she had "a reputation as being a cow to handle in tight places." The Engineer cited the later as being a deciding factor especially given these ships having to manoeuvre in and out of Liverpool's enclosed dock system. Leonard Peskett had the final word in 1914 when he stated that direct drive turbines were not suited to intermediate liners, although he embraced the geared turbine for them and indeed his Transylvania that year was the first North Atlantic liner so fitted.
 |
| The Power & the Glory: turbines may have been ultimately more efficient, but did not hold a candle to a good, proper set of quadruple expansion engines like these for Franconia, built by Wallsend Engineering, for imposing power and presence. Credit: The Shipbuilder. |
So it was that Franconia and Laconia were reassuringly and reliably powered by two sets of quadruple-expansion engines (built by Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Co.) with cylinders of 33, 47, 67 and 85 ins. in diameter and a stroke of 5 ft, balanced on the Yarrow, Schlick & Tweedy system and driving twin, four-bladed screws. Steam was supplied by six double-ended boilers (17.5 ft. in dia. and 21.5 ft. long) working under natural draught and, of course, coal-fired. These ships burned 4,500 tons of coal in the course of a routine round voyage. Her wartime logbook details Laconia's coal consumption:
- “With all despatch” (the maximum power attainable for 24 hours), using 6 boilers. 17 knots, using 10 tons of coal per hour.
- “With despatch” (the maximum seagoing speed while the coal lasts) using 5 boilers. 14 knots, 6.45 tons per hour.
- “With moderate despatch” using four boilers. 12 knots, 4.6 tons per hour.
The boilers were arranged three abreast in two fire rooms with a cross bunker in between and each venting into its own funnel. These were possibly the finest proportioned funnels ever carried in a ship, each measuring 14 ft. 3 ins. by 9 ft. 3 in. and rising a magnificent 140 ft. above the fire grates. Far from controversial or outdated, it was the machinery of these ships and their arrangement that gave them their breathtaking proportion and beauty. It also gave them a service speed of 16 knots and they were capable of close to 17 knots if pushed. They cut a full day off the Liverpool-Boston passage. Being Liverpool ships, they also had the pick of the best stokers and trimmers in the world. In their short lives, Franconia and Laconia were reliable, comfortable ships, free of the vibration and screw issues of their Blue Riband-winning fleetmates so the choice of reciprocating machinery was a wise one.
 |
| Franconia: top of engines and engine starting platform. Credit: The Shipbuilder |
Of course, if remembered at all, Laconia's one minor claim to fame is that she was first major North Atlantic liner to be fitted with "Frahm Anti-Rolling Tanks". These tanks had, in fact, already been installed in the 8,100 grt HAPAG liners Ypiranga and Corcovado of 1908 and claimed to be successful. Although in their case, it was a rather crude retrofit with the apparatus installed on deck. In the end, they were installed in a more than a million tons of German shipping not to mention Aquitania. Experience, however, found that they were effective in ships of small metacentric height and in seas with a regular wave pattern, reducing roll by as much as 50 per cent. Of course, the modern ocean liner did not have a low metacentric height and "confused" is an oft used adjective for North Atlantic seas in which the tanks were found to be largely ineffective.
 |
| The marvel of the Frahm anti-rolling tanks as illustrated in The Shipbuilder. |
These partially filled tanks consist of two wing tanks connected at the bottom by a substantial crossover duct. The air columns above the liquid in the two tanks are also connected by a duct. As in the free surface tanks, as the ship begins to roll the fluid flows from wing tank to wing tank causing a time varying roll moment to the ship and with careful design this roll moment is of correct phasing to reduce the roll motion of the ship. They do not restrict fore and aft passage as space above and below the water-crossover duct is available for other purposes. In Laconia, these tanks were fitted in the lower portion of the forward cross bunker and measured 39 ft. in length but each subdivided into two compartments of 23 ft. and 15 ft. so both or one or the other could be utilised depending on conditions.
Regardless of their true effectiveness, they gave good copy and the attendant publicity over their fitting in a "real" liner, a Cunarder no less, was boundless. In this regard, they were well worth expense and effort.
 |
| Franconia's bridge. Credit: Boston Globe, 16 November 1913 |
R.M.S. FRANCONIA General Arrangement & Deck Plans
from The Shipbuilder March 1911
courtesy William T. Tilley
(LEFT CLICK on image to view full size scan)
 |
| General Profile & Rigging Plan |
 |
| House Tops & Sun Deck |
 |
| A Deck |
 |
| B Deck |
 |
| C Deck |
 |
| D Deck |
 |
| E Deck |
 |
| F Deck |
 |
| G Deck |
 |
| Brochure for Franconia/Laconia, c. 1912. Credit: Gjenvick-Gjonvik Archives. |
The whole of the internal fittings are of the most luxurious character. — Daily Telegraph (London)
Represents the latest development in ocean travel luxury. — The Globe (London)
Graceful outside, Franconia and Laconia were both elegant and progressive inside, reflecting an era when Cunarders helped to define ocean liner interiors, something they would not do again until Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1969. Long before QE2 and indeed Caronia of 1949, they were Cunard's and the world's first truly "dual purpose" ocean liners, their design and decor reflecting the requirements of both the North Atlantic and Mediterranean routes, but also the nascent cruising trade. For the first time, a conscious effort was made to minimize the traditional class distinctions... in "saloon" accommodation, at least... so that First Class and Second Class public rooms could be merged, decoratively and logistically, into a single saloon class.
Following the bold decision to employ respected architects James Millar to design the interiors of Lusitania and Harold Peto those of Mauretania, Cunard turned to Messrs. Willink & Thicknesse of Liverpool (1884-1920) for the interiors of Franconia and Laconia. Founded by William Edward Willink (1856-1924) and Philip Coldwell Thicknesse (1860-1920), the Liverpool based firm enriched the city with some of its most cherished edifices. With Franconia, their first major liner commission, they went on to be one of the first architects specialising in shipboard décor and design. Their masterpiece, however, was on land and remains one of Liverpool's "Three Graces": The Cunard Building at Pier Head, for which they were awarded the contract after the Franconia/Laconia project. The execution of the interiors in First and Second Class and manufacture of all the furnishings and furniture was entrusted to the Newcastle firm of Robson & Sons, Ltd.
 |
| The firm of Willink & Thicknesse, after designing the interiors of Franconia and Laconia, were commissioned to design the Cunard Building at Pier Head, Liverpool (1918), one of Liverpool's famous "Three Graces". Credit: University of Liverpool. |
The design credo for the interiors embraced simplicity and unity, two qualities hitherto largely lacking in the class defined and decorative pastiche of most liner interiors. The simplicity mirrored the New England Calvinist sensibilities of their destination and many of their passengers, indeed Boston was Cunard's best "second cabin" market. It also further defined these ships as working intermediates of honest virtues and quiet quality as well as suiting the comparative small size of the public spaces compared to those found on the "Monster Steamers", Edwardian for superliners. The unity reflected the need to lessen the distinctions of class when they were sent cruising, although their regular Mediterranean voyages were still class segregated. As such, Franconia and Laconia were the first Cunarders to take a cue from the novel concept of one-class "Cabin Boat" that Cie. Gle. Transatlantique had introduced with Chicago (1908) and Rochambeau of 1911.
 |
| A vision of Edwardian Elegance: rendering for the First Class Dining Saloon. Credit: The Shipbuilder |
Both objectives, as well as a clever nod to Colonial New England (as were their very names), were nicely served by the adoption of Georgian (known in North America as "colonial") décor) and the classic lines of Adam furnishings through the public rooms. This employed white as both as a unifying neutral colour and a foil against which the decorative non architecture elements of furniture and hangings were set. White decorative plaster ceilings and white enamelled bulkheads, stair towers and passageways formed the basis for their interiors as they did in Lusitania while rich wood paneling, where it was employed, was all the more effective in contrast. Even the deck coverings were unusual, eschewing the heavy and stuffy quality of dark and heavily patterned carpeting and rugs for the clean elements of bold patterned early linoleum and tile flooring that also suited the warmer climes of their alternate Mediterranean winter deployment.
Franconia introduced several novelties, as least as far as Cunarders were concerned, including the provision of a fully fitted Gymnasium between the Smoking Room and the Lounge, washbasins in the saloon cabins with running water instead of the old-fashioned porcelain wash bowls supplied with cold water gravity fed tank and freestanding armchairs in the First Class Dining Saloon rather than the traditional bolted to the deck swivel chairs.
 |
| First Class A Deck Foyer and Main Staircase. Credit: The Shipbuilder |
First Class passengers were introduced to the ships by way of the main stairway which extended from A to D Decks with spacious foyers at each level and topped by a skylight on the A Deck level and with large windows looking out to the promenade deck. The railings were decoratively rendered in black wrought iron with polished mahogany caps, contrasted against the white enamelled bulkheads and simply decorated white plaster ceilings. The decking was Gobelin blue and ivory rubber and wicker chairs were found in the foyers.
 |
| A Deck Passageway. Credit: Gjenvick-Gjonvik Archives |
The Entrance Hall of both ships, with its quiet, refined dignity, at once gives the key-note to the whole theme of decoration. The walls, with their broad panels and delicate moulding, cased stanchions with fluted columns and carved caps, are most imposing, while the large windows of the deck house, the light from which is augmented by the oval dome, give a charmingly bright and cheerful appearance. The staircase is in mahogany, with a wrought iron balustrade. The deck is covered with rubber cork tiling, Gobelin blue and ivory, in large panels, and comfortable wicker furniture is provided at convenient points. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
 |
| First Class Library and Writing Room. Credit: Gjenvick-Gjonvik Archives. |
Forward of the Entrance Hall was the large Library and Writing Room, emulating the spacious such rooms found in Mauretania and Lusitania and unique for intermediate liners. These were, in fact, designed as "retiring rooms" for ladies after dinner as well. The decorate scheme was French grey and rose with an Adam fireplace and Sheraton style furniture. These rooms were duplicated in size and general position on all of the inter-war Cunard-Anchor intermediates.
 |
| First Class Library & Writing Room showing the fireplace and the lovely ornamented plaster ceilings throughout the public areas. Credit: Gkenvik-Gjonvik Archives |
At the forward end of the room is a beautiful reproduction of an old Adam's chimney piece. The ceiling is an excellent example of the plaster work of the period, and the electric lights have been arranged so as to diffuse the light evenly over the whole room. The general colour scheme is vieux rose and French grey. The furniture, copied from old Sheraton models, is in mahogany, inlaid with box, the cane seats and backs of the settees and chairs being fitted with loose cushions covered with rose velvet. A large number of convenient writing tables and chairs have been supplied, and last, though not least, an excellent library consisting of nearly one thousand volumes. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
 |
| First Class Lounge. Credit: Gjenvick-Gjonvik Archives. |
Amidships was the impressive Lounge with its central dome and arched dormer windows, panelled in a rich mahogany contrasting with the white painted dome and plaster ceilings. Large windows directly overlooked the Boat Deck promenade and with no lifeboats amidships to spoil the view, afforded a direct ocean outlook. Measuring 56 ft. long and 40 ft. wide, the Lounge sides extended slightly onto the Boat Deck. There was full carpeting underfoot, but that in the central portion could be removed to reveal a beautiful dance floor of Austrian oak parquetry.
 |
| First Class Lounge. Credit: The Shipbuilder |
The Lounge, approached by broad corridors, is a large, lofty room, 56 ft. long by 42 ft. wide.The walls are panelled with St. Domingo mahogany, relieved with columns and pilasters. At the forward end is the fireplace, over which is a framed print of Mrs. Robinson, after Romney. The room is well lighted with large fenestrated windows, draped with green juopé embroidered curtains.The floor is covered with handsome rugs patterned from old Persian carpets. The centre of the room is fitted with comfortable settees and easy chairs, while around the sides are spring settees, upholstered with cream and green tapestry. The ceiling is delicately modelled plaster, with semi-circular dormer windows, which shed a pleasant light. To meet the growing demand for dances at sea the floor of this room has been specially levelled and laid with polished Austrian oak. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
A "first" for a Cunarder was the gymnasium which was sited starboardside between the lounge and the smoking room and as such was available for ladies or gentlemen although publicity photos enforced the notion this was a mostly male enclave. With the latest in Edwardian Era "apparatus", it was second only to Laconia's Frahm anti-rolling tanks in the publicised features of these ships.
 |
| Proof that much has changed since 1911, not the least of which being athletic attire although the gym instructor has at least dressed for the job. Credit: Getty Images. |
Situated between the Lounge and Smoking Room is the Gymnasium, a good-sized, lofty and light room, which will undoubtedly appeal to those seeking amusement and exercise. It is fitted with the most approved health-giving and physical culture appliances. The fittings include electrically driven riding horses, for ladies or gentlemen, vibratory machine for massage treatment of the body, rowing machines, cycling machines, chest developers, wall bars, horizontal bars, vaulting bar, trapeze, hand rings, ground bars, boxing gloves, fencing sabres, foils, single sticks, dumb bells, Indian clubs, and punching balls. For those who prefer deck games in the open, quoits, tennis and golf are provided. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
 |
| First Class Smoking Room, looking aft to the bow window which overlooked the veranda café. Credit: Gjebvick-Gjonvik Archives. |
The Smoking Room was one of the true hallmarks of these ships and no Cunarder before or since had better with beautifully veined sycamore panelling, inlaid with holly and mahogany, cosy banquette seating along the sides and just the right "clubby" leather armchairs in the centre portion under a handsomely arched skylight. "Quite a new and happy idea is the construction of an elliptical retreat at the after end, enabling passengers to obtain an uninterrupted view over the stern."
 |
| First Class Smoking Room looking forward to the fireplace and showing the wonderful raised centre dome and dormer windows. Credit: Gjenvick-Gjonvik Archives. |
A distinct departure has been made in the decoration of the First Class Smoking Rooms, which habitués will at once appreciate. The lighting is obtained by large fenestrated windows at the sides, and dormer windows in the roof. The walls are panelled with specially imported harewood. The veneer embodies curiously interesting figuring, which has been further embellished with delicate inlaid ornament. At the after end of the rooms is a large elliptical bay window overlooking the Verandah Cafe, and the famous 'Cunard Atlantic Highway.'A series of columns and arcades tend to break up the sides of the rooms into bays, in which are fitted tables and comfortable spring settees upholstered in an old red tapestry. In the centre a large number of tables and chairs are arranged, while writing accommodation is also provided. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
 |
| First Class Veranda Café showing the bow window of the adjoining Smoking Room. Credit: Gjenvick-Gjonvik Archives. |
They wouldn't have been "proper" Edwardian Liners without a veranda café and like so much else, Franconia and Laconia's were as nice as any fitted. A feature was yet another skylight and the large side windows which fairly flooded the space with natural light. The ample wicker furnishings were of an especially pleasing design and there was rush matting underfoot.
 |
| First Class Veranda Café. The ivy is clearly a "work in progress". Credit: The Shipbuilder |
The Verandah Cafe, which has proved such an attraction upon the Lusitania and Mauretania, was introduced into the Boston service for the first time through the Franconia, and of course this popular innovation is maintained on the Laconia. It has proved one of the most attractive resorts on the ship, and, commanding as it does a splendid view of the Cunard Highway, is a popular rendezvous for passengers. It is situated at the after end of " A" Deck, well sheltered from the wind. The walls have been treated to represent stone stucco and covered with green trellis, upon which ivy has been trained, while palms and other plants are arranged in jardinieres. The furniture consists of loose wicker settees, arm chairs and tables. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
 |
| First Class Dining Saloon. Credit: The Shipbuilder |
The Dining Saloon was one of showcases of these ships and the only room that differed between the two vessels. The main saloon was 64 ft. long and extended the full width (72 ft.) of the ship and had a two-deck-high centre section. For the first time in a Cunarder, the saloon was set up "restaurant" fashion, seating 200 at some 40 standalone tables for two, four, six and eight with free standing armchairs. Additionally, the large room was broken up into smaller alcoves along the sides so that the effect was totally different from the old rows of "mess" tables with closely set bolted to the deck swivel chairs that characterised shipboard dining saloons since Britannia. Indeed, these were among the most attractive dining saloons afloat at the time with a remarkable amount of space between tables, attractive individual table lamps and especially handsomely designed chairs.
 |
| First Class Dining Saloon, from B Deck, showing the impressive centre well and the splendidly rendered plaster ceiling. The design of the railing mimics that of the central staircase. Credit: The Shipbuilder. |
The First Class Dining Saloons are magnificent and spacious apartments. The floor is covered with rubber-cork tiling, laid out in large panels to give the effect of a marble floor, so often found in houses of this period.The ceiling, reproduced from some of the original Adam's models, together with the walls, is painted ivory-white, relieved by Gobelin blue and beige coverings and hangings. The various bays around the rooms are set out with small tables for two, and large oval tables for eight in the centre—altogether, there are over forty. There are four-legged arm chairs, which in ordinary weather will be loose, but they can be fastened to the deck should necessity arise. To facilitate the serving of meals, the old-fashioned sideboards have been replaced by service tables at various points. The upper portion of the Dining Saloons are surrounded by a balcony of wrought iron, the ceiling being executed in delicately modelled plaster. At the after end of each balcony is the minstrels' gallery. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
 |
| In Franconia only was the children's dining room, located just forward of the main saloon on the starboardside. Credit: The Shipbuilder. |
The Laconia differed from her sister in furthering the concept of unifying the First and Second Class as well as expanding the capacity of the latter's dining facilities. Boston, once again, had shown its strength in Second Class traffic and with the interchangeability of cabins between First and Second not facilitated as much as it could be owing to the seating limitations of the Second Class Dining Saloon, it was decided that the best solution was to both "join" the First and Second Class dining facilities with three private dining areas on the starboardside which could be used as required for either class on crossings or opened up, merge the two rooms when cruising.
 |
| Franconia's arrangement of the First (right) and Second Class (left) dining saloons, separated by the galley and showing the children's dining saloon on the starboardside forward. |
 |
| Laconia's arrangement showing the private dining rooms joining the First and Second Class dining saloons and the replacement of the children's dining room with six extra First Class cabins. The galley is also arranged differently and takes some of the Second Class Dining Saloon on the portside. |
 |
| B Deck Covered Promenade. This splendid deck offered an uninterrupted walk-around promenade. Note the small rectangular "coaming lights" directly below the main cabin window; this provided natural light and air to the inside First Class cabins directly below on C Deck forward. Credit: The Shipbuilder. |
 |
| First Class Boat (A) Deck. Another completely walkaround promenade: the large windows are to the Library and Writing Room and all the major public rooms had similar large windows out onto this deck which had 10 ft.-high-deck heads. And pre-Titanic, it was delightfully uncluttered! Credit: The Engineer, courtesy William T. Tilley. |
First Class accommodation comprised 250 berths (including optional upper berths) in cabins on B Deck (110 berths in all outside, save two, cabins and four cabins sharing a private room between them), C Deck forward (64 berths) and forward on D Deck. These were the first in a Cunarder to feature washbasins with running (cold) water. All had dressing tables and fitted wardrobes.
 |
| De luxe cabin with adjoining private bath on B Deck. Credit: Gjenvick-Gonvik Archives |
The State Rooms, situated upon "B," "C" and "D" decks, are replete with every modern convenience. They are large and commodious, fitted with wardrobes, dressing chest, and washstand with running water. Particular attention has been paid to the bedding, which is of the Marshall sanitary type. In addition to the ordinary state rooms, there are some en suite state rooms, with private bath rooms, and a large number of single berth rooms.The corridors are all covered with blue and white rubber-cork tiling. The bath and lavatory accommodation is of the most approved type. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
 |
| Standard two-berth cabin with settee. Credit: Gjenvick-Gonvick Archives |
 |
| Outside single cabin. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. |
In the Franconia and Laconia the requirements and comfort of Second Cabin passengers have received special attention. In modelling the part of these splendid new vessels reserved for them, nothing has been overlooked in the way of spaciousness of both the public and private rooms, and what is also very important, the ventilation arrangements ensure plenty of fresh air.
These were the first ships, certainly for Cunard, whose Second Class was the object of the most attention and improvement. This reflected the strength of the Boston market for this class as reflected in the 1909 carryings vs. the New York run:
route no. of crossings 1st 2nd 3rd
Boston 48 3,265 9,376 25,643
New York 133 25,966 27,601 62,429
This emphasis on Second Class also furthered the possible co-ordination of the two saloon classes and whilst First Class was impressive for intermediates, it was Second Class that showed the most improvements. For the first time, the basic decor and visual elements of First Class was a carried over to Second: the blue and white decking, the white enamel and the Georgian decor were the same, only in smaller, simpler fashion. Indeed, the Georgian style was ideal for this simplicity and, if anything, more authentic so rendered.
Moreover, the situation of the Second Class public rooms, whilst still traditionally aft in the vessel, was concentrated and flowed better into the First Class areas. In Laconia, this was taken a step further by physically joining the two dining saloons, separated by private dining areas which, when opened up, created one large combined space. Second Class public rooms extended aft of amidships right to the stern on Bridge Deck (C) with the dining saloon, foyer, drawing room and finally the smoking room in a rational progression, the later two rooms flanked by a wide covered promenade deck. The accommodation, too, was concentrated on most of Shelter Deck (D).
 |
| Second Class Drawing Room. Credit: The Shipbuilder |
The Drawing Room emulated the First Class Library and Writing Room, panelled in white enamelled pine, with a central raised ceiling and skylight and large windows facing out to the covered promenade deck. This was provided with a mix of upholstered banquette seating bays on the sides and writing decks in the centre portion. The space was pierced by an extraordinary number of pillars, however, reflecting perhaps Peskett's having to retrofit similar spaces in Lusitania to stiffen the structure and reduce vibration.
The Second Cabin Drawing Room on both ships is treated in a simple Adam's Colonial style, with white panels. The carpets and coverings are a " veiue rose," which gives a broad and cheerful aspect to the room. A series of bays are arranged furnished with comfortable upholstered seats. There are also writing tables and arm chairs, and an extensive library. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
 |
| Second Class Smoking Room. Credit: The Shipbuilder. |
Directly aft of the Drawing Room was the Smoking Room which, with its arched and skylighted centre portion and Circassian walnut and American oak panelling, was a most attractive room with a mix of tables and chairs in the centre and banquette seating on the sides.
The Second Cabin Smoking Room is at the after end of the vessels, and is always undoubtedly greatly appreciated by its users. The panelling is of a very fine figured walnut. The room is well lighted by a lantern light and also by square windows. A series of bays are arranged round the room, with settees upholstered in green moquette, which harmonises very well with the walnut woodwork. Comfortable chairs and tables are provided for card-players. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
 |
| Second Class Dining Saloon. Credit: Gjenvick-Gjonvik Archives. |
The decoration in the Second Cabin Dining Rooms is very similar in character to that of the First Class, though, of course, not quite so elaborate. The ceilings have been levelled down so as to obtain a wide and broad effect. The bulkheads are treated with panelling, and the pilasters painted white. The decks are covered with rubber-cork tiling arranged in broad, strong panels, which give a very similar appearance to the tiling of the First Class Saloons. Service tables are arranged at various advantageous points in the rooms with a view to facilitating the service, and comfortable revolving chairs have been provided for the passengers. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
 |
| Second Class Dining Saloon. Credit: The Shipbuilder. |
Second Class had excellent open and covered deck spaces with open deck after of the First Class accommodation on Promenade (B) Deck and covered promenades on the sides of its public rooms on Bridge (C) Deck.
 |
| Second Class Promenade Deck. Just look at the camber of the deck overhead! Credit: Gjenvick-Gjonvik Archives |
Not the least of the attractions of the Second Cabin is the very adequate deck space provided. There is a lengthy covered-in promenade, while in addition there is also a large open space. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
 |
| Second Class passengers enjoy a tug-of-war competition on their open deck space in Franconia, June 1912 during a call at Queenstown. Note the skylight boxes for the Second Class Drawing Room and Smoking Room. Credit: Topical Photograph, Getty Images. |
The Second Class accommodation, for a total of 450, was in mostly four-berth cabins, situated on most of Shelter (D) Deck. These were very well fitted for this era, indeed the first accommodation for this class to have washbasins with running water.
 |
| Second Class cabin. Credit: Gjenvick-Gjonvik Archive |
The Staterooms are fitted in a somewhat similar manner to the First Class, and are arranged in two, three and four-berthed rooms. Good wardrobe accommodation, with the necessary toilet requisites, will be found in each Stateroom, while another point of considerable importance is the provision of excellent ventilation. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
The accommodations for third class passengers are spacious and airy and fitted with all those conveniences essential to the comfort and enjoyment of travelers and immigrants. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
Third Class remained the bread and butter trade of these ships as it indeed was every single trans-Atlantic liner of era. And if the Boston route was proportionally Cunard's best Second Class market, its Third Class trade was even more impressive. In 1909 44 crossings to/from Boston attracted 25,643 fares compared to 133 to New York carrying a total of 62,429. The Hub was epicenter of the insatiable, ceaseless ebb and flow of the Irish to and from America, a market that was so mature as to be truly bi-directional, even so it predominately westbound... 19,120 vs. 6,523 eastbound.
So it was that, in their own fashion, Franconia and Laconia introduced a higher standard of Third Class accommodation that, of course, seems sparse and utilitarian even harsh by today's standards but was already leagues better than the classic steerage at the turn of the century. Moreover, it was outstanding in comparison with its Italian competition on the Mediterranean run and all accommodation was in private cabins with no "open berth" dormitories and no more than six-berths. There was, however, still rather a high proportion of "portable" cabin accommodation. Of the total 1,944 Third Class berths, 808 were in "portable" cabins and 1,136 in permanent cabins.
 |
| Third Class Ladies Room. Hopefully, the photographer's wife got all her potted plants returned after the photo shoot. Credit: Gjenvick-Gjonvik Archives. |
Third Class was afforded three public rooms: a large Social Room (extending the full width of the vessel) forward on Shelter (D) Deck, a Smoking Room portside aft on Upper (E) Deck and a Ladies Room starboardside aft on the same deck.
On " D " Deck is the Social Hall, which is one of the new features introduced on the Franconia. It is a bright and cheerful room.The other public rooms on the steamers are the Smoking Room and Ladies' Room. Both these are situated on "E" Deck, and are comfortably furnished and well-lighted by several port holes. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
 |
| Third Class Dining Saloon (one of two). Credit: Gjenvick-Gjonvik Archives |
There were two large Dining Saloons for Third Class on Main (F) Deck, one forward built around the forward funnel casing and other aft, around the engine hatch.
The principal of the public rooms is the Dining Saloon, which is fitted with revolving chairs and situated amidships on " F deck. This is an exceedingly spacious and well-lighted apartment, and extends the whole width of the ship. There are also two smaller Dining Rooms on each ship adjoining the main Saloon. These rooms are conveniently situated near the Third Class kitchen, which is unusually large, and is probably the largest afloat for Third Class passengers. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
Third Class accommodation was concentrated on three decks. On D Deck forward were four-berth and a few two-berth cabins for 250 and 174 berths amidships and 114 aft on E Deck. On F Deck were blocks of accommodation for 180, 262 and 156 passengers in permanent cabins whilst a further 96, 214 and 142 could be berthed in "portable" cabins. G Deck had only portable accommodation in blocks of 104, 148 and 104 berths.
 | |
| Third Class permanent four-berth cabin. Credit: Gjenvick-Gjonvik Archives. |
In the construction of the Franconia and Laconia the comfort of the Third Class passenger has not by any means been overlooked; in fact, special attention has been paid to this department of the ships. The Third Class accommodation no longer consists of what might be called large dormitories.Passengers are now allotted enclosed cabins with berths of modern type for two or four persons, while there are also a number of six-berthed rooms for the use of families. These cabins are all lighted by electricity, and the light can be switched on or off as required by the occupants. In addition to a washstand the rooms are also provided with a mirror, towels, and a plentiful supply of other toilet requisites. (Cunard brochure, c. 1912)
Third Class deck space was found forward on Bridge (C) Deck (the entire fore deck in deck) while covered promenade space was aft on Shelter (D) Deck.
 |
| Franconia's Third Class open deck space during a call at Queenstown, June 1912. Note the cradle for the forward mast booms. Credit: Topical photograph, Getty Images. |
Not the least of the Franconia and Laconia's attractions for Third Class passengers are the spacious Promenade Decks; indeed, the space allotted for passengers in this class is particularly liberal. There is an Open Promenade on "C" Deck and a large Covered Promenade situated on " D Deck Both Promenades are within easy access of the other portions of the Third Class accommodation.
As were all British passenger ships of their era, the lifesaving equipment of Franconia and Laconia elicited little interest, indeed there is no mention whatsoever of any of it in the lavish description of the vessels in The Shipbuilder and other similar publications. In all, she had 16 lifeboats which appear to be the standard, classic wood clinker-built boats of 30 ft. x 9 ft. with a 65-person capacity, carried in classic radial davits. Six of these were on each side of Boat (A) Deck with two forward and four aft affording a lovely clear open promenade in between as well as a sea view from the big side windows of the lounge. Another four boats, two on each side, were aft on Promenade (B) Deck. This gave a rough capacity of 780 souls and for ships which routinely carried 1,400-2,100 passengers and not even factoring in the 450 officers and crew, the deficiency is obvious. And one shared by all British liners of the period adhering to the Board of Trade regulations which based the statutory number of boats on the tonnage of the vessel rather the number of souls aboard.
 |
| Laconia post-Titanic showing collapsible boats under each regular lifeboat. Credit: William B. Taylor photograph, Mariners' Museum. |
After the Titanic disaster, both ships carried collapsible ("decked") boats under each regular lifeboat. In 1913 that they were refitted with a raised deck aft on Promenade (B) Deck on which were resited the original aft most pair of boats in radial davits with four additional decked boats carried inboard. This also gave Second Class a short section of covered promenade space. Additionally, up forward, the Third Class entrance at the base of the mainmast was similar decked over to give room for one pair of nested collapsibles at radial davits on each side.
 |
| Franconia post 1913 showing the new raised structure aft carrying additional collapsibles. Note also that the ventilator cowls have been painted buff. |
Original lifeboat capacity nothwithstanding, Franconia and Laconia were "perfect" ships not just for their handsome lines and innovative and pleasant interiors but forever so in that they were so short-lived, they did not last long enough to show any deficiencies or to be "improved" to correct them. The one attribute they lacked was longevity.
Apogee. The North Atlantic Ferry, that inspiration of Samuel Cunard, achieved its high water mark when Franconia and Laconia came on the scene. Conceived during the nadir of 1908 when 667,646 crossed the Atlantic, they were at their prime when an astounding 1,858,605 did so in 1913. When ordered in 1909, Cunard carried 161,314 passengers, by 1912 it was 240,374. Franconia and Laconia, contracted in bad times, were in service for the good ones. Atlantic competition reached its climax, not just on the express New York routes which nurtured icons like Olympic, Imperator and France, but on the intermediate services with new ships like Rochambeau and Cleveland/Cincinnati. Indeed, Cunard's Boston and Mediterranean routes combined carried 43 per cent of their total passengers in 1912.
This, too, was the heyday of trans-Atlantic society in the Edwardian Era: saloon, second cabin and steerage, stokers and steamer trunks, smoking rooms and salons. The otherwise routine comings and goings of Franconia and Laconia are themselves evocative of an era at its very height and one supremely shaken by one tragic event that presaged its rather abrupt end.
Late, Franconia docked at East Boston on 10 April 1912 in the late afternoon with 81 First, 501 Second and 1,483 Third Class passengers. Owing to the hour, only her saloon passengers were cleared and disembarked that same day and the Third Class the following morning. The late arrival was attributed to snow squalls on the 9th and she had to slow down. The passage from Daunts Rock to Boston Lightship was seven days, six hours and 56 minutes at an average of 15.61 knots.
Of course, her Boston turnaround coincided with the foundering of White Star Line's R.M.S. Titanic at 2:20 a.m. 15 April 1912. Franconia sailed from Boston the next day, on schedule, at 9:00 a.m. with 64 First, 103 Second and 315 Third Class as reported by the Boston Globe that day:
FRANCONIA SAILS
Some of the Passengers a Little Nervous, but the Big Steamship Leaves on Time
Many of the passengers on the Cunard steamship Franconia were extremely nervous when the big ship pulled out of from her berth at East Boston this morning and started on her passage to Queenstown and Liverpool [there was no call at Fishguard on this one crossing], but whatever the feelings of the voyagers were they were all on board when the steamer sailed. There only one cancellation, and that was Charles R. Saunders of Boston, who died this morning."
Among her passengers was the newspaper's correspondent Winfield M. Thompson who came up with one of the big scoops of the story when he and Franconia's wireless operator exchanged messages with the Cunarder Carpathia en route to New York with the survivors. The morning of the 17th Thompson reported the first accurate number of survivors actually aboard which was considerably fewer than that originally intimated by White Star Line.
 |
| Boston Globe reporter Winfield M. Thompson, aboard Franconia, scooped the world with his wireless messages relayed from Carpathia to Franconia re. the exact number of Titanic survivors she had aboard. Credit: Boston Globe, 17-18 April 1912. |
The same day Franconia left Boston, her sister ship sailed from Liverpool at 5:00 p.m. on 16 April and after calling at Queenstown at 11:00 a.m. the next morning had 52 First, 372 Second and 1,299 Third Class passengers. "After an uneventful passage, during which no signs of wreckage or bodies of the victims of the unfortunate steamship Titanic were encountered" (Boston Globe), Laconia docked at Boston at 7:00 a.m. 25 April 1912. Capt. Irvine took southerly course to avoid icebergs and floe ice. But still sighted "one big berg, possibly the one which accomplished the wreck of the Titanic." Laconia was late in arriving due to taking a southerly course "but the delay in reaching port was not minded by the passengers, for there was a happy company aboard.'
Of course, it was immediately apparent that, like Titanic and indeed all British registered vessels of 10,000 tons and over, the existing Board of Trade regulations stipulating that 16 lifeboats be carried, Franconia and Laconia had before the tragedy, and indeed their first crossings afterwards, wholly insufficient lifesaving capacity for the numbers of passengers carried.
On 23 April 1912 Charles Stewart, the manager of Cunard's Boston office, issued a statement:
With reference to the statement issued yesterday by our New York office as to the steps that are being taken by Cunard Line to further insure the safety of their passengers at sea, it will be doubtless interest the public to know that we are arranging to equip the Laconia, on her arrival at Boston this week, with additional life rafts or boats, should it be found her present equipment is not sufficient to take care of all on board.
We might further mention that we received a cable from our home office Monday, April 15th, to instruct the captain of the Franconia sailing from Boston, April 16th, to return by the southerly track, so that she was the first steamer to take that course.
Since then our captain have been instructed to take an even more southerly route.
Laconia sailed from Boston for Queenstown, Fishguard and Liverpool on 30 April 1912 with 171 First, 130 Second and 300 Third Class passengers. Before she sailed additional lifesaving equipment was put aboard, three life rafts capable of accommodating 100 people being lashed to the upper boat deck. "The Laconia went out with room in her boats and on rafts for every passenger on board as well for the members of the crew." (Boston Globe).
Docking at Boston on 21 May 1912 with 77 First, 302 Second an 793 Third Class passengers, Laconia had, sadly, two deaths during the otherwise unremarkable crossing including that of a four-year-old child. The saloon passenger wrote a testimonial praising Cunard for their Boston service as well lauding the "extensive lifesaving equipment on the vessel and the care with which she was navigated."
 |
| Franconia at Queenstown, June 1912. Credit: Topical photo, Getty Images. |
Franconia embarked a substantial list of 297 First, 399 Second and 884 Third Class before sailing from Boston on 11 June 1912. More impressive and, in fact, a eastbound record was Laconia's 394 in First Class as well as 288 Second and 738 Third, she departed with on 25 June. Four days later, she passed a dangerous and large piece of debris, the side or deck of a large schooner.
Laconia's next crossing to Boston was notable in being the first liner to take the northern track since the sinking of Titanic. On 15 July 1912, three months exactly after the disaster, she passed, almost on the spot where Titanic sank, an enormous ice berg measuring 400 ft. long and 100 ft. high. Later dense fog retarded her progress and Laconia did not dock at Boston until the 17th where she landed 133 First, 233 Second and 501 Third Class passengers. "The passage was rather disagreeable and several times the engines were run at reduced speed on account of fog. The time of the passage from Daunts Rock to the light was seven days seven hours and eight minutes." (Boston Globe). Sailing for Queenstown, Fishguard and Liverpool on 23 July, Laconia numbered among her 120 First, 276 Second and 388 Third Class passengers was Lawrence Beesley of London, Titanic survivor, who had written the first book on the disaster and spent the three months on the lecture circuit in America and Canada.
 |
| Franconia sails from Boston on 9 July 1912 with a "vacation crowd" of 294 First, 384 Second and 649 Third Class passengers including Rose Pitonof who was sailing to England with the intention of swimming the English Channel. Credit: Boston Globe, 10 July 1912. |
Despite heavy of the coast which made her reduce speed for the last 15 hours of the passage, Franconia arrived at Boston at 2:15 p.m. on 31 July 1912 after what the Boston Globe called "a splendid run" from Daunts Rock to Boston Lightship of 7 days 7 hours 7 minutes nonetheless and landed 195 First, 452 Second and 529 Third Class passengers. Capt. Smith was reported to have been almost constantly on the bridge for 15 hours as he guided his charge through the fog. The inbound 1,600-ton cargo included 1,100 tons of wool and cotton.
The crew of the Cunard steamship Franconia was out on lifeboat drill today. Half a dozen boats were lowered from the davits and were rowed about the harbor for over an hour. The work of clearing and lowering them from the high boat deck was performed quickly and the officers and men showed unusual skill in handling the boats in the water. It is planned to have daily boat drills while the steamer is in port.
Boston Globe, 1 August 1912.
Having accomplished the fastest crossing of her career to date and of the season on the Boston route, Laconia tied up at her East Boston pier on 14 August 1912 with 164 First, 483 Second and 628 Third Class. Her time for the passage from Daunts Rock to Boston Lightship was seven days, two hours and 17 minutes, averaging 16.43 knots. The weather during the crossing was described as ideal except for fog for the final 24 hours. An outbreak of rat spread plague in Liverpool meant that all arriving ships from the port had to be thoroughly fumigated. "The work fumigating the Cunard steamer Laconia began yesterday afternoon and will be not be finished until this afternoon. Pots of sulphur were placed in the hold and ignited after the compartments were tightly closed." (Boston Globe, 17 August 1912).
 |
| "Snaps" taken aboard Laconia on a 1912 crossing from Boston showing her expansive midships sports deck and the raised clerestory arched windows to the lounge below. Credit: eBay auction photos. |
Laconia left for Liverpool at 3:30 p.m. on 20 August 1912 with a light list of 73 First, 135 Second and 253 Third Class. Among her passengers was Captain John Scott who had brought over the old convict ship Success (b. 1840) on her North American tour as a museum ship and now retired from the sea after half a century was returning to England and unable to secure passage in a sailing ship, was making his very first voyage in a steamship. In fact, Success was already a familiar sight to Laconia's sister ship and in the 66 days it took the venerable old sailing ship to sail from Queenstown to New York, Franconia had passed her no fewer than five times in different trips between Liverpool and Boston.
After Capt. Irvine of Laconia reported that the water was not as deep in front of the Cunard Piers 2 and 5, East Boston, on the last call there when berthing the ship stirred up considerable mud, the Port Directors of Boston embarked on a dredging operation to remove about 25,000 cu. yards of material to give an even depth of 27 ft. below mean low water in front of the piers.
 |
| Some of the prominent passengers arriving at Boston in Franconia on 28 August 1912 on her best patronised sailing that season. Credit: Boston Globe, 28 August 1912. |
Franconia, which left Liverpool on 20 August 1912 and Queenstown the following day, had a typically good late summer westbound list of 320 First, 350 Second and 1,083 Third Class. Indeed, the total of 1,758 was the largest of the whole season. And it was record for baggage, too, and when Franconia came along her East Boston pier at 11:00 a.m. on the 28th, there was estimated to be 3,000 pieces of it, stacked five-feet-high along the entire length of the Promenade Deck, 2,000 of it belonging to First Class passengers, and requiring a contingent of nearly 100 customs agents to examine it all. As reported by the Boston Globe, "For the first time aboard the Franconia a daily paper was published this trip, with Purser Moore as editor-in-chief. The paper was a 12-page one, and a fine example of journalist art. News was secured each day by wireless from land and from passing ships." Her return crossing, commencing 3 September was lightly filled with 58 First, 109 Second and 202 Third Class passengers and a small cargo.
11 September 1912 was a record setting day for the Port of Boston when Laconia, from Liverpool and Queenstown with 377 First, 343 Second and 1,401 Third Class and the White Star liner Cretic, from the Mediterranean, with 230 First, 60 Second and 1,712 Third Class, docked at the same time. The total of some 4,100 passengers was most to arrive at the port in one day. Laconia, alone, set a new record for saloon passengers arriving at Boston.
Steaming proudly up Broad Sound, the Laconia yesterday afternoon chased the liner Cretic into the harbor. The Laconia made a new record for the number of saloon passengers coming into Boston Harbor in one ship; she brought 377 in her first cabin, 343 in the second cabin and 1,402 in the steerage, making 2,123 altogether. She was in on schedule time, in spite of unpleasant weather, and the passengers were full of praise for Capt. Irvine for his consideration of their comfort during the days of southerly winds. (Boston Globe, 12 September 1912).
Her Liverpool-bound crossing, beginning 17 September 1912, was rather less subscribed with 63 First, 77 Second and 222 Third Class, but Laconia's holds were well filled with 48,000 bushels of wheat, 63,000 bushels of oats, 600 tons of provisions, 1,200 bales of cotton, 50 tons of flour, 1,000 barrels of apples and four refrigerators of frozen goods.
 |
| Credit: author's collection. |
Westbound arrivals continued to carry near record lists. Franconia came into Boston from Liverpool and Queenstown on 26 September 1912 with 308 First, 375 Second and 1,468 Third Class, the Boston globe remarking that "the proportion of the fair sex among the passengers was greater than ever before, fully four-fifths being women and girls." Capt. Smith reported "ideal weather" for all of the crossing save one day when a ferocious gale prevented passengers from venturing out on deck. The eastbound season was clearly winding down and when Franconia left Boston for Queenstown and Liverpool on 1 October she had but 386 passengers aboard but a record 18,000 barrels of apples in her holds.
After a "boisterous trip" and "bucking against gales and squalls all the way across the ocean," Laconia docked at Boston on 9 October 1912. She did the run from Daunts Rock to Boston Lightship in the smart time of 6 days, 23 hours and 35 minutes and landed 187 First, 555 Second and 1,282 Third Class passengers. The Boston Globe reported that "interest of the passengers was divided between politics [the Presidential election that November] and the World's Series, and several of the men returned purposely to attend some of the games between the Red Sox and the Giants." The Globe also noted that "The upper decks of the Laconia were bristling with lifeboats and liferafts. Eight new boats and 22 rafts had been added to her equipment before the left Liverpool and in order to make room for them considerable of the promenade space had to be sacrificed. There is now lifeboat or liferaft accommodation for every one carried by the liner."
 |
| R.M.S. Laconia, William B. Taylor photograph, Mariners' Museum. |
This would be Laconia's final visit to Boston for the year and upon returning to Liverpool, would sail to New York and take up her Mediterranean duties. Franconia would continue on the Boston run until mid November when, she too, went on the Mediterranean run. For the winter, Cunard restored Ivernia and Saxonia to the Boston run as well as Carpathia. Laconia left Boston on 15 October 1912 with 61 First, 79 Second and 222 Third Class and 16,385 barrels of apples in her holds and would not return to the city until the following May.
Even late in season, there were records yet to set. And on 23 October 1912 Franconia set a new mark for the largest Second Class compliment ever to land at Boston and also believed the largest carried from England to an American port: 635 in all in addition to 120 First and 1,288 Third. Heavy fog for two days off the Grand Banks forced her to steam at very slow speed "and for eight hours she made practically no progress." With 428 aboard, she sailed for home on the 29th.
The ships' dual deployment caused some labour friction when, before Laconia was to sail to New York to take up her Mediterranean duties, her firemen and trimmers demanded that they be paid the extra pay rate afforded them on the mail run to New York for the whole of the ship's winter deployment notwithstanding the Mediterranean route not being a mail service for Cunard. The line offered to pay the extra for the crossing to New York only and when this was refused, replacement stokers were hired and Laconia was able to sail on schedule. Stopping en route at Queenstown, Laconia disembarked 187 First, 535 Second and 986 Third Class at New York on 4 November 1912.
 |
| Even cruise advertising copy attained astonishingly urbane qualities c. 1912-13. |
Laconia was off on her first voyage of the winter season to the Mediterranean on 9 November 1912 with 284 First, 74 Second and 1,366 Third Class. This called at Funchal (17), Gibraltar (19), Algiers (21), Monaco (22), Naples (24) and Fiume (27). The homeward crossing followed a similar routing and leaving Gibraltar on 8 December, Laconia returned to New York on the 18th, landing 96 First, 221 Second and 1,479 Third Class.
On 12 November 1912 Franconia sailed from Liverpool, and from Queenstown on the 14th, for her last voyage to Boston until April and would join Laconia on the Mediterranean run. Despite a delay in departing Liverpool of some eight hours, Franconia had a very good run across and managed to arrive, almost on schedule, at Boston on the 20th with 89 First, 326 Second and 808 Third Class. She deadheaded to New York on the 22nd to prepare for her first voyage to the Mediterranean.
Franconia departed New York on 28 November 1912 with 240 First, 58 Second and 1,948 Third Class and she arrived at Gibraltar on 8 December, sailing from there at 3:00 p.m. and passing Laconia which would dock at Gibraltar two hours later en route to New York. Franconia continued to Algiers (10), Monaco (12), Naples (14), Trieste (16) and Fiume where she docked on the 18th. Her New York bound crossing got underway on the 21st, calling at Messina, Palermo, Naples (25) and Gibraltar (28th). She disembarked on New Years Day 1913 57 First, 147 Second and 411 Third Class.
In 1912, Franconia completed 18 crossings to/from Boston carrying 20,673 passengers, one crossing to New York carrying 616 and three to/from the Mediterranean carrying 3,913. Laconia completed 15 crossings to/from Boston carrying 15,856 passengers, two crossings to/from New York carrying 2,547 passengers and four crossings to/from the Mediterranean carrying 6,018.
In the middle of ferocious westerly gales with winds topping 72 mph and causing the lowest low tide in the port for the last 30 years, Laconia needed extra tugs and extra care in clearing her New York berth on 4 January 1913 for Mediterranean ports. Amerika had already grounded earlier in the day and RMSP's Arcadian and Clyde were delayed by the conditions. Successfully clearing the harbor, the Cunarder had 206 First, 237 Second and a record 2,136 Third Class, almost all of which was booked for Patras. En route she called at Algiers (14), Monaco (16), Naples (18), Patras (19-20), Alexandria (21), Fiume (25-26), Naples (29). Arriving back at New York on 10 February, she landed 42 First, 137 Second and 624 Third Class.
 |
| Patras, Greece, was the destination of most of Laconia's record 2,136 Third Class passengers on Laconia's maiden call there on 20 January 1913. One of the Sam J.M. Brown "Cunarder At..." series. Credit: author's collection. |
Franconia was off again to the Med at 3:00 p.m. on 18 January 1913 with a fine list of 438 First, 97 Second and 1,079 Third Class to Madeira (27), Gibraltar (28), Algiers, Monaco (2 February), Naples (3), Alexandria (6), Fiume (10-12), Trieste (13), Messina (15), Naples (17), Palermo, Gibraltar (20) and finally returning to New York on 2 March with 66 First, 526 Second and 526 Third Class.
In her short career, Laconia established one lasting (and almost wholly overlooked) distinction. She was the very first Cunard ship to perform a cruise in the modern parlance of such a voyage. And whilst Cunard advertised their Mediterranean service as a "cruise" for saloon passengers, it was still run as class divided round trans-Atlantic voyage and carried point-to-point passengers. On her departure from New York on 15 February 1913 Laconia changed that. Under charter to the company that practically invented modern cruising for the North American market, Frank C. Clark of New York, she performed not their first one-class cruise to the Mediterranean from New York, but their 15th and the first to employ a Cunarder. While the steamship lines largely ignored the cruise trade, they did not say no to the chartering of their ships to engage in it during the "off season" to what would remain their real trade for the next 45 years: point-to-point liner voyages.
 |
| First advertisement for Laconia's groundbreaking Mediterranean cruise for Frank C. Clark. Credit: The Berkshire Herald, 1 June 1912. |
Of course, Cunard had been the first to actually design ships... Franconia and Laconia... with such cruises in mind and finally, Laconia would be used to advantage as a one-class cruise ship. Announced in mid summer 1912, Laconia would replace the White Star's Arabic which had performed the annual Clark's 70-day Mediterranean cruise for the past five years.
 |
| Credit: New York Times, 14 February 1913. |
Mr. Clark reports that while Panama has been the loadstone to attract many who would other have gone to Egypt and the Riviera, and the Balkan War has had its terrors for some, still the list of passengers will be a representative one numbering quite 600 persons who come from 34 states and from Canada.
Fitchburg Sentinel, 11 February 1913
The actual passenger count was 599. Like many cruises of the era, this ended in Liverpool on 19 April 1913 where it was possible to make a same day transfer to the outbound Cunard express steamer to New York, in this case Mauretania or, if preferred, stayover in England and return on any later Cunard ship. For Laconia, it faciliated her annual refit before taking up her Boston duties.
 |
| Itinerary for Clark's 15th Anniversary Mediterranean Cruise in R.M.S. Laconia: 70 days, 14,936 miles. Credit: eBay auction photo |
The only incident during the cruise was at the beginning. On 23 February 1913, Laconia arrived at Funchal, Madeira and upon her scheduled departure the next day, there was an explosion in her forward high-pressure cylinder on her port engine. A wireless sent from the ship advised her engineers had disconnected it and she was able to proceed on her cruise, departing Funchal at 2:00 a.m. on the 25th for Cadiz.
Franconia had finished with her Mediterranean stint on arrival at New York on 2 March 1913 and her destination on sailing on the 12th was Fishguard and Liverpool, taking out 123 First, 154 Second and 316 Third Class passengers. Franconia made one roundtrip to New York before starting her Boston duties, sailing from Liverpool on the 29th, calling at Queenstown, and docking at New York on 6 April where she disembarked 125 First, 623 Second and 1,552 Third Class, the later proving the third best list in that class for New York run in 1913. She departed for Fishguard and Liverpool on the 12th with 129 First, 154 Second and 219 Third Class passengers.
 |
| Franconia, outbound in New York Harbor, date unknown. Credit: Mystic Seaport Museum. |
 |
| Announcing the 1913 Boston Season and also the introduction of the two new "A" class on the Montreal-London service. Credit: Boston Globe, 11 March 1913. |
Beginning her third Boston season, Franconia sailed from Liverpool on 29 April 1913 and did so in fine style, leaving Queenstown she had 2,479 aboard: 125 First, 642 Second and 1,712 Third Class. It was, in fact, the largest passenger list ever carried from England to Boston, exceeding the 2,381 landed on 30 August 1906 by Ivernia. Republic still held the all time record of passengers landed at the port: 2,509 on 11 March 1907, but from the Mediterranean. Fog delayed Franconia's docking by several hours and she came in late afternoon on 7 May. Among her passengers were over 800 Irish immigrants, the most to arrive in one vessel in many years and Mrs. Mary A. Despard, "said to be originator of the suffragette movement in England, and her niece, Miss Lucy Frank." Franconia's homeward crossing, with 111 First, 229 Second and 578 Third Class, commenced on the 11th.
 |
| Credit: Boston Globe, 8 May 1913. |
On her first sailing of the season to Boston, Laconia left Liverpool on 13 May 1913 and after calling at Queenstown on the 14th, she was carrying the largest number of passengers destined for Boston ever for the month of May: 106 First, 370 Second and 1,723 Third Class. Now commanded, in relief, by Commodore James C. Barr, she arrived late on 21 May after crossing in 7 days 6 hours and 37 minutes, averaging 15.75 knots. Among her passengers was L.B. Stoddart, one of the owners of the Red Cross Line who had gone to Britain to look into ordering a new steamer for his line, but "found that the cost of building had advanced so much that he did not place a contract." Her first eastbound for the season started right on time on the 27th to Queenstown, Fishguard and Liverpool with 149 First, 259 Second and 836 Third Class.
Making her first call at the Maine port, Franconia docked at Portland on 5 June 1913 to land 15 First, 132 Second and 891 Third Class, the last being British emigrants bound for northwestern Canada. The next day she arrived at Boston where her remaining 144 First, 368 Second and 972 Third Class passengers disembarked. Her homeward crossing got underway on the 11th, taking the largest eastbound list so far of the season: 277 First, 413 Second and 893 Third, seen off by some 5,000 on the pier."As the ship drew out of the slip the passengers crowded the rails and joined those on the wharf in cheering and waving handkerchiefs and hats. One woman in the first cabin had a large silk American flag, which she kept in action until the ship was well down the harbor." (Boston Globe, 11 June 1913). It proved to be a record eastbound crossing, maintaining a speed of 17.45 knots.
 |
| Credit: The Boston Globe, 11 June 1913. |
Following the lead of her sister, Laconia, too, called at Portland, Maine, en route to Boston, on 18 June 1913 to land 10 First, 66 Second and the last contingent of British immigrants for Canada, 163 in all, before proceeding to Boston where she landed 79 First, 292 Second and 1,452 Third Class. Capt. Irvine was back in command and when Laconia sailed for Liverpool on the 24th, she had the best list so far that season: 396 First, 299 Second and 649 Third Class.
Typical summer fogs off the coast spoiled what had been a fast passage for Franconia and instead of reaching Boston first thing in the morning on 2 July 1913, she did get into until 5:00 p.m. to disembark 111 First, 348 Second and 1,055 Third Class passengers. She was off again on the 8th with 269 First, 427 Second and 616 Third Class which the Boston Globe described as "one of the most picturesque sailings of the year. The big liner, with her scintillating in the bright sunlight, the handsome gowns of the women passengers, most of whom carried bouquets, and the great crowd on the pier, waving goodby as the steamer pulled out from her berth, combined to make the scene one long to be remembered." Her outbound cargo included 64,000 bushels of wheat, 500 tons of provisions, 160 hogheads of tobacco and 50 tons of flour.
Good lists and good passages continued to make the 1913 season a memorable one. The Boston Globe described Laconia's Boston arrival on 16 July: "Distinguished passengers and well known Bostonians stood on the bridge of the steamship Laconia, Capt. Irvine, from Liverpool, and waved to hosts of friends on the pier as the ship drew up to the East Boston dock, about 9.30 this morning, and completed her fastest run of the season from England. The official time was 7 days 1 hour and 554 minutes, from the departure on July 8. The speed was made possible by a succession of 'moderate breezes' which permitted open throttles for a large part of the way. Delays of about an hour and a half were attributed to mists and fogs. While the trip was uneventful, it was all the more pleasurable for the large number of guests aboard, of whom there were nearly 1,200-- 121 first cabin, 242 second cabin and 793 steerage." Laconia sailed for Queenstown and Liverpool at noon on the 22nd, taking 133 First, 216 Second and 349 Third and a heavy cargo including 62,000 bushels of wheat, 85,000 bushels of corn, 400 tons of provisions, 200 hogsheads of tobacco, 50 tons of hay and 40 tons of lumber.
 |
| Credit: Daily Mirror, 11 August 1913. |
Having made the fastest crossing of the season, Franconia at Boston on 30 July 1913 with 164 First, 464 Second and 878 Third Class. She averaged 16.60 knots across. On Sunday she paused over the spot where Titanic sank for a ceremony to honour the memory of journalist William Stead by his family who cast a wreath made from laurel leaves from his garden in London into sea whilst the ship's band played "Nearer My God to Thee".
 |
| Franconia's first lifeboat race in Boston Harbor received extensive coverage in the Boston Globe. |
Post Titanic, lifeboats-- their number, capacity and handling-- assumed new importance. During her turnaround at Boston in early August 1913, Cunard organised a lifeboat race for Franconia's crew
The first boat race by crews of the Cunard liner Franconia for the cup, presented by A.A. Booth, Esq., chairman of the Cunard Steamship Company, was rowed this morning under ideal conditions and in the presence of a great throng that lined the decks of the big liners, tugs and other craft. Occupying the vantage positions on docks were crowds of men, women and children.
Starting from a point off Governors Island, six board, manned by the firemen, stewards and seamen of the Franconia were rowed through an exciting mile and a half up to a point near the Cunard docks in East Boston, traffic along the East Boston water front was suspended and the Revere ferries, out of courtesy, held one of their boats at the East Boston side for three minutes to give the Cunarder's men every opportunity.
The winning boat carried a red flag, which meant that it was manned by the members of the crew of the Cunarder. It crossed the finish line, a mile and a half from the starting point in just 15 minutes. The crew of this boat had rowed against a tide that had a strength of 1½ knots an hour.
The boats taking part were life boats from the Franconia. They are 30 feet long, 9 foot beam and 3 ¾ depth. In time of need these are supposed to accommodate 60 passengers, they weigh about 3500 pounds each and carry eight men and a coxswain. D. McDonald, boatswain of the Franconia, was coxswain of the winning boat and the members of the crew were W. Bird, S. Burford, William Sherlock, Frank Armitage, Robert Piggott, A. Hews, M. Flynn and Thomas S. Evans. There were two boats of stewards and two boats of crews.
Each member received a silver medal and the winning crew also receives a beautiful silver cup, one of which has been placed aboard every Cunarder by Chairman Booth. The purpose of these races is to encourage work on the lifeboats.
The Boston Globe, 2 August 1913
Franconia and some very fit crew members sailed at noon on 5 August 1913 with 133 First, 157 Second and 319 Third Class passengers and a bill of lading including 70,000 bushels of wheat, 600 tons of provisions, 300 hogshead of tobacco and three refrigerators of cold storage goods.
That summer had fine weather and the most of the crossings enjoyed memorably calm seas and fair conditions. "After a passage with only one bad day in it," Laconia came alongside her East Boston pier at 9:30 a.m. 13 August 1913 with 157 First, 483 Second and 826 Third Class passengers. Her list on departure for Liverpool on the 19th was small with only 78 First, 104 Second and 245 Third Class but she took out a substantial cargo of 100,000 bushels of grain, 375 tons of provisions, 70 tons of flour, 90 tons of tobacco and 100 tons of steel.
Departing Liverpool on 19 August 1913 and Queenstown a day later, Franconia with 338 First, 364 second and 1,205 Third Class passengers docked at Boston on the 27th "after what old trans-Atlantic voyagers said was one of the finest trips ever made across the sea, so far as the weather was concerned." (Boston Globe). Captain Smith said "if an egg had been on the dining table all the it wouldn't have rolled off." Her list on departure for Liverpool on 2 September was small with only 78 First, 104 Second and 245 Third Class, but she took out a substantial cargo of 100,000 bushels of grain, 375 tons of provisions, 70 tons of flour, 90 tons of tobacco and 100 tons of steel.
 |
| The Boston Globe's coverage of Laconia's Lifeboat Regatta during her September 1913 turnaround included some fine photos of her lifeboats and equipment. Credit: Boston Globe, 14 September 1913 |
It remained a busy end of season and on 10 September 1913, Laconia disembarked 374 First, 305 Second and 1,616 Third Class at Boston. But the big event of her turnaround was a lifeboat drill and race, following that for her sister.
Capt. Irvine, RD, RNR, of the Cunard Liner Laconia, engineered a fine little regatta along the East Boston water front this morning, when a lifeboat drill and race, a collapsible boat drill and race and a challenge cup race were pulled off by men of the big steamer for cup and purses.
The feature of the day was the lifeboat drill. The men were to uncover the boats, swing them out on the davits, and lower them into the water. There were 16 lifeboat in the contest. An officer said it took three minutes and 10 seconds, on an average, to get the boats into the water. The boat which won the contest did it in 2 minutes 19 seconds.
The crews raced across the harbor, circled the Holy Ghost and Us Society's yacht, Barraccutta, and the Revenue Cutter Gresham, and raced back across the harbor. The 16 boats were divided into sections of five and six each. The prize was a purse collected aboard the steamer and every man in the boat will get a share.
No. 5 boat, in charge of third officer Chamberlain, won the race, lowering and racing in 18 minutes, 5 second, of which 15 minutes, 46 seconds were consumed by the race. No. 3 boat, Coxswain McLean, was second, and No. 11 boat, Coxswain A. Lawler, was third.
Of the collapsible boats, two types are represented on the steamer, the Chambers, which is practically an airtight compartment raft with a canvas shield, and the Engelhardt, which is largely of cork.
The light, flat-bottomed boats had a much harder time getting around than the regular lifeboats had, for the wind had increased considerably. Three of the boats finished in good style, while the others did well to get back, and one had to be towed in after finishing the race. It took the winner of the race 26 minutes and 55 seconds to cover the same course which the lifeboats had covered in 16 minutes.
The last event of the morning was the race for the challenge cup, offered by the director of the Cunard Line. Five boats took part, the stewards having three craft, while the seamen and the firemen had but one each. The boats were towed up above the Charlestown Navy Yard and raced down stream. The seamen won the race, the firemen getting in second and the stewards last. L.C. Brown was the coxswain of the seamen, and his men were R. Woodfield, J.McCarthy, Patrick O'Shea, Peter Murray, J. Daly, J. Gutcher, H. Forde and Peter Burke.
As his boat crossed the finish line O'Shea, a bow oar, reached over and placed a green flag in a socket at the bow of the boat. The flag was a combination of the Irish and English colors, with a golden harp in one corner, a Union Jack in the opposite corner and the balance a bright green.
The Boston Globe, 13 September 1913
Laconia sailed eastbound on 16 September 1913 with 42 First, 87 Second and 164 Third Class
Boston-bound, Laconia stood out of Liverpool on 30 September 1913, and after pausing at Queenstown the next day, she had 184 First, 698 Second and 1,495 Third Class. Her Second Class was the largest yet carried into Boston. Heavy fog delayed her progress to a crawl for last 600 miles of the crossing and it was only worse on the final approach to Boston.
Down at Quarantine last night the Cunard liner Laconia lay at anchor in the fog with more than 2400 passengers. She was due here Wednesday [8th] from Liverpool and Queenstown, but heavy fog which shrouded the Atlantic for 1500 miles held her back. She anchored off the lightship Wednesday night, and at 11 a.m. yesterday [9]. During a momentary break in the fog, the anchors were raised and she moved in to quarantine.
Then the fog closed in again and remained so thick for the remainder of the day that it was deemed imprudent to attempt to make her berth at East Boston. Most of the passengers took the delay philosophically and had nothing but words of praise for the officers. Capt. Irvine, who had been almost constantly on the bridge for five days, was presented with a set of resolutions commending him upon his unceasing vigilance, which was signed by all the saloon passengers.
The Boston Globe, 10 October 1913
Forty-eight hours late, Laconia was finally alongside her pier just after midnight 10 October, assisted by the tugs Saturn, Pallas and Juno. It was fast work to turn her around, embarking 63 First, 76 Second and 235 Third Class passengers and a full cargo of 12,357 barrels of apples, the biggest shipment of the season, 72,0000 bushels of wheat, 300 tons of provisions, 1,600 bales of cotton, 1,470 barrels of peaks and four refrigerators of frozen goods to have her off for Liverpool the morning of the 14th.
In a major announcement on 13 October 1913 Cunard made it known that for 1914 Caronia and Carmania would join Franconia and Laconia on the Boston Service which would now offer weekly sailings.
On her final Boston trip for the season, Franconia sailed from Liverpool on 28 October 1913 and from Queenstown the morning of the 29th. Once again, there was a very large Second Class contingent of 523 in addition to 84 First and 929 Third Class. She had a new captain for the first time in her career, Capt. Miller, formerly master of Andania on the St. Lawrence run. Capt. Smith was reassigned to Caronia on the New York route. As for the crossing, it enough to make her crew anticipate the ensuring winter in the Mediterranean:
Furious gales in mid-Atlantic delayed the arrival of the Cunarder Franconia 24 hours on her passage from Liverpool and Queenstown. She reached her berth at East Boston this morning, landing 84 saloon passengers, 528 second cabin and 929 steerage.
The official long of the passage recounts a story off gales and towering seas much of the way across. On Nov. 1 and 2 the liner was facing a Westerly gale of almost hurricane velocity, and during those two days she logged only 260 and 267 knots, respectively, instead of 415 miles, which she covered under normal conditions. One of the sailors was tossed out of the crow's nest on the foremast, and a couple of the windows on the upper deckhouse were smashed by the waves.
The Boston Globe, 6 November 1913
On 8 November 1913 Franconia sailed empty to New York to take up her Mediterranean duties starting on the 15th. In her place, Saxonia left New York and would sail from Boston on the 14th.
Laconia closed her Boston season with her departure from Liverpool on 11 November 1913. Her place on the route would be taken by the new Alaunia on the 25th. After her stop at Queenstown, Laconia had 61 First, 170 Second and 597 Third Class passengers as well as 1,000 bags of mail which was supposed to come over in Mauretania, but owing to a severe gale, she omitted her call there. Coming into Boston on the 19th, the Boston Globe noted "The Laconia made a remarkable passage, considering the fact that encountered strong breezes and rough the first part of the trip. The time of the run from Daunts Rock to Boston Lightship was 6 days, 23 hours and 57 minutes, an average speed of 15.79 knots being maintained." After discharging about 1,000 tons of cargo, she sailed to New York in preparation for her first departure for Italian ports.
 |
| What would prove to be the final Cunard winter cruise season, 1913-14, featured five voyages in Franconia and Laconia, the first two being "express" crossings to Italy and the Adriatic and not calling at Alexandria. |
With 306 First, 81 Second and 1,553 Third Class passengers, Franconia left New York on 15 November 1913 on her first Mediterranean voyage of the 1913-14 winter season. This called at Gibraltar (26), Monaco (29), Naples (1 December), Trieste (3), Fiume (8-9) and returned via Trieste (9), Patras (11), Messina (12), Palermo (13), Naples (14) and Gibraltar (17) to arrive back at New York on the 26th where she landed 40 First, 659 Second and 976 Third Class.
There would be no repeat Clark's charter of Laconia for a Mediterranean cruise that winter, that being undertaken by Rotterdam. It was more of matter of her being more needed on Cunard's thriving Mediterranean run than her lack of popularity or suitability on cruises. But it was indeed ironic that the one ship truly suited to the role, wound up making precisely one single-class cruise during her short career. And it would be eight years before a Cunarder made another such voyage.
Before she sailed, "Two barrels of knives and revolvers were taken from the steerage passengers who sailed on the Laconia from New York yesterday for Naples. This precautionary measure probably prevents a rough voyage." noted The Buffalo Commercial, 3 December 1913. Laconia was off on 2 December with 277 First, 74 Second and 2,006 Third Class disarmed passengers to Madeira (10), Gibraltar (where she arrived on the 12th, meeting the New York-bound Ultonia), Algiers (14), Monaco (16), Naples (17-18), Trieste (20) and Fiume (22). Homewards, she left left Fiume on Christmas Eve for Trieste, Messina, Patras (26), Naples (28), Madeira (30th) and Gibraltar (31) before docking at New York on 10 January 1914, disembarking 50 First, 332 Second and 764 Third Class passengers.
In 1913, Franconia completed 13 crossings to/from Boston carrying 17,899 passengers, one calling at Portland carrying 1,038 and five crossings to/from the Mediterranean carrying 6,970. Laconia completed 13 crossings to/from Boston carrying 16,441 passengers, one calling at Portland carrying 239, four crossings to/from the Mediterranean carrying 6,250 and one cruise to the Mediterranean carrying 599 passengers.
 |
| Advertisement for British market for what would be Cunard's final cruise-like service to Alexandria using segments of the New York-Mediterranean. Credit: Manchester Courier, 30 January 1914. |
Franconia's Egypt "season" began in 8 January 1914 when, with 444 First, 110 Second and 681 Third Class passengers, she left New York bound for Madeira (17), Gibraltar (19), Algiers (20), Monaco (22), Naples (24-26) and Alexandria where she arrived on the 27th. She sailed back via Trieste (2 February), Fiume, Patras to embark 735 Greek immigrants on the 4th, Messina (5), Naples (6), Gibraltar (12) and New York where she docked on the 19th with 86 First, 506 Second and 1,386 Third Class passengers.
Laconia's next crossing was a bit unusual and got rather more so in the course of it. She sailed from New York on 22 January 1914 with 397 First, 50 Second and 166 Third Class. Her routing was to take her to the Mediterranean but back from Naples to Liverpool where she would drydocked and then make a early season sailing to Portland, Maine, as last year with British immigrants to Canada. Per schedule, she called outbound at Madeira (29), Gibraltar (1 February), Algiers (3), Monaco (5), Naples (7), Alexandria (10) and then her second call at Naples on 12-14th. She sailed from there at 6:00 p.m. on the 14th, passed Gibraltar on the 17th and arrived at Liverpool at noon on the 20th.
 |
| Laconia's hastily arranged Liverpool-Mediterranean-New York voyage in March 1914. |
Then, on 24 February 1914 Cunard suddenly cancelled her 3 March sailing from Liverpool and Queenstown to Portland and Boston, citing a downturn in demand for passages to Canada. This was quite the opposite of the previous year. White Star also cancelled a sailing for Megantic to Portland at the end of the month for the same reason. Instead, the scheduling dept. did some fast work and cobbled together a "Special Short Mediterranean Cruise" for the ship from Liverpool to Naples on 7 March which could be booked just for that segment or continuing to Patras, Messina, Palermo and then a second call at Naples where British passengers could disembark and Laconia continued to New York via Gibraltar. Despite the short notice, she disembarked 23 First, 726 Second and an astounding 1,921 in Third Class, all of whom were Greek immigrants who boarded in Patras on the 17th, on 1 April.
Meanwhile, Franconia did her bit during the sisters' expanded Mediterranean deployment, the Boston run in the new and capable hands of the brand new Alaunia and Andania through early spring. She left New York on 24 February 1914 with 380 First, 47 Second and 413 Third Class aboard to Madeira (4 March), Gibraltar (6), Algiers (8), Monaco (10), Naples (11-12), Patras (13), Trieste (15), Fiume (17-18), Trieste 18, Patras (20), Messina (21), Palermo (22), Naples (23), Gibraltar (26) and back to New York on 5 April where she landed 38 First, 659 Second and 1,992 Third Class.
 |
| Monaco was added to Cunard's Mediterranean run in 1911 and was an immediate success when the Riviera was at its pre-war zenith. Another of the "Cunarder At..." series by Sam J.M. Brown. Credit: author's collection. |
This concluded Franconia's stint on the Mediterranean run and on 11 April 1914 she left New York for Queenstown, Fishguard and Liverpool with 53 First, 76 Second and 110 Third Class.
She begin her third and final season on the Boston service with her sailing from Liverpool on 28 April 1914 and Queenstown a day later and did so in fine style with a healthy early season list of 65 First, 394 Second and 1,274 Third Class and commanded by Capt. D.S. Miller.
Off Sable Island on 3 May 1914 the British steamer Columbian of Leyland Line, bound from Antwerp to New York, caught fire and was abandoned by her crew. Her Captain and 13 crew were rescued by e Manhattan on the 6th and another boat, with 13 men and the body of the Chief Steward was spotted by Franconia, and the survivors taken aboard. The Cunarder kept up a search for the missing third lifeboat for the rest of the day and then proceeded to Boston. Three of the men Franconia rescued had serious burns and spent the rest of the voyage in the ship's hospital and the body of the Chief Steward was also taken aboard. Franconia docked at East Boston early on the 7th and despite the six hours spent searching for Columbian's missing lifeboat, did the Daunts Rock to Boston Lightship in 7 days 11 hours 11 minutes.
On her first eastbound crossing from Boston of the season, Franconia took away 112 First, 207 Second and 840 Third Class on 12 May 1914 and a good cargo of 17,000 bushels of rye, 8,000 bushels of flaxseed, 250 tons of provisions, 1,800 bales of cotton and 1,500 tons of San Domingo sugar.
 |
| Another fine Sam J.M. Brown painting of Franconia & Laconia. Credit: author's collection. |
Meanwhile, Laconia had made one more round voyage to the Mediterranean, leaving New York on 11 April 1914 with 173 First, 55 Second and 306 Third Class passengers and calling at Gibraltar (20), Monaco (22), Naples (24), Patras (26), Fiume (27-30), Patras, Messina (3 May), Palermo (4), Naples (5), Gibraltar (8) and Lisbon (9) before returning to New York on the 17th with 56 First, 954 Second (her highest ever total for this class) and 2,276 Third Class.
Deadheading to Boston, Laconia made her first crossing of the 1914 from there at noon on 26 May for Fishguard and Liverpool with 195 First, 245 Second and 891 Third Class passengers. "It was one of the most picturesque sailings ever witnessed from this port. The Cunard Company had distributed hundreds of flags to the second cabin and steerage passengers and these were waved as soon as the liner started from her berth." (The Boston Globe, 26 May 1914).
The arrival of Franconia at Boston from Liverpool and Queenstown early on the morning of 4 June 1914 inaugurated the weekly service that she, Laconia, Carmania and Caronia would maintain through the summer. She disembarked 84 First, 318 Second and 1,089 Third Class passengers. She sailed eastbound for Fishguard and Liverpool on the 9th with 62 First, 108 Second and 286 Third Class aboard. "Passengers crowded the rails waving flags and bouquets, while a great throng filled every vantage point on the pier and cheered the big vessel." (Boston Globe, 10 June 1914).
Laconia docked at East Boston just before 1:00 p.m. on 17 June 1914, landing on 72 First, 156 Second and 366 Third Class after "an uneventful passage" and, having to reduce speed in the ice region in fog, made the run from Daunts Rock to Boston Light in 7 days, 4 hours and 9 minutes at an average 16.22 knots. She left on the 23rd with the largest First Class list so far that season, 342 in all, in addition to 305 in Second and 474 in Third. "It was one of the most brilliant sailings ever witnessed at this post. More than 2000 persons gathered to bid bon voyage to relatives and friends. On board handsomely gowned women lined the rails, waving bouquets and flags, while tugs pushed the big hull out into the stream." (Boston Globe, 24 June 1914).
"The Cunard liner Franconia commanded by Capt. D.S. Miller, swung into her berth at East Boston at exactly 6 o'clock last evening, after a smooth and uneventful trip from Liverpool and Queenstown, having sailed from the former port on June 23." (Boston Globe, 2 July 1914). She landed 64 First, 158 Second and 355 Third Class passengers." She had 234 First, 357 Second and 570 Third Class when she left for Liverpool on the 7th and once again, the Boston Globe's steamship reporter was in good form describing the scene as she sailed: "Drizzling rain affected but little dampened the enthusiasm of the hundreds of vactioners who sailed for Europe today on the Franconia of the Cunard Line. Long before the time for sailing, at noon, the ship was crowded with passengers and friends seeing them off. The start was made without a hitch, and the big ship swung into the stream to the cheers of the thousands lining the docks in the vicinity. Handkerchiefs and flags fluttered in the wind, and the strains of music played by the orchestra were borne across the water."
 |
| Franconia sails from Boston. Credit: Mystic Seaport Museum. |
"After an enjoyable voyage," Laconia docked at Boston from Queenstown and Liverpool on 15 July 1914 with 112 First, 206 Second and 370 Third Class passengers, "prominent among the arrivals being several members of the Union Boat Club and the Harvard second, which won the Henley race, with Union finishing second." At noon on the 21st Laconia sailed from Boston for Queenstown, Fishguard and Liverpool with 103 First, 193 Second and 474 Third Class.
Franconia left Liverpool on 21 July 1914, called at Queenstown early the next morning after which she had 180 First, 383 Second and 650 Third Class aboard. Among the First Class passengers was Edward M. House, a close friend and political advisor to President Woodrow Wilson who was returning from a visit with Kaiser Wilhelm II at his palace in Potsdam. Interviewed when Franconia docked at East Boston on the 28th, Mr. House declared "Kaiser William is a peaceful man and does not want war."
 |
| From a Cunard calendar: Franconia/Laconia by Sam J.M. Brown. Credit: eBay auction photo. |
The ultimate product of The Edwardian Era... The Great War 1914-1918... ended it and took many of its greatest ships. Proportionally, Cunard suffered more losses then they did in the Second World War. Whilst Lusitania was, of course, the most notorious and tragic, entire classes of nearly new intermediate liners including the St. Lawrence route's new "A" class Andania, Alaunia and Aurania (which never made a voyage in Cunard livery) and Franconia and Laconia were sent to the bottom by the U-Boat , casualties of a new form of naval warfare. The Boston Sisters were sacrificed, but not before they added fresh pages to the gallant story of Cunarders at war, both initially maintaining their trans-Atlantic service then going on to serve as armed merchant cruiser (Laconia) and troop transport (Franconia) in the far-flung corners of the first global war, from to Mombasa to Mudros.
Franconia was still in Boston when the Europe careened into war and The British Empire with it. On 1 August 1914 the German lines cancelled their sailings to/from the United States and Charles Stewart of Cunard's Boston office told reporters that "There are 60,000 Americans at least who are booked as first and second cabin passenger to come back from Europe to this country in the next three months. The British lines did not immediately cancel sailings and the immediate departures from Liverpool to Boston were Carmania on the 11th, Franconia on the 18th, Caronia 25th and Laconia 1 September.
 |
| Credit: Boston Globe 8 August 1914. |
On 3 August 1914 Cunard's Boston Manager Charles Stewart announced that Franconia's sailing scheduled for noon that day for Queenstown and Liverpool had "been indefinitely postponed" while denying rumours she had already been requisitioned as a transport. She had 130 First, 125 Second and 350 Third Class intending passengers and a heavy cargo, including grain, already loaded. The next day Great Britain declared war on Germany. Cunard received a cable at 2:00 p.m. ordering Franconia to sail immediately for Liverpool but she, in fact, stayed in port. Then a planned departure at 2:00 p.m. on the 5th was also cancelled by which time there was only 25 First, 50 Second and 150 Third Class left with confirmed reservations and most already aboard when the sailing was scrubbed at 11:30 a.m. Many were British nationals including reservists anxious to return home and join their regiments.
Finally, Franconia sailed at 9:00 p.m. on 8 August 1914, the first Cunarder to leave Boston since Laconia on 21 July. In the end, she left with one of the smallest passengers lists from Boston in a Cunarder in recent memory: 8 First, 35 Second and 94 Third Class, but her holds were well filled with nearly 4,000 tons including 2,500 bushels of wheat, lead, cotton and leather. Among the passengers were three of the English Davis Cup tennis team who lost to Australia the previous week at Longwood.
Probably no sailing of a trans-Atlantic liner in recent years occasioned for little commotion as did the departure of the Franconia. There was absolutely no excitement, no bidding of fond farewells, no waving of handkerchiefs. The little knot of people on the pier to bid a last goodby remained only long enough to permit of the ship slipping out of the dock. Except for the arc lights that burned upon the dock and incandescent lamps that glowed aboard ship, the scene could well be described in a single word: spectral.... When Pilot LeFevre headed the Franconia forward the sea, faint strains of 'Britannia Rules the Seas, [sic] were wafted ashore from the throats of half a dozen of the steerage passengers, who congregated in the bow of the ship. (Boston Globe, 9 August 1914).
Laconia, which reached Liverpool before the declaration of war, sailed the evening of 8 August 1914 but on the 13th it was announced she and her 544 First, 476 Second and 648 Third Class would land at New York not Boston. "Driven from England and Continental cities by war horrors, with vacation plans completely upset, and many of them minus valuable pieces of luggage, 1,668 men and women landed in New York to-day when the Cunard Line Streamer Laconia docked at West Fourteenth Street, Manhattan." (Brooklyn Times Union, 17 August 1914). Capt. Irvine took a far northerly course to avoid other vessels and Laconia was hailed on 10 August by Aquitania on her first patrol as an armed merchant cruiser, "the passengers reported that guns bristled from her decks" The New York Tribune said she was "disguised as a Scandinavian Line ship," but failed to give details how this accomplished. With rather less publicity and passengers, Laconia left New York for Liverpool on the 19th with only 46 First, 83 Second and 87 Third Class aboard.
Franconia reached Liverpool safely on the evening of 15 August 1914 and war notwithstanding, these Cunarders were still running their classic fortnightly pattern. Then, on the 18th, Franconia's planned departure from Liverpool for Boston that day was postponed until Saturday the 22nd and from Queenstown the next day. This left with the largest number of saloon passengers ever to sail in the ship: 542 First, 694 Second and 447 Third Class. Indeed, it was the largest number of saloon passengers to arrive in Boston in any one ship to date. "The Franconia, bringing over 1700 passengers, is literally packed with American tourists who hurried away from Europe because of the war, people of wealth gladly accepting steerage accommodations when they found that the saloon and cabin lists were filled." (Boston Globe, 29 August 1914). She arrived safely at Boston on the 30th.
The biggest shipload of first and second cabin passengers who ever came to Boston, with the tallest stories of escapes from the European war zone heard since hostilities began, came out of the haze beyond the Graves yesterdays morning and into the clear sunlight of Boston Harbor, on the Cunard liner Franconia. She had 1683 passengers altogether, which is, of course, not a record. But in first and second class cabins she had 1236, which is a record.
Many had paid first-class passage rates, and had first-class privileges, but slept in third-class quarters. Some slept in the gymnasium, others in the lounge, and some even in the café. She was so crowded that at no time was there time in the first-class smoking room for all who wanted to get seats.
To begin with, the Franconia had a tough voyage. Old travelers said the storm through which she passed was the worst in many years of the experience. Before leaving, her third-class quarters had been greatly enlarged and improved for the accommodation of passengers paying first-class rates.
New rooms were built and were freshly painted. The odor of the paint during the voyage proved to be one of the most trying features of the trip to those with a tendency to be sick. The fittings for these new rooms were taken from the Aquitania when the latter was taken over by the British Government.
The ship sailed a week ago Saturday, and on Tuesday ran into a hurricane that lasted nearly 24 hours. One of the ventilators was carried away, skylights and portholes were smashed, and a great deal of suffering from seasickness was the result. .. Several times cruisers were sighted, but they did not molest the Franconia, who sailed without lights, with her ports covered by blankets at night, and with her funnel [sic] painted war gray.
(Boston Globe, 31 August 1914)
Conversely, Franconia slipped out of Boston at noon on 3 September 1914 "looking otherwise like a deserted village", with 11 First, 65 Second and 127 Third Class passengers.
 |
| Credit: Boston Globe, 9 September 1914 |
Disguised in a thick coat of lead grey paint, her decks a mass of baggage and passengers, the Cunard liner Laconia came up the harbor early today, and docked at the Cunard Line pier, East Boston, shortly after 7 a.m. bringing 1570 passengers, most of them Americans, delighted to land. Many of the 661 saloon and 487 cabin passengers had been forced to sleep in the steerage and in eat in the corridors of the ship on the way across, so crowded was the big liner. She sailed without lights at night the greater part of the voyage. On the first day out of Liverpool a French cruiser held the liner up and signalled to give the Cunard liner her course. Boston Globe, 9 September 1914
So was described Laconia's first arrival at Boston since the beginning of the War. Her eastbound list for her sailing on 15 September 1914 for Queenstown and Liverpool was augmented by quite a few passengers from Montreal whose sailings had been cancelled. She left with 31 First, 125 Second and 196 Third Class.
On 22 September 1914 it was announced that Franconia had been requisitioned by the British Government to transport troops from Canada to England. She was due at Boston the following day and her eastbound sailing on the 29th was cancelled. Will sail from Quebec and Halifax with 3,000 officers and men. Rumour she might make one sailing with troops and then resume her Boston sailing. With 428 First, 532 Second and 610 Third passengers, Franconia docked at Boston on 23 September "after a very rough and disagreeable voyage from Liverpool… Almost everybody on board was seasick at some time during the trip."
Franconia was to have sailed from Boston for Quebec the evening of the 24 September 1914, but was delayed taking on 5,000 tons and pulled out of her East Boston slip at 5:00 a.m. the following morning with a cargo of grain and small general cargo. She was expected to arrive at Quebec on the 30th.
 |
| "Canada's Answer" by Norman Wilkinson. H.M.S. Princess Royal (centre) with column "Z" far left and "Y" column lead by the all grey Royal Edward, Franconia (with the black hull) and Canada transporting the 1st Canadian Division from Quebec to Liverpool in October 1914. |
Franconia proudly figured in Canadian history when she participated in the first troop convoy from the Dominion to England transporting the 1st Canadian Division. This epic first great convoy of the war carried 1,547 officers, 29,070 men,7,679 horses, 70 guns, 110 motor vehicles, 705 horsed vehicles and 82 bicycles and the entire affair organised in less than two months. She completed loading on 1 October 1914 and embarked 1st Contingent HQ, Div. Arty., HQ Div Signals Comp, 8th Battalion (90th Winnipeg Rifles) (2nd CIB), Div. Supply Col., Ammo Park, No. 2 General Hospital, Cdn Nursing Sisters, Cdn Pay Corps and Cdn Postal Corps: a total of 2,298 personnel.
 |
| Franconia and other ships of the convoy assembling in Gaspé Bay before sailing Note her funnels have been painted grey. Credit: University of Victoria. |
This great convoy sailed on 3 October 1914 and consisted of three great columns of transports "Z", "Y" and "X" and Cunarders included Alaunia and Ivernia in "Z", Franconia in "Y" and Andania and Saxonia in "X" escorted by three cruisers, two pre-dreadnaughts and H.M.S. Princess Royal, a Lion-class battlecruiser. The passage was favoured by fair weather, but the presence of German U-boats off the Isle of Wight cancelled plans to disembark the troops and equipment at Southampton and they were landed at Plymouth, instead. Franconia's compliment disembarked between the 15th-16th.
 |
| Some of Franconia's Canadian soldiers on the foredeck as the convoy sails. Credit: Canadian National Archives. |
 |
| A boxing match and Sunday Church Parade aboard H.M.T. Franconia carrying the first Canadian troops to Britain in the First World War. Credit: Canadian National Archives. |
 |
| Officers, medical staff and nurses enjoyed the First Class areas of Franconia. This gives a good view, too, of her Boat Deck with the original lifeboats raised higher and a collapsible boat underneath. Credit: Canadian National Archives. |
It was indeed planned that Franconia resume her Boston-Liverpool sailings and her intended sailing of 27 October (and then changed to the 31st) was advertised, but she would, in fact, never return to The Hub and her departure on 25 September 1914 proved to be her final call to the port.
It was left to Laconia to close out Cunard's Boston Service "for the duration" (it would in fact not be resumed until 1922). She sailed from Liverpool on 29 September 1914 , called at Queenstown on the 30th and docked at East Boston on the evening of 6 October, landing 249 First, 620 Second and 822 Third Class passengers.
 |
| The final sailing from Boston by a Cunarder: R.M.S. Laconia on 13 October 1914 until 1922. Credit: Boston Herald, 10 October 1914. |
"Promptly at the stroke of noon today the Cunard steamship Laconia, Capt. W.R.D. Irvine in command, pulled out from her berth at East Boston and started on her passage to Liverpool. The two smokestacks of the liner are still painted black to hide her identity from hostile ships, although the possibility of meeting any German warship in the trans-Atlantic steamship lanes is considered remote. " (Boston Globe, 13 October 1914). She had 24 First, 28 Second and 105 Third Class passengers. And an overcapacity cargo including 13,382 barrels and 165 boxes of apples, 62,000 bushels of wheat, 20,000 bushels of barley, 1,000 cases of rubber boots and 400 cases of cardigan jackets for the British soldiers and 600 tons of provisions.
The Boston Globe reported that "It is the last trip of the Laconia to Boston this season. She will shortly enter the service between New York and the Mediterranean. The steamships Andania and Alaunia, which have been running in the Montreal service, will be placed in the service between Liverpool and Boston for the winter." Like so many plans early in the war which had no immediate prospects of reaching a conclusion, these never took place and the remaining sailings of Laconia and Franconia would be between Liverpool and New York. Boston had seen the last of its handsome Cunard sisters.
In 1914, Franconia completed 11 crossings to/from Boston carrying 11,600 passengers, four crossings to the Mediterranean carrying 6,037 and four crossings to/from New York carrying 2,403. Laconia completed nine crossings to/from Boston carrying 8,271 passengers and six crossings to/from the Mediterranean carrying 7,009
The Boston Sisters would now go their separate ways in 1915 and are best recorded individually.
R.M.S. FRANCONIA (1914-15)
Beginning her stint on Cunard's wartime New York service, Franconia docked there on the evening of 31 October 1914, 24 hours late, after a rough and protracted crossing from Liverpool. News accounts stated she had, in fact, been bound for Boston and was diverted to New York. Of her 190 First, 492 Second and 661 Third Class passengers, 150 left immediately for Boston by train. She sailed eastbound on 2 November with 17 First, 62 Second and 100 Third Class aboard.
Making her final American arrival for the year, Franconia landed 111 First, 235 Second and 249 Third Class passengers at New York on 24 November 1914, among them the famous dancer Mme. Isadora Duncan from Paris who coming over to raise money for the children of poor artists in the city whose livelihoods had been ruined by the war. Franconia sailed for Liverpool on the 28th with 79 First, 70 Second and 137 Third Class passengers.
Marking her first arrival in the New Year, Franconia docked at New York on 4 January 1915 with a small list of 94 First, 70 Second and 51 Third Class and sailed for Liverpool five days later with 152 First, 80 Second and 154 Third Class aboard. This called at Halifax as well on the 11th where she took on 26 First, 19 Second and 72 Third Class as well as five British seamen who had been rescued after their ship had been torpedoed.
 |
| Sailing notice for Franconia's final commercial voyage, from New York on 6 February 1915 to Liverpool. Credit: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 5 February 1915. |
On what would prove to her final American landfall, Franconia arrived at New York on 1 February 1915 where she landed 101 First, 131 Second and 112 Third Class passengers. She left on the 6th with 119 First, 72 Second and 119 Third Class. Aboard was W.R. Howard, President of United Press, who filed this account of the voyage upon safe arrival at Liverpool on the 15th:
The Cunard liner Franconia arrived here today without having encountered any of the German submarines reported to be operating off the west coast of England. Extraordinary precautions were taken, however, to prevent an attack not only as the liner approached the British coast, but nightly during the voyage.
The Franconia sailed from New York February 6th. Every night all the portholes and skylights were blanketed and only the port and starboard foremast lights were displayed! The lookouts were doubled but the liner's course was not changed. Aside from the lively speculation of the passengers as to whether the Germans would attack, there was little evidence on board of a fear that the Franconia would be made a victim of submarines.
We passed the Lusitania off Fastnet Sunday morning. The Lusitania was then going full speed towards New York and apparently there was no worry on the part of her officers regarding submarines.
Passing through the Irish Sea, the Franconia was challenged every three or four miles by small trawlers and other scout ships, showing the thoroughness of the British patrol.
The Pomona Progress, 15 February 1915
 |
| Having the President of United Press aboard ensured that Franconia's final Atlantic crossing was well publicised if otherwise routine. |
In 1915, Franconia completed four crossings to/from New York carrying 1,155 passengers.
On 27 February 1915 the Anchor liner Cameronia took Franconia's planned sailing to New York and it was reported that day "it is believed here that the Cunard liner Franconia is also being used as a troop ship." amid a wider call up of liners for the purpose.
H.M.T. FRANCONIA (1915-16)
Immediately upon her arrival at Liverpool on 15 February 1915, Franconia was among a large group of liners suddenly requisitioned by the British Government for transport service as the Great War became a World War as the battle front shifted from Flanders to the Aegean, the Gallioli peninsula in Turkey and Arabia. The Cunard liner would in the thick of it for the rest of her career.
After what must have been a very cursory conversion to carry 2,700 officers and men, H.M.T. Franconia sailed from Avonmouth with units of the Royal Naval Division on 1 March 1915 for Lemnos. She sailed from there on the 24th for Port Said where she arrived on the 23rd to disembark her naval battalions who were to man Suez Canal defensive positions against possible attack by Turkish troops coming across the Sinai desert.
 |
| H.M.T. Franconia in the Suez Canal still looking very smart in black hull and funnels with grey superstructure. Note the boats on either side of the foremast which were added in 1913. Credit June Underwood, greatwarforum.com |
Franconia's duties, upon returning to England, then centered on supporting the Gallipoli Campaign, the ill-fated Allied invasion of the Dardanelles. The campaign lasted from February 1915 to January 1916 and it had Franconia well engaged in the region even beyond that period. The base of operations for the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF) was the small port of Mudros on Greek Aegean Island of Lemnos, only 50 km from the Dardenelles. This port would see a constant flow of transport, hospital and supply ships between it, England, France and Egypt. Franconia would initially be engaged in the transport of British forces from the U.K. and, as the campaign quickly ground on to a bloody stalemate, be based in the Aegean, transporting ANZAC and British reinforcements from Mudros to Gallipoli, Suez or Alexandria to Mudros as well as act an as an "ambulance carrier" back to Alexandria or Malta. In the later role she was not a hospital ship and was intended mainly to transport walking wounded to proper hospital facilities. In all, she carried some 20,000 wounded.
 |
| H.M.T. Franconia and H.M.S. Exmouth at Mundros, c. 1915 Credit: © IWM SP 537 |
A typical outbound voyage from England saw Franconia sailing on 30 June 1915 from Avonmouth with the 5th Battalion Wiltshire Reg. 30 officers and 970 ranks, and calling at Malta (1 July), Alexandria (9th), Mudros (15th) before proceeding for Cape Hellas, landing at V Beach Gallipoli on the 16th, After lying off the Gallipoli beaches, she sailed for Mudros on the 30th.
One of her voyages back to Gallipoli from Alexandria, returning from carrying wounded, was vividly recalled by Compton Mackenzie in his book Gallipoli Memories (1929), who as an officer, was aboard in May 1915:
I found myself seated at a table in the dining-room with a trio of doctors, two of whom were R.A.M.C. regulars and the third a distinguished specialist in temporary uniform. They had all been at the landing on Twenty-fifth of April. I happened to ask why we had been given second-class cabins.
'I’ll show you why after lunch,' said one of them.
Getting hold of a key from the steward, he took me along and opened the door of what looked exactly like a Blue-beard’s Chamber. From floor to ceiling the white cabin was splashed with blood.
“We brought back five thousand wounded in this ship. and they haven’t had time to clear up the relics. The worst cases were in the first-class cabins and there were only three of us attending to them.”
I began to understand why my messmates had talked of everything at meals except the landing.
 |
| H.M.T. Franconia at Alexandria during one of many voyages in early to mid 1916 to Marseilles with Australian troops for the Western Front. Credit: Austrailian War Memorial. |
Franconia sailed from Mudros on 23 August 1915 and arrived in England on 9 September but soon returned to the Aegean. She remained on duty there for the balance of the year and well into 1916. The failure of the Gallipoli Campaign had her busy repatriating troops from Mudros and Alexandria to Marseilles for redeployment on the Western Front. For example, she sailed from Port Said to Marseilles 6 April 1916, Mudros to Marseilles on 18-23 May and from Alexandria to Marseilles and on 6-16 June
 |
| Soldiers of the 12th Training Battalion seated on a train, prior to boarding H.M.T. Franconia at Alexandria bound for England, 6 June 1916. One of a series of images in an album relating to the wartime service of Lieutenant Harry Downes MC MM, 48th Battalion. Credit: Australian War Memorial. |
 |
| Concert programme aboard H.M.T. Franconia 4 August 1916 on one of her Alexandria-Marseilles runs with Australian troops. The opening selection, The Thunderer March,,is by the German composer, Wilhelm Zehle proof that even during war music is music regardless of its national origin. Credit: eBay auction photos. |
On 6 October 1916 en route from Alexandria to Salonika and Marseilles, the fortunately empty Franconia. Captain D.S. Miller, was 195 miles southeast of Malta was she was hit by a single torpedo fired from UB-47 (Oberleutnant Wolfgang Steinbauer, who also numbered Ivernia among the 50 ships he sunk). Struck in one of boiler rooms, the explosion killed 12 of firemen and trimmers, one who was aged 16 and almost almost Merseyside men The remainder of Franconia's 302 officers and crew abandoned ship in good order and were rescued by the Hospital Ship Dover Castle of Union-Castle Line. The lovely Franconia sank in minutes. At the time, she was the fifth largest ship in the Cunard fleet. In her career of five years and nine months R.M.S. Franconia had steamed some 389,410 nautical miles.
 |
| Nowhere else, of course, was Franconia and her dozen lost crew more mourned than in her homeport of Liverpool. Credit: Liverpool Echo 6 October 1916. |
 |
| Franconia's Honoured Dead ranged from veteran boilermaker Samuel Bostock, 61, on his last voyage after a lifetime of service with Cunard and 2,099,878 miles steamed from 1886-1916, to 16-year-old trimmer George Thompson. |
The loss of Franconia and the contrasts with her pre-war career were beautifully summed up in a column in the Boston Daily Globe:
Two Scenes Aboard the Franconia
When last Boston saw the torpedoed steamship Franconia she was the smartest liner sailing to this port. Her saloon walls were tinted a soft French gray with brocade curtains of peach-blossom pink, her furniture was tapestry upholstered, her carpets thick as turf. Her mantelpieces were carved in noble Georgia panel and pediment. With her staterooms went that supreme luxury, a shower bath. In her dining saloon shaded candelabra shed soft yellow radiance on snowy linen, on glittering glass and silvery. Music from a string orchestra throbbed through the buzz of conversation. The tables were a feast of choice food. Fair women, authentic tailoring, good manner, witty conversation-- the Franconia represented the cream of our modern civilization.
But the Franconia represented something else which is characteristic of that civilization. She was part of that British merchant marine which was, even then, engaged in a duel to the death with the German merchant marine for world supremacy in sea-borne commerce. Of that duel the British and German Navies were only the rapiers.
In February, 1915, the Franconia donned war paint. As a troop transport she ferried Englishmen to the Dardanelles. Why to the Dardanelles? In order to cut off Germany from the overland trade route to Asia. The Dardanelles duel was between the German Bagdad Railways and the British Suez Canal. It was the old duel in a new form. That the Franconia should have been an instrument of it made her once more an epitome of our modern civilization.
The second scene aboard the Franconia is described, in private letters, by one of her officers. He tells first how he enjoyed watching the 'pink cheeks of our chaps at physical drill out to the Dardanelles. Youth at its best.'
On April 25, 1915, the ship delivered her human cargo. Within 24 hours 30,000 men had been 'killed, wounded or beaten to a pulp.' The Franconia was turned into a distributing hospital ship. To Alexandria she carried, in all, 20,000 wounded.
Night and day this officers had to handle 'unspeakable wrecks which had once been the pink-cheeked lads just spoken up.' A handsome six-foot Scot, 27 years old, had had both eyes shot out and both wrists shattered by shrapnel. Blind, and even with the sense of touch denied him. He could not lie still, so they fenced off a space and let him grope around on mattresses in agony. A Lancashire Fusillier, shot in the stomach, howled like an animal. A big Australian, struck blind, deaf and dumb by shell shock, lay with mouth opening and shutting as if chewing food, and both forearms coming up to his shoulders as if in physical drill. Two men had to be told off to hold him constantly. After the surgeons were finished for the day, the crew would collect arms, legs, hands and feet in buckets and empty them overboard. These they saw the sharks eat.
'It fell to my lot,' writes this officers, 'to sew up and bury the dead. One evening I buried 27 of the best my country ever produced, all Scots Fusiliers. I wish your American war-howlers could have seen the freight of mangled humanity we discharged on that quay at Alexandria. Imagine nearly all your Boston wharves filled with troop ships fitted up as hospitals, cots made of bed bottoms and beer boxes; discharging wounded day and night in the heat of an Egyptian Summer. That was Alexandria as I last saw it.'
The Franconia staged yet another curious scene: 'When a wounded Tommy has as a next bed fellow a wounded Turk, they fraternize and swap cigarettes. I have seen this happen scores of times. No enmity between enemies. And the first words spoken are words of friendship. They had no quarrel. What do you make of it?'
In her peace trim, the Franconia was a beautiful flower of our civilization. The British lost 115,444 men in the Dardanelles expedition alone. If such slaughter is necessary to maintain such a civilization as that of which the Franconia was a flower, if such flowers spring from a soil of dead men's bodies, it is not time to ask ourselves whether the shaded candelabra, the glittering glass and silver, the tapestried furniture, the authentic tailors-- the cream of our modern civilization-- does not come at rather a high price.
Uncle Dudley
Boston Daily Globe, 9 October 1916
 |
| Mourned as much in Boston as in Liverpool. Credit: Boston Post, 6 October 1916 |
 |
| Liverpool homecoming for Franconia's 302 surviving officers and crew who arrived in Southampton in Dover Castle and travelled to Liverpool by train. Credit: Liverpool Post, 25 October 1916. |
H.M.S. LACONIA (M70) 1914-16
Laconia was requisitioned on 27 October 1914 by the Admiralty as an Armed Merchant Cruiser and converted on Merseyside. This entailed arming her with eight 6-inch QF Mark II naval rifles, fitting the necessary shell and powder bag hoists and construction of the magazines for them. Her lifeboat compliment was reduced to 11 of her original boats, a cutter and one Carley float. The fore and aft davits added post 1913 were removed. A lot of furnishings were landed but her interiors and accommodation remained largely untouched. And unneeded with a reduced total compliment of 462 officers, crew and a company of Marines.
Typical of the period, it was all very quick going and H.M.S. Laconia (pennant no. M70) was commissioned by Capt. C.S. Wills, R.N., at Liverpool on 24 November 1914 with her Cunard Capt. W.R.D. Irvine Navigating/2nd Officer. She left for Portsmouth on the 26th where she docked two days later. After taking on stores and ammunition, Laconia sailed on 16 December, called at St. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands 23-26th, Ascension Island on the 31st and New Years Day 1915, Jamestown, St. Helena 3 January and Simonstown was reached on the 9th and Durban on the 11th.
Laconia was assigned to the Cape of Good Hope Squadron, based at Simonstown, (Rear-Admiral Herbert G. King-Hall) consisting of her, H.M.S. Goliath, the AMC H.M.S. Armadale Castle and H.M,S. Astraea. Initially she carried out patrols in Delagoa Bay and then assisted in patrols and transport duties in support of operations against German Southwest Africa and the occupation of Walfisch Bay.
Her first spell of patrol duty was in Delagoa Bay and then between Simonstown and Walfisch Bay. All this was interspersed with frequent coaling and her new naval captain was discovering what Capt. Irvine already well knew: Laconia could burn 150-200 tons of it a day so her range was constrained by bunkering points along the African coast. Whilst serving off the East African coast where coal supplies were in short supply, she took to drifting at night with her fires banked, saving about 40 tons a day. Her decks leaked and her teak was recaulked and the unaccustomed warm water of the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans caused problems with marine growth obstructing her suction inlets. She was drydocked at Simonstown in April 1915 before departing for her next assignment: the East African Coast.
 |
| British Monitor Severn taking in stores from Laconia, Mafia Island,. July 1915.Credit: © IWM Q 46244 |
Laconia would participate in one of the more interesting and remote naval and air engagements of the First World War: The Battle of the Rufiji Delta (October 1914-July 1915) and the conquest of German East Africa, specifically Tanga as well as the first British aerial operation of the war.
German East Africa, centered on what is now Tanzania, was chiefly protected by the most powerful warship in the Indian Ocean at the onset of war: the light cruiser S.M.S Koningsberg On 20 September 1914 she sank the British cruiser H.M.S. Jupiter, but suffering machinery trouble, her commander took into the deep 200 sq. mile Rufiji Delta where, hidden among the mangrove swamps and turns of the river, she lurked as an ever present danger to British ambitions to drive the Germans out of East Africa. In some respects, she was like Tirpitz during the Second World War as a "threat in being" tying up considerable Royal Navy units just by her existence.
From the onset, the British uniquely employed flying boats to locate and keep tabs on Koningsberg and set up a base on the small island of Niororo, south of Zanzibar and only 18 miles off the Rufiji coast. Laconia was assigned to act as depot ship for the squadron as well as service as an "armed supply ship" and base for the Royal Navy squadron assembling against Konigsberg.
 |
| Laconia's Short 827 flying boats on what was her Second Class aft open deck space. Credit: eBay auction photo. |
Whilst at Durban 14-18 April 1915, Laconia took aboard three Short 827 seaplanes and relevant stores. These shipped onto the former after Second Class open promenade deck which has been cleared of all boats and most obstructions and planes worked by the existing mainmast booms. The former Boston mailship was now an aircraft carrier. She then headed north to Niororo Island, arriving on the 23rd, to begin operations. Just two days later, one of her seaplanes photographed Konigsberg in the Rufiji River. During this time, Laconia also acted as stores and supply ship for the small East African squadron. Occasionally she had bigger company and on 26 May the former White Star liner and now fellow AMC HMS Laurentic joined her off Mafia Island.
 |
| Handling one of Laconia's Short 827 seaplanes. Note her aft ventilator cowls have been removed for air operations. Credit:www.naval-history.net |
The Royal Navy set on using two monitor warships of low draught and with heavy guns, to destroy Konigsberg and in early June 1915 H.M.S. Severn and H.M.S. Mersey arrived off Mafia Island after an arduous voyage from Malta. Laconia would now act as their "mother ship" during the ensuing operations. In the second of two attacks on 11 July, the monitors had reduced Konigsberg to a smouldering wreck.
From 16-21 July 1915 Laconia accompanied Severn and Mersey to Zanzibar and then she proceeded to Kilinidini (Mombasa) to put ashore her Naval Aviation Service personnel for deployment up country in the campaign against German East Africa. She back to her familiar surrounding of Tirene Bay, Mafia Island by the end of the month. Her seaplane detachment was then deployed for service in Mesopotamia and Laconia sailed on 12 August 1915 to Aden via Kilindini, and arrived on the 19th. She sailed for Zanzibar on the 22nd where she anchored six days later. She was based on the island and performed routine patrols through September before returning to Mafia Island.
 |
| H.M.S. Laconia at Simonstown, 3 January 1916. Credit: eBay auction photo. |
On 10 November 1915 Laconia weighed anchor from Zanzibar, bound for Simonstown. She anchored in Simon's Bay on the 19th. A tedious month was spent there waiting for a drydock to become available and on 20 December Laconia was finally drydocked, damaging her stern in the process. She was floated on the 29th. On 3 January 1916 she cast off from Simonstown, bound for Durban which was reached three days later. It was back to the Kenyan coast and she anchored off Kilindini on the 14th. After a few routine patrols, Laconia was back at Durban on the 25th and then patrolling in Delagoa Bay and up to Kilindini and back.
In March-April 1916 Laconia operated off Lindi and Zanzibar in support of the No. 8 Naval Squadron at Zanzibar. On 23 April lying off Mafia Island, a drifting mine was spotted, General Quarters sounded and the 6" battery open fire on the mine with apparent no effect. A boat was lowered and it was dispatched instead with a well aimed Lee-Enfield rifle! The next day her coal in the forward cross bunker spontaneously combusted and after the bunker was flooded, the fire was put out. At the end of April Laconia sailed north to take part in operations against Tanga with her seaplane contingent. She was joined by P&O's Himalaya as a seaplane carrier operating off the north coast of the port. Tanga was eventually occupied on 7 July.
With the East African campaign winding down to its inevitable conclusion, Laconia was no longer required. On 3 May she left Zanzibar and arrived at Durban on the 11th. With troops, she sailed on the 18th for Kilinidini which was reached on the 24th. Departing the next day, Laconia sailed to Zanzibar where she called 26-30th and then proceeded back to Durban where she docked on 7 June and then made for Simonstown, arriving on the 12th. After a year and a half, she and her crew were finally going home.
On 15 June 1916 Laconia docked at Cape Town's East Pier for coaling and loading a cargo of maize. An even more valuable cargo… a large consignment of gold bullion... was put aboard on the 21st and the following morning she sailed for England. She had 11 German POWs and 40 military invalids as passengers. Laconia immediately met with traditional Cape Rollers and heavy swell and her log records that the anti-roll tanks were put into action, reducing a 15 deg. Roll to 4-6 deg. Sailing in a slow convoy, she did not call at Sao Vincente until 7 July where she coaled. Devonport was reached on the 18th where she disembarked her prisoners, passengers and 1,228 cases of bullion were landed. On the 21st, she left for Liverpool and arrived there on the 23rd and tied up at Sandon Dock.
At 9:30 a.m. on 28 July 1916 her pennant was hauled down and H.M.S. Laconia was paid off.
Credit: https://www.naval-history.net/OWShips-WW1-08-HMS_Laconia.htm, and Paul Money's superb complete posting of H.M.S. Laconia's wartime logbook.
R.M.S. LACONIA 1916-17
Rather unusually, Laconia reverted back to her owners and restored to commercial service in the middle of the war. Cunard were still maintaining a weekly Liverpool-Queenstown-New York service and with most of the fleet still on war service, this was held down by a rather mixed lot of Cunard, Anchor and even Pacific Steam Nav. tonnage: Saxonia, Carpathia, Cameronia, Tuscania and Orduña and if nothing else, her addition would tip to balance to Cunard tonnage.
Paid off from naval service on 21 July 1916, Laconia was stripped of her wartime armament and fittings and her public rooms and accommodation restored, but only that for First and Second Class. No photos appear to exist of her after she returned to commercial so it's not known if her livery was restored, but most Cunarders of this period kept their colours except for the funnels which painted plain black like the Anchor liners which shared the route.
 |
| First sailing advertisement for Laconia's return to commercial service on Cunard Freight Service Liverpool-New York 9 September 1916. Credit: The Scotsman, 6 September 1916. |
When she resumed sailings for Cunard, Laconia did so as a cargo and mail vessel for her first two round voyages. Given the short time between her release from Navy use, it is possible interior work continued in the course of these. On 9 September 1916 she sailed from Liverpool and reached New York on the 18th, departing eastbound on the 22nd. Laconia did not sail again from the Mersey until 14 October and during her layover was fitted with a single 4.7" quick-firing gun on her stern; the first British liner to be defensively armed. This followed the arming of Italian liners on the New York route the previous month. Laconia docked at New York on the 23rd where she discharged cargo and 2,600 bags of mail. Her return sailing to Liverpool is not recorded.
 |
| Announcement for the resumption of passenger sailings by Laconia. Credit: The Toronto World, 16 October 1916. |
Finally, Laconia resumed carrying passengers, but only First and Second Class, with her departure from Liverpool on 18 November 1916. She landed 16 First and 108 Second Class passengers at New York on the 28th. Among them was Cunard Chairman Alfred A. Booth who was on an inspection visit of the line's offices and port facilities. Laconia sailed for Liverpool on 6 December with 30 First and 65 Second Class passengers.
With a wartime blackout of such events in the British press, it was only with the arrival of the American Line's St. Paul at New York on 12 January 1917 with four of her intending passengers that news broke that Laconia had been involved in a collision in Liverpool. Having sailed on 30 December 1916, she was obliged by thick fog to anchor in the Mersey when she was hit by a "cargo boat which crashed into her bow and tore her plates off and she began to sink." (Evening World). Laconia's mail was also put aboard St. Paul. The Cunarder's 12 January sailing from New York was cancelled and also missed another round voyage undergoing repairs.
Determined to deliver a knock-out blow to Britain by destroying her vital overseas trade and in response to Britain's own crippling blockade of Germany, the German Government announced resumption of full unrestricted submarine warfare on 3 February 1917. Cunard ceased to post specific sailing times and ended their newspaper advertisements, but maintained their weekly sailings although mostly for the cargo carryings as passenger loads were predictably small.
That very day, the repaired Laconia sailed from Liverpool and docked at New York on 13 February 1917 with 11 First and 26 Second Class passengers.
 |
| Practically itching for something to happen, the sailing of Laconia on 17 February 1917 was newsworthy in American papers. The press was not disappointed and got the big story they were braying for. |
The Cunarder Laconia got away yesterday for Liverpool with a large munition cargo for the British government… (New York Tribune, 18 February 1917)
Two Cunard liners, the Laconia and Ascania, each carrying a few British passengers and great cargoes of contraband, sailed today for Liverpool. Three other big Cunarders in port are being loaded. (Boston Globe, 18 February 1917)
Only the second Cunarder to sail eastbound since the declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare, Laconia went out with a very full cargo and very few passengers. In her holds were 3,000 tons of shell casings, 40,000 bushels of wheat, 2,843 bales of cotton, 900 tons of provisions, 1,408 boxes of fruit, 200 tons of steel plates and castings, 1,000 bars of silver and 150 tons of sundries. Her consignment of 4,000 bags of U.S. Mail was augmented by 1,300 bags transferred from the American liner St. Louis when she was held in port. On the passenger list were 33 First and 42 Second Class passengers, seven Americans, two Swiss and one Ecuadorian and the rest British. Of these, there were 17 women and five children.
At 4:00 p.m. on 17 February 1917 R.M.S. Laconia (Capt. W.R.D. Irvine) sailed from New York, but owing to a dispute with members of her engine room crew, she made it only as far as the Upper Bay and anchored for the night. With no resolution of the dispute, two dozen crew left the ship and were replaced by 21 "American Negroes", including 17 engaged as firemen and the others as trimmers. With a final crew compliment of 216, Laconia finally resumed passage the following afternoon.
During the course of an otherwise routine if somewhat rough crossing, Capt. Irvine had his passengers and crew exercised at boat drill on no fewer than three occasions and the boats swung out on their davits. On 25 February the British sloop H.M.S. Laburnum, patrolling to the west of the Blasket Islands, off western Ireland, was ordered to rendezvous with Laconia and escort her into Liverpool. There was some uncertainly about Laconia's position which delayed their meeting up.
With many of her passengers turned in, Laconia was making 17 knots in a heavy swell in a quarter moon mostly cloudy North Atlantic night, when, at 10:33 p.m., a muffled impact was heard and felt as a single torpedo fired by UB-50 hit the liner on her starboardside just abaft of the engine room. Laconia was six miles northwest by west of the Fastnet.
The ship came to stop, swung around and assumed a list to starboard. Five continuous blasts of her whistle signalled abandon ship, the first of several wireless distress calls were sent, six distress rockets fired and passengers, with very little panic, quickly assembled at their boat stations. Owing to the list, most of the 13 boats filled and launched were on the starboardside. Some were launched with considerable difficulty. No. 8 boat, one of the few portside boats to be lowered, was smashed against the hull by a wave, staving in about 4-ft. of the wooden hull. The boat entered the sea in a half sinking condition, kept barely afloat by its tanks. Of its 22 passengers and crew, soaked in the cold water, eight succumbed to exposure including including Americans Mrs. Mary E. Hoy and her daughter Elizabeth and one of the American firemen. All were buried at sea to lighten the half-sunk boat.
After half an hour, with her boats away and only Capt. Irvine and nine other officers (among them the Chief Officer, First Officer, Chief Engineer, Second Engineer, Fourth Officer and both wireless operators still aboard, UB-50 launched a second torpedo to finish her off, hitting Laconia starboardside at point blank range in the engine room. Her Captain and remaining crew evacuated the ship as she settled quickly by the stern. After staying afloat for 45 minutes after the first torpedo, Laconia foundered at 11:45 p.m.
 |
| An oil on canvas by John Allcot depicting the sinking of Laconia. Credit: Australian National Maritime Museum. |
Just before Laconia disappeared beneath the Atlantic swells, UB-50 surfaced close to Boat No. 2, commanded by the Second Officer. The U-Boat's Kapitänleutnant Gerhard Berger (who had already sunk two other British ships earlier the same day and had a total of 27 ships sunk, totalling 92,924 tons) shouted questions as to ship's name and tonnage and when challenged for sinking a ship with women and children aboard, simply said help was on the way as British warships had picked up the distress calls. And with no further ado, or assistance, the submarine submerged and let Laconia's survivors to fend for themselves.
 |
| Illustration by E.S. Hodgson showing the moment when UB-50 surfaced after firing a second torpedo into Laconia. Credit: The Graphic 10 March 1917. |
H.M.S. Laburnum arrived on the scene by 4:00 a.m., but it was up to three hours later before all of Laconia's boats, now scattered over several miles, could be located. Off the survivors, 267 were landed at Queenstown and 14 at Bantry. In all, six passengers and six crew were killed, five by drowning and the rest from exposure.
 |
| The American mother and daughter who died from exposure in a half-submerged lifeboat became the faces of the Laconia sinking. Credit: Buffalo Courier, 11 March 1917. |
The rescued Capt. Irvine issued a statement praising his officers, crew and passengers: "they behaved splendidly… I did not see a single case of panic and their departure from the ship was greatly due to the very prompt manner in which they carried out their boat drill, which we had fortunately had opportunities to practice a number of times on the voyage."
The sinking of Laconia was an unmitigated disaster for Imperial Germany. Like so many of its decisions leading up to and during the Great War, resuming unrestricted submarine warfare was initially a tactical triumph (427,336 tons of shipping sunk from 1 February up and including Laconia) and ultimately strategic suicide, all but ensuring American entry into the war. For an American press, already braying for war, it was an irresistible story. Indeed, among her passengers was reporter Floyd P. Gibbons whose firsthand, gripping account of the torpedoing in the Chicago Tribune was read in both Houses of Congress and galvanised American support to finally enter the war against Germany:
Floyd P. Gibbons, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, went aboard the Laconia expecting her to be sunk. He wanted to write the story of a great merchant vessel being torpedoed in the war zone. He deliberately sought passage on a ship carrying munitions to the Allies… always in search of thrills, he went about trying to find a vessel that most likely would be sunk. He said he was willing to take the chance of being drowned-- that the opportunity of being present to write the story of the sinking would be enough. He figured it out that the Laconia being the first large British ship carrying munitions to leaves an American port after the German declaration, would be a fine prize for the submarine.
Boston Globe, 27 February 1917
 |
| "Without Warning" by J.H. Cassel sums up the political and propaganda firestorm the sinking of Laconia aroused in the United States. A little over a month later, the country was at war with Germany. Credit: U.S. Library of Congress. |
Word of the sinking reached President Wilson in Washington literally en route to the U.S. Capitol to address the Congress to ask it to declare the country be place in a "state of armed neutrality" and permit the arming of of American merchantmen. Within little more than a month, he was back before Congress to ask for a Declaration of War against Germany. Laconia was the largest Atlantic liner torpedoed since Lusitania and it could be argued that her loss was more directly responsible for the U.S. eventually entering the war. In any event, the ship, her peacetime record and even her wartime service was all quickly submerged as much as the vessel itself, reduced to a symbol in the clamour for an even wider war.
Thus ended the rather too short but still eventful careers of Franconia and Laconia. Their beauty, innovations and commercial careers forgotten and their wartime demise sadly just a part of a remarkable wholescale destruction of entire classes of almost brand new Cunard and Anchor intermediates in 1916-18 amid the carnage and waste of The Great War. Surely, such beautiful vessels as Franconia and Laconia deserved better.
R.M.S. Franconia 84 95,919 nil
R.M.S. Laconia 56 63,004 1
 |
| Coal Smoke & Ocean Spray: R.M.S. Laconia, Outward Bound. |
Built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Yard nos. 857 (Franconia) & 877 (Laconia)
Gross tonnage 18,150 (Franconia)
18,099 (Laconia)
Length: (o.a.) 625 ft.
(b.p.) 600 ft.
Beam: 71 ft.
Machinery: quadruple-expansion reciprocating, six double-end coal burning Scotch boilers 210 psi. 18,000 i.h.p..
Speed: 16 knots service
17 knots trials
Passengers 250 First Class 450 Second Class 1,944 Third Class
2,700 officers and men (H.M.T. Franconia)
Officers & Crew 409 (as built)
462 (H.M.S. Laconia)
Atlantic Liners of the Cunard Line, Neil McCart, 1990
The War In the Air, Vol III, H.A. Jones, 1931
American Shipping
Marine Review
Sea Breezes
Shipbuilding & Shipping Record
Shipbuilder
The Engineer
Belfast News-Letter
Belfast Telegraph
Boston Globe
Boston Herald
Boston Post
Brooklyn Times Union
Gazette (Montreal)
Glasgow Herald
Liverpool Post & Echo
New York Times
New York Tribune
New York Herald
Newcastle Journal
Pall Mall Gazette
Shields Daily Gazette
https://www.awm.gov.au/
https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/
https://www.gjenvick.com
https://news.google.com/newspapers
https://www.greatwarforum.org/
https://www.historicnewengland.org/
https://www.iwm.org.uk/
https://www.marinersmuseum.org/
https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/merseyside-maritime-museum
https://www.naval-history.net/
https://www.newspapers.com/
http://shipspotting.com/
http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/
Additions/Corrections/Contributions welcomed
contact the author at posted_at_sea@hotmail.com
© Peter C. Kohler
