RMS Umbria

RMS Umbria was a British ocean liner of the Cunard Line. She and her sister ship RMS Etruria were the last two Cunard express ocean liners that were fitted with auxiliary sails. Umbria was also the last express steamship to be built for a North Atlantic route with a compound engine. By 1885, the triple expansion engine was the almost universal specification for newly built steamships.[2][3] John Elder & Co. built Umbria in Govan, Glasgow, in 1884.

Umbria and her running mate Etruria were record breakers. They were the largest liners then in service, and they plied the Liverpool – New York City route. Umbria was launched by the Honourable Mrs. Hope on 25 June 1884, with wide press coverage, because she was the largest ship afloat, apart from SS Great Eastern, which by that time was redundant.[4]

Building

Propeller shaft failure

On 17 December 1892, Umbria left Liverpool. After stopping at Queenstown, she had 400 passengers aboard, along with a large amount of mail. She was due to arrive in New York on Christmas Day. By 28 December, she still had not arrived and speculation as to what had delayed her was growing. On 29 December, news came from the steamship Galileo, which had passed her on Christmas Day. She appeared disabled. The master of Galileo also reported that she displayed three red lights, indicating that she was unmanageable, but did not require assistance. The weather was said to be foul, with a severe north-westerly gale. Another steamship, Monrovian, had also passed her but reported Umbria to be in good shape. On 30 December, the steamship Manhanset reported again that Umbria did not require assistance and that she was carrying out repairs to a broken shaft.

In fact Umbria's troubles had started on 23 December at around 5:25 p.m. Her propeller shaft had fractured at the thrust block. Her main engines were stopped immediately, and Umbria drifted helplessly in gale-force winds and a heavy sea. The chief engineer and his staff worked relentlessly to make repairs to the shaft. Later that day, at 8:15 pm, the steamship Bohemia had agreed to tow the ship to New York but, around 10 p.m., the line broke in the severe storm and visibility was nil. Next morning there was no sign of Bohemia, and once again Umbria was drifting helplessly. Then came the encounters with the other two steamships but, by 26 December, the Cunarder Gallia and Umbria had established contact with each other and after some communications between masters, Gallia had refused to stand by, and carried on her voyage, with Umbria left to make repairs. The chief engineer achieved that on 27 December and she set off very slowly for New York City. At 11 p.m. on 31 December 1892, her safe arrival was cheered by thousands of New Yorkers. When the excitement had died down the recriminations started, which ended when Cunard prepared a statement explaining why Gallia had continued on without assisting Umbria. Further repairs were carried out on Umbria and she returned to Liverpool on 4 February 1893. By 1 April, she was back on the service.[4]

country	United Kingdom
namesake	Umbria
owner	Cunard SS Co
operator	Cunard SS Co
registry	Liverpool
route	Liverpool – Queenstown – New York
ordered	19 July 1883
builder	John Elder & Co, Govan
yard number	285
launched	25 June 1884
completed	8 October 1884
maiden voyage	1 November 1884
in service	1 November 1884
out of service	1910
identification	UK official number 91159 code letters JPWV *
fate	Scrapped 1910

Building

Liverpool-to-New York service

Armed merchant cruiser

Return to service

The Blue Riband

Magdalena

Propeller shaft failure

Stuck in a wreck

The Boer War

Mafia bomb plot

Last voyage

In popular culture

Bibliography

External links

References