Authenticity is Everything
OT: 118 Years Ago Today, Oct. 22, 1907 "Pulling Away" RMS Mauretania
Pilaster, First Class Lounge, R.M.S. Mauretania 1907-1934
Louis Seize style with Acanthus fluting, Roman-crossed ribbons, and double Ram’s head capital with Britannia, by Messrs. C. H. Mellier & Co., London
Mahogany, pine, plaster, gold leaf, bronze paint
What was the Mauretania?
The Mauretania is remembered as the largest passenger liner built on the Tyne. She was launched in 1906 by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend, very close to our Segedunum Museum. She was christened and launched by Mary Innes-Ker, the Duchess of Roxburghe on September 20, 1906. The Mauretania was over 240 metres long and had four large funnels. Her Captain’s Bridge was nearly as high as the upper deck of Newcastle’s High Level Bridge. She could carry 2165 passengers and 938 crew members. She also used a new type of engine, the turbine, which was invented here in Newcastle by Sir Charles Parsons.
Why is the Mauretania important?
With Parsons’ turbine engine, the Mauretania earned world fame for being the fastest liner to traverse the Atlantic to New York. On her return maiden voyage in 1907 she won the Blue Ribband, an award given to the liner that made the most rapid crossing. The Mauretania ran at 23.69 knots (over 27 miles per hour) on that first trip home, providing a great source of local pride for Tyneside, the British Cunard Line, and the entire nation. She held the Blue Ribband for 22 years.
The Mauretania, and her sister Lusitania, incorporated several features not previously offered to passengers at sea such as hydraulic barber chairs, one of the first uses of aluminum in the lift grilles, and the popular Veranda Café, which allowed passengers to take tea in an outdoor setting.
The Mauretania served in The Great War as a cruiser, hospital ship and troop transport. She returned to passenger service in 1919, converted to burn oil and was retired in 1934 after a few years of "booze cruises" for which she was painted white and pale green. The Mauretania was scrapped in Scotland in 1935, providing needed employment at Rosyth. Much of her Lounge, the room this pilaster came from, survives and can be seen today in a pub in Bristol. The Reading and Writing Room is now the Boardroom at Pinewood Studios. Other bits can see found here and there.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Eric Keith Longo on
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Here are some of the bits I have collected over the years:
There is a bridge siren and rare 2 deck bolts and a panel screw on the top shelf. Below there is a thermometer made from her teak tailing, a very rare full size Boat Deck porthole dog made from Admiralty brass, an Elkington silver souvenir spoon purchased in her barber shop (hallmarked and dated MV, 1907), a glass paperweight also from the barber shop, a section of gold and mahogany egg and dart/Greek key First Class Lounge molding, a blade from her engines (largest turbines in the world), a section of a walnut carved capital from the Grand Entrance on Boat Deck, Also, a blade from her engines (largest turbines in the world), The smaller photo is actually Aquitania. The rest of those items as well as Lusitania and out of frame.
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Permalink Reply by DP on
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These are great Eric. Such a nice presentation as well. You could open a business being a curator as well as home stager!
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Oh my, thank you! I'd love to show off my collections:
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The end of the line:
Figure 23. Heading for the breaker’s yard, the Mauretania stopped for a final farewell at Tynemouth, at 10 a.m. on July 3, 1935. A last message was radioed to the town that built her 30 years before. She had been painted white for cruising two years earlier, and her masts had just been clipped at Southampton so she would pass under the Firth of Forth Railway Bridge. Her aft lifeboats and dockingbridge equipment are now gone, sold in May at the auction of her fittings in Southampton and removed. She flew a 22 foot blue ribbon on her foremast which read simply “1907-1929.” Each foot of the ribbon represented one year she held the Blue Riband – a record still unsurpassed. (Unique unpublished anonymous private photograph, Author’s Collection)
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To keep this autograph related here is a log entry from the Carmania of 1905, which was commanded by Commodore John Pritchard in 1906 so he could become familiar with the turbines of his next commend, the Mauretania. His 1906 signature is below, along with Chief Engineer John McGregor, who was given a vital position in the world's first large-scale experiment with marine steam turbine propulsion on a passenger liner.
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Permalink Reply by Scott Paul on
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Very nice.
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Thanks Scott!
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Here is a group photo of Cunard dignitaries including the designer and Commodore Pritchard taken on the Boat Deck on the 23rd of October. The next day, at 5 am or so, Mauretania reached the bar at the Mersey. and took on a Pilot. Soon she was being maneuvered into the Canada Dock at the Liverpool Docks to be kitted out for her Maiden Voyage on the 16th.
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Permalink Reply by eddy on
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Eric - The older I get, the more I seem to appreciate maritime history like this. This is fascinating and I admire your knowledge of it!
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Thank you! It is an interest of mine since first seeing A Night to Remember with my Grandmother who remembered Titanic as a child, and also since the illustrated edition of Water Lord's book came out - 1976 I think. IIRC it was a gold paperback. My great-grandmother came over on a Harland and Wolff ship. In 1912!
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I think you might enjoy this. I was lucky enough to meet one of these folks :-)
Stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age Aboard the Queen Mary
Queen Mary, previously referred to as hull 534, was the replacement for my Mauretania.
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I remember also an interview supposedly aboard Lugosi's favored Aquitania - Ship's Reporter. I imagine you have seen it? The interview is said to be 1951 or '52, but Aquitania was retired in 1950 so not sure time/place. There is nothing to really see as far as the ship. I was the first to color correct the few known slides of Aquitania for Mark Chirnside's book Aquitania: The Ship Beautiful BTW.
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