RMS Alaunia

The Alaunia is a relic from the great age of Atlantic sea passenger travel, a time when when the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, the Cunard Line represented the finest and most luxurious way of crossing the Atlantic. The company's slogan summed up the prevailing view at the time -'Getting there is half the fun'.  Founded in 1839 by a resident of Nova Scotia, Mr Samuel Cunard (and originally known as the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company), the Cunard Line grew from humble beginnings.  Realising the early successes of steam ships crossing the Atlantic, Samuel Cunard took a brave gamble and risked his entire fortune. He and 31 other shareholders were able to subscribe the necessary capital to build the first of the Cunard Steamship Company Limited's fleet, the 200-feet long, 32-feet in the beam, 2 wooden paddle steamship, Britannia, which was built on the Clyde.

The Britannia was launched on 7 February 1840 and set off on its maiden crossing of the Atlantic on 4 July 1840 with Samuel Cunard himself aboard. She  was able to complete this voyage in just 12 days and 15 hours.  The construction and acquisition of more ships followed as success was 1 built on success. Although the early ships were constructed from wood, from 1853 onwards all Cunard ships were built of iron and later steel. The new construction promised greater strength and flexibility in shipbuilding and would lead to the development of the more efficient screw propulsion.

In 1869 the rival White Star Line began investing in a line of ships shuttling  between New York and Liverpool and started providing competition for the Cunard Line.  The White Star ships were large and powerful and incorporated all the huge improvements in shipbuilding design that the ferocious pace of transatlantic shipping was fostering.  The two companies would become locked in fierce competition for the next 30 years.

By 1907, the passenger trade had evolved from the spartan Britannia, which a Charles Dickens had called on its maiden voyage a 'hearse with windows', to large, spacious vessels that catered for unheard-of luxuries at sea.  It was in this year that Cunard reached new heights of excellence with the construction of the Lusitania by John Brown and Co. Ltd and the Mauretania by Messrs Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd.  These vast floating palaces were inspired by architectural and decorative styles found on land and mimicked the look of the great London hotels.

The Alaunia I itself was built in 1913 in the run-up to the First World War.  The Cunard Line had inaugurated its own Canadian service in 1911. The company was aware that it needed its own purpose-built ships for that profitable route.  Thus, three vessels were ordered from Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Company of Greenock, Glasgow, the Andania, the Alaunia land the Aurania.

The Alaunia was the second of the three ships to be launched, on 9 June 1913.  She weighed in at 13,405 tons gross and was fitted out with twin-screw quadruple-expansion engines manufactured by the shipbuilders, which developed 8,500hp, enough to push her and her sister ships to a top speed of 14.5 knots.  The Alaunia was constructed of steel with three decks and bridge superstructure, which gave her a total height of 243 feet. She was 540 feet long with a beam of 64 feet. On board was accommodation for 520 second class and 1,620 third-class passengers. The usual third-class dormitories were replaced in this vessel by four- and six-berth cabins. She carried a crew of 289.

The Alaunia, Andania and Aurania were more or less identical vessels. Each was fitted with two masts and each had two towering funnels amidships in the Cunard Line's classic red with black bands at the top.

The Alaunia made its maiden voyage on 27 November 1913 from Liverpool to Boston via Queenstown and Portland, arriving in Boston on 6 December 1913. She went on to continue regular Atlantic crossings throughout the first half of 1914 taking emigrants to new lives in America. However, the Great War which was now engulfing Europe caught up with the Alaunia in August 1914, when she was requisitioned as a troopship. The Andania was requisitioned just two months later in October, also as a troopship.

In 1916, the Alaunia returned to the cold North Atlantic to her first wartime role of carrying troops to the European theatre from Canada and America. She was joined on the London to New York run by one of her two original sister ships, the Andania.  It was in this role that the Alaunia left London on 19 September 1916 on a return voyage to New York. Unbeknown to her, the hand of fate was now turning against her, for the return leg of this voyage was to be her last.

On 19 October, having safely crossed the dangerous Atlantic on the return leg, as she headed up the English Channel for London, she was suddenly rocked without warning by an enormous explosion two miles south of the Royal Sovereign Lightship, off Eastbourne, East Sussex.  She slewed to a wallowing halt and it soon became clear that she had struck a mine. The alert was put out and rescue vessels got up steam and headed towards her. Being such a sizeable vessel she did not sink immediately. She remained afloat but started to settle slowly into the water. An initial attempt was made to take the ship in tow with tugs and run for shore to beach the vessel and save it.  However, the damage caused by the mine explosion proved too severe; the rate of water flooding into her hull was too fast.

The Alaunia settled steadily into the water and when it became clear that she was going to founder before the shallows could be reached, the order was given for the ship to be abandoned.  All passengers and 163 of the crew were safely taken ashore.  Two of the crew, a steward and a trimmer, sadly perished.  As she disappeared beneath the dark waters of the Channel, the Alaunia made her last voyage, to the bottom of the Channel where she lies today.

The Alaunia's sister ship, Andania, also failed to survive the war.  She was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat to the north of Rathlin Island lighthouse with the loss of seven.

More details on the RMS Alaunia are contained in Dive England's Greatest Shipwrecks.