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Carmania’s sister ship
Caronia was launched July 13th
1904 with piston type engines.
Carmania followed seven months
later powered by three of the new steam
turbine engines. This allowed Cunard to
compare each ships performance.
Carmania set out on her maiden
voyage from Liverpool - New York December
2nd 1905. That crossing showed Cunard the
turbine engines could be operated at
higher speeds and were more economical to
run. Carmania was almost lost to
fire while docked at Liverpool in 1910.
Luckily, the fire never exceeded her
passenger decks and she returned to the
Liverpool - New York run after a few
months of repairs.
On a return journey to Liverpool in
October 1913, Carmania picked up
survivors from the fire damaged Dutch
emigrant ship Volturno, 30 crew
and 130 passengers lost their lives in
that incident. While serving for the
British Navy as an armed merchant cruiser
in 1914, she came across the Hamburg
Amerika Line’s Cap
Trafalgar near Trinidad. That ship
had also been converted to an armed
merchant cruiser for the German Navy. In
the pursuing hour-long battle, Cap
Trafalgar was sunk and
Carmania lost seven of her crew
after being hit by 79 shells. She had to
undergo repairs at Gibralter before
serving as a troopship for the remainder
of the war. In the months following
the German surrender, Carmania was
used in the repatriation of Canadian
servicemen before being returned to
Cunard to have her interiors restored.
The completion of that work saw her
re-deployed on the Liverpool - New York
run in 1920. Three years later, Cunard
had Carmania converted to make her
more suitable for cruising. Although
operating between cruising and the
Atlantic run helped keep Carmania
in service through some of the hardest
times for shipping companies, the
continuation of the depression into the
1930s led to her being scrapped at
Blyth/England in 1932.
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