SS Cymric

SS Cymric was a steamship of the White Star Line built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast and launched on 12 October 1897.

SS Cymric
History
United Kingdom
Name:	SS Cymric
Owner:	White Star Line
Builder:	Harland and Wolff, Belfast
Yard number:	316
Launched:	12 October 1897
Completed:	5 February 1898
Maiden voyage:	29 April 1898
Fate:	Torpedoed by German U-boat U-20 on 8 May 1916.
General characteristics
Tonnage:	12,552 gross register tons (GRT)
Length:	585 ft 5 in (178.44 m)
Beam:	64 ft 3 in (19.58 m)
Speed:	15 knots
Capacity:	1,418 Passengers 258 1st class passengers 1,160 3rd class passengers

History

Construction

She had originally been designed as a combination passenger liner and livestock carrier, with accommodation for only First Class passengers. During the stages of her design layout, it became clearer to the designers at Harland and Wolff that combining passengers and livestock had become rather unpopular, so the spaces designated for cattle were reconfigured into Third Class accommodations. Cymric retained her relatively small and lower-powered machinery, intended to drive the ship at the slower, more economical speeds of a cargo-liner. When her livestock spaces were removed in favour of more passenger accommodation, the high internal volume provided by the former cargo space and the relatively small machinery space (as opposed to the more speed-orientated passenger liners of the time, which dedicated a large proportion of their hull space to boilers and engines) produced a ship that was relatively slow for a passenger liner but with much more interior space and an uncommonly high degree of comfort. The less powerful machinery produced less noise and vibration for passengers and had much lower running costs at the Cymric's intended service speed of 15knts than White Star's flagship Atlantic liner, the 20-knot Majestic. Although Cymric's design came about somewhat by chance, she proved a popular and profitable ship and marked the beginning of White Star's shift towards an emphasis on luxurious, high-quality and comfortable accommodation over outright speed on its liners which would mark it out in contrast to its rivals during the early 20th century.

Upon final completion, she was designed to carry 1,418 passengers; 258 in First Class and 1,160 in Third Class. Her First Class accommodations consisted of an array of three-berth cabins, both open and enclosed promenade decks, a smoke room and library, and a spacious and elegant dining room capped with a large dome. Her Third Class accommodations, as was the rule on all White Star ships, was strictly segregated at opposite ends of the ship, with quarters for single men forward, and single women, married couples and families with children aft. Forward, men were provided open-berth accommodation which was less crowded than seen on other vessels, while aft passengers were provided with a smoke room and general room. As was practiced aboard Teutonic and Majestic, and later Oceanic, a limited number of two-berth and four-berth cabins were strictly reserved for married couples and families with children, while single women were berthed in dormitory-style cabins for up to 20 people.[1]

Service history

She departed Liverpool on her maiden voyage on 29 April 1898, arriving in New York City on 9 May 1898. She quickly proved to be very popular on the North Atlantic, particularly with immigrants. She spent the first five years of her career on the White Star Line's main passenger service route between Liverpool and New York, until 1903 when she was transferred to White Star's newly acquired Liverpool-Boston route, which she sailed on for nine years alongside her running mates RMS Arabic and RMS Republic before being returned to the New York route in 1912. In all, her career with White Star spanned approximately 18 years, during which time she carried 155,522 passengers. That figure breaks down to 111,161 passengers westbound; with 31,387 on the New York service[2] and 79,774 on the Boston service,[3] and additional 44,361 passengers eastbound between the two service routes.[4]

War service

During both the Boer War and the First World War she was pressed into service as a troop and cargo transport. In 1914, Cymric transported British soldiers to France.[5]

In August 1915, under the command of Captain Frank E. Beadnell, Cymric delivered 17,000 tons of ammunition from New York to Liverpool, one of the biggest shipment of such kind from the United States since the start of the war.[6] She continued to shuttle between the Atlantic coast of the United States and Great Britain carrying cargo and passengers until her last voyage in April 1916.

On 29 April 1916, Cymric finished her loading in New York and sailed for Liverpool with 112 people on board including five or six passengers (sources vary) with Captain Beadnell in command. On 8 May 1916, she was torpedoed three times 140 miles west-north-west off Fastnet Rock, Ireland by Walther Schwieger's U-20, which had sunk RMS Lusitania a year earlier.[7] Torpedo explosion in the port side of her engine room instantly killed four crew members. Cymric sank the next day, altogether five lives were lost as one sailor fell into the sea during evacuation and drowned.[8] Since all who died were British citizens, there were no international repercussions. While the general location of her sinking is known, Cymric's wreck has not been located.[9]

Between 1914 and 1918 about 50 large oceangoing passenger steamships converted to war purposes as floating hospitals and troop transports were sunk in the Atlantic by the German navy,[10] and SS Cymric came to be the thirty-seventh in the list.[11]

References

1. The Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, Jun 10, 1899
2. New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957
3. Massachusetts Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963
4. UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960
5. Westlake, Ray. British Battalions in France and Belgium, 1914. London: Leo Cooper, 1997, p. 34.
6. The New York Times, 27 September 1915.
7. "White Star Liner, Cymric 1898–1916 sunk by U-20". Titanic and Other White Star Line Ships. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
8. Helgason, Guðmundur. "Ships hit during WWI: Cymric". German and Austrian U-boats of World War I - Kaiserliche Marine - Uboat.net. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
9. SS Cymric, White Star History
10. The Sinking of the Lusitania at 100: Passenger Ships in World War I, US Naval Institute, 7 May 2015
11. Nolan, Liam, and John E. Nolan. Secret Victory: Ireland and the War at Sea, 1914–1918. Cork: Mercier Press, 2009, p. 144.

External links

• Description of Cymric
• Sinking of Cymric
• Cymric Photo Gallery, Maritimequest