#RMS Lusitania

[teilzami]

Continuing drawing ships. Lusitania and Mauretania

You can say "Aquitania is also in Lusitania-class!", but I didn't find any information about "Lusitania-class" existence, and Aquitania just does not fit in this ship-mold

#art #artists on tumblr #digital art #artwork #my art #teilzami #ship art #ocean liners #rms mauretania #rms lusitania #mauretania #lusitania #cunard line

[postingcards]

lusitania at new york postcard ca. 1900s @postcardtimemachine

#postcard #postcards #rms lusitania #ocean liners #cunard line #nighttime #1900s #obsessed w how her funnels are like. just extremely the wrong colors

[rms-mauretanic]

The queen of photo-bombing gets photo-bombed.

Villain origin story

(image from here)

#ocean liners #rms olympic #rms lusitania

[rmsfranconia]

some absolutely beautiful shots from some recent Oceanliner designs videos

#ocean liner #ocean liners #SS America #rms lusitania

[hatsalad]

I've realised the funniest way to end a historically set story. Have the ending be the main character getting on to a ship that sinks irl. Like the normal people reading will be like aw, this symbolises them moving on and shit completely unaware that this ship is gonna sink.

Meanwhile, people into ships reading the mc getting on the Lusitania on May 1st 1915:

#ive genuinely been cackling at this idea imagine #ocean liner #lusitania #rms lusitania #story idea #me

[hazel-of-sodor]

Day 25-RMS Aquitania

Traintober 2023

Other Stories

Day 25-Distress Signal

RMS Aquitania 

Aquitania tried to struggle against the tugboats, but her fires were long gone out. She had managed to get out a quick distress call before they shut off her wireless, she had little hope anyone would answer. Her owners had told her she was being sold to American owners, instead she was being dragged to Scotland for scrap. 

Even with her boiler cold, her size meant the tugs had to strain to maintain control of the liner. 

'I served them for thirty-five years,' she thought bitterly, 'but I'm not even worth the trouble of trying to sell me.'

She desperately used the last of the steam she had hidden away to blast her whistles a final time, the sound echoing mournfully through the fog.

"Stop with all that!" The lead tugboat snapped. "No one is coming. We made sure Mauretania was in New York. Anyone who would care is across the Atlantic, by the time they got word it will be too late." He growled with grim satisfaction.

The blast of a Liner's horn in close proximity proved him wrong.

Had the tug been less assured of his control of the situation, he may have noticed the other ships approach through the fog. As it was, distracted as he had been by Aquitania's struggles, he only had time to see a massive prow cut through the fog and bowl him under as the liner charged through the tugboats' ranks. Even when rebuilt, the distinctive lines of an Olympic class were unmistakable.

The great liner disappeared into the fog, blasting her whistles challengingly. The remaining tugs whirled to face the direction she had gone. This was their second mistake.

They were caught completely off guard when Olympic herself slammed through their lines from Aquitania's starboard side at full steam, her prow slicing the lines, her wake threatening to swamp the smaller tugs. 

Before the tugs could recover, the youngest sister appeared from port and expertly threw her line, taking Aquitania under tow.

The tugboats went to pursue, only for Olympic and the first ship, who could only be Tina, to cut them off, crossing in an x behind Aquitania's stern.

"Sorry it took so long!" Britannic called back. "We thought we waiting for Tina, but she was already steaming for you."

"I thought she was mid-refit?" Aquitania called back

Brit snorted, "Like that was gonna stop her."

The mentioned liner pulled alongside, and sure enough, Aquitania could now see her superstructure was stripped bare.

"How's it going Aqua?" The flagship yelled, beaming with the flush of battle.

"I've told you not to call me that," Aquitania groaned. She couldn't stop her smile, however, "Better now thanks to you three."

Olympic upon her other side, "Got that out of your system?" She teased Tina.

"No, but it'll do."

Olympic muttered something about battle-crazed little sisters while Brit laughed ahead.

"How did you know I needed help?" Aquitania asked.

"Maura got a signal through, relayed from ship to ship from New York'" Olympic explained.

"Caomhnóir found me at the drydock," Tina added.

"Caomhnóir?" Aquitania asked, "But I'm not an engine!"

"The Lady warned him as a favor to the Siren." Brit chimed in.

Aquitania froze, "...the Siren?"

Tina smirked, "Lusitania may not have been allowed to intervene directly, but your sister didn't let that stop her."

A/N: Some Context-Yes all three Olympic class liners are alive and well in the 50s, in service with the Sodor Star Line. As for Lusitania, she did sionk during the war, but rather than dying out right she was offered the position of The Siren, the Gaurdian spirit of the Atlantic. Essentially she serves a very simular role to Caomhnóir but for ships, and she doesn't have a true physical form anymore.

#Traintober #Traintober23 #Traintober 2023 #ttte fanfic #rws fanfic #fanfic #RMS Olympic #RMS Titanic #RMS Britannic #RMS Aquitania #RMS Mauretania #RMS Lusitania #Caomhnóir

[electricnik]

Cunard sailing list from 1914. Featuring the Lusitania, Mauretania and Aquitania.

#ocean liner #rms lusitania #rms mauretania #rms aquitania

[thienvaldram]

Doctor Who Fanfic: The Greyhound's Wake

I completed an Eight & Charley pure historical fanfiction based around the last voyage of the RMS Lusitania.

It can be read here.

Was inspired to see if I could tackle it after reading Erik Larson's "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania" as well as finding out about "Lusitania: The Greyhound's Wake", an in development interactive museum by HFX Studios (And the origin of the story's name)

#doctor who #dweu #doctor who eu #doctor who fanfiction #eighth doctor #charley pollard #rms lusitania #lusitania #pure historical #fanfic #writing #actually my first time writing the Doctor ever #big finish audios #the doctor #big finish #eighth doctor audios #plus a few references to the EDAs

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

so i have a soft spot for the 2006 film poseidon which is a film i reckon about 24 other people remember existing since warner bros lost like $70million on it, and i just like, need to talk about it.

its a loose remake of a 1972 film, and overall, its a very silly film, however its also connected to massive advancements in oceanography, and through that connection, also connected to an incident that could have killed around 10000 american recruits during ww2 in less than an hour.

and i cannot stop thinking about this stupid film so please enjoy this stupidly long post no one is going to read because I Need To Infodump.

so poseidon (2006)...

it's a very of its time disaster film with your group of plucky survivors trying to overcome more and more obstacles as they desperately fight for safety. among them, youve got kurt russell as an ex nyc firefighter and mayor because its 2006, of course you do. emmy rossums here because of course she is (again, its 2006), and surprise richard dreyfus is here as a gay naval architect who survives the film. fergie even has a cameo and its honestly a crime that the song she sings for it is not on spotify.

but the film is also very much not a of its time disaster film, because production decided to not update the setting. and i have absolutely no idea why. and its confused me for years now because its an easy fix.

see the 1972 film (the poseidon adventure) and the book its based on, both take place on an ocean liner, and that makes sense for that time.

contrary to popular beliefs, ocean liners =/= cruise ships.

during the late 19th century and most of the 20th century, ocean liners were all the rage, because if you wanted to go from liverpool to new york, they were your best bet.

with the invention of steam engines, they were no longer dependent on weather, and once wood was swapped for steel, they were at serious less risk of sinking. this meant they could run reliable trips from point a to point b and back again. they were essentially buses for the ocean. thats what titanic was btw.

while less popular due to jet travel in the 70s, people were still using them. the ss michelangelo sailed her maiden voyage in 1965, and ran for ten years still. it does make sense for both the book and film to take place on an ocean liner.

it does not make sense for the 2006 iteration to take place on an ocean liner, but it does. and its not even an ocean liner turned cruise ship like the rms queen mary 2 or the ss france/ss norway. there were no ocean liner only businesses operating in 2006 because you can now take a plane rather than a five day trip across the atlantic.

but in poseidon (2006), the rms poseidon is not a cruise ship. it is an ocean liner, and designating it as rms means it is also delivering international royal mail. theres even a plot about a stowaway aboard the ship which is just a tad bit bizarre. its such an odd choice not to simply update it so its a cruise ship. most people dont know the difference between them, theres no reason to specify that it is an ocean liner.

(its especially odd because the gay naval architect apparently knows the vessel very well which, sir, who is paying you to draft up ocean liner designs in 2006??)

weirdly enough though, the film does decide to update the actual cause for the disaster, which will bring us back to the ww2 point.

the general gist of the story is that some environmental event causes the ship to capsize (turn upside down in the water), and our heroes have to escape the ship.

i have attempted to read the book, but i didnt enjoy it and i was getting a feeling that the author, paul gallico, was antisemitic. he was. he specifically expressed it by saying jewish folks love basketball because its a game specialised for tricky characters, to paraphrase. yeah no theres also basketball antisemitism going on.

in the book, its an underwater earthquake that causes the ship to capsize. the quake created a 90ft wave (put a pin in that, we'll get back to it) which i believe hit the ship side-on, after the ship fell into a deep trough.

i have no idea if this is possible irl as im just an autistic with a special interest in ocean liners.

in the 1972 film, its a tsunami that hits the ship. i believe the tsunami is also caused by an underwater earthquake (again, put a pin in that) which would hit the ship on the side and cause it to roll right over (put a pin in this too btw).

again, i dont know about the veracity of this happening irl. i know tsunamis are related to underwater earthquakes, but as far as i know, they dont form into the massive wave until the wave is closer to shore?

but anyway, in the 2006 film, the capsizing is caused by a rogue wave.

as aforementioned, my special interest is ocean liners so i know quite a lot about rogue waves and i dont know how much of that is common knowledge so time for another abrupt explanation of niche topics.

so rogue waves, what are they? well, theyre big fuck off waves. descriptions tend to put them anywhere from 50ft high to 100ft (10 stories high).

for a wave to be considered a rogue wave, it needs to be more than twice the height of any other wave in that region. theyre unpredictable and often occur out of nowhere. theyre more common in some specific regions like off the coast of south africa, and are distinct from tsunamis. they can occur both in the ocean and on the great lakes.

for centuries, sailors have told tales of them but like krakens and sea monsters, they werent believed. this is partly due to survivorship bias because if youre in a wooden sailboat and get hit by a rogue wave, youre not going to survive. it was only after advancements in ship building that people began to survive them. and even then, its not guaranteed.

some theorise rogue waves were responsible for the sinking of both the ss munich/munchen and the edmund fitzgerald.

still, it wasnt until one was recorded by a research post in 1995 that rogue waves genuinely became a serious topic within oceanography.

however, we did have credible reports of them hitting ocean liners long before then. both the rms lusitania (in 1910) and the ss michelangelo (in 1966) were badly damaged when they ran into rogue waves bow first (head-on). they both fell into deep troughs before the wave hit and both of their bows sustained serious damage. three people lost their lives on the ss michelangelo.

(damage done to ss michelangelo)

despite this, it was preferable for both vessels to hit the wave head-on. both were ocean liners with bows designed to break through waves, and designed to be able to keep sailing even if the bow was caved in.

(fun fact: if titanic had hit the iceberg head on, there was a very good chance she wouldnt have sunk)

now you might want to know why we know it was preferable to be hit head-on, and why i specified the ship would have been hit side-on. this is how the ship was hit in the 2006 film also. and well, this is when were getting into ww2 territory.

the lusitania and michelangelo are not the only ocean liners to encounter a rogue wave. this also happened to the rms queen mary in 1942.

just some quick background on the queen mary; she was launched in 1936 and built with the goal of stealing the blue riband (the record for fastest journey for a passenger line from southampton to new york) from the ss normandie, owned by french line. queen mary was owned by the cunard line whose reputation partly rested on speed. both the lusitania and mauritania (both cunard ships) had won the blue riband at some point. in 1942, queen mary held the blue riband and was considered the fastest passenger liner in the world.

at that point though, she has been requisitioned by the admiralty for the war effort and was acting as a troop ship. a very effective troop ship as she averaged 28 knots in speed and they managed to up her capacity from around 3300 (including crew) to 16000.

she also was owned by cunard line who have a long history of conferring with the admiralty during peacetimes. their ships were designed with spaces left for guns and weapons. part of why the lusitania was sunk by a u-boat in ww1 was her secretly carrying firearms back from the "neutral" america to the uk despite it still being a passenger ship. the admiralty knew queen mary would be a massive benefit in a war.

this isnt to say that she was perfect, however. she was a famous roller. see, when youre building a ship, you expect it to roll somewhat on any difficult seas. to combat extreme rolling (which can be fatal), ships are built with their centres of buoyancy and gravity close together. this reduces rolling, but can cause very sudden lists (tilts). as queen mary was a big fuck off ship, it was assumed she wouldnt roll badly, so she was designed with a slightly bigger gap between those centres which caused very slow rolling from side to side. this often felt like the ship would never right itself, and as handrails were not considered necessary at first, passengers had to shuffle down hallways.

cunard took her in for repairs and added stabilisers to lessen the roll. they also added handrails. it didnt fix the rolling, but it was bearable and not considered dangerous. she soon became a superstar liner, and again, a very good troop ship.

hitler had even put a monetary bounty specifically on the queen mary for whichever submarine could shoot her, with the iron cross promised also. this did not come to pass.

(rms queen mary as a troopship)

what did come to pass, however, was a 92ft high rogue wave smashing into her portside (left). this is the absolute opposite of what you want to happen.

there was an attempt to steer her head-on into the wave but ocean liners that size take two miles to stop moving. they also couldnt risk too sudden of a turn because they were in the atlantic in a storm. this attempt to change course is repeated in the 2006 film and is also unsuccessful.

so now when the wave hit queen mary, it caused her to begin listing to starboard (right side) because a 90ft ocean wave just smashed into her. and she began to list. the portholes broke and wager poured in, making the list worst.

at first, it was 15°, then 20°, then 25°, 30°, 40°, 50°, 52°

then she stopped. and she stayed there, listing 52° to starboard. she was nearly capsized. and what must have felt like hours for those 11000 recruits and crew, she just stayed there, nearly on her side in the atlantic ocean.

and then finally, she began to right herself, one degree at a time, until she was back steady as if nothing had happened.

the technicians had later examined the ship and estimated that if shed listed just 3° extra, they would have capsized and sank, taking 11000 men with her.

so i imagine at this point, if youre even reading this anymore, youre like okay, kai, we get it, you dont wanna get hit broadside by a rogue wave, do we need all this detail?

and well, no. you dont need to know it and i dont need to tell it but here i am, telling you so.

but it is very relevant to poseidon (2006) because remember how its a remake of a film based on a book? and that book was written by the basketball antisemite? yeah, so paul gallico was on board the queen mary when this happened.

and this is what inspired him to write the book.

obviously, at the time, we didnt fully understand rogue waves so gallico explained it as an underwater earthquake, but we know now it was a rogue wave.

and so the 2006 film honours that and makes it a rogue wave. they never really explain it so unless youre insufferable like me, you might just be like what the fuck? is that poseidon (god) doing that?

but im gonna redirect your attention to the fact that the queen mary was 3° away from capsizing and that 3° could have caused an entirely different outcome to the war.

if she had capsized, she would have taken 10000 recruits with her and the allies would have lost their best troop ship. morale would have been affected because back then, ocean liners were household celebrities. they were adored by residents.

im not a historian, and especially not a war historian, so im not gonna be like oh look alternate history where the nazis won oooh how edgy?

but like, just a few more feet of water on that wave and parts of ww2 would be so different.

it also would have affected the cunard line massively after the war, and the white star line (titanics owners) as well. i believe their merger was after ww2.

also, gallico would have died so his book wouldnt have existed, neither would the film adaptation or the remake. it all just comes back around like a never ending carousel of feral seahorses.

but anyway, away from all the existential crises. i wanted to actually address what made me want to write this stupidly long post in the first place:

an article i skim read that addressed the veracity of the inciting event in the 2006 film, aka the rogue wave.

after a mostly accurate explanation of rogue waves and at least one misuse of cruise ship for ocean liner, the article concluded that a rogue wave hitting an ocean liner like that was simply so unlikely, it was basically impossible.

and if youve got this far in my ramblings, you might be able to understand the level of bafflement i felt reading that.

because while it is a fair conclusion as it is a very unlikely thing to happen. but THIS FILM EXISTS BECAUSE A ROGUE WAVE SMASHED INTO AN OCEAN LINER AND NEARLY CAPSIZED IT

#kai rambles #a lot #long post #very long post #this is just me infodumping into the void #poseidon (2006) #the poseidon adventure #tw antisemitism #rms queen mary #ss normandie #ss michelangelo #rms lusitania #rms mauritania #rms titanic #titanic #ocean liners #SpIns #ww2 #rogue waves #tw adolf hitler #tw nazis #tw ww2 #ss munich #edmund fitzgerald #my autism is singing sea shanties tonight lads #anyway #im glad the gay survived the action film in 2006 #shipposting

[lena-oleanderson]

The Wrecks of the RMS Lusitania, the Edmund Fitzgerald and Us from Side Wounds

#poetry #poem #writerblr #grief #poets on tumblr #lena's poetry archives #on grief #grief poetry #rms lusitania #edmund fitzgerald #lake superior never gives up her dead and neither does grief

[aimmyarrowshigh]

i fucking love the titanic (and shout-out to the lusitania)

but no one should ever go into the ocean.

#titanic #rms titanic #lusitania #rms lusitania

[postingcards]

a cunarder—lusitania or mauretania—arriving in new york harbor art postcard by charles dixon. ca. 1909

#postcard #postcards #ocean liners #cunard line #rms lusitania #rms mauretania #art card #charles dixon #1900s

[your-resident-boat-person]

please tell me a few fun facts about ocean liners or like general information⁉️

I guess I'll start with the basics. Some of the most famous ocean liners of all time are the Titanic, Lusitania, and Queen Mary. Many mistake these vessels for cruise ships, but this is not the case. Ocean Liners are a nearly extinct breed of ship, with only one still remaining in service. The primary difference between the two is purpose. Ocean liners are meant to take you to a destination. Cruise ships kinda ARE the destination. You go on a cruise ship for fun. Before planes, the only way to cross the ocean was via an ocean liner. Think about it like this: you wouldn't get on a plane and take a 14-hour flight for fun. The same applies to ocean liners. Meanwhile, you DO board a cruise ship for fun. In terms of construction, ocean liners are built to be extremely durable to be able to plow through the rough conditions of the oceans no matter what to keep to their strict schedule. In stark contrast, cruise ships are built pretty weak by comparison. They very rarely need to do trans-Atlantic crossings, so they don't need to be built to whether through those kinds of conditions. If there's bad weather, they simply reschedule. That's not an option for ocean liners. Also, cruise ships are built like a hotel on a barge, and are typically extremely top-heavy and ugly. This is because passengers rarely see the outside of the ship, so companies dont want to invest money in something that they think won't bring in customers. Ocean liners were much prettier, with sleeker lines, aerodynamic superstructures, and hydrodynamic hulls. This was to achieve the maximum speed by reducing the effects of air and water resistance. Ocean liners were also built to be pretty because they were often symbols of their nation. Many countries wanted the strongest, fastest, safest liner at sea. In stark contrast, cruise ships are a monument to corporate greed and represent nothing but unrestrained consumerism. Even the Queen Mary 2 (the last ocean liner in service and built in 2004), while resembling a cruise ship more than an ocean liner, is still leaps and bounds ahead of most cruise ships. Ocean liners like QM2 are also typically more stable, being overall less top-heavy and having deeper drafts. Also, the overall stronger construction helps as well. I'm going to stop talking before I go on forever. Thanks for the question!

#ocean liners #cruise ship #rms queen mary #rms titanic #rms lusitania #rms queen mary 2

[the-girl-in-the-high-castle]

I doubt that this has anything to do with the show, but I can’t help but think about the mention of three ships. Singleton company bought 3 German ships. First two being Prometheus and Kerberos and there is no mention of the third except that it existed.

So naturally, as someone who is obsessed with ships for most of my life, I had to connect it to actual ship disasters. In 20th century we have two big companies that suffered two of the greatest disasters of that kind in history.

White Star Line and Cunard line both had 3 sister ships that were their pride and unmatched in comparison to any other of their time. Titanic, Olympic and Britannic for WSL and Lusitania, Mauritania and Aquitania for CL.

Titanic and Lusitania were the greatest disasters of 20th century, matched only by Wilhelm Gustloff in WW2. Britannic also sank, but it wasn’t such a disaster because most of the people on it survived and it hit the mine during the war. But Titanic, in spite of everything, still had an air of mystery around it, most of all considering the theories about the Olympic actually being the one at the bottom of the ocean instead. Lusitania sinking is a public secret no one still talks about openly, which is that it was a sacrificial lamb sent to its terrible fate on purpose in order to bring US into war. 

The creators of the show have actually said that they based the look of the Kerberos on Lusitania.

Anyway, I don’t know why I wrote this, but it’s kind of not leaving me alone. There is also the mystery of Mary Celeste that matches almost perfectly to the mystery of the Prometheus at the beginning.

#1899 netflix #1899 #1899 theories #rambling #ships #it's all about ships #i love ships #Titanic #rms lusitania #mary celeste #obsession keeps obsessing #at least i can use one obsession to try and explain the other #even though i don't know why #lusitania is my favorite ship and i've been obsessed with its story for more than a decade

[unnecessarycraziness]

Super Hot Spicy Take™: the sinking of the Titanic is not the quintessential allegory for man’s hubris that popular culture makes it out to be. The treatment of it as “pride before a fall” requires that you remove the context behind Titanic, her time period, and the whole “unsinkable” thing, and when you factor that context in it becomes clear that the sinking was really just a tragic accident and more representative of the issues with outdated regulations than anything else.

On the contrary, Lusitania is the ship whose fate should be associated with man’s hubris, as she was widely believed to be fast enough to outrun any danger, thus implying she’d be immune to the very real perils of sailing in a war zone while carrying munitions. This belief led a great deal of people to ignore the warnings about U-boats and ultimately resulted in Lusitania sinking with the loss of over a thousand lives; as such, if we’re going to label any shipwreck as an allegory for mankind’s pride, it should be that one. In this essay I will

#all that said it feels weird to use real disasters as allegories and write them off as ‘oh humans are just too prideful’ #but still #if we’re gonna use shipwrecks as allegories i don’t think titanic is the one to pick for that #rms titanic #rms lusitania #hubris and whatnot #something tells me i’m reading waaay too much into things but hey that’s what i do anyway

[vox-anglosphere]

After Titanic, Lusitania was the most luxurious and safest ship afloat

#RMS Lusitania #Cunard Line #passenger ship #ocean liner #UK #WWI #submarine #torpedo #First class #7 May 1915