New Britain herald., 1919-05-02
CUNARD line HAD
GREAT WAR RECORD
Lost Thirty Big Boats and
500 Sailors

New york. May 2.-While all of
the big steamship companies whose
vessels DIV the seven seas are in line
for distinguished service decora-
tion Of some sort for their invaluable
aid in helping win the war, there is
not one more worthy of any honor
which might be bestowed than the
1 Cunard Steamship company, Ltd. Co.
operating with all Of it's numerous
peace~time competitors, the Cunard
line put in every ton af1oat at the
time of the beginning of the conflict
and later thousands of tons more
that were On the ways, with the re-
suit that when peace is officially de-
clared figures will show that damage
done to the great fleet amounts to 60
pei cent of the total.
EXACTLY the variety and extent of
some of the services rendered by the
Cunard line are difficult to realize
until detailed account is made.
While it does not tell all, the latest
chronicle OF the war activities of the
vessels of the company is published
in the Journal of Commerce Of Liv-
erpool, the British headquarters Of
the company. Excerpts from this
publication throw great light on just
how great has been the contribution !
of the Cunurd line to the successful
issue of the war.
At the outbreak of the war the
Cunard feet consisted of 26 steam
ships, of which fifteen were lost, with
two exceptions, by enemy action. OF
ships acquired subsequently, eight
were lost. They comprised Sc per
cent of the fleets total of $4,000
tons. The loss of chartered tonnage
sells lost during the war to thirty and
$50 seamen gave their lives.
Cunard line steamships served as
armed cruisers. transports and hos
pita1 ships and steamed 100000
miles, or more than 40 times the
circumference of the earth They
transported just under a million SOL
diers and more than 100000 tons
of foodstuffs and war supplies. Near !
ly 100000 American soldiers were /
taken overseas on Cunard line YES I
sells, being 10 per cent of those car |
rfed OH board British vessels from |
America to France.
Not only did the Cunard transport !
troops and supplies but it fitted out |
vessels for the British government, |
ASSEMBLED guns artillery wheels, !
parts of submarines and mines. To |
disnantle the Aquitania and the |
CORONA in the first week of the war,
after they had been requisitioned as
armed, cruisers, required 5000 men,
The Cunard steamships carried
troops between England and the Oar
1a-ellos, E%-pt, South Africa and
India.
The greater part of essential food
stuffs and munitions Of war came
from America and the North Atlantic
and the submarine infested ap-
proaches % Great Britain's coasts
were never free of Cunard ships.
The Aquitania, which is Britain
latest steamship, has been an armed
merchant cruiser, hospital ship and
q transport. In the spring of 1918,
in nine trips, she carried 10000
troops TO Europe.
Very similar was the experience of
the Mauret7nia. Skillful navigation,
combined. with their high speed, put
both the A1uitania and Mauretania
safely through.
To the Carmania belongs the high
honor of being the only British armed
auxiliary cruiser to destroy German
vessel in single armed combat. In
September, 1914, she sank the Ger
man converted cruiser Cap Trafalgar
off the African coast after a fight
lasting nearly two hours.
The Laconia, then a converted
cruiser, aided in the operations re-
sulting in the sinking of the German
cruiser k0enigsburg, in the Rufugi
river, East Africa, and the company's
steamship Thracia fought her way for
five months through the ice fields to
ArchangeI TO deliver an important
cargo for the Russian government.
Other Curard vessels fought SUBJ
marines persistently.
The Liverpool article recalls the
tragedy Of the Lusitania, which
reused the United States more than
any other affair during the war, and
the I.aconia affair, which was the
overt act that caused President
wilson to call for hostilities against
Germany.