Anchor Line’s SS CITY OF ROME – July 4th Menu – 1900 – Russian Caviar

United States Lines SS MANHATTAN – July 4th Menu -1937 – Australian Kangaroo Tail Soup

Alaska Steamship Company’s SS ALEUTIAN – July 4th Menu – 1938 – More Russian Caviar

RMS ATHENIA.

Cruiise history looks at the first civilian casualty of World War II.  The passenger ship was the Anchor-Donaldson liner RMS ATHENIA which was chartered to the Cunard Line.  She was sunk without warning west of Scotland by the German submarine U-30.

The German U Boat U-30 had been at sea for several days, under strict orders to avoid contact or discovery. On September 3rd 1939 she received notification that Germany was now at war with Great Britain.

World War II marked the end of the British Empire.  This is great newsreel footage from You Tube.

The U boat’s commander was Lieutenant Fritz-Julius Lemp. He had been in command for almost a year, therefore was not unaware of the “rules”. According to Admiral Doenitz at his trial at Nurenberg, Lemp had been under orders, when notified of the outbreak of hostilities, to keep a lookout for Armed Merchant Cruisers. Doenitz is not specific as to why this should be a priority at the outbreak of war. Germany had invaded Poland on 1st September 1939 and on 3rd September 1939, at 1115 hrs, Britain declared war on Germany.

The Anchor-Donaldson Liner RMS Athenia, on charter to Cunard, had already left Glasgow on the 1st September and was heading for Montreal with 1100 passengers, more than 300 of which were American.

Many were women and children. On the evening of September 3rd, she was sighted by the U-30 about 250 miles northwest of Inishtrahull, Northern Ireland. She was running without lights.

Before sailing all German U boats had been issued with strict orders to operate within the Prize Rules, international laws governing the conduct of war at sea.

Ten hours after war had been declared between Britain and Germany this telegram – an S.O.S following a torpedo strike – reported the first attack

This was known as the Hague convention. Merchant ships were to be stopped and searched, if they were found to be carrying enemy cargo, they could be sunk.

The motor yacht Southern Cross collected a number of survivors before transferring them to the freighter  City of Flint.  The Southern Cross was owned by the Swedish industrialist Axel Leonard Wenner-Gren who purchased the yacht from Howard Hughes.

This was only after the crew had been seen safely into lifeboats. U-30 had received this signal. Upon sighting the ship, Lemp decided there and then that she was an Armed Merchant Cruiser and shadowed her, watching her zig-zig pattern and course and speed.

Lemp attacked the Athenia without warning. He fired two torpedoes, one of which exploded amidships, ripping open the bulkhead between the engine room and the boiler room. As soon as he had fired the two torpedoes he dived if a torpedo should come back on him. One did misfire. As he came back up to the surface he saw the Athenia starting to list and fired a third torpedo.

Perhaps this torpedo being fired caused some of the survivors, in their panic, to imagine that they had been “fired upon”, as this was stated at the inquiry.  Lemp was by now close enough to see her silhouette. Something troubled him, as the radio operator, Hogel, later recalled that he had heard the distress call.

“I realized it could not be a troop transport but had passengers on board. I knew her name from the call sign – Athenia. Then the commander came to the radio room and asked for the Lloyds Register which listed all sea vessels and the various types. His fingers came to rest on the Athenia. He was, of course, shocked”.

An apparent clear insight into what had gone through Lemps mind and his reaction.

Soon afterwards the U-30 intercepted a plain language transmission from the ship identifying itself as the Athenia. Now that the Athenia had been transmitting, there was little need for Lemp to conceal his location, but he failed to radio back to base with his report, instead choosing to remain silent.

Lemp knew full well the enormity of his blunder and of the consequences to Germany.

The ship sank with the loss of 112 passengers and crew.

However, despite the fact that Lemp had murdered 28 US citizens, within hours Roosevelt had announced that his Government was preparing “a declaration of American neutrality”.

Visit Mike Kemble’s excellent site for more information on the Athenia. Many of the images are from his account of the sinking. Kemble is an authority on maritime history during World War II.

When the first British reports were received the German government did not believe them. The Propaganda Ministry asked if the Kriegsmarine was responsible and was told by naval authorities that no U-Boats were in the area. On September 7th, Grand Admiral Raeder stated that all U-Boats had been contacted and none was responsible for the disaster. This was also conveyed to the American ambassador. This statement was not entirely true, for several boats had not reported in. In fact, the Germans would not learn the facts until September 27 when the U-30 returned to Kiel Harbour.

6th September 1939: A survivor from the ‘Athenia’ talking to journalists after coming ashore at Galway, from the Norwegian tanker, ‘Knote Nelson’, which rescued the survivors. The British ship, ‘Athenia’, was torpedoed by a German submarine, the first attack of its kind.

The significance was not lost on Hitler. The first thing was to deny everything. According to Josef Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, it was in fact a torpedo from a British submarine that had hit the Athenia. Later he added that it was all a dirty trick by Winston Churchill to discredit Germany and to pull the United States into the war. Hitler was furious and imposed severe restrictions on all U-Boat operations. Admiral Doenitz, commander of the U-Boat arm, was to be frustrated by these restrictions for many months.

The next step which Hitler undertook was to send out an immediate order to the Kriegsmarine:

“The Fuhrer has forbidden attacks on passenger ships sailing independently or in convoy”.

The U-30, a Type VIIA U-boat seen here in this pre-war photo. When the war started, the numerals were removed from the conning tower to keep the enemy guessing. To retain their individualty, U-boat insignias were very popular.

No amount of official denials could convince the outside world that the loss of the SS Athenia was anything but a return to “German Barbarism”, as the unrestricted submarine warfare of the First World War had been termed. Such moral limitations on submarine operations were not entirely logical. For a submarine, stealth is its most effective weapon. The Hague Convention agreements requiring submarines to surface and warn surface vessels, allowing crews to launch boats before attacking, were unrealistic. The British reaction was to immediately implement the convoy system and ordered all shipping to comply.

After the Athenia affair, U-30 had been damaged as a result of a brawl with two British destroyers after the sinking of the freighter Fanad Head, Lemp limped back to Wilhelmshaven with his command, arriving there on the 27th. of September. He now took off for Berlin to report to Grossadmiral Kar Donitz and own up to his mistake. The Germans went to great lengths to cover up this event, even to falsifying Lemp’s war diary, and removing the page that reported his action against Athenia.

At the Nuremberg Trial, Donitz had to face accusations about hushing up this attack, which in fact killed 118 passengers and crew members.

This was a sorry affair in the annals of the U-Boat war, committed in the first few hours on the very first day of WW2, on the 3rd. of September 1939.

This quality three-quarter portrait view of the Anchor Liner CALEDONIA must have earned Fred Pansing some additional acclaim to his already well established reputation with the passenger liner companies. Bristling with speed and strength, the massive liner is churning water on her way to America. The anxious passengers and crew are visible, with the heights of the red air vents and the dual black stacks rising high, topped still by the American Flag as the destination symbol, and the company’s red anchor diagonally across a white field house-flag off the mizzen top.

Launched in 1904, CALEDONIA registered at 500 feet and 9,223 gross tons out of the Glasgow Yard of D. & W. Henderson for the Anchor Fleet, the third vessel of five eventually so named for the line. Pushing her twin-screws with a massive steam engine, she could make 18 knots while comfortably carrying accommodations for 383 1st, 216 2nd and 869 3rd class passengers.

She has put into the premier service on the Glasgow to New York route immediately, where she served for nine years before being commissioned as a troop ship in 1914. Carrying soldiers and horses from Dublin to France, to Bombay and Canada, then in the Mediterranean, she was torpedoed and sunk on Dec. 4, 1916, 125 miles from Malta.

This excellent work was a direct commission for the Anchor Line, Scotland’s oldest such company founded in 1856, the year they began their service to New York. Pansing in no small way would have contributed to their success, in displaying ships such as CALEDONIA in such a professional and confident manner. The company used this very image for advertising posters and postcards, some of which survive in collections today, but there is nothing quite like the original work of art. It makes one wish to have had the opportunity to voyage onboard such a majestic ship.

Anchor Line was founded in 1856 as Handysides & Henderson although Handysides & Co. had owned ships prior to this date. In 1872 the Barrow Steamship Co. was formed in partnership with the Duke of Devonshire and ships were later transferred between Anchor Line and Barrow SS Co., but the two companies have been treated as one for the purposes of this list. In 1911 Cunard purchased the whole of the ordinary share capital of Anchor Line and in 1912 a joint service was formed to India with Brocklebank Line to be known as Anchor-Brocklebank. In 1916 Anchor-Donaldson Line was incorporated with Donaldson Line to operate services to Canada.

The firm of Anchor Line went into liquidation in 1935, but extra finance was injected by Runciman Ltd and a new concern, Anchor Line (1935) Ltd was formed. Anchor-Donaldson and Anchor-Brocklebank ceased to exist and Cunard had no connection with the new company. In 1949 United Molasses Co (Athel Line) gained a controlling interest in the company and by the following year owned the whole ordinary share capital.

Picture above taken in 1956 of the Anchor Line Head Office, 12-16. St. Vincent Place, Glasgow.  The office was opened in 1907.

The transatlantic passenger service ended in 1956, but in 1960 a new joint Anchor-Cunard service was introduced. United Molasses Co. became a subsidiary of Tate & Lyle in 1965 and Anchor Line was sold to Runciman & Co, Newcastle and in subsequent years several of Runciman’s Moor Line ships were transferred to Anchor. The final passenger voyage to India took place in 1966. The Currie Line of Leith together with their fleet was acquired in 1969 and George Gibson, Leith in 1972. Anchor became the shipowning company for the group in 1976 and by 1986 all that remained of the company was five liquid gas carriers, technically owned by Gibson & Co.

For information on this painting please contact the Vallejo Gallery.

Anchor Line’s SS CITY OF ROME – July 4th Menu – 1900 – Russian Caviar

United States Lines SS MANHATTAN – July 4th Menu -1937 – Australian Kangaroo Tail Soup

Alaska Steamship Company’s SS ALEUTIAN – July 4th Menu – 1938 – More Russian Caviar

Ocean liners were the primary mode of global travel for over a century, from the mid-19th century until they began to be supplanted by jet airliners in the 1960s. A wonderful new youTUBE video.

In 1838 two brothers, Nicol & Robert Handyside set up business in Glasgow as ship brokers and merchants trading with Russia and the Baltic ports. Towards the end of 1852 Thomas Henderson, an experienced ship master, joined the firm. It was not until 1856 that the title of Anchor Line was adopted and the service between Glasgow and New York inaugurated. In 1855 three clipper ships were delivered and on the 3rd. April of that year the TEMPEST, with John Henderson (younger brother of Thomas) in command sailed for Bombay. She was the first ship of the fleet to be converted to a steamship in 1856. Her initial performance was not spectacular as it took her 28 days to cross the Atlantic. With the Glasgow-New York service well established the company looked around for new routes. The Calcutta service was opened by the BELGRAVIA from Glasgow in 1882. It was not until 1948 that the company’s eastern passenger service became properly organized. In April of that year the CALEDONIA (V) sailed on her maiden voyage to Bombay. The CALEDONIA and CIRCASSIA were not far behind. These three motor ships carried 300 First Class passengers and were able to maintain a regular monthly service.

Click here to read more about THE ANCHOR LINE

THE CITY OF ROME – Constructed of iron, clipper stem, three funnels, four masts, single screw and a speed of 16 knots. There was accommodation for 271-1st, 250-2nd and 810-3rd class passengers. She was considered by many to be the most beautiful steamer ever built and was one of the first ocean liners.

1894 – 4th Of July – Menu – aboard THE CITY OF ROME and poster from the Anchor Line