![]() For the same power output, Laurentic 's coal consumption was 12 to 15 percent less than Megantic 's. Laurentic produced 20 percent more power than her sister for the same coal consumption. She was completed on 15 April 1909 and Megantic followed on 3 June. Harland and Wolff built Laurentic on slipway number six of its South Yard in Belfast. This would allow IMM and Harland and Wolff to compare the two systems directly. Laurentic and Megantic were sisters whose only significant difference was their engines. However, Otaki lacked a sister ship for direct comparison. William Denny and Brothers launched the refrigerated cargo liner Otaki on 15 August 1908, less than a month before Laurentic, and completed her on 22 October, six months before Laurentic. Laurentic was not quite the first ship to have what came to be called "combination machinery". Four-cylinder triple-expansion engines drove her port and starboard propellers, and exhaust steam from their low-pressure cylinders drove the turbine. Megantic was built with twin propellers driven by conventional quadruple-expansion engines, but Laurentic was built with three screws and a turbine drove her middle screw. Laurentic under construction on slipway 6 in Harland and Wolff's South Yard in Belfast Combining reciprocating and turbine engines They were White Star Line's first ships on the route. Despite the change of owner, Laurentic and Megantic were still to serve the route between Liverpool and Montreal. Alberta was launched in 10 September 1908 as Laurentic, and Albany was launched three months later as Megantic. But before the pair were completed, IMM transferred them to another of its subsidiaries, White Star Line, and they were renamed to conform with White Star naming policy. ĭominion Line planned to call the ships Alberta and Albany. At almost 15,000 GRT each they would be larger than Victorian and Virginian, the largest ships in Dominion Line's fleet, and the largest ships on the route between Britain and Canada. In 1907 the Dominion Line responded by ordering a pair of liners from Harland and Wolff. In addition, the earliest steam turbines used more bunker fuel than triple- or quadruple-expansion steam engines. Virginian also acquired a reputation for rolling excessively in heavy seas. Like all of the earliest turbine ships, Victorian and Virginian had direct drive from their turbines to their propellers. įrom 1905 Allan Line's Victorian and Virginian provided strong competition between Liverpool and Quebec ![]() The pair made such an impression that the Allan Line won a valuable Canadian Government mail contract before the ships were even launched. RMS Victorian and Virginian were two of the swiftest ships on the route between Britain and Canada, and at more than 10,600 GRT each they were also the largest. In 1905 the rival Allan Line introduced the world's first steam turbine ocean liners. In 1902 the International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM) took over Dominion Line. The Dominion Line ran a transatlantic liner service between Liverpool, Quebec, Montreal and Boston. Laurentic 's wreck is in the territorial waters of the Republic of Ireland and protected by Irish law. Most of the 3,211 bars were salvaged by 1924 three more bars were found in the 1930s, while 22 remain unaccounted for. Laurentic was carrying about 43 tons of gold bars when she sank. Her crew successfully abandoned ship, but 354 of them died of hypothermia in her lifeboats. In 1917 two German mines sank Laurentic off the northern coast of Ireland. As an AMC she saw service off West Africa, Singapore, the Bay of Bengal and the Far East. In 1914 Laurentic served briefly as a troop ship, and then served for more than two years as an armed merchant cruiser (AMC). Her regular route was between Liverpool and Quebec City. Laurentic was one of a pair of sister ships that were ordered in 1907 by the Dominion Line but completed for the White Star Line. She is an early example of a ship whose propulsion combined reciprocating steam engines with a low-pressure steam turbine. SS Laurentic was a British transatlantic ocean liner that was built in Belfast, Ireland, and launched in 1908.
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