CHAPTER VI

Shore Work for the Services

_Here stand we; naught else can we do! Take us, all that we have, all we are! We bide by the issue with you, And this is our war!_

MARGARETTA BYRDE.

Enough, perhaps, has already been written to show how intimately the Cunard Company was bound up with every phase, not only of our mercantile, but our naval effort at sea; how its long experience of maritime organisation, placed unreservedly at the country’s disposal, became an asset in the hands of the Government of almost incalculable importance, and how, in the course of its everyday unadvertised duties, it lost more than half its tonnage. It was not only at sea, however, and not wholly in connection with the problems of transport that the Cunard Company rendered such yeoman service.

The possessors of highly efficient repairing shops, engine works, furnishing departments, and laundries, these also were at once mobilised at the outbreak of war, and put to the most various and vital purposes.

Some of these, of course, were congruous with its useful efforts as a marine concern. Thus, amongst much other work of a similar nature, we find, for instance, that H.S. Sloops _Buttercup_ and _Gladiolus_ were refitted, their engines over-hauled, and their hull and deck plating repaired, while they were also provided with hydraulic release triggers in order to enable depth charges to be released from the bridge.

H.M. ships _Riviera_ and _Empress_ were fitted out as sea-plane carriers by the Company at Liverpool. The after-decks of both vessels were stripped and hangars, capable of accommodating about six sea-planes, were built on them. A mechanics’ repair shop was also installed and special cranes, for lifting sea-planes out of the water, were fitted.

The _Campania_, converted as we have seen into a sea-plane carrier, was refitted in 1916, a thorough overhaul being carried out, including the fitting of a new crank shaft, and the examination of, and repairs to, her hull and engines. In 1917, H.M.S. _Scotia_, the well-known Holyhead mail boat of the London and North Western Railway, was reconditioned, after having been in Admiralty employment, and all necessary repairs carried out in respect of her hull and engines. H.M.S. _Berwick_ was also partially refitted in the same year. No less than 3,200 Plunger control valve keys and retarding rams for 12-pound and naval guns were made at the Company’s works; and a large amount of work was also undertaken in connection with the fitting of submarines and mines.

This included, as regarded submarines, the provision of 520 Oilers for exhaust valve boxes, 40 tail-end shafts, 20 complete thrust blocks, and the machining and complete fitting of four tail-end intermediate shafts. At the same time 456 save-alls for oil fuel were designed and provided--the pattern of these save-alls being afterwards adopted as the standard pattern for the Navy. Nineteen thousand, eight hundred manganese bronze spindles for mines were turned out, as well as 1,000 mine mechanism plates. When the Admiralty decided to fit naval and merchant ships with the paravane contrivance, as a protection against mines, the Cunard Company manufactured for them 5,728 sets of wires for this gear. All this work was, of course, carried out in addition to the ordinary routine of overhauling the Company’s own fleet.

This sort of work, however, valuable as it was, was perhaps only to be expected of a large marine Company, so efficiently organised for many years as the Cunard Company had been. But in addition, a large amount of work was done for the armies in the Company’s workshops, much of which required the highest degree of accuracy and extremely skilled workmanship. One of the most important of such contracts was the assembling of the 9·2 American Howitzer Equipment. These enormous guns were shipped from the United States in parts, and the work of completing, assembling, carrying out modifications in design, and getting them ready for use in France, was done entirely in the Cunard Works. Eighty-four of these equipments were dealt with, and, in addition, 100 carriages and limbers and brake gear, which were a part and parcel of the equipment, were manufactured. Owing to the fact that the firing beams, which were received from the United States, were found in practice to be insufficiently strong, the Company undertook the stripping and re-inforcing of 73 sets of these.

In the critical month of March, 1918, when the Allied armies were retreating on the Western Front, and it was clear that the crucial point of the war was imminent, the Ministry of Munitions sent out urgent appeals to all Munition Works. During the great retreat, although many of the actual guns were saved, there was no time to attempt to bring away the gun beds, and in consequence many of the larger calibre weapons were thus rendered useless. The Cunard Company was then asked to undertake to supply one hundred sets in as short a time as possible. Realising the urgency of the position, the Company succeeded in engaging the assistance of several outside firms, who carried out part of the work under Cunard supervision, with the amazing result that no less than 146 sets were finished and delivered complete within a fortnight.

But for the unremitting attention of the Company’s officials and the high degree of organisation that had been attained, such a result would, of course, have been wholly impossible. The separate items manufactured by outside firms were all received and distributed from the Company’s Gun Department a special chart of progress being kept for the purpose. For this great achievement the Company received a special letter of congratulation from the Ministry of Munitions, which in their turn they passed on to their men, who had so magnificently responded to the calls of their country in the crisis, and also to the firms who had rendered such able assistance.

Another very large contract, carried out by the Cunard Company, was the manufacture of artillery wheels. This work was distributed between the Company’s various establishments, the metal work being done by the Cunard’s Engine Works, and the wood work at the Furnishing Departments in Liverpool and London; in order to provide the necessary material, the Company’s timber experts had to make enormous purchases, not only having to buy complete cargoes, but in many instances, having to buy the timber before the trees were felled, and it cannot be denied that the Government was extremely fortunate in having the advantage of their great experience and wise advice. The metal parts provided consisted of pipe boxes, nots and naves, all of these being made of manganese bronze as required by the War Office, and the tyres--the wooden parts of the wheels being the spokes and felloes. Eleven hundred complete artillery wheels were thus made, as well as 1,400 sand tyres--a sand tyre being a contrivance fitted to the rim of the gun wheel in order to prevent it sinking into mud or sand. The reconstruction of damaged wheels was undertaken for the War Office by the Cunard Company’s London works and more than 8,000 wheels were dealt with in this manner.

It is impossible to give a detailed account of the whole of the work of this nature carried out by the Cunard Company, but a general idea can be obtained from the following list of some of the most important contracts carried out at Liverpool.

60 Loading trays for 6 in. shells. These are the trays which guide the shell into the breech of the gun.

1,200 Dial sight adaptors--to render sights adaptable for guns of different calibres.

12,000 Copper and leather washers for } recuperating gear; and } This recuperating gear } is the mechanism 12,000 Manganese Bronze Rings for } used to bring the supporting packing leathers } gun into firing position in recuperating gear attached } again after recoil. to 6 in. Howitzers. }

5,340 Actuating Nuts and Screws for Brake gear for 13 and 18 pounder Field Guns.

250 Sets of Cables for electing firing gear. This is the gear attached to 6 in. and 92 in. guns, to enable them to be fired by electricity.

24 Battery Boxes in connection with above.

500 Sets Rings and Discs protecting obturator. This is a contrivance in the breech of a gun to prevent the escape of the gases generated in firing.

35 Steel Crankshafts for the Motor Boats which were used for chasing submarines.

36 Magazine Barrows for transporting heavy shells from Magazine to Guns on board H.M. Ships.

160 Breech Rings for 18 pounder guns.

100 Clamp Bearings.

14,912 Shell Nose adaptors for correcting the thread in end of shell.

20,300 Dummy Shells for 18 pounder Guns. These were used in training new troops to handle guns and shells. To complete this contract in 1915 the Cunard Company bought all the mangle rollers that could be obtained and converted them into dummy shells.

The Company’s Laundry, which before the war dealt with all the Linen, etc., from the Company’s steamers, was able during the last few years to assist many of the Military Hospitals and other institutions in the district by undertaking their Laundry work; at the same time, of course, they did whatever work was required for the Company’s ships and those under their management, whether acting as troop ships or hospital ships.

Nor did these activities exhaust the long list of the Cunard Company’s manifold contributions to the Nation’s improvised war industries. In 1916, realising the urgent need for aeroplanes, the Company’s Directors made certain suggestions to the Government, and placed their services at the Government’s disposal in this connexion. After some months consideration a definite scheme was formulated in July, 1917, providing for the erection of a factory at the Government’s expense, to be under the supervision of the Cunard Company, who would act as Managers under the Direction of the Ministry of Munitions. A site was selected near the race course at Aintree, the first sod was removed on the 4th October, 1917, and within less than nine months the factory was completed, many of the shops having been working at full pressure very much earlier than this. Although the Cunard Company had had no experience of aircraft work, and could not, of course, spare sufficient staff to man the factory, the arrangement of the various shops, and the selection of the machinery to be installed rested in their hands, and a certain number of the Company’s own officials were subsequently employed there.

Even under normal conditions, the construction and fitting out of this the largest aeroplane factory in the country would have been a herculean task, but in war time, with the resultant difficulties to be encountered in obtaining the necessary material, the undertaking might well have baffled even the most enterprising brains. That it was accomplished at all is, perhaps, the best proof of the enormous reserve of initiative and capability that had been accumulated by the Company during the long years of its previous expansion; and some idea of what was achieved can perhaps be more easily obtained when it is remembered that the largest shop measured not less than 700 by 500 feet, and that there were several other shops each of which were about half this size; that for the necessary electrical power a cable had to be laid for a distance of six miles from the Lister Drive generating station; that, the local water and gas supply being totally inadequate, a supply well had to be sunk to a depth of 370 feet, thus providing the factory’s own water supply; that a special gas main had to be laid for a considerable distance; that a new siding from the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway had to be constructed, the line running right into the factory’s grounds; that the machinery and equipment had to be assembled not only from every part of the United Kingdom, but from the United States of America; that several of the most essential machines, which had been specially made, were lost in transit owing to the action of enemy submarines, so that new machines had to be made in their place; and that a canteen had to be provided, fully equipped with the latest cooking utensils and labour saving devices, which would accommodate at two sittings no less than 5,000 people.

In spite of all this, however, the first complete aeroplane was turned out on June 7th, 1918, just eight months after the commencement, while within four or five months after this, the factory was in a position to turn out no less than 100 aeroplanes a month. Before this, however, the Ministry of Munitions had appointed a controller of National Aircraft Factories, so that on the 17th of October, 1918, the factory was handed over to the Government in full working order, another concrete instance of the organising skill and versatility of this great Mercantile Marine Company.

Long before this the Cunard Company had embarked upon yet another subsidiary enterprise in the establishment of a factory for the manufacture of shells. This factory, which came to be known as the Cunard National Shell Factory, was established at Bootle, the building having before been used as a store for the fittings and furniture taken from such of the Cunard Company’s vessels as had been used as armed cruisers and in various other capacities. A new floor was built and the roof trusses were strengthened in order to carry shafting. Most of the lathes and other machine tools installed in the factory were of the type suitable for marine work, and therefore, special fittings were necessary in order to convert them into lathes suitable for the production of 4 in., 5 in., 6 in. and 8 in. shells; and these special fittings were designed and made by the Cunard’s Staff Engineers. The boring bars used for the 8 in. shells were made from the piston rods of the old Cunard liner _Lucania_, sister ship to the _Campania_, the vessel, as we have seen, on which Signor Marconi carried out some of his most important wireless experiments. The ingenuity displayed in this won a tribute of admiration from all the engineering experts who were brought in touch with it; and the proof of their success is to be found in the fact that the shells, ranging up to 6 in. and 8 in. diameter, were entirely completed by female labour.

The Cunard National Shell Factory was, indeed, the first factory in Great Britain to produce 6 in. and 8 in. shells with female labour, and was thus the pioneer in the employment of women on shells of large calibre. In order that the women might be able to handle these heavy shells great attention had, of course, to be paid to the lifting appliances; and it may, perhaps, here be mentioned that one of the women operators worked throughout the whole period from October, 1915, to November, 1918, without the loss of a single minute of time, probably creating a record. To this factory also several of the retired engineering officers of the Cunard Company’s ships returned to work in order to assist their country in increasing the output of shells, while the factory was self-contained in that it manufactured all its own tools, jigs, and other necessary appliances.

In this factory work was continuous, being carried out in three shifts, one working from seven in the morning till three in the afternoon, the next from three in the afternoon till ten at night, and the third from ten p.m. until seven next morning; while on Saturdays one shift worked from seven a.m. till noon, and another from noon till five p.m.

In 1916 the Bottle Nosing Plant for the large shells was instituted--a plant that turned out to be a great success, while at the same time a system for the mixing of gas and air to enable a furnace temperature of 1,400 degrees centigrade to be maintained was also installed--a contrivance that resulted in a very considerable saving both in upkeep and expenditure.

On an average about 1,000 people were employed in this factory, of whom 80 to 90 per cent. were women. The factory contained excellent kitchens and dining rooms, so that hot meals could be served both for the day and night shifts. The welfare of the workers was scrupulously attended to; and a recreation room fitted with a theatrical stage and all accessories was very popular with the workers in their spare time.

When on November 11th, 1918, hostilities ceased, upon the acceptance by the enemy of the Armistice terms, work on shell production was stopped. The factory being closed down on Saturday, November 16th, each operator was presented on leaving with a 4·5 in. shell as a souvenir, together with a letter of appreciation signed by the Chairman and General Manager of the Company. A total of 410,302 shells of various calibres was turned out during the months through which the factory worked. Out of every 500 shells made, one was selected by the Government to be fired as a test, and of the shells manufactured at the Cunard Factory not a single one failed to pass.

Lastly should be mentioned one of the most beneficent minor activities initiated by the Cunard Staff in the provision of entertainments for wounded soldiers. It was in 1916, after the Company moved into their great new building, that the staff first approached the Management with a view to obtaining permission to hold a concert for wounded soldiers in one of the new and spacious rooms. The suggestion was readily agreed to, and the Company undertook to bear the cost, the staff doing the work. So successful was this concert that a second entertainment was given, this being followed by a third, until these concerts became a regular institution through the winters of 1916–1917, 1917–1918, and 1918–1919. In all about 20 concerts were given, at which more than 7,000 wounded soldiers were entertained and provided with refreshment. A first-class orchestra of 20 performers was created, as well as a chorus that would have done credit to any London stage; and it is safe to say that these Cunard concerts were eagerly looked forward to by every Military Hospital in the district.

During the summer months also the Company lent their tender, the _Skirmisher_, for river cruises; and more than 6,400 wounded men were thus provided with yet another means of recreation. A similar trip was organised in 1918 by the Cunard Company’s Bristol Staff, while the Liverpool Office Concert Party was indefatigable in attending at various hospitals, munition works, and camps in order to provide additional entertainment to their wounded brothers. The Britannia Rooms were also used for dances and receptions for American Officers and American Red Cross Units, and when on Independence Day, July 4th, 1918, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool entertained 4,000 American Troops, the whole of the catering arrangements were carried out by the Cunard line.

Now to have initiated, organised, and won success in departments of service so various and vital would not, of course, have been possible without the unanimous and unremitting personal devotion of every Director and member of this great Company; and it cannot be denied that the Government paid them the compliment of using their activities to the very highest degree. The Chairman, Sir Alfred Booth, in addition to the enormous responsibilities resting upon him in virtue of his executive position, acted also as Chairman of the North Atlantic Committee, appointed under the Liner Requisitioning Scheme, while he also served on several Royal Commissions dealing with questions of urgent national importance in relation to reconstruction and other post-war problems; and, at the same time, he had many calls upon him owing to his connexion with the Employers’ Federation, the War Risks, and Liverpool Steam Ship Owners’ Associations.

The Deputy Chairman, Sir Thomas Royden, acted as Deputy Shipping Controller, where his wide experience of shipping affairs was invaluable, Sir Thomas being frequently entrusted with foreign missions requiring the greatest tact and ability. Early in the war he went to Mudros in order to organise the transport arrangements in connexion with the Gallipoli campaign, and at a later date he was in Washington discussing the international shipping problems that arose when the United States cast her lot with the Allies. He organised the shipment of American and Colonial troops to the various theatres of war, and was selected to represent the Shipping Controller on the Peace Conference.

Sir Percy Bates, Sir Aubrey Brocklebank, and Mr. Walter Tyser all occupied administrative positions at the Ministry of Shipping, and Mr. A. C. F. Henderson was selected to represent the Ministry at one of the chief Mediterranean ports. Sir Ashley Sparks, one of the Company’s Directors, and its New York Agent, was appointed direct representative of the Ministry of Shipping at Washington, soon after the United States came into the war, and was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in January, 1919, in recognition of his great services. No less responsible and intricate were the duties devolving upon the General Manager, Mr. A. D. Mearns, and the other managers, Mr. S. J. Lister and Mr. F. Litchfield--Mr. Mearns being elected to a seat on the Board of Directors in 1918.

Many of the Company’s officials and technical experts were frequently called upon to render assistance to various Government Departments, and it is deeply to be regretted that the Cunard Company’s loved and respected Marine Superintendent, Captain G. H. Dodd, lost his life at sea through a torpedo attack whilst on an important Government mission.

We have already referred to the mobilisation on the outbreak of war of a very large proportion of the Company’s navigating officers, and it is estimated that at least 1,500 sailors, firemen, and stewards joined the colours, of whom 88 were killed or drowned. Nor was the clerical staff behind them in its eagerness to serve the country in a combatant capacity. When a brigade of business men was formed in Liverpool, in 1914, not less than 120 Cunarders from the Liverpool staffs enlisted on the first day, while from the clerical staffs alone of the principal Cunard Offices in Great Britain, 387 men joined the Army, besides 65 who joined from the Canadian and American Offices--a total of 452. Of these 53 lost their lives in the service of their country, while a large proportion received more or less serious wounds, several being permanently disabled.

Many distinctions and honours were gained both on the field of battle and at sea, to be engraved upon the Company’s records as one of their proudest trophies. They include a Victoria Cross and, in numerous cases, the D.S.O., D.S.C., M.C., M.M., etc. Various members of the staff have received other British, and also French, Belgian, Russian and United States, decorations and medals.

Such then in brief were the war activities of one of our chief Mercantile Marine Companies, and it is surely a record of which the whole Empire, not less than every member and employee of the Cunard Company itself, may well be proud. In the study of it we have perhaps been able to perceive, as in a wider survey of a larger number of units might have been less possible, something of the peculiar genius for organisation and adaptation that, in spite of so much ignorant criticism, our race possesses. It is at any rate an indication that the sea instinct that has been our inheritance for so many centuries is as strong to-day as ever, and a happy augury for the future of a country, whose very breath of life depends upon its maintenance of Admiralty, in the widest sense of the word.

Thos. Forman & Sons, Printers, Nottingham, Liverpool, London

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.

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