Blue Riband
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Blue Riband
The Blue Riband () is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest average speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. The record is based on average speed rather than passage time because ships follow different routes. Also, eastbound and westbound speed records are reckoned separately, as the more difficult westbound record voyage, against the Gulf Stream and the prevailing weather systems, typically results in lower average speeds.Kludas states that only westbound records counted for the Blue Riband, though this contradicts the other main sources on the subject (e.g. Lee, Gibbs, Bonsor, and contemporary news sources) which are clear that records in both directions qualified for the accolade. Of the 35 Atlantic liners to hold the Blue Riband, 25 were British, followed by five German, three American, as well as one each from Italy and France. Thirteen wer ...
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Passenger Ship
A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freighters once common on the seas in which the transport of passengers is secondary to the carriage of freight. The type does however include many classes of ships designed to transport substantial numbers of passengers as well as freight. Indeed, until recently virtually all ocean liners were able to transport mail, package freight and express, and other cargo in addition to passenger luggage, and were equipped with cargo holds and derricks, kingposts, or other cargo-handling gear for that purpose. Only in more recent ocean liners and in virtually all cruise ships has this cargo capacity been eliminated. While typically passenger ships are part of the merchant marine, passenger ships have also been used as troopships and often are commissio ...
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SS United States
SS ''United States'' is a retired ocean liner built between 1950 and 1951 for the United States Lines at a cost of (equivalent to $ million in ). The ship is the largest ocean liner constructed entirely in the United States and the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic in either direction, retaining the Blue Riband for the highest average speed since her maiden voyage in 1952 and still holds title today. She was designed by American naval architect William Francis Gibbs and could be converted into a troopship if required by the Navy in time of war. ''United States'' maintained an uninterrupted schedule of transatlantic passenger service until 1969 and was never used as a troopship. The ship has been sold several times since the 1970s, with each new owner trying unsuccessfully to make the liner profitable. Eventually, the ship's fittings were sold at auction, and hazardous wastes, including asbestos panels throughout the ship, were removed, leaving her almost comple ...
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Packet Boat
Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers and canals, some of them steam driven. They were used extensively during the 18th and 19th centuries and featured regularly scheduled service. When such ships were put into use in the 18th century on the Atlantic Ocean between Great Britain and its colonies, the services were called the packet trade. Steam driven packets were used extensively in the United States in the 19th century on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, supplying and bringing personnel to forts and trading posts. History Packet craft were used extensively in European coastal mail services since the 17th century, and gradually added cramped passenger accommodation. Passenger accommodations were minimal: transportation, "firing" (i.e. a place to cook), drinking water (often tasting of indigo or tobacco, which the water casks had previously held), and a place ...
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SS Royal William
SS ''Royal William'' was a Canadian side-wheel paddle steamship that is sometimes credited with the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean almost entirely under steam power, in 1833, using sails only during periods of boiler maintenance. She was the largest passenger ship in the world from 1831 to 1839, where it was then passed by the . Earlier vessels that crossed partially under steam include the British-built Dutch-owned ''Curaçao'' in 1827 and the sail-steam hybrid in 1819. The 1,370-ton SS ''Royal William'' (named after the ruling monarch, William IV) was long, of breadth and had a draught of 17¾ft, a large steamship for the time. She was drawn by 21-year old James Goudie who had by then served his apprenticeship, likely at Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Greenock, Scotland, a seaport on the Firth of Clyde and also the birthplace of James Watt. History Genesis She was commissioned by brewer John Molson, George Black and John Saxton Campbell and a group ...
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SS Savannah
SS ''Savannah'' was an American hybrid sailing ship/sidewheel steamer built in 1818. She was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, transiting mainly under sail power from May to June 1819. In spite of this historic voyage, the great space taken up by her large engine and its fuel at the expense of cargo, and the public's anxiety over embracing her revolutionary steam power, kept ''Savannah'' from being a commercial success as a steamship. Originally laid down as a sailing packet, she was, following a severe and unrelated reversal of the financial fortunes of her owners, converted back into a sailing ship shortly after returning from Europe. ''Savannah'' was wrecked off Long Island, New York in 1821. No other American-owned steamship would cross the Atlantic for almost thirty years after ''Savannah'''s pioneering voyage. Two British sidewheel steamships, Brunel's SS ''Great Western'' and Menzies' SS ''Sirius'', raced to New York in 1838, both voyages being made und ...
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SS Great Western
SS ''Great Western'' of 1838, was a wooden-hulled paddle-wheel steamship with sails the first steamship purpose-built for crossing the Atlantic, and the initial unit of the Great Western Steamship Company. She was the largest passenger ship in the world from 1837 to 1839, which was then passed by the . Designed by British civil engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, ''Great Western'' proved satisfactory in service and was the model for all successful wooden Atlantic paddle-steamers. She was capable of making record Blue Riband voyages as late as 1843. ''Great Western'' worked to New York for 8 years until her owners went out of business. She was sold to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company and was scrapped in 1856 after serving as a troop ship during the Crimean War. Development and design In 1836, Isambard Brunel, his friend Thomas Guppy and a group of Bristol investors formed the Great Western Steamship Company to build a line of steamships for the Bristol-New York route. The ide ...
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SS Sirius (1837)
SS ''Sirius'' was a wooden- hulled sidewheel steamship built in 1837 by Robert Menzies & Sons of Leith, Scotland for the London-Cork route operated by the Saint George Steam Packet Company. The next year, she opened transatlantic steam passenger service when she was chartered for two voyages by the British and American Steam Navigation Company. By arriving in New York a day ahead of the ''Great Western'', she is usually listed as the first holder of the Blue Riband, although the term was not used until decades later. Description ''Sirius'' was long from stem to stern and a depth of hold of . She had a beam of and a draught of . The ship had a capacity of 412 tons burthen and a gross register tonnage of 703 tons.Sheppard, pp. 86, 91 The ship had a two-cylinder steam engine built by Wingate & Co. driving two paddlewheels. Her boilers provided steam to the engine at a working pressure of about . The engine produced a total of and the ship had a maximum speed of . The ship c ...
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Newfoundland (island)
Newfoundland (, ; french: link=no, Terre-Neuve, ; ) is a large island off the east coast of the North American mainland and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It has 29 percent of the province's land area. The island is separated from the Labrador Peninsula by the Strait of Belle Isle and from Cape Breton Island by the Cabot Strait. It blocks the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, creating the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary. Newfoundland's nearest neighbour is the French overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. With an area of , Newfoundland is the world's 16th-largest island, Canada's fourth-largest island, and the largest Canadian island outside the North. The provincial capital, St. John's, is located on the southeastern coast of the island; Cape Spear, just south of the capital, is the easternmost point of North America, excluding Greenland. It is common to consider all directly neighbouring i ...
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Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in South West England. The wider Bristol Built-up Area is the eleventh most populous urban area in the United Kingdom. Iron Age hillforts and Roman villas were built near the confluence of the rivers Frome and Avon. Around the beginning of the 11th century, the settlement was known as (Old English: 'the place at the bridge'). Bristol received a royal charter in 1155 and was historically divided between Gloucestershire and Somerset until 1373 when it became a county corporate. From the 13th to the 18th century, Bristol was among the top three English cities, after London, in tax receipts. A major port, Bristol was a starting place for early voyages of exploration to the New World. On a ship out of Bristol in 1497, John Cabot, a Venetia ...
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Matthew (ship)
''Matthew'' was a caravel sailed by John Cabot in 1497 from Bristol to Newfoundland, North America. There are two modern replicas – one in Bristol, England (built 1994–1996) and one in Bonavista, Newfoundland (built 1997–1998). Cabot's original voyages The captain of the ''Matthew'' was an Italian explorer named Giovanni Caboto who is better known as John Cabot. After a voyage which had got no further than Iceland, Cabot left again with only one vessel, the ''Matthew'', a small ship (50 tons), but fast and able. The crew consisted of only 18 men. ''The Matthew'' departed 2 May 1497. He sailed to Dursey Head (latitude 51°36N), Ireland, from where he sailed due west, expecting to reach Asia. However, landfall was reached in North America on 24 June 1497. His precise landing place is a matter of much controversy, with Cape Bonavista or St. John's in Newfoundland the most likely sites. There is a statue of John Cabot located on the Cape of Bonavista, Newfoundland in hi ...
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John Cabot
John Cabot ( it, Giovanni Caboto ; 1450 – 1500) was an Italian navigator and explorer. His 1497 voyage to the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is the earliest-known European exploration of coastal North America since the Norse visits to Vinland in the eleventh century. To mark the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Cabot's expedition, both the Canadian and British governments elected Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland as representing Cabot's first landing site. However, alternative locations have also been proposed. Name and origins Cabot is known today as Giovanni Caboto in Italian, Zuan Caboto in Venetian, Jean Cabot in French, and John Cabot in English. This was the result of a once-ubiquitous European tradition of nativizing names in local documents, something often adhered to by the actual persons themselves. In Venice Cabot signed his name as "Zuan Chabotto", ''Zuan'' being a form of ''John'' typical to Venice. He continued to ...
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List Of Crossings Of The Atlantic Ocean
Add the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on a raft. Henri Beaudout and his crew of four did this in 1956, See Wikipedia entry on L'Egare ll. L'Égaré II This is a list of notable crossings of the Atlantic Ocean. Post-1492 crossings 15th to 18th centuries * In May 1497, Italian explorer John Cabot set sail from Bristol, England, in service of King Henry VII, arriving in what is believed to be Newfoundland, Labrador or Cape Breton, Canada in June of that year. Believing it to be Asia, he surveyed the coastline before sailing back to England. He made a second voyage the year after but never returned. * In April 1563, Nicolas Barre and 20 other stranded Huguenots were the first to build a (crude) boat in the Americas and sail across the Atlantic. They sailed from Charlesfort, South Carolina to just off the coast of England where they were rescued by an English ship. Though they resorted to cannibalism, seven men survived the voyage, including Barre. * English soldier and courtie ...
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