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RMS Tahiti
RMS ''Tahiti'' was a UK Royal Mail Ship, ocean liner and refrigerated cargo ship. She was launched in 1904 in Scotland as RMS ''Port Kingston'' for a subsidiary of Elder Dempster Lines. In 1911 the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand bought her and renamed her ''Tahiti''. In the First World War she was a troop ship. In 1918 an outbreak of Spanish flu resulted in exceptionally high mortality amongst the troops aboard her. After the war she was returned to her owners. In 1927 ''Tahiti'' collided with a ferry in Sydney Harbour, killing 40 ferry passengers. In 1930 ''Tahiti'' sank without loss of life in the South Pacific Ocean due to flooding caused by a broken propeller shaft. Characteristics and construction Alexander Stephen and Sons of Govan on the River Clyde built the ship as ''Port Kingston'' for the Imperial Direct West Mail Company, which was a subsidiary of Elder Dempster Shipping Limited. She was launched on 19 April 1904 and completed that August. She had be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Kingdom Of Great Britain And Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into one sovereign state, established by the Acts of Union 1800, Acts of Union in 1801. It continued in this form until 1927, when it evolved into the United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, after the Irish Free State gained a degree of independence in 1922. It was commonly known as Great Britain, Britain or England. Economic history of the United Kingdom, Rapid industrialisation that began in the decades prior to the state's formation continued up until the mid-19th century. The Great Famine (Ireland), Great Irish Famine, exacerbated by government inaction in the mid-19th century, led to Societal collapse, demographic collapse in much of Ireland and increased calls for Land Acts (Ireland), Irish land reform. The 19th century was an era of Industrial Revolution, and growth of trade and finance, in which Britain largely dominate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Propeller
A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working fluid such as water or air. Propellers are used to pump fluid through a pipe or duct, or to create thrust to propel a boat through water or an aircraft through air. The blades are shaped so that their rotational motion through the fluid causes a pressure difference between the two surfaces of the blade by Bernoulli's principle which exerts force on the fluid. Most marine propellers are screw propellers with helical blades rotating on a propeller shaft (ship), propeller shaft with an approximately horizontal axis. History Early developments The principle employed in using a screw propeller is derived from stern sculling. In sculling, a single blade is moved through an arc, from side to side taking care to keep presenting the blade to the wat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rarotonga
Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 10,898 of a total population of 15,040. The Parliament of the Cook Islands, Cook Islands' Parliament buildings and Rarotonga International Airport, international airport are on Rarotonga. Rarotonga is a popular tourist destination with many resorts, hotels and motels. The chief town, Avarua, on the north coast, is the capital of the Cook Islands. Captain John Dibbs, master of the colonial brig ''Endeavour'', is credited as the European discoverer on 25 July 1823, while transporting the missionary Reverend John Williams (missionary), John Williams. Geography Rarotonga is a kidney-shaped volcanic island, in circumference, and wide on its longest (east-west) axis. The island is the summit of an extinct Pliocene or Pleistocene volcano, which rises from the seafloor. The island was formed between 2.3 to 1.6 million ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1907 Kingston Earthquake
The 1907 Kingston earthquake which shook the capital of the island of Jamaica with a magnitude of 6.2 on the moment magnitude scale on Monday January 14, at about 3:30 p.m. local time (20:36 UTC), is described by the United States Geological Survey as one of the world's deadliest earthquakes recorded in history. Every building in Kingston was damaged by the earthquake and subsequent fires, which lasted for three hours before any efforts could be made to check them, culminating in the death of about 1,000 people, and causing approximately $30 million in material damage ($ million in ). Shortly after, a tsunami was reported on the north coast of Jamaica, with a maximum wave height of about 2 m (6–8 ft). Tectonic setting Jamaica lies within a complex zone of faulting that forms the boundary between the Gonâve microplate and the Caribbean plate. To the east of the island the main fault is the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone while to the west the main s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceremonial Ship Launching
Ceremonial ship launching involves the performing of ceremonies associated with the process of transferring a vessel to the water. It is a nautical tradition in many cultures, dating back millennia, to accompany the physical process with ceremonies which have been observed as public celebration and a solemn blessing, usually but not always, in association with the launch itself. Ship launching imposes stresses on the ship not met during normal operation and in addition to the size and weight of the vessel represents a considerable engineering challenge as well as a public spectacle. The process also involves Sailors' superstitions, many traditions intended to invite good luck, such as baptism#Boats and ships, christening by breaking a sacrificial bottle of champagne over the bow (ship), bow as the ship is named aloud and launched. Methods There are three principal methods of conveying a new ship from building site to water, only two of which are called "launching". The ol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Clyde
The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. The River Clyde estuary has an upper tidal limit located at the tidal weir next to Glasgow Green#Tidal Weir, Glasgow Green. Historically, it was important to the British Empire because of its role in shipbuilding and trade. To the Roman Britain, Romans, it was , and in the early medieval Cumbric language, it was known as or . It was central to the Kingdom of Strathclyde (). Etymology The exact etymology of the river's name is unclear, though it is known that the name is ancient. In 50AD, the Egyptian mathematician, astronomer and geographer Ptolemy, Claudius Ptolemy wrote of the river as "Klōta", It was called or by the Celtic Britons, Britons and by the Romans. It is therefore likely that the name comes from a Celtic language—mos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Govan
Govan ( ; Cumbric: ''Gwovan''; Scots language, Scots: ''Gouan''; Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Ghobhainn'') is a district, parish, and former burgh now part of southwest Glasgow, Scotland. It is situated west of Glasgow city centre, on the south bank of the River Clyde, opposite the mouth of the River Kelvin and the district of Partick. Historically it was part of the Lanarkshire, County of Lanark. In the early medieval period, the site of the present Govan Old Parish Church, Govan Old churchyard was established as a Christian centre for the Brittonic Peoples, Brittonic Kingdom of Alt Clut (Dumbarton Rock) and its successor realm, the Kingdom of Strathclyde. This latter kingdom, established in the aftermath of the Viking siege and capture of Alt Clut by Vikings from Dublin in 870, created the stone sculptures known today as the The Govan Stones, Govan Stones. Govan was the site of a ford and later a ferry which linked the area with Partick for seasonal cattle drovers. In the ei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the continents of Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east. At in area (as defined with a southern Antarctic border), the Pacific Ocean is the largest division of the World Ocean and the hydrosphere and covers approximately 46% of Earth's water surface and about 32% of the planet's total surface area, larger than its entire land area ().Pacific Ocean . ''Encyclopædia Britannica, Britannica Concise.'' 2008: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. The centers of both the Land and water hemispheres, water hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere, as well as the Pole of inaccessi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greycliffe Disaster
The ''Greycliffe'' disaster occurred in Sydney Harbour (Australia) on 3 November 1927 when the harbour ferry ''Greycliffe'' and the Union Steamship Company mail steamer ''Tahiti'' collided. The smaller ferry was cut in two and sank, killing 40; it was the deadliest incident on Sydney Harbour. The ''Greycliffe'' ''Greycliffe'' was a wooden double-ended screw steamship built for the Watsons Bay run. Originally owned by the Watson's Bay and South Shore Ferry Co. Pty. Ltd, she and her running mates, ''King Edward'', ''Vaucluse'' and ''Woollahra'', were taken over by Sydney Ferries Limited in 1920. She was of 133 gross tons, on dimensions of 125.0 feet length between perpendiculars x 24.0 feet beam x 9.9 feet depth of hold. She was built at Balmain, Sydney in 1911 by David Drake. The vessel was powered by a triple-expansion steam engine of 49 nominal horse power made by Campbell & Calderwood that gave a maximum speed of about 12 knots. A double-ended screw ferry, she had a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Flu
The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was March 1918 in Kansas, United States, with further cases recorded in France, Germany and the United Kingdom in April. Two years later, nearly a third of the global population, or an estimated 500 million people, had been infected. Estimates of deaths range from 17 million to 50 million, and possibly as high as 100 million, making it the deadliest pandemic in history. The pandemic broke out near the end of World War I, when wartime censors in the belligerent countries suppressed bad news to maintain morale, but newspapers freely reported the outbreak in neutral Spain, creating a false impression of Spain as the epicenter and leading to the "Spanish flu" misnomer. Limited historical epidemiological data make the pandemic' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Troopship
A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable to land troops directly on shore, typically loading and unloading at a seaport or onto smaller vessels, either Ship's tender, tenders or barges. Attack transports, a variant of ocean-going troopship adapted to transporting invasion forces ashore, carry their own fleet of landing craft. Landing ships beach themselves and bring their troops directly ashore. History Ships to transport troops were used in antiquity. Ancient Rome used the navis lusoria, a small vessel powered by rowers and sail, to move soldiers on the Rhine and Danube. The modern troopship has as long a history as passenger ships do, as most maritime nations enlisted their support in military operations (either by leasing the vessels or by impressing them into service) when their normal naval forces were deemed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in European theatre of World War I, Europe and the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, Middle East, as well as in parts of African theatre of World War I, Africa and the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I, Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare; the widespread use of Artillery of World War I, artillery, machine guns, and Chemical weapons in World War I, chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of Tanks in World War I, tanks and Aviation in World War I, aircraft. World War I was one of the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated World War I casualties, 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
