Scotia was a British passenger liner operated by the Cunard Line

Cunard Line

Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...

 that won the Blue Riband

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 speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. Under the unwritten rules, the record is based on average speed...

 in 1863 for the fastest westbound transatlantic voyage. She was the last ocean going paddle steamer and as late as 1874 she made Cunard's second fastest voyage. Laid up in 1876, Scotia was converted to a twin-screw cable layer in 1879. She served in her new role for twenty-five years until she was wrecked off of Guam

Guam

Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

 in March 1904.

Development and design

As a result of competition from the Collins Line

Collins Line

The Collins Line is the common name for the American shipping company started by Israel Collins and then built up by his son Edward Knight Collins...

, Cunard ordered the Persia

RMS Persia

Persia was a British passenger liner operated by the Cunard Line that won the Blue Riband in 1856 for the fastest westbound transatlantic voyage. She was the first Atlantic record breaker constructed of iron and was the largest ship in the world at the time of her launch...

of 1856, the first iron Blue Riband

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 speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. Under the unwritten rules, the record is based on average speed...

 winner. Scotia was originally planned as a sister for Persia. However, the project was delayed after the loss of the Collins Arctic

SS Arctic

The SS Arctic was a 3,000-ton Paddle steamer in the Collins Line steamships. A sister-ship to the SS Pacific that went into service in 1852, the ship was at the time the largest and most splendid of the line and was in operation in the Liverpool packet...

and Pacific

SS Pacific

The SS Pacific was a 876-ton sidewheel steamer built in 1851 most notable for its sinking in 1875 as a result of a collision southwest of Cape Flattery, Washington. The Pacific had an estimated 275 passengers and crew aboard when it sank. Only two survived. Among the casualties were several notable...

left Cunard without effective competition on the express service. When Scotia was finally built, she was a larger edition of Persia with an extra deck. Safety improvements included seven watertight compartments, a reinforced forward bulkhead and buoyancy chambers.

There was considerable disagreement among Cunard's partners concerning the choice of paddle wheels for the new liner as screw propulsion was proving itself superior. While the firm already owned screw steamers for the secondary service, Samuel Cunard insisted that paddle wheels be retained for what was to be the line's premier unit. However, they agreed to order a second mail steamer, the China to test screws in the express service.

As completed by Robert Napier and Sons of Glasgow, Scotia was the second largest ship in the world after Great Eastern. She carried 273 first class passengers and 50 in second class. Scotia did not have quarters for steerage. Her two-cylinder side-lever engine

Marine steam engine

A marine steam engine is a reciprocating steam engine that is used to power a ship or boat. Steam turbines and diesel engines largely replaced reciprocating steam engines in marine applications during the 20th century, so this article describes the more common types of marine steam engine in use...

 produced 4,000 horsepower. and consumed 164 tons of coal per day.

Service history

Scotia and China relieved Asia and Africa on the New York express route, and the older steamers were transferred to the Boston trade. In July 1863, Scotia won the Blue Riband with a Queenstown – New York voyage of 14.46 knots, beating Persia's record by a full knot. Scotia is generally credited with retaining the Blue Riband until 1872 when she was surpassed by Adriatic of the White Star Line

White Star Line

The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, today most famous for its ill-fated vessel, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of Titanics sister ship Britannic...

. While Gibbs credits the screw steamer City of Paris

SS City of Paris (1866)

City of Paris was a British passenger liner operated by the Inman Line that established that a ship driven by a screw could match the speed of the paddlers on the Atlantic crossing...

 of the Inman Line

Inman Line

The Inman Line which operated from 1850 until its 1893 absorption into American Line, was one of the three largest 19th century British passenger shipping companies on the North Atlantic, along with the White Star Line and Cunard Line...

 with a Blue Riband voyage in 1866, Scotia is universally considered as the equal of any pre-Oceanic liner.

Although she offered only first-class accommodations used by passengers such as Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

's family, Scotia was not consistently profitable and China proved to be the better investment. China's coal consumption was half of Scotia's while China carried more cargo and was only a knot slower. The firm quickly ordered two additional screw steamers to replace the last wooden paddlers on the New York express service. Scotia herself remained as Cunard's largest unit until Bothnia and Scythia were completed in 1874. The conversion of the French Line's Ville Du Harve to screws in 1873 left Scotia as the last paddler on the Atlantic. She was finally withdrawn in 1876 and offered for sale.

Three years later, Scotia was converted to twin screws and refitted as a cable-layer. She was enlarged to 4667 grt and commissioned by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company. In 1896, Scotia suffered an explosion off Plymouth that destroyed her fore-part. She was only saved by the stoutness of her construction. Repaired, Scotia was sold in 1902 to the Commercial Pacific Cable Company.

On March 11, 1904, Scotia approached Guam to deliver cable and spares when she went off course while entering Apra Harbor

Apra Harbor

Apra Harbor is a deep-water port on the western side of Guam in the Mariana Islands. The harbor is formed by Orote Peninsula in the south and Cabras Island in the north. To the south, the harbor narrows and then widens again to form an inner harbor. The southern end of the harbor is the location...

 and ran hard aground on a nearby reef. Weather conditions deteriorated and the ship broke in two and sank. The wreck is now a popular diving location.

In Literature

The Scotia makes an appearance in the novel Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a classic science fiction novel by French writer Jules Verne published in 1870. It tells the story of Captain Nemo and his submarine Nautilus as seen from the perspective of Professor Pierre Aronnax...

 by Jules Verne

Jules Verne

Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...

. On 13 April 1867 it is accidentally struck by the submarine Nautilus

Nautilus (Verne)

The Nautilus is the fictional submarine featured in Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island . Verne named the Nautilus after Robert Fulton's real-life submarine Nautilus...

: "Two and a half metres below the water-line appeared a neat hole in the form of an isosceles triangle." Thanks to its watertight compartments, the Scotia makes it safely to Liverpool.