Post WW2 Super Fast Liner Express Service TL

[oca2073]

The final version of the Marshall Plan enacted on April 3, 1948 contained plans for the building of eight ocean liners. Part of an overall 13 billion USD package, 500 million was allocated for shipbuilding. Building these ships individually would cost nearly 80 million USD per ship, but it was much cheaper due to the bulk purchase. The US would fund 6 out of the 8 ships and operate 3. Two ships will be funded by France and the UK, in addition the US would gift Britain two ships to replace the lost Cunard Queens and one to France to replace Normandie.

Proposed radical designs had been subject to much bickering from Congress and finally shelved for more proven technology. The ships would have a traditional profile and lines. Congress limited the size of the ships to 302 m in length and 33 m beam so that the ships would be able to fit through the Panama Canal. Each ship would be powered by 8 new prototype boilers running steam at 1000 psi generating 240,000+ shp from 4 double-reduction steam turbines. This was the engine system also proposed for the new Forrestal-Class aircraft carriers.

The goal was to establish a daily ship service running between Europe and the US. The planned crossing time for these ships would be 3 days and 4 nights with a turnaround of less than 12 hours. A separate bill would fund the construction of a spacious new port and terminal in Montauk Bay, cutting up to 10 hours from the journey as ships no longer would navigate into Manhattan. The French Line in agreement to the plans would operate their two new ships from Cherbourg as opposed to the farther Le Havre. All this cut down the necessary service speed to about 35.5 knots with ships departing in the evening, spending three full days at sea, and arriving early on the fourth morning.

Their names: The Cunard ships were Britannia, Columbia, Victoria restoring the Company's tradition of naming ships ending with -ia. The US Lines ships would be Independence, Constitution, United States. The French Line ships were named Liberté and France. These would replace all the ageing liners still in service as well as the ones lost in the war: Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Normandie, Bremen, Europa, Rex, Conte di Savoia, America, Empress of Scotland, Duchess of Bedford, Empress of Australia, Manhattan, Empress of Britain...

There was a serious shortage of shipping capacity as only Ile de France, Mauretania, Nieuw Amsterdam, and Empress of Canada remained as major liners on the Atlantic. Empress of Canada would be lost to a subsequent fire and replaced by the French liner Pasteur since it had completed military service. All this meant transatlantic traffic was less than what it had been during the Great Depression despite a post WW2 economic boom in the US. A report sent to Congress estimated that a 2 million middle class traveller market could be unlocked with the construction of fast, modern new ships. This was a major consideration to explain Congress' approval as they believed it would seriously boost the European economy, provide work for US shipbuilders, tie Europe and the US closer together, and prevent a domestic lapse back into isolationism.

The shortage of liners caused major shipping companies to resort to using retrofitted merchant ships. But these were not up to safety standards and on some occasions, it led to well-publicised loss of life at sea. These ships were small, slow, and uncomfortable especially during rough, winter crossings as they had not been designed with comfort in mind. The UK and France was mainly motivated by to a desire to increase the number of US tourists to help with the economic recovery. Airplane ticket prices were simply out of reach for the middle class budget and their patchy safety record made many wealthy travel on ships as well. On the other hand, building major new liners themselves was difficult as France and the UK were only emerging out of an economic crisis after WW2.

In addition, while Italy had fallen to a Communist regime, they were newly welcoming tourists again due to economic mismanagement and disagreements with USSR reducing subsidies. With the need for new sources of foreign currency to stabilise the economy, the Italians were considering building new liners of their own to replace the loss of both Conte di Savoia and Rex during WW2, but post-war economic disaster was making this non-feasible.

Apart from commercial, economic, and cultural soft power factors, the most important factor was the need to send a message of commitment to Europe and deter any Soviet invasion. All the surviving liners after WW2 were too slow and vulnerable to being detected and sunk by new generation submarines. Many in the USSR doubted US commitment to fight another world war, especially with ocean liners proving vulnerable in WW2 leading to tens of thousands of lives lost at sea.

These ocean liners while plying the civilian transport market during peacetime were designed to be rapidly transformed into troopships in case of a Soviet invasion on non-Communist Europe. 8 ships travelling at speeds close to 40 knots would allow over 400,000 US troops transported monthly to Europe in the event of a Soviet invasion with an estimated 15,000 troops per crossing. By comparison, the USSR had stationed over 1 million soldiers in Germany after WW2. Their Panamax size also allowed Australian/New Zealand troops to be transported quickly as well through Panama to Europe.

 

[The Tai-Pan]

Wait, these are built by Congress? Was that a thing in OTL?

 

[oca2073]

Wait, these are built by Congress? Was that a thing in OTL?

The US built SS United States after WW2 and it holds the record as the fastest liner of all time using public funds. It was designed to be a troopship in case of WW3 and it had to outrun enemy subs. This TL with the Cunard Queens gone and the USSR capturing all of Germany and Italy going Communist, the climate calls for much more radical plans...

 

[jlckansas]

Aerodynamics are secondary to the Hydrodynamics for a ship. It will help make the outside be more comfortable, but does virtually nothing to help the ship go faster. Everything that would make the ship increase speed happens below the waterline with hull shape, sharpness, propellers, number of props, and type of propulsion units.

 

[The Tai-Pan]

The US built SS United States after WW2 and it holds the record as the fastest liner of all time using public funds. It was designed to be a troopship in case of WW3 and it had to outrun enemy subs. This TL with the Cunard Queens gone and the USSR capturing all of Germany and Italy going Communist, the climate calls for much more radical plans...

Interesting. I doubt you'd ever really be able to prevent the very quick rise of air traffic, but still cool.

 

[oca2073]

Despite the generous offer made by the US to the British and French shipping fleet, there were some preconditions. Firstly, despite Britain and France funding one ship each, the US Navy and the shipbuilders and engineers it worked with had full control over the design of the ships with input from Congress. UK and French considerations were largely ignored.

The result was an austere masterpiece of military utility that doubled as civilian liners. The ships were designed to be capable of conversion into troopships in less than 72 hours with a 15,000 troop capacity and was also convertible into hospital ships. All the (sparse) furniture and furnishings onboard had to be quickly removable in the case of a military emergency. The US Navy had been taking notes from numerous ship fires and losses during the war to apply the ultimate scientific approach to reducing risk. This meant fireproof interiors with no wood onboard, public rooms were strictly compartmentalised with no double-height rooms allowed (with the exception of the theatre), as well as enclosed stairways. To compensate for this austerity, new interior design techniques and tricks were implemented to lessen the oppressiveness of the single height rooms such as the use of flared columns blending into the ceiling, archways, mirrors, railing dividers within rooms, and gracefully shaped ceilings with large indirectly lit slots to confer an impression of airiness and create the illusion of space and height. French designers were mainly commissioned designing streamlined, elegant, and lightweight furniture out of the synthetic materials allowed on board.

The ship was over-engineered for a civilian liner as it had to be up to the harsh US Navy standards adopted during tough naval battles with the Japanese. This meant the duplication of all systems (such as electric wiring, piping, generators, boiler and engine rooms) to ensure survivability in case of attack. The watertight bulkheads were extended 40 feet above the waterline and divided into 20 compartments with up to 13 being allowed to flood and the ship could still sail. It had a range of over 10,000 nautical miles carrying enough food and fuel.

The hardest engineering challenge to overcome was undoubtedly the problem of speed. The ship designs already called for a fine-lined underwater hull reducing the block coefficient in an effort to reduce weight and create a slimmer hydrodynamic hull to meet speed requirements. The superstructure of the ships was low in height and made entirely out of aluminium and welded seamlessly with the hull (also fully welded) in order to reduce weight and thus the ship's draught. (The exception was the frontal superstructure which remained steel-reinforced in order to cope with the possibility of rogue waves.) This required overcoming the challenge posed by galvanic corrosion in connecting the aluminium superstructure to the steel decks below.

The ships adopted the flared stem and clipper-like bow of the Normandie which proved to be superior during tests. But these tests showed it still wasn't enough to meet the speed challenge of averaging 35.5 knots with reserve power in case of falling behind schedule and for plowing through storms. The solution was a massively redesigned bulbous forefoot that was shaped more like a protruding bulb sticking out of the water in front of the ship. This design took inspiration from the radical bulbous forefoot on the Yamata class battleships. In addition, a flat transom stern was considered to reduce friction and the ship's draught further. The US Navy demanded the ship capable of making 24 knots sailing in reverse for emergencies, faster than what most liners could accomplish sailing forwards. But concern about North Atlantic storms meant an innovative compromise was developed and a hybrid stern (that combined the cruiser (spoon-shaped) and transom (flat) was adopted that had better sea holding characteristics in following swells.

Lastly, the issue of vibration had to be addressed. To resolve the problems posed by such high speeds, new 5 bladed propeller shafts were designed which reduced vibration even at the cost of efficiency. This was something that the US Navy was loath to concede, but in the end, they acknowledged that nobody would travel on the ships otherwise. Another solution adopted was a rear garage for cars directly above the propeller shafts and reached by a revolving lift with a side-hull entrance.

Thus, construction began on the first two ships in 1949. They were finished in 1951 (just in time to transport US troops to Korea). Two more in 1952, 1953, and the final pair was completed in 1954.

 

[yulzari1]

Another reason it could be viable, is that if enough ships are built, you could sustain a DAILY service running between Europe and NYC. Historically, ocean liners couldn't compete with jets because departures were scheduled on a weekly basis whereas you can depart any day of the week by plane.

This is an argument for smaller high speed vessels is it not?

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

In fact, with conversion to diesel it might remain competitive for longer

400,000 hp of diesel power. The mind boggles. Do you have 100 locomotive engines?

 

[CV12Hornet]

For what it’s worth, transatlantic passenger traffic was ballooning rapidly during the 1950s, both sea and air. Ships may have been continually losing market share, but the expansion in passenger volume meant the market was still very viable - in 1955 60% more sea passengers crossed than in 1950. And Congress around the time was fingering a lack of tourist-class berths on liners as one of the major reasons air travel was becoming more popular. Similarly, the liner companies were investing heavily in new ships to meet the demand.
Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=I...ransatlantic passenger volume by ship&f=false

That said, the growing market is not big enough to absorb six ships this big and this fast. Even assuming the ships spend 1/3 of the year docked for maintenance (and I have no idea if that’s a realistic figure), just three of these ships are liable to eat up all the extra passenger volume added from 1950-1955. Even subtracting RMS Queen Mary and assuming more people choose ships over planes, six ships are not economically viable.

 

[oca2073]

The arrangement of the ship's interiors caused many disputes. The French Line and Cunard were adamant they wanted their ships to run with the traditional three classes (1st, cabin, tourist). The US Lines preferred a two-class system (1st and tourist). But there was the problem that most wealthy people were now expected to fly, having gotten used to the speed and convenience. With ships running daily from Europe and US, the number of 1st class passengers on each ship was predicted to be low.

The vast majority would be essentially "everyone else" who couldn't afford the airplane ticket. And although it was possible to split them into two classes (one wealthier and one poorer), it was far more efficient to have a single standard class apply for everyone to avoid the duplication of public rooms and to centralise the ship's processes. It also gave designers far more freedom as to how and where to place the public rooms

The idea of social class and stratification was quaint, to put it mildly. The upper middle class professionals had little qualms travelling with those on a budget such as students or immigrants. Only the rich still had a desire to be segregated from the common man, but for everyone else, it didn't matter. Thus a 2 class ship was planned with 90% of passengers travelling on standard tourist class (just over 1600) with fewer than 200 in 1st class. That made for 1800+ total passengers serviced by 900 crew. Between them, the eight ships would be able to carry over 1.3 million people crossing annually if run at full capacity.

Unlike former liners which gave disproportionate space to 1st class, 95% of space would service the standard tourist class on these new ships. This egalitarian approach was prompted by the eventual plan shifting from a rigidly divided 1st and tourist class to a system of shared facilities available to all passengers, with 1st class passengers having exclusive access to public rooms and a restaurant that only they were entitled. First class passengers were free to mingle in tourist class public spaces as much or as little as they wanted, or they could stay in their exclusive areas of the ship. This offered flexibility for different people who could be either famous public figures or extremely wealthy.

This further increased efficiency in the use of space. Each ship had one large dining room for tourist class (who would be served in two seatings), and one small one that served the 1st class passengers. Much else was duplicated in similar fashion: one main children's play area and one far smaller room exclusive for 1st class child passengers. Tourist class had one large library but there was one smaller reading/writing room for 1st class. The more private, central part of the sundeck was exclusive for 1st class serving as both sports deck and open promenade, while the tourist sports deck and open promenade was located in the aft decks. There was one large grand lounge for tourist class and one small 1st class drawing room (both with dance floors and band stages for after dinner dancing). Both classes also had separate cardrooms. Their respective smoking rooms with service bars again differentiated primarily due to size.

Also located in the main tourist class areas but accessible to 1st class was the shopping centre, hair salon/beauty parlour, and theatre which featured a stage for live music performances, lectures delivered by passengers, or sermons. The balcony seats were reserved for 1st class. Next to the entrance of the theatre was a cocktail lounge and bar also open for after-hours drinking. Just before the aft end of the ship, was the swimming pool that was under a glass dome and located next to the gymnasium to the side. The pool could be used in cold North Atlantic weather and it offered additional flexibility for cruising during winters. At the opposite end of the pool area was the café veranda.

The ship was fully air-conditioned, a major luxury, and this included the enclosed promenade that wrapped around the ship made available to tourist class passengers. This was deemed necessary in case the ships ever went on cruises. The lifeboat deck above was also open to all passengers to stroll. Thanks to the space saved from the condensation of classes, all passenger cabins onboard possessed a private washroom. It was decided that the highest quality of onboard life possible was needed to compete with the burgeoning air travel market.

The ships advertised the first class amenities of past ships now available for the price of tourist class. Crossings were also advertised as 3 days of holiday paid for since tourist class was cheaper than travelling by air, even if you factored in 3 working days. In total, one was only sacrificing roughly 2 full days of time as air travel still took nearly a day to cross the Atlantic. With a ship guaranteed to depart daily from both the US and Europe every evening, ocean travel could now compete with air travel in terms of convenience of departure dates.

To demonstrate the capability of the ships to meet the demanding schedule, the maiden voyage of the first ship completed SS Independence broke all records to capture the Blue Riband with an astonishing average speed of 38.3 knots. This was significantly faster than the 35.5 knots minimum needed to maintain the 3 day, 4 night crossing schedule. At that speed, fuel consumption was still acceptable as was the vibration level. These ships used similar amounts of fuel crossing in 3.5 days as the Cunard Queens had crossing in 4.5 days in the past (4500 tons of fuel) despite being 40% lighter in weight. For winter cruises however, these ships could be run with the front engine/boiler room shut down with only the inboard shafts powering the ship. Even with just 2 out of 4 propellers, these ships were capable of over 30 knots.