Mount Temple was a passenger cargo steamship built in 1901 by Armstrong Whitworth & Company of Newcastle for Elder, Dempster & Co Ltd of Liverpool to operate as part of its Beaver Line. The ship was shortly afterwards acquired by the Canadian Pacific Railway. She was one of the first vessels to respond to the distress signals of RMS Titanic in 1912.
In 1916, while crossing the Atlantic with horses for the war effort and carrying a large number of newly collected dinosaur fossils (two of which were the hadrosaurs Corythosaurus), she was captured and scuttled complete with her cargo.
Design and construction Following acquisition of Beaver Line in 1899 and resolving all the legal questions surrounding it, Elder, Dempster placed an order for a vessel of about to run on this line between Liverpool, United Kingdom, and Canadian ports and New Orleans, Louisiana. Mount Temple was laid down at the Armstrong Whitworth & Company shipyard in Walker and launched on 18 June 1901 (yard number 709), with Mrs. Swan, the wife of Colonel Henry Frederick Swan, being the sponsor. At the time, she was the largest ship ever built at Low Walker Yard.
After successful completion of sea trials on 19 September 1901, in which the ship maintained an average speed of over several runs on the measured mile on the Tyne in very unfavorable weather, she was transferred to her owners and immediately departed for New Orleans. The vessel was constructed for general cargo trade, and had an iron shelter deck built over the whole length of the ship, good for about 1,100 heads of cattle. She also had all the modern machinery fitted for quick loading and unloading of the cargo. In addition, the ship was fitted with refrigerating machinery and insulated chambers to carry dairy produce and chilled meat.
As built, the ship was long (between perpendiculars) and abeam, a depth of . Mount Temple was originally assessed at and and had deadweight of about 11,200. The vessel had a steel hull, and a pair of three-cylinder triple-expansion steam engine, with cylinders of , and diameter with a stroke that drove two screw propellers. Between them the two engines were rated at a total of 694 nominal horsepower and gave the ship a speed of .
The ship was named after William Francis Cowper, Baron Mount Temple, a British politician, Lord of the Admiralty and at the time, also a chairman of Armstrong Whitworth & Company.
In the Imperial Government service After delivery to her owners on 19 September, Mount Temple was chartered by the Imperial Government to transport remounts for the British Army fighting in South Africa in the Second Boer War. She departed for her maiden journey on the same day for New Orleans and arrived there on 9 October.
As the steamer entered the service late in 1901, she only made three trips in Admiralty service before the war ended at the end of May 1902. Following her last trip to South Africa she started her normal commercial service. + Remounts from North America carried by Mount Temple to South Africa in 1901–1902Date of departurePort of departureDate of arrivalPort of arrivalNo. of remounts embarkedOther cargo5 November 1901New Orleans7 December 1901Durban1,100 horses286 tons hay, 66 tons bran, 6,875 bushels oats, 1,571 bushels corn, 1,100 halters4 February 1902New Orleans8 March 1902Durban1,100 horses256 tons hay, 60 tons bran, 6,930 bushels oats, 1,600 bushels corn, 1,100 halters30 April 1902New Orleans28 May 1902Durban1,100 horses265 tons hay, 60 tons bran, 6,930 bushels oats, 1,600 bushels corn, 1,100 halters
Elder, Dempster & Co After the end of hostilities in South Africa Mount Temple sailed back to England and arrived at South Shields on 6 July 1902. She departed for her first commercial trip on 27 August for New Orleans in ballast and reached her destination on 15 September. There the vessel took on board a cargo consisting of cotton, wheat and lumber and left New Orleans on 1 October for Liverpool via Havre. While leaving the port, the steamer ran aground outside the South Pass, but was successfully refloated next day and continued her journey. The steamer conducted one more trip in November–December 1902 to Galveston, Texas, where the steamer loaded the port's third largest cargo of cotton at the time, and brought it back to Liverpool, and another one in January–February 1903 when she transported a large cargo of cotton, wheat and lumber from New Orleans to Havre.
On 24 February 1903, while Mount Temple was still en route, it was announced that the Canadian Pacific Railway acquired 14 steamers from Elder, Dempster Shipping, serving mostly on Beaver and Elder Lines, for £1,417,500.
Service with Canadian Pacific Lines After completing all the transfer requirement, Mount Temple was refitted to carry large number of passengers, and the Marconi Company equipped her for wireless telegraphy. Her call sign was "MLQ".Trevent, Edward. (1911) The A B C of Wireless Telegraphy: A Plain Treatise on Hertzian Wave Signalling, p. 12. Following the redesign, the vessel was also reassessed at and . Mount Temple departed Liverpool for her first voyage under new ownership on 12 May 1903 carrying 12 cabin and 1,200 steerage passengers for Quebec City and about 1,000 tons of general cargo for Montreal. She returned to Liverpool on 10 June with a cargo of 1,361 heads of cattle, wheat, hay and other produce. The steamer conducted five more runs between Liverpool and Montreal until the end of navigation season on the St. Lawrence River in November 1903, carrying general cargo and immigrants from Europe to Canada, and returning with cattle, foodstuffs and lumber. She was subsequently reassigned to the London–Antwerp–Canada route, serving Saint John and Halifax in winter seasons, and Montreal in summers. For example, on 18 April 1905 she brought in 1,922 immigrants to Saint John, the largest number brought by a single ship at the time, destined for settlement in Western Canada.
Stranding in 1907 Mount Temple left Antwerp on 20 November 1907 on her usual route to Saint John, carrying around 6,000 tons of general cargo and 633 passengers. She was under command of Captain Boothby and had a crew of about 150. After passing Cape Pine, the captain took soundings in the morning of 1 December to ascertain the ship's position. By late afternoon the weather deteriorated, becoming overcast, with occasional snow squalls appearing. At around midnight, the captain retired leaving the watch to the second officer, Griffith Owen Lewis, with an order to call him if the weather worsened. Between 01:00 and 02:00 on 2 December, the vessel ran into a series of snow squalls which got progressively stronger and more persistent. At about 02:30 it started snowing heavily and visibility was reduced severely to only about half a length of the ship. About 02:35 the look-out reported a light ahead, which the second officer erroneously interpreted as another ship closing in. He ported the ship, and at 02:44 Mount Temple struck on the rocks of the West Ironbound Island. As the ship struck, the rocks pierced the steamer's hull right around the engine room flooding it and extinguishing the fires. A huge wave then smashed over the vessel, destroying about half of the lifeboats on board.
Several distress signals were made but due to rough weather no help could be dispatched until the next morning. At daylight it was observed that Mount Temple was on the ledges of the island and there were about between the steamer and the cliffs. Since it was unsafe to disembark the passengers down the sides of the ship into the waters, the crew managed to get the cable from the ship tied directly to the cliffs, and started transferring people in a basket tied to the cable. As the sea subsided, the lifeboats were employed to speed up the evacuation, and the help arrived in the form of several fishing vessels, schooners Hazel and Guide, and the tug Trusty. By about 17:00 on 3 December all passengers were successfully moved from the wrecked ship to the island, and 150 of them were taken to Bridgewater by Trusty. The rest of the passengers had to spend a night on the island, and were safely brought to Halifax the next day by the Canadian government steamer Lady Laurier.
The ship was left stranded in a dangerous position and the chances of getting the vessel off were considered very slim, however, a new storm that hit the area on 6 December had shifted the steamer about closer to the island, and with that her position had markedly improved. Mount Temple had to spend the winter stranded, but was not damaged by the storms, and three attempts were made to float the steamer in February 1908, yet all of them proved to be unsuccessful. Finally, on 15 April 1908 the ship was successfully refloated and was able to proceed under her own steam to Lunenburg.
On 19 May 1908 it was reported that the repair contract was awarded to the Newport News Shipbuilding Co. and Mount Temple proceeded to Newport News, Virginia, from Halifax in tow on 22 May. The steamer sailed from Newport News on 22 August for Quebec City after almost three months of repairs, which cost Canadian Pacific about $140,000. Upon arrival she loaded her usual cargo and left 2 September for London, resuming her regular service.
On 14 October 1911 while entering Gravesend Mount Temple collided with an Australian steamer SS Osterley anchored at Tilbury Dock, causing some slight damage to her bow.
On 18 January 1912 Mount Temple on her trip from Halifax to London under command of Captain Moore encountered steamer SS Dart about east-northeast of Halifax, drifting helplessly with broken rudder. She spent the night standing by but did not connect the towing cables and abandoned Dart the next day.
Actions during the sinking of RMS Titanic Mount Temple set out on her usual voyage at 14:00 on 3 April 1912 from Antwerp bound for Saint John, New Brunswick. The steamer was under the command of captain James Henry Moore and was carrying 1,466 passengers, mostly steerage, and a crew of 143. On the night of 14–15 April, Mount Temples Marconi wireless operator, John Durrant, was about to sign off for the evening when at around 00:11 ship's time (22:25 New York Time) he picked up a distress signal from , which was sinking after a collision with an iceberg. The message contained an erroneous distress position of . Durrant had the message relayed to the bridge by a steward, and acknowledged receipt of the signal to Titanics wireless operator, Jack Phillips. Phillips had difficulty hearing the call from Durrant, however, because of the racket of steam which was then 'blowing off' from Titanics funnels. Durrant made sure not to jam the ongoing exchange between Titanic and other ships, which he assumed to be closer to the scene. Ten minutes after the first distress call from Titanic was received (at 00:21 ship's time, 22:35 New York time), another message came in from Titanic with corrected distress coordinates: the position of . This position was west of where Titanic actually sank, as confirmed by the wreck's coordinates. (The center of Titanics boiler field is located at )
When this message was received, Captain Moore was asleep. After being awakened, he assessed the situation carefully. He had standing orders to avoid icebergs, but after receiving the distress call he decided to mount a rescue operation. He immediately turned his ship around and steamed north-northeast at an estimated speed of towards Titanics last reported position of . He consulted with his chief engineer, John Gillet, to try to coax even more speed out of the ageing vessel. Moore worked out his own rough position as , about south and west from the now-established location of the wreck of the Titanic (). Even at full speed, it would take around four hours to cover the distance between his ship and Titanic.