RMMV Pearl (Unfinished)
!!!!!PLEASE NOTE THIS MODEL IS HOW I LEFT HER, AND NOT HOW SHE WAS MEANT TO BE!!!!!
(This also needs infinite electricity AND spawns art CREATIVE ISLAND)
The RMMV Pearl was intended to be a superliner for the now done Gem Line. I planned to finish her by November, but I delayed her. I got burned out, and eventually I was sick of her and Gem Line as a whole. The RMMV Pearl was highly anticipated, but she was never finished. As a result of this, I’ve decided to release her, as she was last left. She is barely functional, though she has decent interior to explore. The model is not perfect by no means, it is unstable, too heavy to the stern and always spirals. Keep in mind this model must have infinite electric so her limited uses can work, and is beyond outdated. I can do so much better, and the Pearl honestly disappoints me. Due to many close friends being saddened by the cancelling of her, I’ve decided to upload her for what was done. Once again, this model was not finished and never will be. Thank you Liam for adding to this liner.
Story:
The second Pearl class was planned as a duo of Royal Mail Motor Vessels. They were diesel-powered and had quadruple screws. They were also originally planned to be 240m, even larger than White Star’s second Georgic and Gem Line’s largest ships. However, the funding was not secured fully, and the second ship, RMMV Diamond II, was cancelled. The already started Pearl III was shortened to 160m to be more economically viable.
The RMMV Pearl, or Pearl III, was the first motor ship owned by Gem Line. She departed her maiden voyage, leaving a few hours too late, on 23rd November 1928 carrying over 4,100 civilian passengers, and was deemed overcrowded, bound for New York. Apart from cabin class feeling heavy vibrations in the stern section of the liner, the first two days of the voyage were a great success. Several news reporters were aboard the vessel on this particular voyage, and telegrams were sent back to the mainland via Pearl’s large radio room, where reporters claimed that the vessel was “exceedingly above the standard of the average grand ocean ship”, and that the vessel was “the transatlantic ocean liner of the century”. The only problem reporters reported was “the lack of silverware in the tea room.” “Well done”, reporters ended on in the telegram sent to the Gem Star Line’s chairman.
There was, however, a real problem that could potentially affect the ship in a rather large manner. Stability was a large issue when it came to this particular vessel. Although barely present during the first few days of the voyage, it became painfully evident on her final day.
A little over two days out into the voyage, in the early hours of 26th of November 1928, an undersea earthquake occurred at 12:35 AM, where the gentle trembling could be felt aboard even aboard the ship. Passengers dismissed this however. At approximately 1:00 AM, only 25 minutes later, most passengers were asleep, apart from the few still within public rooms amidships. Most of those that were inside these public rooms would, however, go on to survive a deadly tragedy. At 1:03 AM, the lookouts in the protected crow’s nest watched in terrific horror as a large black mass, that seemingly stretched as far as the eye could see, approached at an accelerated speed. The lookouts called the bridge and yelled “Rogue wave off the port side!”, to which the captain ordered the ship to be turned hard to port, in an attempt to ‘cut’ through the approaching rogue wave. The order was given to sound the ship’s alarm, by which immediately, panic broke out within the ship as most passengers were shaken from their slumber. Most did not know however, that it was alerting about a rogue wave. Passengers began bottlenecking in the stairways, trying to get up onto deck, in order to see what the problem was. This was a fatal mistake. The crew in the bridge began panicking as Pearl struggled to turn. Soon enough, she was riding up the large ripples produced from the incoming rogue wave, causing her to rock violently. The rogue wave finally slammed into the RMMV, immediately destroying windows and cabins on the upper deck in the port side, which the wave had affected. The ship lurched heavily, and began to roll heavily, as the immense 90-foot wave surged over the decks of the liner, with only her funnels and masts being visible from above.
Windows broken inwards allowed for water to surge into public spaces. As the wall of water continued to tower up against the liner, she continued to list more and more. Furniture not bolted to the floor, as well as people, all at once slid to the starboard side, only enhancing the list with the added weight. As the rogue wave passed by, The RMMV Pearl was revealed once more. The ship, now sitting very low on her side in dangerously choppy waters- produced from the rogue wave- continued to roll even more, as a result of numerous broken windows from within the ship. The RMMV Pearl was now completely capsized, all of this occurring within only one minute. The main dynamos proceeded to collapse through the floors, and through the ship, being under unimaginable stress from being held upside down. The engines proceeded to collapse on themselves as well, creating numerous fires from within the ship’s mechanical rooms. With the power now out, the emergency dynamos- remarkably still intact, activated, for a short time. Passengers within the rapidly flooding Pearl then realised the danger in which they were now in. Thus, passengers began to open portholes and windows, and leap out of the ship. In the capsized reception room, just forward of the flooded grand dining room, many passengers trapped themselves inside of the room by closing watertight doors, in an attempt to keep the onrush or water from entering. With the dining room aft of them being flooded immediately after capsizing, passengers soon realised the danger in which they were in, and purposely opened windows, to allow the room to flood out, so that they could swim upwards.
In the end, very few of the survivors inside of the reception room made it to the surface, most drowning before they even could. The passengers that made it out of the liner were able to cling to life aboard large pieces of wreckage, where they had a front-row view to watch the liner in front of them sink. The stern of the capsized liner slowly rose upwards, and plunged completely within the timespan of just 15 minutes after being capsized. Rescue only arrived over six hours later, where most of the survivors were killed from hypothermia in the waters.
Only one SOS was given out, and even that message was not finished, as the wireless room, located on the upper decks, was flooded out immediately. The Gem Star Line offices, by regulation, required the RMMV Pearl to give a status update on her maiden voyage every five hours. The SOS read:
“SOS, SOS, SOS, ROGUE WAVE APPROACHING, WILL BE FATAL. MID ATLANTIC 467 MILES SOUTH WEST OF HALIFAX POS PROVIDED . COME QUICKLY, DIS-“.
The Gem Star Line offices were in a panic as they only received the message that the Pearl had capsized and sank, leaving only a handful of survivors until later on. Many ships had gone through rogue waves in the past, including the Cunard Line’s Lusitania, and White Star’s Teutonic- and they held up perfectly.
Credits to Liam Sharpe for creating the story of this liner and helping with her interiors.
