RMS Transylvania Leaves Glasgow, 25 August 1928.

This photograph​ depicts a familiar scene off the Scottish coast in the late 1920s, as RMS Transylvania of the Anchor Line steams past Greenock, taking her to the Firth of Clyde and out on her transatlantic crossing to New York. This photograph is dated 25th August 1928. This particular passage leaving Glasgow on 25th August was fairly busy. The Scotsman newspaper reported that she was leaving at the height of the tourist season for returning American travellers. Among her more than 1,400 passengers were some officials of the USA Olympic team along with around 140 supporters. The 1928 games had been held in Amsterdam, and the Team themselves had already returned directly aboard SS President Roosevelt on 19th August.

SS Transylvania off Greenock, 25 August 1928.

Transylvania was one of the Anchor Line's newest vessels; the middle of three sisters launched between 1923 and 1925. Together with her sister Caledonia, her three black funnels added a distinctive profile to the transatlantic fleet of the Anchor Line. But could she have lived her life without them? There had been times when funnels signaled power, size and confidence. After the First World War, Cunard and Anchor challenged this perception with a number of intermediate sized ships all built with one funnel. The single stackers provided modern, efficient first class travel, with spaciousness enhanced by the absence of multiple funnel casings cutting through their passenger accommodations.

It seems, however, that this went a little too far on the new Anchor Liners. Transylvania and Caledonia had continuities in design with the single-funneled California and Tuscania. Even with all the facts of modern engineering behind them, something seemed to be missing. Transylvania and Caledonia thus gained two additional funnels to balance their profiles. At around 16,700 grt, Transylvania originally carried 279 first class, 344 second class, and 800 third class passengers.

​Interestingly, a few days into this particular crossing, the Anchor Line announced that California would be converted to cabin and tourist class from the following April. Transylvania and Caledonian did not undergo this change. Their second class accommodation was reclassified as tourist-third cabin in 1930 but they continued to carry first class passengers until 1936, when the North Atlantic Passenger Conference agreed to reclassify virtually all ships as 'cabin liners', including the mammoth new RMS Queen Mary, in effect abolishing first class travel on the North Atlantic.