RMS Majestic (1914)
RMS Majestic was a British ocean liner working on the White Star Line's North Atlantic run, originally launched in 1914 as the Hamburg America Liner SS Bismarck. At 56,551 gross register tons, she was the largest ship ever operated by the White Star Line under its own flag and the largest ship in the world until completion of in 1935.
The third and largest member of the German ocean liner company Hamburg America Line's trio of transatlantic liners, her completion was delayed by World War I. The liner never sailed under the German flag except on her sea trials in 1922. Following the war, she was finished by her German builders, handed over to the Allies as war reparations and became the White Star Line flagship RMS Majestic, replacing the sunk HMHS Britannic, which went down in the Aegean Sea, in November 1916, after hitting a mine laid by SM U-73. She was the second White Star ship to bear the name, the first being the RMS Majestic of 1889.
She served successfully throughout the 1920s but the onset of the Great Depression made her increasingly unprofitable. She managed to struggle through the first half of the 1930s before being sold off for scrapping to Thos. W. Ward. The British Admiralty took possession of her before demolition commenced after an agreement was reached with White Star and Thomas Ward. She served the Royal Navy as the training ship HMS Caledonia before catching fire in 1939 and sinking. She was subsequently raised and scrapped in 1943.
Conception and construction
At the beginning of the 1910s, the German shipping companies aspired to regain the domination which had been theirs at the very beginning of the 20th century, and which had been taken from them by the liners of the Cunard Line and the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, in particular, RMS Mauretania and the Olympic-class ships. It was under these circumstances that Albert Ballin, president of Hamburg America Line who was close to Kaiser Wilhelm II, decided to build three liners intended to be the largest in the world. After considering having the first built by German shipyards, and the next two by the British Harland & Wolff shipyards, he decided to strengthen the patriotic symbolism carried by the trio by having all three built in Germany.For these three liners, size and comfort were given priority. Ballin was aware that his ships could not compete with their British rivals in terms of speed. He thought of compensating for this problem by offering passengers a higher level of luxury, and called on architect Charles Mewès, who was famous for his decoration of luxury hotels. The ships were intended to transport a large number of passengers, and divided not into three classes, as is generally the case, but instead four, the last being intended for the mass transport of migrants. The sinking of RMS Titanic, which occurred during the construction of the first of the liners in the series, highlighted the need for enough lifeboats for all passengers, which was a real challenge for ships intended to carry more than 5,000 people in total. The builders therefore distributed the boats in several places on the ships, and more exclusively at the level of the upper deck.
On June 10, 1913, the first ship of the Imperator-class trio,, made its maiden voyage. The second, a slightly larger liner, SS Vaterland, did the same in May 1914. It was decided to name the last of the trio Bismarck. Her keel was laid shortly after the launch of the Vaterland, in the spring of 1913, in the Blohm & Voss shipyards in Hamburg, Germany, with Kaiser Wilhelm II in attendance. The original project called for the Bismarck to be similar to the Vaterland, which itself differed from the Imperator in several ways, including the fact that the ducts of its chimneys did not descend into the center of the ship, but split into smaller pipes that run along its sides, allowing for larger interior spaces. Bismarck was intended to be the same size as Vaterland, in both tonnage and length, but a miscommunication that Cunard's would be larger made HAPAG demand an extra in length, increasing her gross tonnage. This purported news had already prompted the company to bolt an eagle-shaped figurehead to the Imperator in order to gain some precious meters. In reality, Aquitania was shorter than both Vaterland and Bismarck. As an employee of HAPAG noted with annoyance, these six feet were particularly expensive, since they required a total revision of the plans and the addition of two couples in the center of the ship to allow this modification of the structure. However, this allowed Bismarck to remain the largest liner ever built until the completion of in 1935.
Bismarck was launched on 20 June 1914 by Countess Hanna von Bismarck, the granddaughter of the 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. During the launching ceremony Countess Bismarck had difficulty breaking the bottle of champagne herself by swinging it too late and Kaiser Wilhelm II had to assist by snatching the bottle that had missed the ship's hull and throwing it himself, finally causing it to break.
World War I and cession to Britain
After launch, the fitting out of Bismarck proceeded until the start of World War I in August 1914, when it slowed and substantive work on the vessel stopped altogether. Other than maintenance work, not much more work was done on the vessel, as naval priorities occupied the ship yard until 1918. By the time the war was over, the funnels had still not been erected. During the war, brass and copper components were scavenged from the Bismarck for munitions. After being ceded to Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the as-yet uncompleted ship was purchased jointly by the White Star and Cunard Lines, together with Imperator. Construction of the ship resumed after the end of World War I. Bismarck was ostensibly a replacement for the pre-war 48,000-ton Britannic which was lost after hitting a mine in the Aegean in 1916, while the Imperator went to Cunard and became the RMS Berengaria, a replacement for the Lusitania which had been sunk by a German U-boat in 1915.Completion
After Bismarck was sold to the White Star Line, a team of engineers were sent by Harland and Wolff, White Star's shipbuilders, to supervise completion of the ship and gather experience on her operation. Two thousand workers were mobilized on the ship, which ended up undergoing some modifications. The company requested to modify its original propulsion to consume fuel oil instead, which was more economical. On 5 October 1920, the as-yet uncompleted Bismarck was badly damaged by fire while fitting out at the shipyard. At the time of the fire, substantial progress had been made on the ship and sabotage by shipyard workers was suspected. A number of other German liners that were due to be handed over were also damaged by fire. In February 1921, the assignment of the ship to the White Star was confirmed, and its name was quickly announced: Majestic, in reference to a previous liner of the same name. The ship's funnels were installed in late May and early June 1921, then work focused on the interiors. Here too, important changes were made with regard to the distribution of passengers. To adapt to a curtailment of migration, the fourth class was abolished, and the ship was decided to carry less than 1,000 emigrants and a total of just over 2,000 passengers, far from the 4,000 of the capacity of the Imperator.Sea trials
The Bismarck was completed on 28 March 1922, and Commodore Bertram Hayes and a number of officers were sent to Hamburg to take command of the ship prior to the physical handover. The transition, though not friendly, was not openly acrimonious. When Hayes and his men arrived, they found their quarters incomplete, whereas their German colleagues' cabins were finished perfectly. In the case of Captain Hayes, his temporary quarters were being used to store wash basins. These small events bore witness to the climate of tension that accompanied the handover of the ship. She was taken on her sea trials by Captain Hans Ruser of the Hamburg America Line on the afternoon of 28 March 1922. The shipbuilders completed the ship in the colors of the Hamburg-America Line and with the name Bismarck painted on her bow and stern. As she departed the Hamburg docks the following day she was watched by a large number of locals in silence. Once down the river, she anchored at Cuxhaven for the night and commenced her trials proper the next day. The basic requirement was that the ship develop and therefore she was steamed for three hours into the North Sea and back again. Briefly she ran aground after leaving at Pagensand, Schleswig-Holstein, but was refloated on the peak of high tide on 30 March and under way again.Handover
After another week of work on the accommodation, Bismarck was accepted by the British representatives. In early April a chartered steamer arrived at Hamburg with the bulk of her new British crew; they were conveyed on board on one side of the ship, while her German crew were taken off on the other side. Upon boarding, men started re-painting the funnels in White Star colours, and painting out the name and home port "Bismarck, Hamburg," on the stern and replacing it with "Majestic, Liverpool." Majestic departed Hamburg on 9 April 1922 and arrived at Southampton at 9 am the next day, which exactly ten years earlier, the had left Southampton on the same day, on her maiden voyage.Early career
Upon arrival in Southampton, the Majestic became the flagship of the White Star Line fleet. She was placed on the North Atlantic run from Southampton to New York in tandem with and. She sailed on her maiden voyage from Southampton on Wednesday, 11 May 1922 at 11:30 am under the command of Sir Bertram Hayes. She reached New York in 5 days, 14 hours and 45 minutes at an average speed of. When she docked in New York no pier was long enough to take her, and of her stern projected into the Hudson River. On the eastern leg of her maiden voyage, Majestic managed to travel from New York to Eddystone Light, a distance of in 5 days, 9 hours and 42 minutes at an average speed of.On 4 August 1922, Majestic arrived at Southampton and her crew were told that the next day they would be departing and anchoring off Cowes, where they would be inspected by the British monarchs George V and Queen Mary. Over night the ship was cleaned, and the next day she arrived at Cowes at 9:00. Not long after arriving a "yeoman of Signals" from the Royal Yacht arrived with the Royal Standard. The launch carrying the King and Queen arrived shortly after 11:00 am and the Royal Standard was broken on the main mast as the visitors came aboard. The guests were received by Harold A Sanderson – the Chairman of the International Merchant Marine, owners of the White Star Line and Majestics captain, Bertram Hayes. They were given an inspection of the ship lasting an hour and a half, viewing the major public rooms and the three classes of accommodation before sitting down to lunch on B-Deck. The visit to a merchant ship by a reigning monarch was considered a great honour at the time; George V had been a naval officer until placed in the direct line of succession by the death of his brother, and took an interest in the merchant marine.
During the 1920s, the Majestic proved to be extremely popular. After her May 1922 maiden voyage, Majestic became one of the most booked liners afloat, carrying more passengers in 1923 than any other Atlantic liner. She also carried more passengers than any other ship in 1924, 1926 and 1928, and earned the affectionate nickname 'Magic Stick' from her crews and passengers.
This promising career was nevertheless disturbed by various incidents without major consequences, in particular a collision with the Berengaria at the end of 1922. However, the biggest problem experienced by the Majestic came in December 1924, when, due to a structural defect in her topsides, Majestic suffered a crack and had to undergo permanent repairs and strengthening along B-deck before returning to service in April 1925. Small cracks were also noted on her sister Leviathan around the same time, but only minor repairs were carried out and she developed a similar 100-foot crack five years later. The end of the 1920s saw the Majestic undergo several refits, notably in 1928, in order to adapt the ship to the decline of migratory currents on the North Atlantic. As on other ships of the time, the solution took the form of a tourist class that replaced the second class.
In 1925, Majestic completed an eastbound crossing at 25 knots, which was the fastest she ever managed, and faster than either of her sisters' best efforts. However, her older sister Leviathan often had a slightly higher average speed each year than her sister.