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Adriatic was the largest and
fastest of the White Star Line’s
Big Four. The only ship larger at that
time, the 24,581-ton Kaiserin
Auguste Victoria, entered
service for he Hamburg Amerika Line in
May 1906. The earlier ships of the Big
Four were, Celtic launched in
1901, Cedric 1903 and
Baltic 1904. Although
Adriatic had been ordered in 1903,
a delay in construction meant her launch
took place 3 years later on the same day
as Cunard’s Mauretania.
Adriatic set new standards in
ocean travel, as she was the first ship
to be fitted with an indoor swimming pool
and Turkish bath. Her maiden voyage from
Liverpool - New York began May 8th 1907.
After Adriatic returned from New
York, she was relocated to the White Star
Line’s new terminal at Southampton.
Adriatic then became the
company’s first ship to provide a
service between Southampton and New
York.
The arrival of Cunard’s two
31,500-ton liners Lusitania and
Mauretania in 1907 forced the
White Star Line to design a new class of
liner to compete. After the White Star
Line’s 45,324-ton Olympic
entered service on the Southampton - New
York run in 1911, Adriatic was
returned to the Liverpool - New York run.
Throughout World War One, she served
mainly as a troopship carrying thousands
of tons of munitions without incident.
The end of the war saw Adriatic
undergo a refit before being returned to
the Atlantic run in 1919. Following
restrictions being put on the number of
emigrants entering America in the 1920s,
the White Star Line was forced to convert
her to a cabin class ship in 1928. By
that time there were new larger/faster
liners operating on the Atlantic run.
This led to the White Star Line operating
Adriatic as a full time cruise
ship from 1933 in an attempt to keep her
in service. After the Cunard/White Star
merger in 1934, the aging Adriatic
was laid up at Liverpool for a few months
before setting out for the ship breakers
at Osaka/Japan.
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