|
The Hamburg Amerika Line’s
Bismarck was the world’s
largest ship until the French
Line’s 79,280-ton Normandie
entered service in 1935. She took the
title from the Hamburg Amerika
Line’s 54,282-ton Vaterland
that entered service in May 1914. As
Bismarck was launched after the
outbreak of World War One, work on her
fitting out had to be suspended until the
conflict came to an end. The German
surrender in 1918 led to Bismarck
being awarded to the White Star Line as
compensation for the sinking of their
liner Britannic. A workforce of
1200 workers at the Blohm & Voss
shipyards was then assigned to complete
Bismarck under supervision of
British armed forces. After being
delivered to Britain in February 1921,
the White Star Line renamed her
Majestic.
Being the largest ship in the world at
that time, Majestic received vast
amounts of free publicity and became
extremely popular as a result. She could
carry 750 1st, 545 2nd and 850 3rd class
passengers. The White Star Line operated
Majestic on the Southampton - New
York run alongside their 45,324-ton
Olympic and the 35,000-ton
Homeric (another German built ship
awarded to the White Star Line). During
the depression of the late 1920s /early
1930s, the White Star Line operated
Majestic on cruises out of New
York, often cruises to nowhere, just to
allow the American public to escape the
prohibition. At that time, foreign ships
were allowed to sell alcohol when they
reached open seas. These short excursions
soon became known as booze cruises.
Majestic was one of the ships
marked for disposal after the
Cunard/White Star merger in 1934. In
February 1936, after only 14 years in
service, she was laid up at Southampton
while arrangements were made for her
disposal. Three months later, T W Ward L
T D bought Majestic for scrapping.
Her funnels and masts were cut down at
that time, as she had to pass under the
Firth of Forth Bridge/Scotland on route
to the scrap yard. The British Admiralty
saved Majestic from being
prematurely dismantled when they bought
her to be operated as a training ship.
She was then based at Rosyth/Scotland
under the name Caledonia.
The British Admiralty planned to
operate Caledonia as a transport
ship during World War Two. Before that
new role began, she mysteriously caught
fire and sank at her moorings September
29th 1939. The completion of the salvage
operation in March 1940 showed
Caledonia was beyond repair. After
being dismantled to the waterline at
Rosyth, her remains were towed to
Inverkeithing for the scrapping to be
completed. The creator of the Big Three,
Imperator, Vaterland and
Bismark was the Hamburg Amerika
Line’s managing director Albert
Ballin. He became an influential
politician involved in negotiations to
end World War One. With the terms of
surrender leading to uprisings throughout
Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm fled to the
Netherlands November 9th 1918 and Ballin
committed suicide.
|