SS Bismarck / RMS Majestic — historic photograph

White Star Line

SS Bismarck / RMS Majestic

Ocean liner from 1922 to 1939

1914 Blohm & Voss 56,551 GRT 956 ft Shipwreck
56,551GRT
Tonnage
956ft
Length
100.1ft
Beam
23.5knots
Speed
2,145passengers
Passengers

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 SS Normandie 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.

Text: Wikipedia — RMS Majestic (1914), CC BY-SA 4.0

Tonnage
56,551 GRT, 26,324 NRT
Length
956 ft
Beam
100.1 ft
Draught
36 ft
Speed
23.5 knots 25 knots (maximum)
Passengers
2,145 passengers:
Builder
Blohm & Voss
Launched
20 June 1914
Maiden voyage
11 May 1922
In service
April 1922
Out of service
19 September 1939
Owner
Hamburg America Line; 1922–1934: White Star Line
Port of registry
Liverpool (1922-1936)
Propulsion
4 Parsons steam turbines, 4 screws
Fate
Caught fire and sank on 29 September 1939 and scrapped 1943
  • RMS Majestic
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