RMS Homeric (1922)
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| RMS Homeric | ||
RMS Homeric |
||
| Career |  |
|
|---|---|---|
| Owners: | White Star Line | |
| Builders: | Schicau Shipyards Danzig, Germany | |
| Laid down: | 1912 | |
| Launched: | 1913 | |
| Christened: | January, 1922 | |
| Maiden voyage: | February 15, 1922 | |
| Fate: | Served for 13 years from 1922 to 1935. Scrapped. | |
| General characteristics | ||
| Tonnage: | 35,000 | |
| Length: | 774 ft (236.0 m) | |
| Beam: | 82.3 ft (25.1 m) | |
| Propulsion: | Twin screw | |
| Speed: | 18 knots | |
| Passenger Capacity: | 2,145 passengers: 750 First Class, 545 Second Class, 850 Third Class | |
RMS Homeric, originally launched as Columbus, was built for Norddeutscher Lloyd and launched in 1913 at the F. Schihau yard in Danzig. Columbus was ceded to Great Britain in 1919 as part of German war reparations. She was sold to White Star Line in 1920, which named her Homeric. Her sister ship Hindenberg retained her German ownership and was re-named Columbus. Homeric was operated by White Star from 1922 to 1935.
Contents |
[edit] History
It took Britain's Cunard Line less than a year following World War I to re-establish their Atlantic supremacy with a three ship weekly service to New York. The Mauretania, Aquitania and ironically enough, the very ship that was built to compete with them, the Imperator were all plying the Atlantic as if the war had never even happened. Cunard had lost only one superliner, the Lusitania in 1915, but White Star's fleet was another story. The 48,000-ton flagship Britannic was lost in the Aegean in 1916, and the superb Oceanic of 1899 had been wrecked on the islands of Foula in 1914. When the war was over, the Treaty of Versailles appropriated two German superliners to White Star, the 56,000-ton Bismarck, third and largest of Albert Ballin’s great Imperator Class trio, left unfinished at the Blohm & Voss Shipyard, and the 35,000-ton Columbus at F. Schicau in Danzig. While both ships had been launched, they were far from complete, and it would take a further two years for them to be outfitted entirely, leaving White Star out of the loop so to speak until mid 1922.
Laid down in 1912, the Columbus was the first of two of vessels ordered by Norddeutscher Lloyd (North German Lloyd) for their premiere run, Bremerhaven to New York. At 35,000 tons, they would be large ships for their day, and like Hamburg-Amerika new liners of the Imperator Class, their focus would be on luxury rather than speed. Powered by tried-and-true triple expansion reciprocating engines, the two new liners would be twin screw (the largest in the world until the advent of the Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1969), and have a relatively modest service speed of just a shade over 18 knots.
[edit] Reparation
Launched December 17, 1913, the Columbus was the largest ship in Norddeutscher Lloyd’s fleet. However, work on the new liner was halted entirely in August 1914, as her builders became inundated with naval contracts. The unfinished steamship was moved from her fitting out berth and laid up in Danzig as the drama of World War I played out. Rusting and neglected, the unfinished Columbus, like most of the German merchant fleet, was ceded to the British as reparation for the ships they had lost in the war. In 1920 construction was resumed under the watchful eye of officials sent down from Harland & Wolff, but work was slow, plagued by material shortages and a workforce that had no ambition to finish the ship only to hand it over to the British. While the ship's accommodations would be of the typical White Star standard- luxurious and fashionable- her original coal-powered system was left intact rather than replaced with an oil-fired system which was becoming the standard on the North Atlantic liners. The time needed to complete the conversion was simply too great during a time that the line was short of ships.
Following in the White Star tradition of names ending in -ic, the Columbus was renamed Homeric. Finally completed in late 1921, the Homeric was handed over by a reluctant builder. The new liner had performed remarkably well on her trials, hinting at a characteristic that would earn her many loyal passengers: stability. By some fluke of design, the Homeric was virtually a roll-less ship. There were no great Frahm’s Anti-Rolling tanks or gyroscopic stabilizers, just an exceptionally balanced hull and form.
[edit] Atlantic service
Resplendent in her White Star livery, the newly completed Homeric arrived in Southampton January 21, 1922. Her speed trials had been conducted in the North Sea on the way to her new home port, and she actually exceeded the builders expectations by a half knot. Once docked, a few minor adjustments and finishing touches were made, and just one month later, on February 21, 1922, Homeric departed Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York. She joined the venerable old Olympic, still one of the most stylish ships on the Atlantic and in May, the Bismarck, successfully transformed into the flagship Majestic, would arrive and complete the three-ship service, operating in direct competition against Cunard's Mauretania, Aquitania, and Berengaria (ex-Imperator), Majestic’s sister-ship.
Settling quickly into her Atlantic routine, the Homeric proved to be a popular ship for White Star, although her speed became a major concern for the line, for at 18 knots, the Homeric could not keep pace with her fleet-mates, making it difficult to maintain a weekly schedule. At the conclusion of her second season, in October 1923, Homeric was removed from service for an extended winter overhaul, and her boilers were converted to burn fuel oil. The extensive re-working would require a full eight months at the shipyard, but on April 9, 1924, she was returned to service, proving to be slightly faster, averaging 19.5 knots for her first crossing. Still, even at 19.5 knots she could not be successfully matched with the Olympic and Majestic, both with a service speed above 21 knots. Nevertheless, the increase did reduce one day from her average transatlantic voyage.
In April 1925 (some reports erroneously say 1921 or 1924), Homeric received a distress signal from a Japanese freighter ship, Raifuku Maru. She and another ship, King Alexander, dashed to Raifuku Maru's position, but the rough seas prevented her to get closer. Her crew watched helplessly as the Japanese freighter sank to the bottom of the ocean.
[edit] Decline
Built with the steerage trade in mind, Homeric had a huge portion of her accommodations devoted to immigrants, and when the United States curtailed the flow of foreign settlers in the mid 1920’s the Homeric was particularly hard hit. Her transatlantic crossings began to lose money as early at 1926, and the ship was sent on cruises around the Mediterranean and Caribbean. Even though the liner had only been in service since 1922, by 1927 she was seriously showing her age. Launched in 1913, her hull and inner workings were nearing twenty years old. Cracks had been discovered in her hull and superstructure, as well as the thrust blocks in the engine rooms, but like her fleet-mates, the Homeric plied on, sailing at reduced speed and avoiding the worst of the North Atlantic’s squalls. In 1928, White Star formally announced the thousand-foot-long Oceanic, meant to replace the aging Olympic and Homeric. However, the new Oceanic was never to be, White Star was unable to secure the financing for such a ship, and instead built two smaller motorliners, Britannic and Georgic. Once the Georgic entered service, Homeric became surplus on the Atlantic and she was sent cruising full time. On June 1, 1932, she departed New York on her final transatlantic crossing. Her career on the Atlantic was indeed short-lived, she crossed for a mere 10 years.
Cruising from British ports to the Mediterranean, the Homeric was one of the first liners to be used exclusively as a cruise ship, She handled this position brilliantly, and soon was well established in the cruising industry. Although the Homeric never succumbed to any great disaster, she was involved in one minor incident while at anchor off Tenerife on September 28, 1932. Cia Transmediterrania’s small Isla de Tenerife failed to steer while circling the Homeric, slamming into the side of the ship near the bow. Luckily, the larger ship was not badly damaged and her cruise continued.
[edit] Demise
As White Star’s financial situation worsened in the early 1930’s, the Homeric’s future became increasingly grim. With the company’s funds nearly depleted, and the acquisition of White Star by their rival Cunard, Homeric’s days were numbered. In 1934, the two companies merged, and the Homeric was declared surplus again, slated to be sold to the breakers upon completion of the merger. All, of course, was contingent on the success of 534, the ship that would later be known as the Queen Mary. In July of 1935, the Homeric participated in King George V's Silver Jubilee fleet review, a prestigious honor, but only two months later, the Homeric was laid up, never to see any sort of use again. In late 1936, after the successful debut of the 81,000-ton Queen Mary, she was sold to Thomas Ward & Sons for scrap. By 1938, the Homeric was gone.
