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THE NEW11IMPER ATOR TO JOINTHE CUNARD FLEETWorld’s Second Largest Steamship Will Ply Between NewYork and Southampton.NOW LYING IN THE HUDSONThe Leviathan to be Turned Oversto the International Mercantile Marine Company.fiThe agents of the Cunard Line at 22State Street announced yesterday that the former Hamburg-Ameriean liner Imperator, which is now lying in the Hudson River after finishing her career as an American transport, has been 3! turned over to their company by the British Ministry of Shipping, to be operated on the express mall service between New York and Southampton with the liners Aquitania and Mauretania.The Imperator is the second largest steamship in the world . She was in xlamburg when the war started and was about to sail for New York when word was received from the head office in Berlin to held her in port. She remained at Cuxhaven, at the mouth of River Elbe, until after the armistice was signed. During that period she was loaded with German troops, who remained on board for five months in the early part of the war, waiting for the order to start on the invasion of England, but the order never came.Gradually the mud collected so many feet thick alongside the big liner that when the United States Navy took her over last Spring to use as a transport for the return of the American Army from France, it was a gigantic task to dig her out. The Imperator wfas top-heavy when she made her first trip to New York with Captain Hans Ruser in command, bringing 3,450 passengers and a crew of 1,200, and on her return \oyage she nearly w'ent over on her ’ beam ends. A few minutes more and there w'ould have been an end of tl»* Imperator, the officers said. She recovered herself in the nick of time, and on arrival at Hamburg the liner was sent to Stettin, where 500 tons, including the Ritz-Carlton kitchen, some lifeboats, and other heavy gear were sent down from the top deck and the three gigantic funnels were shortened.The Imperator was built as a twenty three-knot steamship, with four tur];I\I]1]m(bines of 70,000 horse power, and aver- 11 aged 21.7 knots on her maiden voyage «t(T New York, where she arrived in ( June, 1913. The former German Emperor, Wilhelm II., was present at the t launching of the Imperator, on May 23, (1912, and named her, in the presence of a large assemblage of German naval i and military officers and prominent per-sons from all parts of Europe.The Imperator is 51,909 gross tonnage, ^ 882 feet 9 inches long, 98 feet 3 inches ' beam, and 57 feet 1 inch depth of hold, and was equipped before the war with } every modern appliance for the safety ^ and comfort of passengers, including a gymnasium, veranda cafe, 146 private t bathrooms, suites de luxe with private j decks, in which the late President | Roosevelt returned from Europe in 1613; I p Winter garden, Turkish bath, swimming „ pool, and a grand salon on the sun $ deck. All these fittings were removed £ at Hamburg when she was fitted out as a troopship by the-German Government, t and will have to be replaced, which \will take some time. uIt is expected in shipping circles that rthis announcement of the British Mm-stry of Shipping will be followed by i me from the United States Shipping lloard at Washington announcing that L he Leviathan, formerly the Hamburg-\merican liner Vaterland and the larg- d 'st steamship in the world, will be f urncd over to the International Mer-:antile Marine Company, to be operated ^ mder the American flag from New fork to Southampton, calling at Ply- a nouth and Cherbourg. She has already r een surveyed by officials of the Amer-can Line, one of the subsidiary com- 2 mnles of the International Mercantile -Vlarine, to see what alterations will lave to be made.The former North German Lloyd liner 'rlnz Friedrich Wilhelm, of 17,082 grossmnage, which has been engagedringing back American troops from a l.oo hiun nllntted to the Whitetar line by the Reparation Committee f the Inter-Allied Council at Paris irough the British Ministry of Ship-\rcr Tho linpr WAS built in 1907 for theassenger trade between New \ork and ;remen and did not have her fittings amoved, except on the lower decks, hen she was taken over in Germany firly this year for service as a trans-ort The White Star Line announced esterday that she would start on her irst trip from New York to South-mpton 'via Plymouth and CherbourgP£nn1a
Newspaper Details
New York Times
New York, New York, US
Sat, Sep 20, 1919
Page 18
Full Page
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Anonymous
CO, USA 17 May 2020
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