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SS Homeric (1922)
Encyclopedia
RMS Homeric, originally launched as Columbus, was built for Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutsche Lloyd was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on February 20, 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was instrumental in the economic...
and launched in 1913 at the F. Schichau yard in Danzig. Columbus was ceded to Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
in 1919 as part of German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
war reparations
World War I reparations
World War I reparations refers to the payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles following its defeat during World War I...
. She was sold to White Star Line
White Star Line
The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, today most famous for its ill-fated vessel, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of Titanics sister ship Britannic...
in 1920, which named her Homeric. Her sister ship Hindenburg retained her German ownership and was re-named Columbus
SS Columbus (1924)
The Columbus, laid down before the start of World War I, was originally to be named Hindenburg. However, her then-sister, originally named Columbus, was handed over to the White Star Line after the war as part of reparations in 1920. The Allies allowed the Norddeutscher Lloyd , her owners, to keep...
. Homeric was operated by White Star from 1922 to 1935.
History
It took Britain's Cunard LineCunard Line
Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...
less than a year following World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
to re-establish their Atlantic supremacy with a three ship weekly service to New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The Mauretania
RMS Mauretania
Two ocean liners of the Cunard Line have been named RMS Mauretania, after the ancient territory of Mauretania:* RMS Mauretania , launched in 1906 and remained in service until 1934...
, Aquitania
RMS Aquitania
RMS Aquitania was a Cunard Line ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. She was launched on 21 April 1913 and sailed on her maiden voyage to New York on 30 May 1914...
and ironically enough, the very ship that was built to compete with them, the Imperator
SS Imperator
SS Imperator was an ocean liner built for the Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft launched in 1912. She was the first of a trio of successively larger Hamburg America ships that included and built by the line for transatlantic passenger service...
were all plying the Atlantic as if the war had never even happened. Cunard had lost only one superliner, the Lusitania
RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
in 1915, but White Star's
White Star Line
The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or White Star Line of Boston Packets, more commonly known as the White Star Line, was a prominent British shipping company, today most famous for its ill-fated vessel, the RMS Titanic, and the World War I loss of Titanics sister ship Britannic...
fleet was another story. The 48,000-ton flagship Britannic
HMHS Britannic
HMHS Britannic was the third and largest of the White Star Line. She was the sister ship of and , and was intended to enter service as a transatlantic passenger liner. She was launched just before the start of the First World War and was laid up at her builders in Belfast for many months before...
was lost in the Aegean
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
in 1916, and the superb Oceanic
RMS Oceanic (1899)
RMS Oceanic was a transatlantic ocean liner, built for the White Star Line. She sailed on her maiden voyage on 6 September 1899 and, until 1901, was the largest ship in the world...
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
Norddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutsche Lloyd was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on February 20, 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was instrumental in the economic...
(North German Lloyd) for their premiere run, Bremerhaven to New York. At 35,000 tons, they would be large ships for their day. 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 Mauretania
RMS Mauretania (1938)
RMS Mauretania was launched on 28 July 1938 at the Cammell Laird yard in Birkenhead, England and was completed in May 1939. A successor to RMS Mauretania , the second Mauretania was the first ship built for the newly formed Cunard White Star company following the merger in April 1934 of the Cunard...
of 1938), and have a relatively modest service speed of just a shade over 18 knots (35.3 km/h).
Reparation
Launched 17 December 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 IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
played out. Rusting and neglected, the unfinished Columbus, like most of the German merchant fleet, was ceded to the British as reparation
World War I reparations
World War I reparations refers to the payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles following its defeat during World War I...
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 unlike for instance the French Line's France. There were no great Frahm’s Anti-Rolling tanks or gyroscopic stabilizers, just an exceptionally balanced hull and form.
Atlantic service
Resplendent in her White Star livery, the newly completed Homeric arrived in SouthamptonSouthampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
21 January 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 21 February 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 (35.3 km/h), 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 9 April 1924, she was returned to service, proving to be slightly faster, averaging 19.5 knots (38.2 km/h) for her first crossing. Still, even at 19.5 knots (38.2 km/h) she could not be successfully matched with the Olympic and Majestic, both with a service speed above 21 knots (41.2 km/h). 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 Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese freighter
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...
ship
Ship
Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...
, Raifuku Maru
Raifuku Maru
Raifuku Maru, a Japanese freighter ship that allegedly "vanished" during a voyage from Boston to Hamburg, Germany, with a cargo of wheat and a crew of thirty-eight, in April 1925...
. She and another ship, King Alexander, dashed to Raifuku Maru
Decline
Built with the steerageSteerage
Steerage is the act of steering a ship. "Steerage" also refers to the lowest decks of a ship.-Steerage and steerage way:The rudder of a vessel can only steer the ship when water is passing over it...
trade in mind, Homeric had a huge portion of her accommodations devoted to immigrants, and when the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
curtailed the flow of foreign settlers in the mid 1920s 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
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. 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, as 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 1 June 1932, she departed New York on her final transatlantic crossing. Her career on the Atlantic was indeed short-lived, as she only provided transatlantic service for ten years.
Cruising from British ports to the Mediterranean, the Homeric was one of the first liners to be used exclusively as a cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
, 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 28 September 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.
Demise
As White Star’s financial situation worsened in the early 1930s, 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 MaryRMS Queen Mary
RMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed primarily in the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line...
. In July 1935, the Homeric participated in King George V's
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
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. By 1938, the Homeric was gone.
Remains
Despite her scrapping, many of her interior furnishings survive to this day. The former Rex Cinema in StonehouseStonehouse, South Lanarkshire
Stonehouse is a rural village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located on Avon Water in an area of natural beauty and historical interest, near to the Clyde Valley. It is also situated on the A71 trunk road between Edinburgh and Kilmarnock, close to the towns of Hamilton, Larkhall and...
, Scotland preserves much of the Homeric's grand interior to this day. Although the building is not generally open to the public as it is now used at a storage facility on some occasions visitors are allowed in by the owners. It was recently featured on episode 2, series 9 of the BBC program "Timeshift" about The Golden Age of Liners.