History
of RMS Majestic (1914)
RMS Majestic was a White Star liner working on the North
Atlantic run, originally launched in 1914 as the Hamburg
America Line liner SS Bismarck. At 56,551 gross register
tons, she was the largest ship in the world until completion
of the SS Normandie in 1935. The third and largest member of
German HAPAG Line's trio of transatlantic liners, her
completion was delayed by World War I. She 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 Majestic. She was the second White
Star ship to bear the name, the first being SS Majestic
(1890). 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 Thomas
Ward. She was taken possession of by the British Admiralty
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. |