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Founded in 1847, the Hamburg Amerikanische
Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft (HAPAG) line vied with Bremen-based
Norddeutscher-Lloyd for German dominancy on the North Atlantic.
There was great money to be made in the immigrant trade, and people
from all over northern Europe streamed into Hamburg and Bremen to
board ships to the new world.
Under
the direction of Albert Ballin, HAPAG did much to attract these
important customers. A complete village was built to house immigrants
before boarding, where the medical inspections and paperwork could
take place. This also provided them with decent, reasonably-priced
meals and housing, since they were frequently the victims of scams.
The
strategy was a success, and HAPAG and its ships kept getting bigger.
In 1914, they had 170 ships including the three 4,000-passenger
giants Imperator, Vaterland, and Bismark either sailing
or under construction.
Under the visionary guidance of Albert Ballin,
this prewar HAPAG trio had splendid Teutonic interiors, at least
for the first class. The social rooms featured large arched windows,
potted palms and enormous, elaborate skylights. Each also had an
extra-tarriff restaurant designed by Charles Mewés, managed by the
Ritz Carlton hotel company and bearing its name, adjoining and/or
overlooking a palm court that served as a multifunction social space
and typified the notion of "ship-as-hotel" that was to
follow.
Built by Vulkan, the Deutchland sailed
for America for the first time on July 4th, 1900. The third HAPAG
liner to bear the name, she was at the time the largest German ship,
at 16,500 GRT and carried 1,050 cabin passengers and another 1,000
in steerage.
She captured the Blue Riband on her maiden voyage
in both directions, making the crossing in about 5 days and 15 hours.
The Deutschland remained on the North
Atlantic run until 1910, when she was re-engined and modified for
cruising and renamed the Victoria Louise. She was modified
for war duty in 1914 but never used as such, and after the war was
once again the largest German liner, as all the newer ships were
taken by the Allies for reparations.
She was overhauled again in 1920 and resumed
North Atlantic crossings as the Hansa in 1921, with two of
her funnels removed. She made crossings for three more years and
was then scrapped.
The
Deutschland
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The
President Lincoln
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How often do you see a British-built ship named
after an American president flying the German flag? Twice! The President
Lincoln and President Grant were ordered in 1903 from
Harland and Wolff of Belfast for British lines but the orders were
cancelled. HAPAG bought them, and they began sailing in 1907. These
were mainly immigrant ships with small cabin populations and 1,000
steerage berths.
They were seized by the US Navy in 1914, and
the Lincoln was sunk in 1917. The Grant survived the
war and remained in American hands until she was scrapped in 1951.
The Amerika of 1910 was the first ship
to carry an extra-tariff restaurant, created by Charles Mewés
of Ritz Carlton fame. Ballin had dined in the Grill restaurant at
the London Ritz and asked Mewés to create the same atmosphere
in a special restaurant on the ship. It became the prototype for
the next three HAPAG liners.
HAPAG turned out three grand liners in the years
just before World War One in an effort to compete with the British
for transatlantic dominancy, and all three were seized by the Allies
as reparations for tonnage lost.
The first was the Imperator, completed
by Vulkan in 1913. At 909 feet and 52,117 GRT, she was the
largest ship the world had ever seen. And, if she was not impressive
enough, she had at her bow an enormous gilt eagle, clutching the
earth in its talons. The additional length of the eagle ensured
the Imperator was several feet longer than the Aquitania,
then also under construction. Beneath it was the scroll bearing
the HAPAG motto "Mein Felt ist die Welt" (the world is
my scope). King Neptune, however, apparently thought differently,
because large waves swatted the wings right off the eagle on an
early crossing. It was removed and never replaced.
In typical German fashion, there was heavy emphasis
on sport and exercise on board, and the Imperator featured
an enormous indoor swimming pool in Roman style, modelled after
the Royal Auto Club in London, also designed by Charles Mewés.
A year later, she was laid up in Hamburg to wait
out World War 1, and was taken by the allies in 1919. In 1921, she
was sold to Cunard, converted to burn oil, and renamed Berengaria,
where she served out her career until she burned in 1938 and was
scrapped.
The
Imperator
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The second of this grand trio was the Vaterland,
built by Blohm & Voss. When delivered in 1914, she took over
from the Imperator the title of largest ship, at 54,282 GRT
and 948 feet long. She carried a whopping 3,900 passengers (of whom
1,700 were steerage), and her first-class public spaces were again
lavish. The dining room was two decks high, with cieling vaults
and false balconies around its perimeter, and capped with an oval
cieling mural ringed with lamps.
Her commercial career under the German flag lasted
only a few months, as she was interred in New York in 1914. She
joined the war in 1917 as the Navy transport USS Leviathan.
After the war, she was given to United States
Lines, commencing transatlantic crossings in 1923. She remained
in this duty until 1934, when she was laid up again until she was
scrapped in 1938.
The
Vaterland
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The Bismark, also built at Blohm &
Voss, was bigger yet (56,550 tons, 956 feet), and her career under
the German flag was even shorter (as in... none). She was not yet
complete when World War 1 erupted, and thus awaited the war in the
docks at Hamburg.
In 1919, she was given to Britain for reparations,
and joined the White Star Line as their Majestic.
INDEX GERMANY
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