The Rivers class was a

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

of eleven

ocean liner An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). The ...

s of the

Norddeutscher Lloyd Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL; North German Lloyd) was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of th ...

(NDL), the first class of

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

express liners. The ships were built between 1881 and 1890, the first nine in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

by John Elder & Co. or the renamed

Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited, was a Scottish shipbuilding company in the Govan area on the Clyde in Glasgow. Fairfields, as it is often known, was a major warship builder, turning out many vessels for the Royal Na ...

, the last two in

Stettin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport, the largest city of northwestern Poland, and se ...

by Vulcan. All were named for rivers in Germany.

Background

In 1878, the British

Guion Line The Liverpool and Great Western Steamship Company, known commonly as the Guion Line, was a British passenger service that operated the Liverpool-Queenstown-New York route from 1866 to 1894. While incorporated in Great Britain, 52% of the company ...

introduced the first express liner on the Atlantic run, the . The new ship was larger than other Atlantic liners and with a speed of 16

knot A knot is an intentional complication in Rope, cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including List of hitch knots, hitches, List of bend knots, bends, List of loop knots, loop knots, ...

s, she cut the travel time between

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

from ten and a half to eight and a half days.

Johann Georg Lohmann Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name '' Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Graciou ...

, who had at the time been director of Norddeutscher Lloyd for one year, in 1880 contracted with the ''Arizonas builder, John Elder & Co. of Glasgow, to build NDL's own first express liner, in accordance with the company's stated objective of always having the best ships.

History

The SS ''Elbe'' was delivered ahead of the contract deadline, set out on her maiden voyage to New York on 26 June 1881 and was such an immediate success that NDL at once ordered two more liners from Elder, the (delivered in autumn 1882) and the (early in 1883). The ''Fulda'' was the first NDL ship with electric lighting.Bessell, p. 48. The and were added in 1884 and NDL's weekly transatlantic service became known for speed. The ''Werra'' set an eastbound speed record of 7 days, 20 hours and 15 minutes. The four ships beginning with the ''Werra'' are sometimes classified as a distinct Werra class. The , and were ordered in summer 1885 for summer 1886, specified to be even larger and faster. These were the line's first steel ships, and with them, twice weekly service to New York could be offered.Bessell, p. 57. The still larger and faster was ordered in early 1887 and entered service the following year. She was the last single-screw steamer to hold the speed record for the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

.C.R. Vernon Gibbs, ''Passenger Liners of the Western Ocean: A Record of the North Atlantic Steam and Motor Passenger Vessels from 1838 to the Present Day'', 2nd ed. London: Staples, 1957, , p. 179. The speed of the new ships caused the United States postal service to choose NDL far more often than other carriers. It was the beginning of the contest for speed in the Atlantic. In addition, their greater size—the ''Elbe'' was half again as large as the type which had been the norm in the Atlantic trade, which had not much changed in twenty years—Bessell, pp. 58–59. was accompanied by a change in layout which became the new norm. Until the ''Elbe'', liners had almost universally had four decks, the two lowest devoted to cargo, the third to

steerage Steerage is a term for the lowest category of passenger accommodation in a ship. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, considerable numbers of persons travelled from their homeland to seek a new life elsewhere, in many cases North Amer ...

passengers, and the top deck housing cabins; second-class accommodations were forward, first-class aft, each consisting of cabins to port and starboard of a small longitudinal saloon. On the ''Elbe'' there was a fifth deck on which a smoking room and ladies' drawing room were located, and the grand saloon was located athwart the ship from one side to the other, separated from the cabins. She resembled the Guion Line's SS ''Alaska'', but was wider and thus more comfortable.Gibbs, p. 178, wrongly dating the accident to 30 June. This was also the beginning of the designing of ever more luxurious liner interiors designed to cause the passengers, at least in first and second class, to forget they were aboard ship. The ''Elbe'' was the first ship to have its interior designed by

Johann Poppe Johann Georg Poppe (12 September 1837 – 18 August 1915), often called Johannes Poppe by English-language writers, was a prominent architect in Bremen during the German Gründerzeit and an influential interior designer of ocean liners for the N ...

, the most distinguished architect and designer in Bremen, who was to design the interiors of all NDL's liners for the next 25 years.Daniel Allen Butler, ''The Age of Cunard: A Transatlantic History 1839–2003'', Annapolis, Maryland: Lighthouse, 2003,
p. 130
In 1892, a voyage on , the last ship of the Rivers class, prompted

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Fau ...

to call it "the delightfulest ship I ever saw" and publish an essay contrasting modern German steamships with their "dull, plain, graceless, gloomy and horribly depressing" predecessors as embodied by

Cunard The Cunard Line ( ) is a British shipping and an international cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its four ships have been r ...

's .

The final two ships in the class, and , were ordered in response to the first express liners placed in service by the rival

Hamburg America Line The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent Germ ...

(HAPAG), the Augusta Victoria class.Bessell, p. 63. They entered service in 1890.Bessell, p. 198. Unlike their predecessors, they were built in Germany, by AG Vulcan of Stettin. However, like their predecessors and unlike the HAPAG liners, they were single-screw, and therefore did not meet the expectation of being faster. The ''Werra'', ''Fulda'' and ''Ems'' all served a new route between

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

and

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

and New York which NDL had instituted in 1891.Bessell, p. 74. The ''Eider'' went aground off the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

on 31 January 1892, was salvaged in March but was then auctioned off to be broken up the following year.Bessell, p. 196. On 30 January 1895, the ''Elbe'' collided with the English collier ''Crathie'' in the Baltic and sank with the loss of 336 lives. Only twenty people in one lifeboat survived. In 1886 the ''Fulda'' rescued all 824 people aboard the Cunard liner SS ''Oregon''. She was to have been sold to the Canadian Beaver Line owned by

Elder Dempster Elder Dempster Lines was a UK shipping company that traded from 1932 to 2000, but had its origins in the mid-19th century. Founders Alexander Elder Alexander Elder was born in Glasgow in 1834. He was the son of David Elder, who for many ye ...

but was damaged in dock in 1898 or 1899 and sold to be broken up.Kludas
p. 144
On 30 June 1900 the ''Saale'' burnt out in the

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...

at the NDL piers in

Hoboken, New Jersey Hoboken ( ; ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Hudson County, New Jersey, Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Hoboken is part of the New York metropolitan area and is the site of Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub. As of the ...

,Kludas
p. 145
with the loss of 109 people including the captain. She was sold to the Luckenbach Steamship Company of New York and rebuilt as a freighter, renamed ''J. L. Luckenbach'', and ultimately broken up in 1924 as SS ''Madison''. The ''Ems'' was sold to the Beaver Line in 1900 or 1901 and renamed ''Lake Simcoe''; she was broken up in Genoa in 1905.Kludas
p. 127
The ''Werra'' was chartered for a few years until 1899, sold to Italy in 1901 and broken up in 1903. On 15 June 1887, the ''Aller'' collided with a British fishing vessel, the ''Willie'', which sank with the loss of six men; on 27 January 1898, she rescued the crew of the sinking British ship ''Dago''. She was sold in 1902 and broken up in 1904. The ''Lahn'' was sold to the

Russian Volunteer Fleet The Russian Volunteer Fleet (), also simply known as Dobroflot (, ) was a state-controlled ship transport association established in the Russian Empire in 1878 funded from voluntary contributions collected by subscription (hence the name). Histo ...

in 1904 and renamed ''Russ'';Bessell, p. 197.Kludas
p. 147
she later returned to passenger service as the ''Dniester''.Gibbs, p. 180. The ''Spree'' rescued the crew of the burning in 1891. In 1892 and 1895 she broke her shaft and had to be towed into port.Gibbs, p. 181. In 1897, she was converted to twin screws, lengthened, given a third funnel, and renamed ''Kaiserin Maria Theresia'', attaining the target speed of 20 knots with ease. She replaced the rejected ''Kaiser Friedrich''. In 1904 she was also sold to the Russians and renamed ''Ural''; she was sunk the following year at the

Battle of Tsushima The Battle of Tsushima (, ''Tsusimskoye srazheniye''), also known in Japan as the , was the final naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War, fought on 27–28 May 1905 in the Tsushima Strait. A devastating defeat for the Imperial Russian Navy, the ...

.Bessell, p. 201, erroneously saying she became the ''Terek''. On 13 June 1889, the ''Trave'' collided with and sank the Russian schooner ''David''; on 21 June 1892, she collided with and sank the American square-rigger ''Fred B. Taylor'', causing two deaths.Edwin Drechsel, ''Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen, 1857–1970: History, Fleet, Ship Mails'', volume 1 Vancouver: Cordillera, 1994,
p. 26
She became the last of the class in NDL service. After being laid up since 1903, she sailed between

Bremerhaven Bremerhaven (; ) is a city on the east bank of the Weser estuary in northern Germany. It forms an exclave of the Bremen (state), city-state of Bremen. The Geeste (river), River Geeste flows through the city before emptying into the Weser. Brem ...

and New York from March 1906 to November 1907, was sold in 1908 and broken up in 1909. On 18 February 1892, the ''Havel'' collided with and sank the Italian

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel with three or more mast (sailing), masts of which the fore mast, mainmast, and any additional masts are Square rig, rigged square, and only the aftmost mast (mizzen in three-maste ...

''Mascotta'' off

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

while under mandatory pilotage.Kludas
p. 139
She continued on without aiding the survivors. She was sold to the Spanish Navy in 1898 and renamed ''Meteoro''. She later returned to passenger service with the

Compañía Transatlántica Española Compañía Transatlántica Española, S.A. (''Transatlantic Company of Spain'', abbreviated CTE), also known as the Spanish Line in English, was a passenger ocean line that has largely ceased operations although it still exists as a company. It i ...

as the ''Alfonso XII'' and was broken up in 1927.

Ships

References

{{Reflist

Background

History

Ships

References

External links