SS Fürst Bismarck (1890)
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The first SS ''Fürst Bismarck'' was an
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 ...
built in 1890 by
AG Vulcan Aktien-Gesellschaft Vulcan Stettin (short AG Vulcan Stettin) was a German shipbuilding and locomotive building company. Founded in 1851, it was located near the former eastern German city of Szczecin, Stettin, today Polish Szczecin. Because of th ...
for the
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 ...
. A steamship of 8,430  gross register tons, it was assigned to transatlantic crossings between
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
Germany and New York City, United States. ''Fürst Bismarck'' and the sister ships were part of an express fleet that usually made the trip in five to six days.


HAPAG's express fleet

The fleet of twin-screw express steamships operated between New York to
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,
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and Hamburg, and from Hamburg, Southampton, and Cherbourg to New York. The fleet consisted of the SS ''Augusta Victoria'' and the SS ''Fürst Bismarck'', built by the Vulcan Shipbuilding Company at
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 ...
, the SS ''Columbia'', built by
Laird Brothers Cammell Laird is a British shipbuilding company. It was formed from the merger of Laird Brothers of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century. The company also built railway rolling stock until 1929, ...
, in
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, near Liverpool, and the SS ''Normannia'', built by the
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 ...
, in
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. With these vessels the company maintained a weekly transatlantic express service, offering the public the convenience of safe and comfortable travel between America and the European Continent.


Design

The ''SS Fürst Bismarck'' was designed with five decks constructed of steel and teak. The three funnels rose above the hurricane deck. The ship also had two masts, but without yards. Each side of the ship was subdivided into numerous
watertight compartment A compartment is a portion of the space within a ship defined vertically between Deck (ship), decks and horizontally between Bulkhead (partition), bulkheads. It is analogous to a room within a building, and may provide watertight subdivision of the ...
s. The
hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...
of the ship had a
double bottom A double hull is a ship hull design and construction method where the bottom and sides of the ship have two complete layers of watertight hull surface: one outer layer forming the normal hull of the ship, and a second inner hull which is some di ...
, the space between divided into chambers, which could be filled with water or emptied by means of automatic pumps, thus increasing or decreasing the draught at will, and guarding the ship from grounding. The enormous engines
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of 6000 to 8000 
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each. The screws are of
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, with three or four blades. First class deck state rooms, located mid-ship, were 7 to 9 feet in width, with elaborate furnishings. Separate saloons for men and women allowed for privacy, smoking (gentlemen only), and conversation. The Second class rooms were on the same level as first class, but with most rooms located fore and aft, with smaller rooms and their own saloons. The
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 ...
was directly below the Second Cabin; separate compartments housed single men, women, and families.


Dimensions

The ship was 502.6 feet long, and 57.6 feet in breadth, and measured 8,430 gross register tons.


Machinery

The vessel's machinery was duplicated, with two distinct sets of boilers, engines, shafts and
screws A screw is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to the screw head, head. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and there are many forms for a variety ...
, both sets working independently of each other. A longitudinal bulkhead divided the vessel into two non-communicating halves, each of which was fully equipped to propel the ship. Contemporary advertising promoted this design as safer than a single boiler compartment because of its numerous watertight compartments, and the ability of the ship to propel itself even if one side was disabled.


Service

Launched on November 29, 1890, the ship made its maiden run from Hamburg to New York, via Southampton (England), on May 8, 1891.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...
sailed from New York on the liner's return trip, following his one trip to the United States. In the service of Hamburg America line (HAPAG) on September 27, 1894, 5 days, 18 hours, 10 minutes, with Captain Adolph Albers (1843–1902) at the helm. Albers, later Commodore of the Hamburg America fleet, held several speed records for trans Atlantic crossings before his death at the helm of the SS ''Deutschland'' in 1902. Between its maiden journey and 1894, the ship made 14 crossings, predominantly as an immigrant ship, and carrying American travelers to Europe on the return journey. On July 4, 1894, in honor of its many crossings and "in memory of Muhlenberg,
Herkimer Herkimer may refer to: People: * Johan Jost Herkimer (1732–1795), United Empire Loyalist, brother of Nicholas Herkimer * John Herkimer (1773–1848), American lawyer and politician from New York * Lawrence Herkimer (1925–2015), American innov ...
,
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and Dekalb," the
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and the Columbia Liberty Bell Company presented the ship, and its Captain, with a replica of the Liberty Bell, requesting that the ship's captain ordered it to be rung when the ship came in sight of the Navesink Highlands (by day) or
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(by night). After 1894, it was occasionally in use as a luxury cruise ship. HAPAG commissioned a second SS Fürst Bismarck (1905) in 1905. In 1904, the ship became the
auxiliary cruiser An armed merchantman is a merchant ship equipped with guns, usually for defensive purposes, either by design or after the fact. In the days of sail, piracy and privateers, many merchantmen would be routinely armed, especially those engaging in lo ...
the ''Don'' in the
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. In 1906, she was assigned 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 ...
with the name ''Moskva''. In 1913, she became a
torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...
depot ship in the Austrian-Hungarian Navy, the "Gäa." In 1918, due to the crew adapting social democratic ideas, started
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while she was docked off
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. The vessel was seized by Italy at the end of the
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, rebuilt, and renamed ''San Guisto''. She was scrapped in Italy in 1924.
Hamburg America Line, Norway Heritage website.


Footnotes


References

*
SS 'Fürst Bismarck''
Norway Heritage website.


Further reading

*Matthias Trennheuser: ''Die innenarchitektonische Ausstattung deutscher Passagierschiffe zwischen 1880 und 1940''. Hauschild- Verlag, 2010, .


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Furst Bismarck Ships of the Hamburg America Line Steamships 1890 ships