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The ''Imperator''-class ocean liners were a series of three
ocean liner
An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of 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).
Ca ...
s designed for the Hamburg America Line
The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-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 citi ...
, commonly known as ''HAPAG''. These three ships were commissioned by the chairman of HAPAG Albert Ballin
Albert Ballin (15 August 1857 – 9 November 1918) was a German shipping magnate. He was the general director of the Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG) or Hamburg-America Line, which for a time was the world's largest s ...
. Namely the (1912), the ''Vaterland
Vaterland means "Fatherland" in German. It may also refer to:
*Vaterland, Norway, a neighborhood in Oslo
*The ocean liner SS ''Vaterland'', later known as SS ''Leviathan''
*''Liechtensteiner Vaterland'', largest daily newspaper in Liechtenstein
...
'' (1913) and the largest, the '' Bismarck'' (1914). These liners were over 50,000 tons, sported three funnels and had a length ranging from . ''Vaterland'' is the largest passenger ship ever operated by a German shipping company.
Background
The Hamburg America Line was one of two German shipping companies which operatedtransatlantic
Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to:
Film
* Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950
* Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s
* ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film), ...
crossings, the other being North German 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 t ...
. The latter had had much success with the advent of their so-called s, the first of which was the . Lloyd soon had a fleet of four liners with weekly transatlantic crossings on offer. By the turn of the century, HAPAG had only one flagship the . Though successful, the ''Deutschland'' could not rival the "Four Flyers" owned by Lloyd. HAPAG soon added the '' Kaiserin Auguste Viktoria'' to their fleet which was the largest ship in the world at its launch in August 1906. British competition was also fierce, Cunard's launched in 1906 followed by her sister were an instant success and by 1910, the new s of White Star were nearing completion.
References
* Mark A. Russell: ''Steamship Nationalism: Ocean Liners and National Identity in Imperial Germany and the Atlantic World.'' Routledge Studies in Modern European History, Routledge New York, NY, 2020. ISBN 978-0-367-13643-7.External links
* * Ships of the Hamburg America Line Ocean liner classes {{ship-type-stub