RMS Majestic (1914) - Construction and Handover

Construction and Handover

Bismarck was built by the Blohm & Voss shipbuilders in Hamburg, Germany. She was laid down in 1913 and launched on 20 June 1914 by Countess Hanna von Bismarck, the granddaughter of the 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. During the launching ceremony Countess Bismarck had difficulty breaking the bottle of champagne herself and Kaiser Wilhelm II had to assist. The ship was to have been the flagship of the Hamburg America Line and the final of Albert Ballin's "Big Three" (Imperator, which later became RMS Berengaria, and Vaterland, which later became SS Leviathan). Majestic was intended to be the same size as Vaterland, in both tonnage and length, but a miscommunication that Cunard's Aquitania would be larger made HAPAG demand an extra six feet in length, increasing her gross tonnage. Aquitania was actually 50 feet shorter than both Vaterland and Bismarck.

Though the Bismarck was third of the "Big Three", she was most similar to her immediate predecessor the SS Vaterland and was essentially a slightly enlarged version of that ship. There were significant differences between her and the first of the three, the SS Imperator. The Bismarck had an overall length of 956.0 ft (291.4 m), a breadth of 100.1 ft (30.5 m) and according to her British registration papers a gross tonnage of 56,551 tons. Excluding the tank-top, there were 11 decks ranging from Deck-A to Deck-L (there was no Deck-I). Decks J and K were only present at the ends of ship. Transversely the ship was divided into 14 watertight compartments. Like her sister, SS Vaterland, the boiler uptakes (used to carry exhaust gases from the boilers to the funnels) instead of coming up through the centre of the ship's width, were divided in two and came up on opposite sides of the ship's centre line. The immediate effect was to allow the allocation of enormous public rooms of unprecedented length and volume. Traditionally the boiler uptakes ended up in the middle of large public rooms and were considered a major obstacle to well proportioned rooms.

Bismarck was propelled by a set of quadruple screws driven by four direct drive Parsons turbines. The port centre propeller shaft was driven by a high pressure turbine, which exhausted to an intermediate pressure turbine that drove the starboard centre shaft. These two turbines were located in the forward watertight compartment. Exhaust from the intermediate turbine was divided equally and fed into two low pressure turbines on the outer shafts located in a separate compartment aft. The steam turbines generated approximately 66,000 S.H.P when running at 180 RPM. Each one of the low pressure turbines weighed 375 tons. Steam was supplied to the turbines at 260 PSI by 48 'Yarrow & Normand' water-tube boilers located in 4 watertight compartments. The boilers had a heating surface of 220,000 square feet and there was a total of 240 oil burners fitted to them. Three funnels were fitted to the vessel but only the forward two were used to carry boiler exhaust. As with many large liners, the third funnel was used to ventilate the engines rooms. Bismarck was originally designed to burn coal but was converted to oil while being completed at Blohm & Voss.

After launch, fitting out of the Bismarck proceeded until the start of the First World War in August 1914, when it slowed and substantive work on the vessel stopped altogether. Other than maintenance work, not much more work was done on the vessel, as naval priorities occupied the ship yard until 1918. By the time the war was over, the funnels had still not been erected. During the war brass and copper components were scavenged from the Bismarck for munitions. After being ceded to Britain under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the as-yet uncompleted ship was purchased jointly by the White Star and Cunard Lines, together with Imperator. Construction of the ship resumed after the end of World War 1. The Majestic was ostensibly a replacement for the prewar Olympic-class liner Britannic which was lost in the Aegean in 1916. On 5 October 1920, the as-yet uncompleted Bismarck was gutted by fire while fitting out at the shipyard and badly damaged. At the time of the fire substantial progress had been made on the vessel and sabotage by shipyard workers was suspected. A number of other German liners that were due to be handed over were also damaged by fire.

After Bismarck was sold to the White Star Line, a team of engineers were sent by Harland and Wolff, White Star's shipbuilders, to supervise completion of the vessel and gather experience on her operation. In March 1922, Commodore Bertram Hayes and a number of officers were ordered to Hamburg to take command of the vessel prior to handover. The ship's handover, though not friendly, was not openly acrimonious. When Hayes and his men arrived, they found their quarters incomplete, whereas their German colleagues' cabins were finished perfectly. In the case of Captain Hayes, his temporary quarters were being used to store wash basins.

Bismarck was taken on her sea trials by Captain Ruser of the Hamburg Amerika Line on the afternoon of the 28 March 1922. The shipbuilders completed the ship in the colors of the Hamburg-Amerika Line and with the name Bismarck painted on her bow and stern. As she departed the Hamburg docks she was watched by a large number of locals in silence. Briefly she ran aground after leaving, but was under way again on the peak of high tide. Once down the river, she anchored at Cuxhaven for the night and commenced her trials proper the next day. The basic requirement was that the ship develop 66,000 horsepower and therefore she was steamed for three hours into the North Sea and back again. After another week of work on the accommodation, Bismarck was accepted by the British representatives. In early April a chartered steamer arrived at Hamburg with the bulk of her new British crew, they were conveyed on board on one side of the ship, while her German crew were taken off on the other side. Upon boarding, men started painting out the name "Hamburg, Bismarck" and replacing it with "Liverpool, Majestic." Also the funnels were re-painted in White Star colours. Majestic departed Hamburg on 9 April 1922 and arrived at Southampton the next day at 9.00 a.m.