SS City of New York - Service History

Service History

On March 15, 1888, City of New York was christened by Lady Randolph Churchill. That August, she entered service but while achieving respectable crossings, she was unable to produce records. Her sister, City of Paris entered service in April 1889 and took the westbound Blue Riband a month later. That August, White Star commissioned the twin screw Teutonic followed the next year by Majestic and the Inman and White Star pairs took turns bettering each other's times. While City of Paris proved to be the fastest of the four, in 1892 City of New York was finally able to outrun her sister for the eastbound record.

It had been International Navigation's plan to maintain Inman's status as a British flag carrier. However, even before City of New York was completed, the British Government responded to Inman's ownership change by revoking the line's mail contract. International Navigation lobbied the US Congress to replace the subsidy and allow the Inman speedsters to register in the US despite the law that only permitted US-built ships to be registered there. After considerable controversy, Congress enacted the subsidy provided that International Navigation build two similar ships in the US and all four twin-screw liners being available to the government in the event of a crisis. In one of his last acts in office, on February 22, 1893, President Benjamin Harrison boarded the now renamed New York during a snowstorm and raised the American Flag. The Inman Line was merged into International Navigation's American Line. As a part of the change, the former Inman liners now used Southampton as their UK destination rather than Liverpool, ending their direct rivalry with the White Star pair until 1907 when Teutonic and Majestic were also transferred to Southampton.