USS Finland (ID-4543) - Launching and Early Career

Launching and Early Career

Finland was launched on 21 June 1902 by W. Cramp and Son, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the Red Star Line of International Mercantile Marine (IMM). She was the sister ship to SS Kroonland, launched four months prior. Finland was 560 feet (170.7 m) long (LBP) with a beam of 60.2 feet (18.3 m), and had two funnels and four masts. Her twin three-cylinder, triple expansion steam engines drove twin screw propellors that moved her at 15 knots (28 km/h). She accommodated 342 passengers in first class, 194 in second class, and 626 in third class.

Finland sailed on her maiden voyage from New York to Antwerp on 4 October under the American flag, and remained on this route for the next seven years. In November 1907, as the liner neared Antwerp, a gale in the English Channel almost drove Finland ashore. The timely assistance of two tugs kept the big ship from grounding on the breakwater at Dover. By January 1909, Finland had been reflagged under the Belgian flag, but remained on the New York–Antwerp route.

On 19 January 1908, Finland collided with the Greek cargo ship SS Epirus off Terneuzen, sinking Epirus. In March 1909, the liner was chartered to the White Star Line, another IMM subsidiary, for three round-trip voyages between Naples and New York. On 25 December 1910, she rammed and sank the SS Baltique which was anchored in the Flushing Roads sheltering from a storm. Six crew were lost from Baltique. Returning to the Red Star Line's New York–Antwerp service, Finland was reflagged in January 1912, sailing under the American flag once again. During this time, noted German-American psychologist Hugo Münsterberg sailed on Finland to Europe to attend a Psychological Congress in Berlin in April 1912.