RMS Majestic, originally christened Bismarck, was launched in 1914 and was, at 56,551 gross tonnes, the largest ship in the world until the completion of the S.S. Normandie in 1935. Royal Mail Ship (or Steamer), usually seen in its abbreviated form RMS, is the ship prefix used of any seagoing vessel that carries mail under contract to the British Royal Mail. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ...

The Majestic was built by the Blohm & Voss shipbuilders in Hamburg, Germany and was launched on 20 June 1914 by Countess Hanna von Bismarck, the granddaughter of the 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The ship was to have been the flagship of the Hamburg America Line and the final of Albert Ballin's "Big Three" (the other two being the Imperator, which later became the Berengaria, and the Vaterland, which later became the SS Leviathan). On April 5, 1877, Hermann Blohm and Ernst Voss founded the Blohm & Voss Schiffswerft und Maschinenfabrik shipbuilding and engineering works as a general partnership. ... Hamburg from above Hamburgs motto: May the posterity endeavour with dignity to conserve the freedom, which the forefathers acquired. ... June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 194 days remaining. ... 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... “Bismarck” redirects here. ... The Hamburg America Line was established in Hamburg, Germany in 1847 under the name Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft (HAPAG) for shipping across the Atlantic Ocean. ... Albert Ballin ca. ... SS Imperator as RMS Berengaria. ... The Berengaria was originally launched as the SS Imperator by the German HAPAG Line in 1912. ... The SS Leviathan was a United States Lines ocean liner active in the 1920s and 1930s, was one the worlds largest ships for nearly 20 years. ...

However, the First World War was to completely alter the ship's fate, and she never sailed under the German flag. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the as-yet uncompleted ship was awarded to White Star Line as compensation for the loss of RMS Britannic, which had been sunk by a German mine while serving as a hospital ship in the Aegean in 1915. Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... The Treaty of Versailles (1919) was the peace treaty which officially ended World War I between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany. ... White Star Line logo and burgee. ... HMHS Britannic (1914), the third Olympic-class ocean liner of the White Star Line, sister ship of RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic, sank in 1916 after hitting a mine with the loss of 30 lives. ... USNS Comfort takes on supplies at Mayport, FL enroute to Gulf Coast. ...

However, the ship's handover went far from smoothly. Furious at being forced to complete the ship for British owners, the shipbuilders completed the ship in the colours of the Hamburg-America Line and with the name Bismarck painted on her bow. The workers even used the new British master's cabin as a storage closet. Hapag-Lloyd is a German transportation company comprising a cargo container shipping line and a cruise line. ...

The ship served as the flagship of the White Star Line from 1922 until 1934. After her May 1922 maiden voyage Majestic became one of the most popular liners afloat and in 1923 she carried more passengers than any other Atlantic liner. In 1924, 1926, 1928 and 1930 she carried more passengers than her sister ships. She earned the affectionate nickname 'Magic Stick'.

Due to a structural defect in the topsides, Majestic suffered a 100-foot crack in December 1924 and underwent permanent repairs and strengthening along B-deck before returning to service in April 1925. (Small cracks were noted on her sister Leviathan around the same time but only minor repairs were carried out and she suffered a similar 100-foot crack five years later.)

In 1925 she completed an eastbound crossing at 25 knots, which was the fastest she ever managed, and faster than either of her sisters' best efforts. However, her older sister Leviathan often had a slightly higher average speed each year than Majestic.

In 1928 Majestic was extensively refitted and modernised and enjoyed a boom year for passenger lists, but numbers fell slightly in 1929 and then the Great Depression set in by 1930. The Great Depression was a time of economic down turn, which started after the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. ...

Following the merger between the White Star Line and its traditional arch rival Cunard, which became public knowledge in summer 1934, Majestic served the new company until 1936. In 1935 it was announced that her sister Berengaria would be retired first, but the decision was reversed and Majestic was retired instead. The Cunard Line, formerly Cunard White Star Line, is a British cruise line, operator of ocean liners RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) and RMS Queen Mary 2 (QM2). ...

She served as the training ship Caledonia from April 1937 to September 1939. Shortly after the outbreak of war, she was damaged by fire and scrapped in 1942-44. The fire is not thought to have been a result of enemy action, and has speculatively been attributed to faulty wiring.

References

Further reading

• RMS Majestic - The 'Magic Stick', by Mark Chirnside
• Bismarck/Majestic page from Atlantic Liners: A Trio of Trios, by J. Kent Layton
• Miller, William H. Jr., The First Great Ocean Liners in Photographs, 1984, Dover
• Fox, Robert, Liners, the Golden Age, 1999, Könemann
• McAuley, Robert, The Liners, 1997, Boxtree

External References

• Mark Chirnside's Majestic Page
• Majestic Home at Atlantic Liners