Teutonic
 The Teutonic around 1900
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The Teutonic was a British passenger ship on the White Star Line .
prehistory
Towards the end of the 1880s, the Great Eastern (Bj. 1858) was the largest ship in the world, even if the liner had already retired from general liner service and lay near Liverpool , where it was scrapped in August 1888. The fastest ship of the time and holder of the Blue Ribbon, was the RMS Etruria (Bj. 1885) of the Cunard Line , which had an average speed of 19.56 knots when crossing the Atlantic. But in 1889 the title went to the City of Paris (Bj. 1889) of the Inman Line , with its average speed of 20.1 knots .
The White Star Line and its director Thomas Ismay , father of Bruce Ismay , were still very interested at that time, the title for the fastest ship on the transatlantic route to possess. Therefore, he gave the house yard Harland & Wolff the order to build two ships, which should have a general service speed of more than 20 knots and thus be able to achieve the Blue Ribbon .
Construction and ship data
The duo's first ship was named Teutonic (built in 1889). As the first ship of the White Star Line, it was equipped with two triple expansion engines that propelled two screws . The Teutonic was also the first ship in the world to be equipped without the sails that had been customary up to then . They relied solely on the power of the steam engines and the skill of the shipbuilding engineer Alexander Carlisle , who 20 years later helped to design the Olympic class .
The ship had a length of 177.7 m, a width of 17.6 m and a total size of 9984 GRT. A total of 1490 passengers could be carried in the usual three classes.
The keel of the Teutonic was established in March 1887 in Belfast placed. The ship was built in such a way that in the event of war it could be converted into an armed auxiliary cruiser within 24 hours . It was the first ship in the history of English seafaring to be built in this way and was honored as such at the Golden Jubilee of the British Queen Victoria , where the Teutonic paid its respects as a fully equipped auxiliary cruiser with, among other things, eight rapid fire cannons and eight machine guns.
This adaptability was part of the agreement between the White Star Line and the British Admiralty, which subsidized the construction of the two ships with several million pounds.
The launch took place on January 19, 1889. The ship then went into dry dock , where it was completed on July 25, 1889. The Teutonic then drove to Spithead / England for the naval parade, as part of the aforementioned celebrations, and was visited by the Prince of Wales and the German Kaiser Wilhelm . The Kaiser is said to have been so enthusiastic that he is said to have said “We must have something like that too”, the hour of birth of the first German express liner Kaiser Wilhelm the Great (built in 1897).
Maiden voyage
The Teutonic , now freed from its weapons, made its maiden voyage between Liverpool and New York on August 7, 1889, replacing the aging RMS Baltic (I) (built in 1871). But the new liner was unable to steal the Blue Ribbon from the City of Paris . This was only achieved by her sister ship Majestic (built in 1890) in 1890. This proved the capabilities of these ships and only one year later the Teutonic also won the Blue Ribbon for the fastest Atlantic crossing, with an average speed of 20.5 knots.
Accidents
In 1898 there was another accident in the port of New York when the Teutonic collided with a US transporter. Both ships suffered only minor damage and were quickly back in service. A year earlier, Teutonic had rammed a barge at almost the same point, which sank as a result.
Significant passengers
In June 1900, the Teutonic received a high-ranking visitor from guest John Pierpont Morgan , who was on board with his daughter as a passenger . His trip served to make the decision to take over or buy the White Star Line.
In the Boer War
In the winter of the same year, the ship was used as a troop transport in the Boer War , but returned to service after the end of the war without significant damage and remained on the Liverpool – New York route.
After the Boer War
But the ship was not given long rest, because the Teutonic got into a severe seaquake in February 1901 , which caused considerable damage to the superstructure. However, there were no deaths, only slightly injured and two seriously injured. The latter were the two sailors who did their duty in the crow's nest and were thrown onto the upper deck by the wave.
Another incident occurred on July 28, 1905, when a fire broke out on the Teutonic in a switch room for the ship's electrics . It took over two hours to get it under control and delete it. Here, too, there was no significant personal injury, but the liner had to break off the trip and return to New York.
In 1907 the White Star Line moved its main port from Liverpool to Southampton and the Teutonic made its first crossing from the new port on June 12, 1907.
Four years later, the ship was extensively renovated and equipped according to the latest standards for passenger ships. She went into the liner service of the White Star Dominion Line, a wholly owned subsidiary of the White Star Line, and drove on the route Liverpool-Quebec-Montreal-Maine (Portland).
But the once so proud ship had passed its zenith. She had only been able to hold the Blue Ribbon for a year before another Inman Line ship managed to complete a faster Atlantic crossing. Then there were now considerably larger and more beautiful ships, which meant that hardly a well-heeled passenger wanted to travel on the Teutonic anymore and the White Star Line therefore decided in 1913 to convert the ship into a two-class ship (2nd + 3rd grade) to convert.
In the first World War
In 1914, in the 25th year of Teutonic's service , the First World War broke out and every tonnage of ships was needed now. So it came about that the ship was used as an armed auxiliary cruiser, together with the Celtic (built in 1901) and the Cedric (built in 1903), in the 10th auxiliary cruiser squadron of the Royal Navy .
Teutonic in particular was in demand, as the RMS Aquitania (built in 1914) from Cunard Line was damaged after a collision with the RMS Canadian (built in 1900) from the Leyland Line and was therefore initially canceled for military service.
The ship completed, among other things, troop transports from Great Britain to Alexandria . But the Teutonic was only in active service until 1916 , because from then on it was mostly kept as a reserve ship or as an escort ship, as there were enough other tonnage in service. She was still managed by the White Star Line, but was under the command of the British Admiralty.
At the end of the war she transported the troops of the Empire back home.
After the war
After this time, it was a port on the English in Cowes Roads, Isle of Wight , issued and offered for sale, since the shipping company was not willing to pay the high cost of repair and modernization of the now 32 years old ship.
It was not until 1921 that the ship was sold to a Dutch company for scrapping and towed to Rotterdam. There, in turn, the ship was sold to Germany. In May 1921 the last trip of the Teutonic began , which led from Rotterdam to Emden , where the liner was laid up again and then scrapped there in August 1921.
The Teutonic was considered a very special ship that set many standards in its time. It was also the last ship on the White Star Line to be awarded the Blue Ribbon.
literature
- Robert D. Ballard , Rick Archbold: Lost Liners. From the Titanic to the Andrea Doria. Glory and decline of the great luxury liners. Translated into German by Helmut Gerstberger. Wilhelm Heyne, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-453-12905-9 (Original edition: Lost liners. From the Titanic to the Andrea Doria. The ocean floor reveals its greatest lost ships. Hyperion, New York NY 1997, ISBN 0-7868-6296 -3 ).