Mavi Boncuk | Cedric[1], under construction, behind Britannic[2], 1901. Source: HOFM.HW.H771A
© National Museums Northern Ireland Collection Ulster Folk & Transport Museum.
RMS Cedric[1] was an ocean liner owned by the White Star Line. She was the second of a quartet of ships over 20,000 tons, dubbed The Big Four, and was the largest vessel in the world at the time of her launch. After her maiden voyage in 1903, she was in service until 1932.. She was launched in Belfast on 21 August 1902, in a private ceremony which included several guests, amongst others William Pirrie, the chairman of Harland and Wolff and Bruce Ismay, chairman of White Star Line.
RMS Cedric commenced her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on 11 February 1903. This was the only route on which she was ever used, although Cedric was also sometimes used for winter cruises to the Mediterranean.
SS Germanic[3] (1874-1950) was an ocean liner built by Harland and Wolff in 1875 and operated by the White Star Line. She was later operated by other lines under the names Ottawa, Gul Djemal and Gulcemal.
In 1910, the Government of the Ottoman Empire bought the ship from IMM, and it became part of a five-ship transport fleet, leaving Liverpool for the last time on 15 May 1911, carrying the name Gul Djemal, and operated by the Administration de Nav. A Vapeur Ottomane. In a few months, she was carrying Turkish soldiers to war duty in Yemen. When World War I began, Ottoman Empire joined forces with Germany, and she again became a troop ship, ferrying fighters to the Gallipoli Peninsula. On 3 May 1915, Gul Djemal was on this run, carrying over 4,000 soldiers, when she was torpedoed by the British submarine HMS E14. Though she sank in shallow waters, and only up to her superstructure, the British claimed that most of those on board lost their lives. Turkish and German sources mention a very limited number of casualties.
Since Gul Djemal had not completely sunk, it was determined that she could be raised and repaired, and afterwards she continued to serve the war effort. In 1918, she carried 1,500 German troops to Dover, to the Allied control point there, where the soldiers were disarmed and sent home.
With the war finally over, Gul Djemal went to work for the Ottoman American Line, again carrying immigrants to new lives in America, making her first trip in this role on 10 October 1921. She later did duty in the Black Sea.
[1] The year 1902 saw the introduction of White Star's Cedric. The new ship had a cargo capacity of 17,000 tons and a service speed of 19 knots using 280 tons of coal per day, it held the company record for carrying passengers at 2,957 during one trip in 1904. Considered the optimum of the cargo-passenger-fuel ratio, Cedric prompted three sisters, Celtic, Baltic and Adriatic to be built over the next four years. Each of the Cedric quartet was slightly longer and heavier in turn and each held the record of world's largest liner in succession.
(pictured above) The incomplete Cedric sits behind the old Britannic of 1874 just prior to the elder ship sailing to the scrappers. Both are Harland & Wolff products, owned by White Star. Britannic and her identical sister Germanic debuted as Blue Ribband racers, each gaining the speed award. Both originally had auxiliary sails coupled with a single screw. Cedric clearly shows some influence from her older fleet mate. Like Britannic, her passenger accommodation is in the center of the ship, with ends reserved for cargo. The newer ship, however, illustrates the increased hull volume that allowed for significantly more cargo capacity. Additionally, by 1901, multiple propellers had been added to many designs allowing steamers to dispense with sail altogether. This was another factor that allowed dramatic growth. No longer hindered by having to keep a ship small enough to be propelled by wind, ships could grow to gigantic proportions. The picture shows the immense growth and changes to nautical architecture in the short 28 years that passed between these ships.
[2] The need for increased tonnage grew critical as naval operations extended to the Eastern Mediterranean. In May 1915, Britannic completed mooring trials of her engines, and was prepared for emergency entrance into service with as little as four weeks' notice. The same month also saw the first major loss of a civilian ocean ship when the Cunard liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed near the Irish coast by SM U-20.[25]
The following month, the Admiralty decided to use recently requisitioned passenger liners as troop transports in the Gallipoli campaign (also called the Dardanelles service). The first to sail were Cunard's RMS Mauretania and RMS Aquitania. As the Gallipoli landings proved to be disastrous and the casualties mounted, the need for large hospital ships for treatment and evacuation of wounded became evident. RMS Aquitania was diverted to hospital ship duties in August (her place as a troop transport would be taken by RMS Olympic in September). Then on 13 November 1915, Britannic was requisitioned as a hospital ship from her storage location at Belfast. Repainted white with large red crosses and a horizontal green stripe, she was renamed HMHS (His Majesty's Hospital Ship) Britannic[24] and placed under the command of Captain Charles Alfred Bartlett (1868–1945).[26] In the interior, 3,309 beds and several operating rooms were installed. The common areas of the upper decks were transformed into rooms for the wounded. The cabins of B Deck were used to house doctors. The first-class dining room and the first-class reception room on Deck D were transformed into operating rooms. The lower bridge was used to accommodate the lightly wounded.[26] The medical equipment was installed on 12 December 1915.[24]
First service
When declared fit for service on 12 December 1915 at Liverpool, Britannic was assigned a medical team consisting of 101 nurses, 336 non-commissioned officers and 52 commissioned officers as well as a crew of 675 persons.[26] The chief engineer was Robert Flemming and the chief surgeon was John C. H. Beaumont. Both were accustomed to Olympic-class ships as both had served on the Olympic. On 23 December, she left Liverpool to join the port of Mudros on the island of Lemnos on the Aegean Sea to bring back sick and wounded soldiers.[27] She joined with several ships on the same route, such as HMHS Mauretania, HMHS Aquitania,[28] and her sister ship HMT Olympic.
The four ships were joined a little later by the Statendam. She made a stopover at Naples before continuing to Mudros in order for her stock of coal to be replenished. After she returned, she spent four weeks as a floating hospital off the Isle of Wight.
The third voyage was from 20 March 1916 to 4 April. The Dardanelles was evacuated in January.
At the end of her military service on 6 June 1916, she returned to Belfast to undergo the necessary modifications for transforming her into a transatlantic passenger liner. The British government paid the White Star Line £75,000 to compensate the transformation. The transformation took place for several months before being interrupted by a recall of the ship back into military service.
[3] However, age did not totally eliminate utility. Under other names for different owners, Britannic's twin Germanic, built in 1874, soldiered on to 1950, before sailing to the scrap yard, a testament to the quality of Harland &Wolff's construction. In that time she served the Dominion Line, sailing to Canada and found her way to the Mediterranean, spending her last years as a store ship and floating hotel in Constantinople.
Frank O. Braynard and William H. Miller, Fifty Famous Liners 3 (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), 16-17. SOURCE