955' 8"

4 Parsons direct drive steam turbine (by B&V)

100' 1"

Oil fired

35'

4

56,551 (a)

N/A

23.5 knots

1,000

3

2,095 (b)

2

After the 1928 refit re-registered at 56,620 tons.

In the 1928 refit altered to 2,632 total.

Keel laid by Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Launched.

Construction suspended due to war. Hull remained laid up at Blohm & Voss.

Ordered to be turned over to the U.K. as war reparations by the Treaty of Versailles.
Construction completed by Blohm & Voss under Harland & Wolff supervision.

Partially destroyed by fire at Blohm & Voss, the cause of which was suspicious.

Completed and taken for trials. Grounded in the Elbe due to low water, refloated on
next tide.
(When completed the funnels were painted in Hamburg-Amerika colors as a protest
by the shipyard, the name Bismarck was also painted on the bows.)

Renamed Majestic.

Maiden voyage Southampton-Cherbourg-New York.
(Under command of Captain Sir Bertram F. Hayes, C.M.G., D.S.O., R.D., R.N.R. who while
commander of HMT Olympic used his ship to ram and sink SMS U-103.)
Arrived at New York in 5 days, 14 hours, 14 minuets.

Departs New York with about 1,600 passengers. Just after entering the narrows an
unidentified man jumped overboard and was drowned.
(While in New York an estimated 25,000 people toured the ship.)

Departing New York on her second voyage was overtaken by a police boat and stopped
near Scotland Light and a passenger, William B. Cheeseborough, was detained by the
NYPD on charges from California and removed from the ship.

After departing New York two teenage stowaways were found, the girls, Anna Muller and
Katherine Fleming, were returned on another White Star ship.

Inspected by King George VI and Queen Mary at Cowes, Isle of Wight.

Arrived at Boston Naval Shipyard for drydocking. The hull was scraped and was
repainted.

Departed drydock.

Arrived for a refit at Boston Naval Shipyard. Promenade deck enclosed with glass,
funnels deepened and passenger accommodations altered to 2,632.

Hit by large wave near Bishop Rock breaking windows on the bridge and injuring
the master, Edgar L. Trant, commodore of the White Star Line and the 2nd
Officer, H. M. McGill. Trant received a head injury which became infected, he was
hospitalized in New York on arrival on Oct. 10.

Final trans-Atlantic voyage, laid up at Southampton after 207 trans-Atlantic voyages.

Sold to Thomas W. Ward for scrap.

Bought by the Admiralty for conversion to a cadet training ship. Converted at
Thornycroft in Southampton. (funnels and masts lowered)

Departed Southampton for Rosyth, Scotland.

Commissioned HMS Caledonia.

Caught fire and sank in shallow water at Rosyth.

Hulk sold to Thomas W. Ward for scrap. Over the next three years some scrapping
was completed on site.

Raised and towed to Inverkeithing to complete scrapping.

Bismarck was the last of the three big liners ordered by Albert Ballin, the
Director of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, the others, Vaterland and Imperator
were both completed and seized by the U.S.A. at the outbreak of the Great War.
After the war Imperator was ceded to the U.K. and renamed Berengaria and
Vaterland was ceded to the U.S.A. and renamed Leviathan.

Passenger Ship Index

Builder's Data