SS Imperator

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SS Imperator
History
Germany
Name	SS Imperator
Namesake	Latin Imperator, "emperor"
Owner	Hamburg - Amerika Linie
Port of registry	Hamburg
Route	Cuxhaven - Southampton - New York
Builder	AG Vulcan Hamburg, Germany
Laid down	18 June 1910
Launched	23 May 1912
Christened	23 May 1912
Completed	June 1913 at Hamburg, Germany
Maiden voyage	11 June 1913, Cuxhaven to New York Via Southampton
Fate	Seized as war reparations. Used as a troop transport ship for the United States from May 1919. Handed over to the Cunard Line in September 1919, and renamed as RMS Berengaria. Sold for scrap in 1939; final demolition completed in or around 1946.
United States
Name	USS Imperator
Acquired	by the Navy 5 May 1919 at Brest, France
Commissioned	5 May 1919 USS Imperator at Brest, France
Decommissioned	24 November 1919 at New York City
Identification	ID-4080
Fate	Ceded to the Cunard Line as a war prize to make up for the loss of the RMS Lusitania and later renamed Berengaria
United Kingdom
Name	RMS Berengaria
Namesake	Berengaria of Navarre
Owner	1919–1934: Cunard Line 1934–1938: Cunard White Star Line
Route	Southampton to New York via Cherbourg.
Acquired	1919
Homeport	Liverpool, UK
Fate	Scrapped between 1939–1946
General characteristics
Class and type	Imperator-class ocean liner
Tonnage	52,117 GRT
Displacement	53,000 tons[citation needed]
Length	906 ft (276 m)
Beam	98 ft 3 in (29.95 m)
Draught	35 ft 2 in (10.72 m)
Decks	11
Installed power	Steam generated at 265 psi by 46 watertube boilers of Vulcan Yarrow design, originally coal burning, later converted to oil fired in 1921.
Propulsion	4 steam turbines AEG-Vulcan / Parsons direct drive on four shafts, total of 60,000 shp (45,000 kW)
Speed	24 kn (44 km/h; 28 mph) max
Capacity	4,234 passengers: 908 first class 592 second class 962 third class 1,772 steerage (fourth class)
Crew	1,180

SS Imperator (known as RMS Berengaria for most of her career) was a German ocean liner built for the Hamburg America Line, launched in 1912. At the time of her completion in June 1913, she was the largest passenger ship in the world, surpassing the new White Star liner Olympic.

Imperator was the first of a trio of successively larger Hamburg American liners that included Vaterland (later the United States Liner Leviathan) and Bismarck (later the White Star Line Majestic) all of which were seized as war reparations.

Imperator served for 14 months on HAPAG's transatlantic route, until the outbreak of World War I, after which she remained in port in Hamburg. After the war, she was briefly commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Imperator (ID-4080) and employed as a transport, returning American troops from Europe. Following her service with the U.S. Navy, Imperator was purchased jointly by Britain's Cunard Line and White Star Line as part of war reparations, due to the loss of the RMS Lusitania, where she sailed as the flagship RMS Berengaria for the last 20 years of her career. William H. Miller wrote that "despite her German heritage and the barely disguised Teutonic tone of her interiors, she was thought of in the 1920s and 30s as one of Britain's finest liners."^[1]