Articles with the Tag Baltic

Adriatic & Amerika: Myth & Reality

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Adriatic & Amerika: Myth & Reality

The order to proceed with Adriatic‘s construction was given on 23 August 1902.  Her keel was laid by Harland & Wolff about three months later but the order was then suspended on 19 January 1903. (The engine works were not ordered to resume work on her propelling machinery until July 1905.)  Meanwhile, construction continued at a slow pace on her hull.  The double bottom was not fully framed until 1 July 1903, several months later than might have been expected. In consequence of the suspension of the order and subsequent pace of construction, Adriatic entered service almost three years after Baltic, even though they were only laid down five months apart!

 

Above: Construction Chronology of Celtic, Cedric, Baltic & Adriatic.  (The ‘Big Four’ of the White Star Fleet: Celtic, Cedric, Baltic & Adriatic)

 

It has been suggested that HAPAG’s Amerika, completed by Harland & Wolff in 1905, utilised the hull originally intended for Adriatic.  There is no basis for this claim.  Baltic was not launched until November 1903, by which time the work on framing Adriatic‘s hull was well advanced.  Amerika was then laid down on the slipway vacated by Baltic. (She was shorter and slightly narrower than both Baltic and Adriatic.)

Nonetheless, Amerika introduced a significant number of features for her first class passengers.  In the context of increasing competition on the North Atlantic, White Star made sure that Adriatic‘s passenger accommodation would be improved significantly compared to her older sister ships. 

 

Read all the details in The ‘Big Four’ of the White Star Fleet: Celtic, Cedric, Baltic & Adriatic! 

 

 

Big Ships and Small Boats

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New Article: Big Ships and Small Boats

A new article, ‘Big Ships and Small Boats’ has been uploaded.

In the years leading up to the Titanic disaster, ships were getting significantly larger.  A lot of comment at the time and up to the present day has focused on the increasing size of ships in relation to the lifeboats they needed to carry under the law.  However, this overlooks the fact that the size of a ship was not necessarily a reliable indicator of how many passengers and crew she could carry.  This article provides a snapshot comparison between Olympic and Carpathia in April 1912 and some comparative British government data looking at the largest foreign-going passenger steamers, their passenger and crew capacity and lifeboat provision.

It was first published in the Titanic International Society’s Voyage September 2022: Pages 3-4.

 

 

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Presentation from the Archives: ‘The “Big Four”: Celtic, Cedric, Baltic & Adriatic’

 

 

 

The White Star Line’s Celtic (1901), Cedric (1903), Baltic (1904) and Adriatic (1907), collectively known as the ‘Big Four’, served for a combined 110 years. Together they carried around 1.5 million passengers on the Liverpool to New York and Southampton to New York routes during their time in service.

 

My presentation on 11 September 2017 at PRONI gave a comprehensive overview of all four ships’ histories, from conception and construction through to their successful commercial careers on the Liverpool and Southampton to New York services; cruising; war service; and Celtic‘s survival of both a mine explosion and torpedo attack in 1917 and 1918.