Augusta Victoria (ship)
Encyclopedia
Augusta Victoria, later Auguste Victoria, placed in service in 1889 and named for Empress Augusta Victoria, wife of Emperor Wilhelm II, was the name ship of the Augusta Victoria series and the first of a new generation of luxury Hamburg America Line
ocean liner
s. She was the first European liner with twin propellers and when first placed in service, the fastest liner in the Atlantic trade. She was rebuilt and lengthened in 1897 and sold to the Russian Navy
in 1904; they renamed her Kuban.
commissioned Augusta Victoria and her sister ship Columbia
in 1887, soon after joining the Hamburg America Line as head of passenger service. Augusta Victoria, the first to be placed in service, was originally to have been called Normannia but was renamed for the Empress after Wilhelm II became Emperor. In the 1890s the line added the larger Normannia and Fürst Bismarck
to the series. Augusta Victoria was the first European liner with twin screws
,According to Bernhard Huldermann, Albert Ballin, tr. Wilhelm Johann Eggers, London: Cassell, 1922, OCLC 305940, p. 196, she was to have been built at a British yard, like Columbia, but the then Crown Prince Wilhelm insisted the job be given to a German yard. According to Straub, p. 45, it was a "not even publicly expressed wish". which made her both faster and more reliable. (The two previous twin-screw liners were the City of New York
and City of Paris of the British Inman Line
.) In May 1889, her maiden voyage to New York broke a record, taking only seven days.According to Huldermann and to Lamar Cecil, Albert Ballin: Business and Politics in Imperial Germany, 1888–1918, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University, 1967, OCLC 900428, pp. 22–23, she captured the Blue Riband
; according to Gerhardt, p. 33 (pdf p. 35), the Deutschland
won this distinction for Hamburg America for the first and only time in 1900.
She was also the first luxury liner at Hamburg America, introducing the concept of the "floating hotel"; she had "a rococo stairhall, illuminated by a milky way of pear-shaped prisms and naked light bulbs clutched by gilded cherubs, a reception court choked by palm trees and a dark and gothic smoking room." Ballin had her interior design work done by Johann Poppe
, the designer at Hamburg America's rival line, North German Lloyd, whose ships already had a reputation for elegance. She was immediately successful, but she and her sister ship were an economic drain on the line because they required more coal than slower ships and could not carry much freight or many steerage passengers and were therefore only profitable in the summer season, and it was risky to operate them at all from Hamburg
in very bad weather, when the Elbe
was packed with ice. Off-season pleasure cruises were therefore instituted in 1891, and Augusta Victorias cruise in the Mediterranean and the Near East from 22 January to 22 March 1891, with 241 passengers including the Ballins themselves, is often stated to have been the first ever cruise.For example by Kludas and Bischoff; Gerhardt p. 36 (pdf p. 38); Haller, giving 174 as the number of passengers. Christian Wilhelm Allers
published an illustrated account of it as Backschisch (Baksheesh
). However, the British Orient Line had offered cruises in the late 1880s.
In 1897, the ship underwent a comprehensive rebuilding at Harland & Wolff in Belfast
. She was lengthened, her tonnage increased, and her speed increased by half a knot, and the middle of her three masts was removed. Her name was also changed to Auguste Victoria to correct an original inaccuracy; the Empress spelt her name with an e.
to make their future liners convertible to auxiliary cruisers in time of war. Like all German fast liners built from then until 1914, she therefore had reinforced decks which could support gun platforms. In 1904 she and the other three ships in the series were sold to the Russian Navy; she was renamed Kuban and became a cruiser, but was assigned to be a scout ship. She sailed in the Far East with Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky
's fleet in the Russo-Japanese War
, but did not see action. She was broken up at Stettin in 1907.
Hamburg America Line
The Hamburg Amerikanische Packetfahrt Actien Gesellschaft was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, Germany during...
ocean liner
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...
s. She was the first European liner with twin propellers and when first placed in service, the fastest liner in the Atlantic trade. She was rebuilt and lengthened in 1897 and sold to the Russian Navy
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...
in 1904; they renamed her Kuban.
Hamburg America Line
Albert BallinAlbert Ballin
Albert Ballin was a German businessman. He was born into a modest Jewish family of Hamburg with origins in Denmark.- Business :...
commissioned Augusta Victoria and her sister ship Columbia
Spanish cruiser Rapido (1889)
Rapido was a merchant ship requisitioned for use as an auxiliary cruiser by the Spanish Navy in 1898 during the Spanish-American War.Rapido was built in 1889 as a passenger ship and was in commercial service as SS Columbia with the Hamburg-Amerika Line when the Spanish Navy purchased her for...
in 1887, soon after joining the Hamburg America Line as head of passenger service. Augusta Victoria, the first to be placed in service, was originally to have been called Normannia but was renamed for the Empress after Wilhelm II became Emperor. In the 1890s the line added the larger Normannia and Fürst Bismarck
SS Fürst Bismarck (1890)
The first SS Fürst Bismarck was an ocean liner built in 1890 by AG Vulcan for the Hamburg America Line. A steamship of 8,430 gross tons, it was assigned to transatlantic crossings between Hamburg Germany and New York, USA...
to the series. Augusta Victoria was the first European liner with twin screws
Twin screw steamer
A twin screw steamer is a steam-powered vessel propelled by two screws, one on either side of the plane of the keel....
,According to Bernhard Huldermann, Albert Ballin, tr. Wilhelm Johann Eggers, London: Cassell, 1922, OCLC 305940, p. 196, she was to have been built at a British yard, like Columbia, but the then Crown Prince Wilhelm insisted the job be given to a German yard. According to Straub, p. 45, it was a "not even publicly expressed wish". which made her both faster and more reliable. (The two previous twin-screw liners were the City of New York
SS City of New York
City of New York was a British built passenger liner of the Inman Line that was designed to be the largest and fastest liner on the Atlantic. When she entered service in August 1888, she was the first twin screw express liner and while she did not achieve the westbound Blue Riband, she ultimately...
and City of Paris of the British Inman Line
Inman Line
The Inman Line which operated from 1850 until its 1893 absorption into American Line, was one of the three largest 19th century British passenger shipping companies on the North Atlantic, along with the White Star Line and Cunard Line...
.) In May 1889, her maiden voyage to New York broke a record, taking only seven days.According to Huldermann and to Lamar Cecil, Albert Ballin: Business and Politics in Imperial Germany, 1888–1918, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University, 1967, OCLC 900428, pp. 22–23, she captured the Blue Riband
Blue Riband
The Blue Riband is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. Under the unwritten rules, the record is based on average speed...
; according to Gerhardt, p. 33 (pdf p. 35), the Deutschland
SS Deutschland (1900)
SS Deutschland was a passenger liner owned by the Hamburg America Line of Germany. She sailed for over 25 years under three different names. The second ship to have been built as a four funnel liner, she was built by Hamburg America as a response to the SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. She was the...
won this distinction for Hamburg America for the first and only time in 1900.
She was also the first luxury liner at Hamburg America, introducing the concept of the "floating hotel"; she had "a rococo stairhall, illuminated by a milky way of pear-shaped prisms and naked light bulbs clutched by gilded cherubs, a reception court choked by palm trees and a dark and gothic smoking room." Ballin had her interior design work done by Johann Poppe
Johann Poppe
Johann Georg Poppe , often called Johannes Poppe by English-speaking writers, was a prominent architect in Bremen during the German Gründerzeit and an influential interior designer of ocean liners for Norddeutscher Lloyd...
, the designer at Hamburg America's rival line, North German Lloyd, whose ships already had a reputation for elegance. She was immediately successful, but she and her sister ship were an economic drain on the line because they required more coal than slower ships and could not carry much freight or many steerage passengers and were therefore only profitable in the summer season, and it was risky to operate them at all from Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
in very bad weather, when the Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
was packed with ice. Off-season pleasure cruises were therefore instituted in 1891, and Augusta Victorias cruise in the Mediterranean and the Near East from 22 January to 22 March 1891, with 241 passengers including the Ballins themselves, is often stated to have been the first ever cruise.For example by Kludas and Bischoff; Gerhardt p. 36 (pdf p. 38); Haller, giving 174 as the number of passengers. Christian Wilhelm Allers
Christian Wilhelm Allers
Christian Wilhelm Allers was a German painter and printmaker.-Biography:Allers, the son of a merchant, was born in Hamburg. He first worked as a lithographer, and in 1877 he moved to Karlsruhe where he continued to work as a lithographer. In the Kunstakademie he was a scholar of Prof...
published an illustrated account of it as Backschisch (Baksheesh
Baksheesh
Baksheesh is a term used to describe tipping, charitable giving, and certain forms of political corruption and bribery in the Middle East and South Asia...
). However, the British Orient Line had offered cruises in the late 1880s.
In 1897, the ship underwent a comprehensive rebuilding at Harland & Wolff in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
. She was lengthened, her tonnage increased, and her speed increased by half a knot, and the middle of her three masts was removed. Her name was also changed to Auguste Victoria to correct an original inaccuracy; the Empress spelt her name with an e.
Imperial Russian Navy
While Augusta Victoria was under construction, the Emperor persuaded both Hamburg America and its rival Norddeutscher LloydNorddeutscher Lloyd
Norddeutsche Lloyd was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on February 20, 1857. It developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was instrumental in the economic...
to make their future liners convertible to auxiliary cruisers in time of war. Like all German fast liners built from then until 1914, she therefore had reinforced decks which could support gun platforms. In 1904 she and the other three ships in the series were sold to the Russian Navy; she was renamed Kuban and became a cruiser, but was assigned to be a scout ship. She sailed in the Far East with Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky
Zinovy Rozhestvensky
Zinovy Petrovich Rozhestvensky was an admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy. He was in command of the Second Pacific Squadron in the Battle of Tsushima, during the Russo-Japanese War....
's fleet in the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
, but did not see action. She was broken up at Stettin in 1907.
Sources
- Christian Wilhelm AllersChristian Wilhelm AllersChristian Wilhelm Allers was a German painter and printmaker.-Biography:Allers, the son of a merchant, was born in Hamburg. He first worked as a lithographer, and in 1877 he moved to Karlsruhe where he continued to work as a lithographer. In the Kunstakademie he was a scholar of Prof...
. Backschisch: Erinnerungen an die Reise der "Auguste Victoria" in den Orient. Hamburg: Griese, 1891. OCLC 245856783. Reissued as Backschisch: Skizzen zu einer Orient-Kreuzfahrt im Jahre 1891. Hamburg: Eckardt & Messtorff, 1973. ISBN 9783770227006 - H. Weth. Die Orient-Reise der "Augusta Victoria" vom Januar bis März 1891. Nach den Berichten in den Feuilletons des "Hamburger Fremdenblatt" und des "Berliner Börsen-Courier". Hamburg: Diedrich, 1891. OCLC 21556024
External links
- S/S Augusta Victoria, Hamburg America Line at Norway-Heritage
- Elevation and upper deck plans, lower deck plans and sections, at Wunderwaffe.narod.ru
- Auguste Victoria after 1897 rebuilding, at Wunderwaffe.narod.ru
- Passenger list for first cruise, 22 January – 22 March 1891 at cwallers.de
