RMS Homeric (1913)
RMS Homeric Postcard made in 1925 or 1926
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| History | |
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 Great Britain
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| Name: | RMS Homeric |
| Owner: | White Star Line |
| Operator: | White Star Line |
| Port of registry: | Liverpool, England |
| Route: | Liverpool- New York |
| Ordered: | April 1912 |
| Builder: |
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| Laid down: | 1912 |
| Launched: | 1913 as Columbus for North German Lloyd |
| Christened: | January 1922 as Homeric |
| Completed: | 1920 |
| Maiden voyage: | 15 February 1922 |
| In service: | 1922 |
| Out of service: | 1935 |
| Renamed: | Columbus to Homeric, 1922 |
| Refit: | 1927 |
| Homeport: | Liverpool,England |
| Nickname(s): | "Home at sea" |
| Fate: | Scrapped in 1935; scrapping complete by 1938 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Doric Class |
| Type: | ocean liner |
| Tonnage: | 35,000 GRT |
| Length: | 774 ft (236 m) |
| Beam: | 82.3 ft (25.1 m) |
| Propulsion: | Twin screw |
| Speed: | Before refit: 18 knots (33 km/h) After refit: 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h) |
| Capacity: | 2,145 passengers: 750 First Class, 545 Second Class, 850 Third Class |
| Crew: | 780 |
| Notes: | sister ship to SS Columbus (1924) |
RMS Homeric, originally launched as Columbus, was built for Norddeutscher Lloyd and launched in 1913 at the F. Schichau yard in Danzig. Columbus was ceded to Great Britain in 1919 as part of German war reparations. She was sold to White Star Line in 1920, which named her Homeric. Her sister ship Hindenburg retained her German ownership and was renamed Columbus. Homeric was operated by White Star from 1922 to 1935.
It took Britain's Cunard Line less than a year following World War I to re-establish their Atlantic supremacy with a three ship weekly service to New York. The Mauretania, Aquitania and ironically enough, the very ship that was built to compete with them, the Imperator as the Berengaria, were all plying the Atlantic as if the war had never even happened. Cunard had lost only one superliner, the Lusitania in 1915, but White Star's fleet was another story. The 48,000-ton flagship Britannic was lost in the Aegean in 1916, and the superb 17,000-ton Oceanic of 1899 had been wrecked on the islands of Foula in 1914. When the war was over, the Treaty of Versailles appropriated two German superliners to White Star, the 56,000-ton Bismarck, third and largest of Albert Ballin’s great Imperator Class trio, left unfinished at the Blohm & Voss Shipyard, and the 35,000-ton Columbus at F. Schicau in Danzig. While both ships had been launched, they were far from complete, and it would take a further two years for them to be outfitted entirely, effectively removing White Star from the Atlantic passenger trade until mid 1922.
Laid down in 1912, the Columbus was the first of two of vessels ordered by Norddeutscher Lloyd (North German Lloyd) for their premiere run, Bremerhaven to New York. At 35,000 tons, they would be large ships for their day. Powered by tried-and-true triple expansion reciprocating engines, the two new liners would be twin screw (the largest in the world until the advent of the Mauretania of 1938), and have a relatively modest service speed of just a shade over 18 knots (33 km/h).
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