RMS Republic (1903)
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | Republic ex-Columbus |
| Operator: | Oceanic Steam Navigation Company d/b/a White Star Line |
| Builder: | Harland and Wolff Shipyards |
| Yard number: | 345 |
| Launched: | 26 February 1903 |
| Christened: | Columbus |
| Completed: | 12 September 1903 |
| Fate: | Sank at 8:40 pm on 24 January 1909 after a collision with SS Florida at 5:40 am the previous morning. |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 15,400 tons |
| Length: | 570.0 ft (173.7 m) |
| Beam: | 67.8 ft (20.7 m) |
| Draft: | 34 ft 1 in (10.39 m) . |
| Depth of hold: | 24 ft (7.3 m) |
| Propulsion: | twin propeller |
| Speed: | 16 knots (30 km/h) |
| Capacity: | 2,830 passengers |
| Crew: | 300 |
RMS Republic was a steam-powered ocean liner built in 1903 by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, and lost at sea in a collision six years later while sailing for the White Star Line. A CQD distress call was issued on the new Marconi radio device, the first recorded, resulting in the saving of around 1500 lives. Known as the "Millionaires' Ship" on account of the number of well-known and immensely rich Americans who traveled by her, she was often referred to as a "palatial liner." She was the flagship of White Star Line's Boston service and was one of the ten largest passenger liners in the world at the time.
The ship was originally built in Belfast, Northern Ireland for the International Mercantile Marine's Dominion Line (a sister company to the White Star Line) and was named SS Columbus. She was launched on 26 February 1903 and made her maiden voyage in October 1903 from Liverpool to Boston. After two voyages with the Dominion Line, the Columbus, along with three other Dominion liners; New England, Commonwealth and Mayflower were sold to the White Star Line for use on their new service between Liverpool and Boston. The Columbus was renamed Republic, the second ship under White Star livery to hold the name (White Star's original Republic of 1872 had been sold to the Holland America Line in 1889 and renamed Maasdam), while her three fellow former Dominion liners were renamed Romanic, Canopic and Cretic respectively.
Republic made her first crossing under White Star from Liverpool to Boston on December 17, 1903, arriving in Boston December 27. In January 1904, she made her first crossing from Boston to the Mediterranean via Gibraltar, making calls at Sao Miguel in the Azores, followed by the Italian ports of Naples and Genoa and ending at Alexandria, a voyage which often took up to three weeks to complete one-way. In November 1904, she inaugurated White Star's Mediterranean-New York service. White Star intended this route for two purposes; first, they sought to establish a market for cruising opportunities for wealthy American passengers, as her spacious and luxurious accommodations in First and Second Class attracted scores of wealthy vacationers, thus earning her the nickname "The Millionaire's Ship". Second, and more predominantly on her westbound crossings, White Star sought to tap into the massive Italian immigrant trade. The Republic, with a Third Class capacity of 2,000, proved to be immensely profitable on this route, as when she sailed for the United States on any given trip, Third Class was often booked to capacity, and sometimes beyond. A vast majority of Italian immigrants who sailed by White Star boarded Republic and the other ships at Naples, along with smaller groups of Greeks, Austrians, Slavs, Turks and Syrians. White Star's placement of Sao Miguel on their Mediterranean services also opened them up to traffic from Portuguese immigrants as well. Over the course of the next four years, Republic spent the winter and spring months running on White Star's Mediterranean-New York service alongside the Cretic, while during the summer and fall months she would sail on the Liverpool-Boston route together with the Cymric and Arabic.
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