SS Traffic (1911)
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | SS Traffic |
| Owner: |
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| Operator: | Owner operated |
| Port of registry: | Liverpool |
| Builder: | |
| Yard number: | 423 |
| Laid down: | 22 December 1910 |
| Launched: | 27 April 1911 |
| Completed: | 27 May 1911 |
| Maiden voyage: | May 31, 1911 |
| In service: | 27 May 1911 |
| Renamed: | Ingenieur Reibell |
| Fate: |
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| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 675 tons |
| Length: | 175 ft (53.3 m) |
| Beam: | 35 ft (10.7 m) |
| Decks: | 2 |
| Propulsion: | 2 double expansion engines powering 2 triple blade propellers. |
| Speed: | 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Capacity: | 1,200 passengers and mail |
SS Traffic was a tender of the White Star Line, and the fleetmate to the SS Nomadic. She was built for the White Star Line by Harland and Wolff, at Belfast, to serve the Olympic-class ocean liners. SS Traffic ferried some of the third class passengers to RMS Titanic for her maiden voyage. She served as a tender for White Star, as a minesweeper for the French Navy between 1917 and 1919, and supported troop ships at the end of the First World War. After the war she was sold to Société Cherbourgeoise Transbordement, and later renamed Ingénieur Reibell. She was scuttled by the French as the Germans invaded in 1940, but was salvaged and used by the Germans as an armed coastal vessel until being sunk by the Royal Navy on 17 January 1941.
Harland and Wolff laid down Traffic's keel on 22 December 1910 and launched her on 27 April 1911, two days after her running mate, Nomadic. The vessel then underwent sea trials on 18 May 1911, before being handed over to the White Star Line on 27 May 1911. Two days later, on 29 May, Nomadic and Traffic attended RMS Olympic as she carried out her sea trials. The two tenders then sailed to Southampton, and then on to Cherbourg, where they were based. Traffic carried third class passengers, as well as mail, cargo and baggage, out to the White Star Line's large ocean liners, while Nomadic carried first and second class passengers. Traffic took passengers and mail out to Titanic on 10 April 1912 while the liner lay moored in the roads off the port, preparatory to beginning her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Traffic could accommodate 1,200 third-class passengers, considerably more than Olympic and Titanic's actual third-class passenger capacity. Despite this, Nomadic also had a small third-class area below deck to accommodate for Traffic's over-spill of passengers.
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