Image ID: 15056

Rudder of 'Berengaria' being transported through Retford

Retford
England

The only foreign-built liner in Cunard's 'big three' on the North Atlantic in the 1920s and 1930s was the 52,250-ton Berengaria, formerly the Hamburg Amerika liner Imperator. Laid down in 1910 at the Vulkan Werke shipyard at Hamburg, Imperator was launched in May 1912, and made her maiden voyage to New York, via Southampton the following year. She had two sister ships, Vaterland and Bismarck. The three liners were the biggest in the world and were intended to keep the German flag on the North Atlantic in a strong position, particularly against the merchant fleets of the United Kingdom and France. Because of the First World War these hopes were dashed and all three were handed over to the Allies in 1919 under the Reparations Agreement. Cunard had one, Bismark became White Star Lines' Majestic and the Vaterland US Lines' Leviathan. After being refitted and converted to burn oil fuel, Berengaria operated successfully between Southampton and New York. The mighty Imperator was given to the British Cunard Line to replace the Lusitania which was sunk by a German U-Boat with the loss of nearly 1200 lives. The great ship, the biggest one Cunard owned, and the new flag ship of the line, was re-named Berengaria. This was the first time a Cunard ship wasn't named after a Roman province (Benengaria being the name of Richard Lionheart's wife). Before Benengaria entered British service, there were many things that needed changing. The signs inside and out had to be changed from German to English, many furnishings changed, and a new colour scheme, getting rid of HAPAG's traditional buff coloured funnels and replacing them with Cunard's orange and black. If one looks closely at the funnels however, you will notice that not all the sections it has been divided into are not equal, spoiling Cunard's sense of perfection. Now in service on the Atlantic, her running mates were the Mauretania, the fastest ship in the world and Aquitania, the longest British built ship. Many famous passengers travelled with Berengaria, including the future Edward VIII, Will Rogers, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Henry Ford, Junius Pierpont Morgan and the Queen of Romania, as well as the Astor, Vanderbilt and DuPont families. When 1929 rolled past, the world was in the tight grip of depression. Many of the richest people in the world became ruined, and people could not afford to travel by liner. The easy way for shipping lines to make money was to offer Americans 'booze-cruises' to help them escape the laws of prohibition. The prices for these voyages became so low, that soon the Berengaria was known as the 'Bargain-area'. As the hard times rolled on, Cunard and White Star merged in 1934 to complete Hull 534 (Queen Mary). Berengaria had to give up it's title as flag ship of the Cunard-White Star Line to its younger sister, the former Bismarck, Majestic. As the years quickly rolled on, newer, bigger, faster ships were introduced, first France's Normandie, then England's Queen Mary. With their arrival, Berengaria appeared very out dated. Her hull began stressing and she suffered many fires in her interiors. Eventually, the American government forbade their people to travel on her. Being such a severe blow to Cunard, they naturally protested, but as another fire broke out, they had to face facts. She was sent to the ship breakers in Jarrow in 138, such a huge task she was, she was not fully gone until 1946. Such is the end of one of the most beautiful ships the world has ever seen. (information from Berengaria website)

Date: 1930

Organisation Reference: NCCN001470

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