- SS Bremen (1897)
The SS Bremen, later renamed Constantinople and then King Alexander, was a German Barbarossa class
ocean liner commissioned in1897 by Norddeutscher Lloyd.History
F. Schichau ofDanzig built Bremen for the Norddeutscher-Lloyd line. She was launched onNovember 15 1896 . As originally built she was GRT|10,525|first=yes had a length of 525ft and a speed of 15 knots. She started her maiden voyage onJanuary 5 1897 , traveling fromBremen to New York with a stopover atSouthampton . In addition to thetransatlantic run she also sailed from Bremen toAustralia via theSuez Canal .On
June 30 1900 she was badly damaged in a dockside fire inNew York Harbor . After the fire she was rebuilt and lengthened to 550.5ft, and her tonnage was increased to GRT|11,570. She reentered service in October 1901.On
April 20 ,1912 , while sailing from Bremen toNew York , "SS Bremen" passed through the debris field left by the sinking of theRMS Titanic . Passengers and crew reported seeing hundreds of bodies floating in the water as well as many deck chairs and pieces of wood. Since there was already a ship specially chartered by White Star line to retrieve any bodies, the "Bremen" did not stop to recover any. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2155617.stm] [http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/discus/messages/5666/50.html?959133600] [http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:zAYbHxrO9g0J:www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/english/SinkingoftheTitanic/chap21.html+Bremen+titanic+bodies&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us] [http://www.users.bigpond.com/MSN/howardl/titanic.htm]"Bremen" was laid up during
World War I . After the war she was given to the British P&O line as part of the war reparations. Two years later she was sold to theByron Line and renamed "Constantinople". In 1923, she was renamed "King Alexander". She was scrapped in 1929.References
* [http://www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/bremen.htm 1858-Today: Six Passenger Ships called 'Bremen']
* [http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/descriptions/ShipsB.html theshipslist.com]External links
* [http://www.sciencecenter.net/butlerart/htm/99-048.htm A painting of SS Bremen]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.