The Official Ocean Liner Thread.

Which is the best liner/class?

  • Olympic-class

    Votes: 63 38.0%

  • Imperator class

    Votes: 10 6.0%

  • Mauritania Class

    Votes: 10 6.0%

  • Aquitania

    Votes: 12 7.2%

  • Bremen class

    Votes: 6 3.6%

  • German 4 stackers

    Votes: 6 3.6%

  • Queen Mary

    Votes: 43 25.9%

  • Normandie

    Votes: 45 27.1%

  • Other.

    Votes: 23 13.9%
  • Total voters
    166
Ogrebear

Ogrebear

The Wooksta! said:
White Star would need to build their own competitor, as both Olympic and Britannic would be getting on a bit. Oceanic may actually get further than the keel being laid.
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I agree White Star would need a new ship in the 20's to compete with the Cunard vs Hamburg-America Line speed rivalry, esp when Compagnie Générale Transatlantique joins in with the Normandie; an Oceanic class trio might be the answer, each more luxurious than the other.

Though could White Star ignore speed altogether? Sure, its not their thing, but perhaps a 500-600ft ship with Art Deco racing lines?
 
Ogrebear

Ogrebear

Just come across this nice little thread about the Royal Navy buying Olympic in 1935 instead of her being scrapped.

I quite like the idea personally.

HerbertVonKarajan said:
Jarrow was a place that looked like it was still stuck in the 19th Century. A land that time had seemingly forgot in the midst of the plague that had been inflicted upon the world and its citizens. Normally, the days would go on in a sort of muddled mess of depression and crushed hopes, as men who had much of the will to work struggled to find any meaningful employment in order to feed the mouths of their families. However... today was different.

Today, their savior was coming. Sailing ever so slowly, as much as her old engines would push her, she came in like an old Olympian who's days it knew were numbered, but still kept strutting in pride.

People of all backgrounds lined the quays of Jarrow to catch a glimpse of her... the impressive superstructure, her powerful lines and tall mast. Yes, her final hurrah, before she would bring salvation towards the un-employed.

On that day, October 13th, HMS Centurion had sailed her way into Jarrow, being laid up next with the old liner Mauritania... awaiting to be scrapped and bring back employment to the depressed community that had welcomed her so well. Elsewhere, the last of the Olympians was being sailed towards Plymouth Dockyard, her engines sounder than when she was built all those years ago at Harland and Wolff.

Fluttering from her masts no longer flew the colors of the dying White Star Line and the Red Ensign of the Merchant Marine, but rather the White Ensign of His Majesty's Royal Navy.

The last of 3 sisters was sailing towards her new destiny, and in the midst of her triumph of a new-found life... somewhere up in the clouds, something not known to man, nor understood by man, was simply smiling at the sight of it all.

Old Reliable was finally sailing once again.
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Shurik

Shurik

I like the look of the long, unencumbered fore-deck, coupled with a superstructure that's not just an over-done repeating pattern.

ucl67b-1.jpg


However, I will make an exception for the Italian, SS Leonardo da Vinci...
leonardodavinci-60s.jpg
 
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Ogrebear

Ogrebear

Shurik said:
Not a sister ship, she was ordered as the replacement.
SS Andrea Doria sunk in '56, while SS Leonardo da Vinci wasn't built until '60.
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Cool.

The design is still an ocean liner, but with a lot of crusing amenaties in there - though sailing from Italy just getting from the Med to the Atlantic is similar to a cruise so it makes sense.
 

ghappy1000

Olympic-class Blue Riband

In 1907, the White Star Line would build the Olympic-class liners to beat the RMS Mauretania's potential for winning the Blue Riband. The Olympic-class liners ended up being built as in otl, but with increased emphasis on length, size and speed. RMS Olympic would set sail on 1 June 1912 (the nearest Wednesday to the first anniversary of its maiden voyage) and would win the Blue Riband for 17 years as the longest Blue Riband holder of its time. Titanic would set sail on 9 April 1913 (the nearest Wednesday to the first anniversary of its maiden voyage) and would hit an iceberg and sink on 13 April 1913 with around 1500 dead. Britannic would be left in an even more incomplete state of construction before being converted into a hospital ship and sunk on 21 November 1916. Neither Titanic nor Britannic would win the Blue Riband nor reach sight of New York.

Considering that the SS Vaterland as SS Leviathan and SS Bismarck as RMS Majestic were fast enough to be considered as "the world's fastest ocean liners" despite being refuted by RMS Mauretania, it would have been possible for the Imperator-class liners (at least SS Vaterland and SS Bismarck) to be completed for both size and the Blue Riband. In this case, SS Vaterland would be completed and win the Blue Riband for the Hamburg-America Line for 1914-1929. Since SS Vaterland was barely completed just in time for commercial service, it receiving extra time to be built for the Blue Riband would likely result in the liner being incomplete for, preparing for or diverting during voyages and stuck in Germany during WW1's beginning and ceded to Britain (and White Star Line) as a post-WW1 reparation. Otherwise, if completed for commercial service and not stuck in Germany during WW1's beginning, the extra speed of the SS Vaterland with a Blue Riband record might encourage it to break the WW1 blockade of Germany with potential risks of being sunk or captured and taken by Britain as a war prize, troopship and a White Star (or Cunard depending on the SS Vaterland's availability as a completed Blue Riband winner) Liner post-war. SS Bismarck would likely become RMS Majestic as in otl. The United States, in the interwar period, might build a brand new superliner to replace SS Leviathan. With White Star (and possibly Hamburg-America Line) holding the Blue Riband for 1914-1929 (1913 instead of 1914 if including SS Imperator, but SS Imperator completed as SS Imperator for the Blue Riband might delay its completion and maiden voyage until 1914, risk its capture and troopship service by and commercial service for the United States and/ or risk its sinking during WW1 if completed in time for a maiden voyage to be done in time in 1914, before WW1 that year), Cunard might refit the RMS Mauretania for a recapture of the Blue Riband (at least after WW1 because there might not be enough time before WW1 and no incentive during WW1 for such a refit). Otherwise, any post-WW1 earning of the Blue Riband by SS Vaterland/ SS Imperator as SS Leviathan and SS Bismarck as RMS Majestic might result in Cunard refitting its Hamburg-America Line replacement for RMS Lusitania (if still sunk) by the name of RMS Berengaria (ex-SS Imperator/ SS Vaterland) or RMS Mauretania for Blue Riband accomplishment purposes.
 
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