page_title: SS Imperator
section_title: Cunard service
hierarchical_section_title: SS Imperator / Cunard service
caption_attribution_description: British liner Berengaria in harbor
context_page_description: SS Imperator was a German ocean liner built for the Hamburg America Line, launched in 1912. At the time of her completion in June 1913, she was the largest passenger ship in the world by gross tonnage, surpassing the new White Star giants, Olympic and Titanic.
  Imperator was the first of a trio of successively larger Hamburg American liners that included SS Vaterland and SS Bismarck.
  During World War I, the ship remained in port in Hamburg. After the war, she was briefly commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Imperator and employed as a transport, returning American troops from Europe. Following her service with the U.S. Navy, Imperator was handed over to Britain's Cunard Line as part of war reparations where she sailed as the flagship RMS Berengaria for the final decade of her career.
context_section_description: The ship arrived at Southampton on Sunday 10 December 1919 and then proceeded to Liverpool for what was planned to be a quick overhaul (she was scheduled to leave on her first voyage for the new owners on 10 January 1920). Upon inspection, the ship was found to be in poor condition. During dry-docking on 6 January, it was found that the ship's rudder had a piece missing and the propellers were suffering from erosion on their leading edges. These issues were attended to while the ship was refurbished with items borrowed from the Cunard vessels Transylvania and Carmania.
  Due to the extent of the work that had to be carried out, Imperator remained at Liverpool until 21 February and during this time the company's annual dinner was held on board, before the ship returned to service on the North Atlantic. On 2 March 1920, the ship left New York, taking nine days to reach Southampton. During the voyage, Imperator developed a severe list which was found to be caused by a faulty ash ejector. Cunard decided that the ship was in need of a major overhaul and it was withdrawn from service.
  Sir Arthur Rostron of the RMS Titanic passenger rescue fame and former captain of Carpathia took command of Imperator in July 1920. The following year both Imperator and Aquitania were sent to Armstrong Whitworth shipyards to be converted from coal firing to oil.
  The ship was renamed after the English queen Berengaria of Navarre, wife of Richard the Lionheart, in February 1921. Many Cunard ships had been named for parts of the Roman Empire and had names that ended in "ia". Like several other Cunard ships, RMS Berengaria kept the "ia" ending to her name but was not named after a province of the ancient world.
  In September 1925, a security alert at sea was triggered when the Cunard company offices in New York received a message stating there was a bomb aboard Berengaria; the vessel was then 1,200 miles out from New York, bound for Southampton. The ship was searched although the passengers and most of the crew were not informed as to the reason. A fire drill was held just before the supposed time of detonation, so passengers could be placed close to their lifeboat stations without arousing suspicion. The bomb threat failed to materialise.
  On 11 May 1932, Berengaria ran aground in the Solent. She was refloated an hour later.
  In May 1934, Berengaria was again in the headlines when she ran aground on mud banks at Calshot on the Solent. she was pulled free by four tugs from Southampton. The vessel suffered no damage and the incident did not affect its sailing schedule.
  Despite its German heritage, Berengaria served as flagship of the Cunard fleet until replaced by her sister ship, RMS Majestic (also German: ex-SS Bismarck), in 1934 after the merger of Cunard with White Star Line. In later years, Berengaria was used for discounted Prohibition-dodging cruises, which earned she the jocular nickname "Bargain-area".
  Toward the end of her service life, the ship suffered several electrical fires caused by ageing wiring, and Cunard-White Star opted to retire her in 1938. She was sold to Sir John Jarvis, who had also purchased Olympic, to provide work for unemployed shipbuilders in Jarrow, County Durham.  Berengaria sailed for the River Tyne under the command of Captain George Gibbons to be scrapped down to its waterline. Due to the size of the vessel and the outbreak of the Second World War, final demolition took place only in 1946.
caption: RMS Berengaria
exif: {"Image Make": "Leaf", "Image Model": "Leaf Aptus-II 12(LI301506   )/Schneider Lens Control", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "600", "Image YResolution": "600", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2015:01:17 13:46:55", "Image WhitePoint": "[0, 0]", "Image PrimaryChromaticities": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Image YCbCrCoefficients": "[0, 0, 0]", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "0", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]", "Image ExifOffset": "376", "EXIF ExposureTime": "0", "EXIF FNumber": "0", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "[0, 0]", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "0", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "0", "EXIF ApertureValue": "0", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "0", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "0", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Unidentified", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "0", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5570", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "4454", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "0", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "0", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "0", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "0", "EXIF SensingMethod": "0", "EXIF FileSource": "0", "EXIF SceneType": "0"}