page_title: SS Burdigala
section_title: Construction and design
hierarchical_section_title: SS Burdigala / Construction and design
context_page_description: SS Burdigala previously SS Kaiser Friedrich – was a French and ex-German ocean liner that hit a mine laid by U-73 in the Aegean sea 2 nautical miles southwest off Kea, Greece, while she was travelling from Thessaloniki, Greece to Toulon, France.
context_section_description: After SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse obtained the blue riband, Norddeutscher Lloyd (Burdigala's first owner) had hoped to strengthen and secure its success by the deployment of SS Kaiser Friedrich, which the company was building in the yard of Ferdinand Schichau in Danzig. NDL's optimism and confidence for a successful future could not be hidden, as indicated by an eight-page brochure printed in April 1898, stating that "The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, will be assisted by an even more gigantic ship, the Kaiser Friedrich, which is expected to be even faster".
  The main concern of the Schichau shipyard was to build a ship which would be slightly smaller than a ship built by the A.G. Vulcan, the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and certainly much cheaper. At the same time the newbuild should be able to meet the demands posed by the NDL contract which mandated that the test speed of the vessel should be 22.5 knots for a period of six hours and that the guaranteed minimum speed be of 21 knots so that during thus ensuring that the transatlantic crossing would not exceed six days.
  According to these specifications the Kaiser Friedrich was designed and built with three chimneys (smoke stacks) designated as the number 587 build with the following technical characteristics: length 183 metres (600 ft 5 in), width 19.4 metres (63 ft 8 in), tonnage 12,480 GRT and a displacement of 20,100 tons. Fitted with two five cylinder reciprocating steam engines (with cylinder diameter of 109.22 cm, 162.56 cm, 233.68 cm, 2 x 236.22 cm), with quadruple expansion, driving twin three-bladed bronze propellers,with a diameter of 6.19 meters, coupled to crankshafts made by Krupp Steel, the best steel in Germany. The engines were designed to develop a maximum nominal 28,000 horse power and in conjunction with the fact that the pressure in the ten boilers were rated at 15.5 bar, offered, according to the calculations by the Ferdinand Schichau engineers, a significant potential for coal economy. Contrary to common shipbuilding practices of the era, the engineers placed the engines slightly forward, between the second and third boilers. The ship had nine main boilers, each fitted with two coal loading trap doors plus a tenth auxiliary boiler; these were positioned in three watertight compartments each ducted to a smokestack.
  By the end of her completion, the SS Kaiser Friedrich had cost £525,000, surpassing by far the initial budgeted cost. Once concluded though, she was a pure example of shipbuilding magnificence with her beautiful line, low freeboard, an unusually long forecastle, a curvilinear bridge, large promenade deck and a feature very characteristic of the German shipbuilding at the time- an exceptionally high poop.
  In addition to the features above, Kaiser Friedrich as well as other steamers of her time, were designed and constructed to operate as commercial armed cruiser in the event of war, as defined by German law, which meant that their exterior had to exude a solid sound effect. It is no coincidence that all those who reported on this particular ship in the future, always spoke with the best words about her external characteristics and her shipbuilding form.
caption: The ship was named after German Emperor Friedrich III
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