Name RMS Adriatic Length 223 m Beam 23 m | Yard number 358 Launched 20 September 1906 Builder Harland and Wolff | |
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Namesake Adriatic sea in Montenegro and Croatia | ||
RMS Adriatic was an ocean liner of the White Star Line. She was the fourth of a quartet of ships measuring over 20,000 tons, dubbed The Big Four. The ship was the only one of the four which was never the world's largest ship; however, she was the fastest of the Big Four. The Adriatic was the first ocean liner to have an indoor swimming pool and a Turkish bath.
She was built by Harland and Wolff and was launched on 20 September 1906 (the same day as the Cunard Line's Mauretania). She set off on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York City on 8 May 1907 under the command of Captain Edward Smith. She was changed to the Southampton run after her maiden voyage. However, she was the ship that inaugurated White Star's Southampton service and was the first White Star liner to use the newly constructed dock in Southampton, named the White Star Dock (it was renamed in 1922 to the Ocean Dock). She ran this route until 1911 when Olympic took it over with the Adriatic returning to the Liverpool run. The Adriatic sailed from Liverpool on 18 April 1912 and arrived in New York on 27 April 1912. Some of Titanic's rescued passengers and crew travelled back to Britain aboard her, departing New York on 2 May 1912, including White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay and Millvina Dean, the disaster's youngest survivor.
During World War I, the Adriatic served as a troopship and survived the war without incident. After the war ended, she returned to passenger service. In 1928, she was converted to a "cabin-class" ship. In 1933, she was withdrawn from the North Atlantic route and was converted into cruising.
Following the successful 1933 "Peace Cruise" in the Baltic by the Calgaric, in 1934 the Adriatic was chartered by the British Boy Scouts and Girl Guides for a similar cruise in the Mediterranean, under the command of Commander C.P. Freeman, R.D.. She sailed from Liverpool on 29 March 1934, and called at Gibraltar, Villefranche, Malta, Algiers and Lisbon.
The Adriatic left Liverpool for the last time on 19 December 1934, her longest voyage ever, to be scrapped at Onomichi, Japan, in 1935.
