Name SS Bremen Owner North German Lloyd Yard number 583 Length 170 m Builders Schichau-Werke, Germany | Namesake Bremen Port of registry Bremen Launched 14 November 1896 Beam 18 m | |
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Fate Handed to Great Britain as war reparations 4 April 1919 | ||
The SS Bremen, later renamed Constantinople and then King Alexander, was a German Barbarossa class ocean liner commissioned in 1897 by Norddeutscher Lloyd.
History
The SS Bremen was built by F. Schichau of Danzig for the Norddeutscher-Lloyd line. She started her maiden voyage on 5 June 1897, traveling from Bremen to New York with a stopover at Southampton. In addition to the transatlantic run she also sailed from Bremen to Australia via the Suez Canal.
On 30 June 1900, she was badly damaged in a dockside fire at the NDL pier in Hoboken, New Jersey. The fire was started by spontaneous combustion of a bale of cotton. The Lloyd ships SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, SS Saale and SS Main were also damaged in the fire, with the SS Saale sinking, whilst the Bremen ran aground. After the fire she was rebuilt by AG Vulcan Stettin, lengthened to 575 ft, and her tonnage was increased to 11,540 GRT. She reentered service in October 1901.
On 20 April 1912, while sailing from Bremen to New York City, SS Bremen passed through the debris field left by the sinking of the RMS 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.
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 the Byron S.S. Co. and renamed Constantinople, and operated on the Piraeus-New York City route. By 1922, she was renamed King Alexander. She was scrapped in 1929.