On 4 August 1901, Celtic II made her maiden arrival at New York. This article appeared the following day.
The New York Times, 5 August 1901
LARGEST SHIP AFLOAT ARRIVES IN PORT
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Harbor Craft Extend a Noisy Greeting to the Celtic
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New White Star Liner is 700 Feet Long, Has Nine Decks, and Dwarfs the Biggest Battleship
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The White Star Line's new steamship, the Celtic--the largest vessel ever constructed --arrived in port yesterday morning at the end of her initial passage of the Atlantic. As the leviathan proceeded up the bay en route to her pier in North River, she received a vociferous welcome from the few harbor craft that were about. Off the Battery the limited number of loungers in the park rubbed their eyes and wondered what it was, and whence had come the strange giant ship.
When she arrived off her pier the dock officials and longshoremen soon gathered and made fast the lines, and with the assistance of the crew had the great vessel docked in a remarkably short time, one of the onlookers expressing the general opinion of those present when he remarked that she "slid into her berth like a ferry-boat going into a slip." As the 345 persons who had crossed in the cabins of the Celtic came down the gangplank and greeted waiting friends, they assured them that the voyage from shore to shore had been the pleasantest of experiences, while as for the behavior of the liner, they said that she was as steady as the Rock of Gibraltar.
Everybody, from Capt. Lindsay to the humblest immigrant in the steerage, seemed to feel a sort of personal pride in the immense liner. One had only to mention the word Celtic and immediately he was compelled to listen to an extended eulogy of the qualities possessed by the ship. She had not been pushed for speed, and made the trip from Liverpool in a leisurely fashion, and, although she expected eventually to cross the ocean in seven days, she required a little more than eight days to make her maiden voyage.
When berthed the Celtic rose so far out of the water that her steerage deck was above the entrances to the pier, and to land her passengers it was necessary to open the iron doors aft of the cabins and allow them to make their exit that way.
The vessel's dimensions are: Length, 700 feet; breadth, 75 feet, and depth, 49 feet. Her registered tonnage is 20,880. To get a fair idea of her immensity, however, one has to stand on the sun deck. It is then that her capacity for carrying humanity and freight can be appreciated. Looking aft are seen the two big funnels, which seem a little too small, and likewise a little too close together, for a ship the size of the Celtic. It has been estimated that 40,000 men, placed in lines of 800 each, standing shoulder to shoulder, could stand on one deck. She has nine decks. The largest battleships are about 300 feet shorter in length than she is, while in the matter of flotation, she could transport any two of them and still have some room to spare for other cargo. The Great Eastern, the marine wonder and failure of her day, displaced 10,300 [sic; should be "1,300"]tons less than the Celtic; the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse displaces only a little more than half as much, while the Oceanic, the White Star's greatest liner in point of speed and luxuriousness, which up to the advent of the Celtic was the largest oceangoing vessel in existence, is in tonnage 3,000 less than the new leviathan.
Interiorly the Celtic, while not as elegant or luxurious as the Oceanic, the Deutschland, or the St. Paul, is nevertheless furnished in a manner calculated to please even the fastidious. She is not intended for fast time, and her builders did not have in contemplation the breaking of transatlantic records when they constructed her. She is built for comfort and pleasant seagoing. Her accommodations are for 2,859 passengers. She carries a crew of 335 officers and men.
On the voyage that ended yesterday, the Celtic averaged a speed of 14.95 knots. She is capable, though, of going over 16 knots, and is expected to speed across at that rate as soon as she gets tuned down. The official log shows that the liner made the passage in eight days and forty-six minutes. Her highest day's run was on the first day out, when she logged 407 knots, the next highest being on Thursday, when she made 388. Capt. H. St. G. Lindsay, her commander, formerly commanded the Cymric. The purser is H. B. Palmer, formerly of the Germanic.
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The New York Times, 5 August 1901
LARGEST SHIP AFLOAT ARRIVES IN PORT
----------
Harbor Craft Extend a Noisy Greeting to the Celtic
----------
New White Star Liner is 700 Feet Long, Has Nine Decks, and Dwarfs the Biggest Battleship
----------
The White Star Line's new steamship, the Celtic--the largest vessel ever constructed --arrived in port yesterday morning at the end of her initial passage of the Atlantic. As the leviathan proceeded up the bay en route to her pier in North River, she received a vociferous welcome from the few harbor craft that were about. Off the Battery the limited number of loungers in the park rubbed their eyes and wondered what it was, and whence had come the strange giant ship.
When she arrived off her pier the dock officials and longshoremen soon gathered and made fast the lines, and with the assistance of the crew had the great vessel docked in a remarkably short time, one of the onlookers expressing the general opinion of those present when he remarked that she "slid into her berth like a ferry-boat going into a slip." As the 345 persons who had crossed in the cabins of the Celtic came down the gangplank and greeted waiting friends, they assured them that the voyage from shore to shore had been the pleasantest of experiences, while as for the behavior of the liner, they said that she was as steady as the Rock of Gibraltar.
Everybody, from Capt. Lindsay to the humblest immigrant in the steerage, seemed to feel a sort of personal pride in the immense liner. One had only to mention the word Celtic and immediately he was compelled to listen to an extended eulogy of the qualities possessed by the ship. She had not been pushed for speed, and made the trip from Liverpool in a leisurely fashion, and, although she expected eventually to cross the ocean in seven days, she required a little more than eight days to make her maiden voyage.
When berthed the Celtic rose so far out of the water that her steerage deck was above the entrances to the pier, and to land her passengers it was necessary to open the iron doors aft of the cabins and allow them to make their exit that way.
The vessel's dimensions are: Length, 700 feet; breadth, 75 feet, and depth, 49 feet. Her registered tonnage is 20,880. To get a fair idea of her immensity, however, one has to stand on the sun deck. It is then that her capacity for carrying humanity and freight can be appreciated. Looking aft are seen the two big funnels, which seem a little too small, and likewise a little too close together, for a ship the size of the Celtic. It has been estimated that 40,000 men, placed in lines of 800 each, standing shoulder to shoulder, could stand on one deck. She has nine decks. The largest battleships are about 300 feet shorter in length than she is, while in the matter of flotation, she could transport any two of them and still have some room to spare for other cargo. The Great Eastern, the marine wonder and failure of her day, displaced 10,300 [sic; should be "1,300"]tons less than the Celtic; the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse displaces only a little more than half as much, while the Oceanic, the White Star's greatest liner in point of speed and luxuriousness, which up to the advent of the Celtic was the largest oceangoing vessel in existence, is in tonnage 3,000 less than the new leviathan.
Interiorly the Celtic, while not as elegant or luxurious as the Oceanic, the Deutschland, or the St. Paul, is nevertheless furnished in a manner calculated to please even the fastidious. She is not intended for fast time, and her builders did not have in contemplation the breaking of transatlantic records when they constructed her. She is built for comfort and pleasant seagoing. Her accommodations are for 2,859 passengers. She carries a crew of 335 officers and men.
On the voyage that ended yesterday, the Celtic averaged a speed of 14.95 knots. She is capable, though, of going over 16 knots, and is expected to speed across at that rate as soon as she gets tuned down. The official log shows that the liner made the passage in eight days and forty-six minutes. Her highest day's run was on the first day out, when she logged 407 knots, the next highest being on Thursday, when she made 388. Capt. H. St. G. Lindsay, her commander, formerly commanded the Cymric. The purser is H. B. Palmer, formerly of the Germanic.
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