Mark Baber
RIP
The Times, 22 June 1914
THE THIRD IMPERATOR
---
EMPEROR WILLIAM AT THE LAUNCH
(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT)
HAMBURG, JUNE 20.
The third liner of the Imperator class was launched here this afternoon
in ideal weather and named Bismarck. She is about 3ft. longer than the
Vaterland, but is in all her other dimensions an exact copy of her
predecessor. The Emperor William was present and received a great
ovation when it became known that the choice of the, name. Bismarck was
mainly due to him. The ship will make her first voyage in the year of
Bismarck's centenary, so that the choice is a very happy one.
The Chief Burgomaster made a speech, and the naming ceremony was
conducted by Countess Anna Bismarck, a granddaughter of the great
Chancellor. As the bottle of champagne did not break readily the Emperor
himself seized the bottle and hurled it at the bow of the ship. The
crowd was the largest. that Hamburg has ever seen. In the shipyard alone
there were 15,000 persons who had been invited by Messrs. Blohm and
Voss, the builders. The river teemed with launches, steamships, and
craft of every sort, and there was great enthusiasm when the giant
liner, weighing without her engines 30,000 tons, began to move slowly
forward and, tearing with her her wooden stays, glided majestically into
the Elbe.
-30-
THE THIRD IMPERATOR
---
EMPEROR WILLIAM AT THE LAUNCH
(FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT)
HAMBURG, JUNE 20.
The third liner of the Imperator class was launched here this afternoon
in ideal weather and named Bismarck. She is about 3ft. longer than the
Vaterland, but is in all her other dimensions an exact copy of her
predecessor. The Emperor William was present and received a great
ovation when it became known that the choice of the, name. Bismarck was
mainly due to him. The ship will make her first voyage in the year of
Bismarck's centenary, so that the choice is a very happy one.
The Chief Burgomaster made a speech, and the naming ceremony was
conducted by Countess Anna Bismarck, a granddaughter of the great
Chancellor. As the bottle of champagne did not break readily the Emperor
himself seized the bottle and hurled it at the bow of the ship. The
crowd was the largest. that Hamburg has ever seen. In the shipyard alone
there were 15,000 persons who had been invited by Messrs. Blohm and
Voss, the builders. The river teemed with launches, steamships, and
craft of every sort, and there was great enthusiasm when the giant
liner, weighing without her engines 30,000 tons, began to move slowly
forward and, tearing with her her wooden stays, glided majestically into
the Elbe.
-30-
