Germanic Fact File
Owner: Oceanic Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. (White Star Line)
Ship Details
Details
Vessel Type: Passenger ship
Official No: 70932
Builder: Harland & Wolff Ltd, Queen's Island, Belfast
Yard No: 85
Laid down: n/r
Launched: 15 July 1874
Handed over: 24 April 1875
Port & Date of Registry: Liverpool, 19 April 1875
Managing Owner & Address: William Samuel Graves, 10 Water Street, Liverpool
Description
Number of Decks: 3
Number of Masts: 4
Rigged: Barque
Stern: Elliptical
Build: Clencher
Framework & Description of Vessel: Iron
Number of Bulkheads: 8 (and 1 partial bulkhead)
Number of water ballast tanks: 1 (as refitted)
Dimensions
Length: 455.0 ft
Breadth: 45.2 ft
Depth: 33.7 ft
Gross Registered Tonnage: 5,070.51
Machinery
Engine Builder: Maudslay, Sons & Field, Westminster Road, Lambeth, London
Engine Type: Compound inverted direct acting surface condensing
Cylinders: 2 X 48; 2 X 83 inches
Stroke: 60 inches
Nominal Horse Power: 760
Boilers
Description: Elliptical multi-tubular
Number: 8
Iron or Steel: Iron
Pressure when loaded: 214lbs
Screw: Single
Speed: 17¼ knots
Signal Letters: M. F. P. K.
NOTES
Germanic, and her older sister ship Britannic (Yard No. 83), formed the backbone of White Star's express mail and passenger service from Liverpool to New York via Queenstown. For almost twenty years the two vessels reigned supreme setting speed records and in the case of Germanic in February 1876 she took the 'Atlantic record' with a passage of 7 days, 15 hours and 17 minutes at an average speed of 15.79 knots.
In 1895, after she had made 211 voyages and steamed over 1.5 million miles, she returned to Belfast where her old compound engines were replaced by a new pair of three-crank triple expansions. Her hull and superstructure were found to be in perfect condition despite the rigours of the North Atlantic, and were sufficient testimony to her strength of construction and soundness of design which earned the builders the reputation that 'Belfast built is well built.'
