1.
Frankfurt Stock Exchange
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The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the worlds 10th largest stock exchange by market capitalization. Located in Frankfurt, Germany, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is owned and operated by Deutsche Börse AG and it is located in the district of Innenstadt and within the central business district known as Bankenviertel. The trading indices are DAX, DAXplus, CDAX, DivDAX, LDAX, MDAX, SDAX, TecDAX, VDAX, through its Deutsche Börse Cash Market business section, Deutsche Börse AG now operates two trading venues at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Xetra is the market for exchange trading in German equities. In 2015,90 per cent of all trading in shares at all German exchanges was transacted through the Xetra, with regard to DAX listings, Xetra has 60 per cent market share throughout Europe. Trading times on trading days are from 9.00 a. m. to 5.30 p. m, the prices on Xetra serve as the basis for calculating the DAX, the best-known German share index. Over 200 trading participants from 16 European countries, plus Hong Kong, Börse Frankfurt is the trading venue for mainly private investors with more than one million securities of German and international issuers. So named Specialists on the trading floor attend to the trading of the securities, trading at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is governed by clear rules, which apply equally for all trading participants. With a view to improving the continuity of prices and to avoid mistrades, several mechanisms are in place for the trading venues Xetra. These include volatility interruption, market order interruption, and liquidity interruption measures, the origins of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange go back to medieval trade fairs in the 11th century. By the 16th century Frankfurt developed into a wealthy and busy city with a based on trade. In 1585 a bourse was established to set up fixed currency exchange rates, during the following centuries Frankfurt developed into one of the worlds first stock exchanges - next to London and Paris. Bankers like Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Max Warburg had substantial influence on Frankfurts financial trade, in 1879 Frankfurt Stock Exchange moved into its new building at Börsenplatz. During the 1990s the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was also bourse for the Neuer Markt as part of the worldwide dot-com boom, in 1993 the Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse became Deutsche Börse AG, operating businesses for the exchange. Since then the profits from the presence of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. In 2002 and 2004 Deutsche Börse was in advanced negotiations to take over London Stock Exchange, financial Market Integration in a Wider European Union International financial centres, rivals or partner
2.
Maritime transport
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Ship transport is watercraft carrying people or goods. Freight transport has been achieved widely by sea throughout recorded history, although the importance of sea travel for passengers has decreased due to aviation, it is effective for short trips and pleasure cruises. Transport by water is cheaper than transport by air, despite fluctuating exchange rates, ship transport can be realized over any distance by boat, ship, sailboat or barge, over oceans and lakes, through canals or along rivers. Virtually any material can be moved by water, however, water transport becomes impractical when material delivery is highly time-critical such as types of perishable produce. Containerization revolutionized ship transport starting in the 1970s, general cargo includes goods packaged in boxes, cases, pallets, and barrels. When a cargo is carried in more than one mode, it is intermodal or co-modal, a nations shipping fleet consists of the ships operated by civilian crews to transport passengers or cargo from one place to another. Ores, Coal, and grains can travel along the rivers of the American midwest to Pittsburgh, professional mariners are merchant seaman, merchant sailor, and merchant mariner, or simply seaman, sailor, or mariners. The terms seaman or sailor may refer to a member of a countrys navy, according to the 2005 CIA World Factbook, the total number of merchant ships of at least 1,000 gross register tons in the world was 30,936. In 2010, it was 38,988, an increase of 26%, statistics for individual countries are available at the list of merchant navy capacity by country. A ships complement can be divided into four categories, the department, the engineering department, the stewards department. Officer positions in the department include but not limited to, Master and his Chief, Second. The official classifications for unlicensed members of the department are Able Seaman. Their time on board is spent learning the operations and tasks of life on a merchant vessel. A ships engineering department consists of the members of a crew that operate and maintain the propulsion. Marine Engineering staff also deal with the Hotel facilities on board, notably the sewage, lighting, air conditioning, on LPG and LNG tankers however, a cargo engineer works with the deck department during cargo operations, as well as being a watchkeeping engineer. Other possible positions include Motorman, Machinist, Electrician, Refrigeration Engineer, engine Cadets are trainee engineers who are completing sea time necessary before they can obtain a watchkeeping license. A typical Stewards department for a ship would be composed of a Chief Steward, a Chief Cook. All three positions are filled by unlicensed personnel
3.
Containerization
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Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers made of weathering steel. The handling system is completely mechanized so that all handling is done with cranes, all containers are numbered and tracked using computerized systems. The system, developed after World War II, dramatically reduced the costs of transport, supported the boom in international trade. Containerization did away with the sorting of most shipments and the need for warehousing. It displaced many thousands of workers who formerly handled break bulk cargo. Containerization also reduced congestion in ports, significantly shortened shipping time and reduced losses from damage, before containerization, goods were usually handled manually as break bulk cargo. Typically, goods would be loaded onto a vehicle from the factory, when the vessel arrived, they would be moved to the side of the ship along with other cargo to be lowered or carried into the hold and packed by dock workers. The ship might call at other ports before off-loading a given consignment of cargo. Each port visit would delay the delivery of other cargo, delivered cargo might then have been offloaded into another warehouse before being picked up and delivered to its destination. Multiple handling and delays made transport costly, time consuming and unreliable, containerization has its origins in early coal mining regions in England beginning in the late 18th century. In 1766 James Brindley designed the box boat Starvationer with 10 wooden containers, in 1795, Benjamin Outram opened the Little Eaton Gangway, upon which coal was carried in wagons built at his Butterley Ironwork. The horse-drawn wheeled wagons on the gangway took the form of containers, which, loaded coal, could be transshipped from canal barges on the Derby Canal. By the 1830s, railroads on several continents were carrying containers that could be transferred to other modes of transport, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in the United Kingdom was one of these. Simple rectangular timber boxes, four to a wagon, they were used to convey coal from the Lancashire collieries to Liverpool, originally used for moving coal on and off barges, loose boxes were used to containerize coal from the late 1780s, at places like the Bridgewater Canal. By the 1840s, iron boxes were in use as well as wooden ones, the early 1900s saw the adoption of closed container boxes designed for movement between road and rail. Later in 1919, his system was extended to over 200 containers serving 21 railway stations with 14 freight trucks, prior to the Second World War, many European countries independently developed container systems. In 1919, Stanisław Rodowicz, an engineer, developed the first draft of the system in Poland. In 1920, he built a prototype of the biaxial wagon, the Polish-Bolshevik War stopped development of the container system in Poland
4.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
5.
Norddeutscher Lloyd
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Norddeutscher Lloyd was a German shipping company. It was founded by Hermann Henrich Meier and Eduard Crüsemann in Bremen on 20 February 1857 and it developed into one of the most important German shipping companies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was instrumental in the economic development of Bremen and Bremerhaven. On 1 September 1970, the merged with Hamburg America Line to form Hapag-Lloyd AG. The new shipping company had no association with the British maritime classification society Lloyds Register, in the mid-19th century, H. H. Meier became NDLs first Chairman of the Supervisory Board, and Crüsemann became the first director of the company. Crüsemann was in charge of both services and passenger transport, which, as a result of emigration, was growing significantly. The company was active in other areas, including tugboats, bathing, insurance. The first office of the company was located at number 13 Martinistraße in Bremen. The company started with a route to England prior to starting a transatlantic service, in 1857, the first ship, the Adler, began regular passenger service between the Weser region and England. On 28 October 1857, it made its voyage from Nordenham to London. Just one year later, regular, scheduled services were started between the new port in Bremerhaven and New York using two 2,674 GRT steamships, the Bremen and the New York. International economic crises made the start of the NDL extremely difficult, in 1867-1868, NDL began a partnership with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which initiated the Baltimore Line, until 1978, this had its own ships. In 1869, Crüsemann died at only 43 years old, from 1877 to 1892, the Director of NDL was Johann Georg Lohmann. He established a new policy for the company, emphasizing fast liners, eventually, however, H. H. Meier and Lohmann fell out over the direction of the company. In 1892, a 5,481 GRT twin-screw steamer, the companys first, was christened the H. H. Meier after the founder, during the Gründerzeit at the beginning of the German Empire, the NDL expanded greatly. Thirteen new ships of the Strassburg class were ordered, a route to the West Indies offered from 1871 to 1874 proved unprofitable, but was followed by a permanent line to the east coast of South America. On the transatlantic route, the HAPAG, the Holland-America Line, beginning in 1881 with the Elbe, eleven fast steamships of from 4500 to 6,900 GRT of the so-called Rivers class, were introduced to serve the North Atlantic trade. In 1885, the NDL won the commission to provide service between the German Empire and Australia and the Far East. It was in fact a requirement of the commission that the ships be built in Germany. 6% of the traffic, NDL was also the carrying more transatlantic passengers to New York than any other company, due to its dominance in steerage, which consisted mostly of immigrants
6.
TUI Group
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TUI Group is a multinational travel and tourism company headquartered in Hanover, Germany. It is the largest leisure, travel and tourism company in the world, the group owns six European airlines - the largest holiday fleet in Europe - and nine tour operators based in Europe. TUI is jointly listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange as a constituent of the FTSE100 Index, the origins of the company lie in the industrial and transportation company, Preussag AG, which was originally formed as a German mining company. It was incorporated on 9 October 1923, as Preußische Bergwerks- und Hütten-Aktiengesellschaft, in 1927 it was merged with the Ruhr coal company, Hibernia AG, and electricity utility to become the Vereinigte Elekrizitäts und Bergwerks AG. With the sale of Salzgitter AG and purchase of the navigation and logistics company Hapag-Lloyd AG in 1997, Preussag AG became an enterprise in the service. In addition the company acquired 25% of Thomas Cook shares in 1997, on 2 February 1999, the Carlson Leisure Group merged with Thomas Cook into a holding company owned by the German bank, Westdeutsche Landesbank, Carlson Inc and Preussag. However, in mid-2000 Preussag acquired Thomas Cooks rival Thomson Travel and was forced to sell its majority 50. 1% stake in Thomas Cook by regulatory authorities and its logistics activities, concentrated in the shipping sector, were kept separate and bundled within Hapag-Lloyd AG. TUI held a 55% stake in the new company, TUI Travel PLC, in June 2014 the company announced it would fully merge with TUI Travel to create a united group with a value of $US9.7 billion. The merger was completed on 17 December 2014 and the business began trading on the Frankfurt. The group airlines operate scheduled and charter flights to more than 150 destinations worldwide departing from more than 60 airports in 9 European countries. TUI Airlines carries millions of travellers and business passengers every year. In May 2015 the TUI Group announced to rebrand its existing five airline brands under one banner in the course of the coming years. TUI Cruises Thomson Cruises Hapag-Lloyd International Expeditions Zegrahm Expeditions TUI sponsored Bundesliga club Hannover 96, the airline branch TUIflys main hub is at Hannover-Langenhagen Airport and it had sponsored the football team since the 2002-2003 season. On 31 March 2011, TUI announced Hannover 96 would be playing with a smile on their chest for another 3 years, as it extended the sponsorship contract. The current sponsor contract ran out, but it made TUI the longest running association with any of the 18 Bundesliga teams, as part of the sponsorship TUI was the shirt sponsor, as well as having had advertisements on the perimeter fencing of the AWD-Arena, Hannovers home stadium. There was also advertising in the stadium, on the billboards by the pitch and banners around the stadium, and TUI will also remain the sponsor of the Hannover 96 Soccer School
7.
Hanover
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At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Electorate was enlarged to become a Kingdom with Hanover as its capital. From 1868 to 1946 Hanover was the capital of the Prussian Province of Hanover and it is now the capital of the Land of Lower Saxony. Since 2001 it has been part of the Hanover district, which is a body made up from the former district. With a population of 518,000, Hanover is a centre of Northern Germany. Hanover also hosts annual commercial trade fairs such as the Hanover Fair, every year Hanover hosts the Schützenfest Hannover, the worlds largest marksmens festival, and the Oktoberfest Hannover, the second largest such festival in Germany. In 2000, Hanover hosted the world fair Expo 2000, the Hanover fairground, due to numerous extensions, especially for the Expo 2000, is the largest in the world. Hanover is of importance because of its universities and medical school, its international airport. The city is also a crossing point of railway lines and highways. Hanover is the traditional English spelling, the German spelling is becoming more popular in English, recent editions of encyclopaedias prefer the German spelling, and the local government uses the German spelling on English websites. The traditional English spelling is used in historical contexts, especially when referring to the British House of Hanover. Hanover was founded in times on the east bank of the River Leine. Its original name Honovere may mean high bank, though this is debated, Hanover was a small village of ferrymen and fishermen that became a comparatively large town in the 13th century due to its position at a natural crossroads. As overland travel was difficult, its position on the upper navigable reaches of the river helped it to grow by increasing trade. In the 14th century the churches of Hanover were built. The beginning of industrialization in Germany led to trade in iron and silver from the northern Harz Mountains, in 1636 George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, ruler of the Brunswick-Lüneburg principality of Calenberg, moved his residence to Hanover. The Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg were elevated by the Holy Roman Emperor to the rank of Prince-Elector in 1692, thus the principality was upgraded to the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, colloquially known as the Electorate of Hanover after Calenbergs capital. Its electors would later become monarchs of Great Britain, the first of these was George I Louis, who acceded to the British throne in 1714. The last British monarch who ruled in Hanover was William IV, semi-Salic law, which required succession by the male line if possible, forbade the accession of Queen Victoria in Hanover
8.
CP Ships
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CP Ships was a large Canadian shipping company established in the 19th century. From the late 1880s until after World War II, the company was Canadas largest operator of Atlantic and Pacific steamships, many immigrants travelled on CP ships from Europe to Canada. The sinking of the steamship RMS Empress of Ireland was the largest maritime disaster in Canadian history, the company provided Canadian Merchant Navy vessels in World Wars I and II. Twelve vessels were lost due to action in World War II including the largest ship sunk by a German U-Boat. The company moved to a model of container shipping from passenger, freight, the company was a part of the Canadian Pacific Ltd. conglomerate. It was spun out as a company in 2001. In 2005, it was purchased by TUI AG and is now part of the companys Hapag-Lloyd division, in the early 1880s, the Canadian Pacific Railway negotiated with the Government of the United Kingdom to establish a trans-Pacific steamship routes between Vancouver and the Far East. The trans-Pacific services of Canadian Pacific were begun by Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, in that year, Sir William chartered three vessels from Cunard Line, the SS Abyssinia, the SS Parthia, and the SS Batavia—as a beginning of the CP fleet. The agency for chartering and managing the ships was secured by Adamson, Bell, when the new shipping line had shown to be profitable, Canadian Pacific decided not to renew the contract with Adamson, Bell and Company and to run the line itself. In 1891, CPR adopted a new name — the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, the CPSC became one of the many shipping companies operating in and out of Liverpool. The company expanded as people emigrating from Europe to North America provided a number of passengers. As with other shipping companies, CPSC had larger ships built to cope with the demand and this service provided a link for CPRs transcontinental railroad passenger and freight services. Passengers could travel from England to Eastern Canada, travel across the railway to Vancouver, during 1887, temporary steamship service was initiated on a Vancouver-Yokohama-Hong Kong route. An 11-foot scale model of the ship was put on display in Canadian Pacifics New York offices, in 1915, CP changed the name of its shipping business to Canadian Pacific Steamships Ocean Services Ltd. In 1891, CPR and the British government reached agreement on a contract for subsidized mail service between Britain and Hong Kong via Canada. The route began to be serviced by three specially designed Empress liners—the RMS Empress of China, the RMS Empress of India and the RMS Empress of Japan, each of these Empress steamships sailed regularly in the period from 1891 through 1912. In that year, the Empress of China struck a reef near Tokyo, Empress of India would continue in service through 1914. The RMS Empress of Japan sailed regularly from 1891 through 1922 and these three ships and the others which comprised the Empress fleet carried mail, passengers, and freight speedily across the Pacific for over half a century
9.
CSAV
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CSAV is a Chilean shipping company that is currently the largest company of its type in Latin America and also one of the oldest ones, having been founded in 1872. The company is established in the port of Valparaiso and is currently classified number 20 in the ranking of largest container shipping companies in the world, soon, its business expanded further to offer shipping to the rest of the world. Now, their business is container shipping and offers others services like dry bulk, liquid bulk, refrigerated cargo. CSAV, like its subsidiaries Libra, Libra Uruguay y CSAV Norasia, the company is listed on the Santiago Stock Exchange since 1893. With over 140 years, CSAV has played a role in the development of foreign trade in Latin America. Previously owned by the Claro Group, CSAV is now controlled by the Luksic Group since February 2012, founded in 1872 and listed since 1893, CSAV is one of the oldest shipping lines. It is the largest shipping company in Latin America and number 20 in the world, CSAV, in the early years, was the only means of connectivity for Chile with distant regions in the far flung country CSAV’s main business is container shipping, which accounts for approx. Other businesses are car carrier, non-containerized refrigerated cargo, dry bulk, recently the company ordered the construction of seven new ships of 9,300 TEUs each at an additional investment of U. S. $600 million. The last of new ships will be delivered in 2015. Its new, expanded own fleet will allow CSAV to significantly reduce fuel costs, in 2013, CSAV’s sales amounted to approximately US$3.2 billion. The company has a presence in 115 countries, generating approximately 90% of total revenues with its own agencies. CSAV is a company with a long history, The integration in 1999 of Brazilian Libra. By integrating Norasia in June 2000, the company strengthened its main East-West routes, as a result, CSAV has direct departures from the main ports of Asia, Europe, India and the Middle East today. Hit hard by the shipping crisis, CSAV incurred heavy losses in 2011. While market conditions remained unchanged, the restructuring reduced CSAV’s net loss by 46% to US$169 million in the year 2013, in 2012, the company had lost US$313.6 million. Quiñenco pointed out already in 2011 that a step after operational turnaround would be merging CSAV with a partner. CSAV, one of the oldest shipping companies in the World, was founded in 1872 by the merger of Compañía Chilena de Vapores and Compañía Nacional de Vapores. In August 1914 the First World War broke out, removing CSAVs major competitor, in the same month the Panama Canal was opened, giving CSAV direct access to the eastern USA
10.
Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
11.
SS Imperator
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SS Imperator was an ocean liner built for the Hamburg America Line, launched in 1912. Upon launch, she surpassed the just completed RMS Titanic by 24 ft and she was the first of a trio of successively larger Hamburg America ships that included SS Vaterland and SS Bismarck built by the line for transatlantic passenger service. At the time of her completion in June 1913, she was the largest passenger ship in the world, surpassing Titanics sister ship, during World War I, the ship remained in port in Hamburg. After the war, she was commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Imperator and employed as a transport. Following her U. S. Navy service, Imperator was handed over to Britains Cunard Line as part of war reparations, the first plates of her keel were laid in 1910 at the Vulcan Shipyards in Hamburg, Germany, and made her maiden voyage in 1913. At 51,680 gross tons, Imperator was the largest ship in the world until Vaterland sailed in May 1914. Before her launch on 23 May 1912, Cunard announced that their new ship, RMS Aquitania, which was under construction at the time at the John Brown shipyards in Glasgow, would be longer by one foot. The eagles wings were torn off in an Atlantic storm during the 1914 season. On her initial sea trials, the ship ran aground on the Elbe river due to insufficient dredging, on her official trials, she suffered overheating of the turbines and some stability issues were discovered. The trials were abandoned and the builders were called in to carry out emergency work. At the same time, the cruise for the Kaiser was cancelled. On the way, she stopped at Southampton and Cherbourg before proceeding across the Atlantic to New York, arriving on 19 June 1913. On board were 4,986, consisting of 859 first-class passengers,647 second-class passengers,648 third-class passengers,1,495 in the steerage, the ship returned to Europe from Hoboken, New Jersey on 25 June 1913. In October 1913, Imperator returned to the Vulkan shipyard to facilitate drastic work to improve her handling and stability, to correct the problem, the marble bathroom suites in first class were removed and heavy furniture was replaced with lightweight wicker cane. The ships funnels were reduced in height by 9.8 ft. Finally,2,000 tons of cement was poured into the double bottom as ballast. This work cost £200,000, which had to be borne by the shipyard as part of their five-year warranty to the shipowners. At the same time, a fire sprinkler system was fitted throughout the ship. During the 1914 refit of Imperator, Commodore Ruser handed over command of the ship to Captain Theo Kier and left to command of the new larger flagship Vaterland
12.
SS Leviathan
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SS Leviathan, originally built as Vaterland, was an ocean liner which regularly crossed the North Atlantic from 1914 to 1934. In 1917, she was seized by the U. S. government and she would become known by this name for the majority of her career, both as a troopship during World War I and later as the flagship of the United States Lines. Vaterland had made only a few trips when, in late July 1914, with a safe return to Germany rendered questionable by British dominance of the seas, she was laid up at her Hoboken, NJ, terminal and remained immobile for nearly three years. Redesignated SP-1326 and renamed Leviathan by President Woodrow Wilson on 6 September 1917, upon her return later that month, she reported for duty with the Cruiser and Transport Force. In December she took troops to Liverpool, England, but repairs delayed her return to the U. S. until mid-February 1918, a second trip to Liverpool in March was followed by more repairs. At that time she was repainted with the British-type dazzle camouflage scheme that she carried for the rest of the war. With the completion of work, Leviathan began regular passages between the U. S. and Brest, France, delivering up to 14,000 persons on each trip. Once experience in embarking troops was gained 11,000 troops could board the ship in two hours, before the armistice 11 November 1918 the ship transported over 119,000 fighting men. Amongst the ships US Navy crew during this period was future film star Humphrey Bogart, Bogart served as the Chief Quartermaster, the senior enlisted man of the Navigation Division, and in that role was on the helm whenever she sailed into or out of harbor. On 29 October 1919, USS Leviathan was decommissioned and turned over to the U. S, Shipping Board and again laid up at Hoboken until plans for her future employment could be determined. Shipping Board was by the end of the war encumbered with surplus tonnage, on 17 December 1919 the International Mercantile Marine signed an agreement to maintain their intended acquisition until a final decision could be made. The Gibbs Brothers Inc. M. M, riding on nationalistic sentiment to stop the deal, the Gibbs brothers were allowed to continue by the Shipping Board even as the deal fell through, their first big task being the creation of a new set of blueprints. None had been received from Germany under the Versailles Treaty and the price was deemed outrageous, instead an army of workers measured every part of the ship until a new set of prints had been made. The decorations and fittings, designed by New York architects Walker & Gillette, retained much of her prewar splendor of Edwardian, Georgian, the biggest deviation was an art deco night club supplanting the original Verandah Cafe. And in June 1923 she was back to the Shipping Board. Leviathans measured tonnage had increased to 59,956.65 GRT, thanks in part to Gibbs clever accounting and the Gulf stream, she had become the worlds largest and fastest ship. By this time United States Lines, which had interested I. M. M, had been sold, the Gibbs Brothers Inc would run her for her first voyages and train the crew until ownership officially changed hands. She immediately proved popular with the American public in the 20s and her passenger average reached a strong 1,300 by 1926, making her the #1 traveled ship on the Atlantic, but given her capacity of 3,000 it was too little to be profitable
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