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SS Imperator as RMS Berengaria.
Career
Flags:	Germany 1912-1920 Great Britain 1920-1946
Launched:	23 May 1912
Fate:	Broken up, 1946
General Characteristics
Tonnage:	52,117 gross tons
Length:	918 ft 8 in
Beam:	98 ft 1 in
Speed:	23 knots
Passengers:	4,234; 908 first class, 592 second class, 962 third class, 1,772 steerage
Crew:	1,180

SS Imperator, later renamed RMS Berengaria, was the first of a trio of successively larger ocean liners that included the Vaterland and the Bismarck built by the German HAPAG Line for the transatlantic passenger service. At the time of her launch, she was the largest passenger ship in the world. Following World War I, the Imperator was handed over to Britain's Cunard Line as part of war reparations, and she sailed as the Cunard flagship Berengaria for the final decade of her career.

A rendering of the Imperator made at the time of her fitting-out.

The first plates of her keel were laid in 1910 at the Vulcan Shipyards in Hamburg, and she made her maiden voyage in 1913. At 51,680 gross tons, the Imperator was the largest ship in the world until the Vaterland sailed in 1914.

Before her launch on 23 May 1912, in order to make her longer than the RMS Aquitania (which was under construction at the time) she was fitted with a large bronze eagle gracing her forepeak with a banner emblazoned with HAPAG's motto Mein Feld ist die Welt ("My field is the world"). The eagle's wings were later torn off in an Atlantic storm, and it was removed.

The Imperator was top heavy due to the heavy fittings in her upper (first class) decks and the high funnels that graced her upper half. In order to correct the problem, concrete was poured along the ship's bottom, her funnels were trimmed by 9 feet, and much of the heavy material used in the fitting out of her upper decks was replaced with lighter material. These measures only partially helped; due to her tendency to roll because of the top heaviness, Imperator was even nicknamed "Limperator".

Among her luxurious features, the Imperator introduced a two-deck high "Pompeiian" style swimming pool for her first-class passengers.

At the outbreak of World War I, the Imperator was laid up at Hamburg and inactive for the duration of hostilities. After the war she was given to the US Navy for use as a transport for returning troops. In order to make reparations to the various Allied governments, nearly all of Germany's greatest ocean liners were turned over to their respective passenger lines. The Imperator, after her service with the US Navy, was given to the British Cunard Lines to replace the RMS Lusitania in 1920.

In addition to some refitting, Cunard renamed the Imperator after Queen Berengaria, the wife of Richard the Lionheart. This was the first Cunard ship not to carry the name of a Roman province; the name still stayed with the tradition of ships that ended with "ia." She entered service with Cunard in May 1922.

The Berengaria served as flagship of the Cunard fleet until she was replaced by her sister ship, the RMS Majestic – originally HAPAG's SS Bismarck – in 1934. In later years, she was used for cheap prohibition-dodging cruises, which earned her the unfortunate nickname "Bargain-area". Towards the end, she suffered the small fires endemic to German-built liners of that period, and Cunard sent her to be broken up in 1938. However, she was not broken up until after the Second World War, in 1946.

• Atlantic Liners: A Trio of Trios, by J. Kent Layton
• Ocean Liners, by Oliver le Goff

• Imperator / Berengaria Home at Atlantic Liners.
• US Naval Historical Center page on the Imperator
• Ship's page at ocean-liners.com

v • d • e Cunard ships
Present ships	RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (1967)  · RMS Queen Mary 2 (2004)  · MS Queen Victoria (2007)
Future ships	MS Queen Elizabeth (2010)
Past ships	RMS Britannia (1840)  · SS Servia (1881)  · RMS Etruria (1884)  · RMS Umbria (1884)  · RMS Campania (1892)  · RMS Lucania (1893)  · RMS Carpathia (1903)  · RMS Carmania (1905)  · RMS Lusitania (1907)  · RMS Mauretania (1907)  · RMS Ascania (1911)  · RMS Albania (1911)  · RMS Laconia (1912)  · RMS Alaunia (1913)  · RMS Aquitania (1913)  · SS Orduna (1914)  · RMS Albania (1920)  · RMS Antonia (1921)  · RMS Scythia (1921)  · RMS Berengaria (1922)  · RMS Laconia (1922)  · RMS Lancastria (1922)  · RMS Majestic (1922)  · RMS Ascania (1923)  · RMS Aurania (1924)  · RMS Carinthia (1925)  · RMS Britannic (1929)  · RMS Olympic (1934)  · RMS Queen Mary (1936)  · RMS Mauretania (1939)  · RMS Queen Elizabeth (1940)  · RMS Caronia (1949)  · RMS Saxonia (1954)  · RMS Carinthia (1955)  · RMS Sylvania (1957)  · MS Cunard Adventurer (1971)  · MS Cunard Ambassador (1972)  · MS Cunard Countess (1975)  · MS Cunard Princess (1976)  · MS Sagafjord (1983)  · MS Caronia (1983)  · MS Royal Viking Sun (1994)