North German Lloyd passenger service
George Washington began her maiden voyage on 12 June 1909, sailing from Bremen to New York via Southampton and Cherbourg. On board were 1,169 passengers which included a German press contingent;[13] Philipp Heineken, the Generaldirektor of North German Lloyd;[11] and a chimpanzee named Consul, billed as "his Darwinian Highness", the "Almost Monkey-Man", who was coming to America under contract for the William Morris Vaudeville circuit.[13][15]
Upon her arrival in New York on 20 June, George Washington was greeted by the unfurling of the official banner of the League of Peace from the Singer Building,[16] and docked at 18:30 at the North German Lloyd piers in Hoboken, New Jersey. Coincidentally, SS Martha Washington, an ocean liner of the unrelated Austro-American Line, was in port when George Washington docked in New York for the first time.[12]
On 22 June, the liner hosted a press luncheon,[17] and, the next afternoon, hosted some 3,000 members of the Daughters of the American Revolution who presented a commemorative bronze tablet. Stewart L. Woodford, a former Congressman and ambassador, spoke at the ceremony dedicating the tablet, which was placed at the base of the staircase in the first-class smoking room.[18] Beginning 24 June, the North German Lloyd opened George Washington to the public for five days of viewing of the new ship.[13]
Sailing on her first eastbound journey on 1 July,[19] George Washington commenced regular service between Bremen and New York with intermediate stops in Southampton and Cherbourg.[5] North German Lloyd considered the Washington, as her crew affectionately called her,[2] such a success that they soon ordered another liner of similar, but slightly larger, size.[20][21]
On 24 June 1911, George Washington participated in the Coronation Fleet Review by the United Kingdom's newly crowned king, George V. Stationed at the head of the second row of merchant ships, George Washington full dressed for the occasion[22]—was reported by The Times as "by far the largest ship present".[23]
While headed to New York on the morning of 14 April 1912, crew aboard George Washington observed a large iceberg as the ship passed south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. By noon the ship passed within a half-mile (900 m) of the iceberg, estimated by the crew at 112 ft above the waterline and 410 ft long. After recording the ship's position, George Washington radioed a warning to all ships in the area. The White Star steamship RMS Titanic, some 250 nmi east of George Washington ' s position, acknowledged receipt of the warning,[24] one of several her radio operators received. On 15 April, George Washington received garbled transmissions that informed that Titanic had struck an iceberg less than twelve hours later, and in nearly the same position as the one that George Washington had reported.[24] Edwin Drechsel, in his two-volume chronicle of North German Lloyd, draws comparisons between the iceberg photographed by George Washington (and first published in his book),[25] and a better-known photo taken from the Hamburg America Line ship SS Prinz Adalbert, purportedly of the Titanic iceberg. Drechsel suggests that the iceberg photographed and reported by George Washington may have been one and the same.[26]
Notable passengers
Throughout her Lloyd transatlantic career George Washington carried notable passengers to and from Europe. In August 1909 Sigmund Freud sailed from Bremen bound for New York on his one and only trip to the US. He was accompanied by his colleagues Carl Jung and Sándor Ferenczi. In February 1910, banker Edgar Speyer, a Privy Counsellor appointed by Edward VII of the United Kingdom, arrived for a visit to the United States.[27] Prince Tsai Tao, the uncle of the Emperor of China, departed in one of George Washington ' s imperial suites after a four-day visit to New York in May; the Chinese Imperial flag flew from the mainmast in his honor as the ship departed.[28] In October, Henry W. Taft, brother of US President William Howard Taft returned from a visit to Europe.[29] In December, disgraced Arctic explorer Frederick Cook arrived on the liner; conflicting opinions on the veracity of his claims of reaching the North Pole nearly caused a fight to erupt on board.[30]
