 Augusta Victoria as first launched, about 1890 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Germany | |
| Name | Augusta Victoria,Auguste Victoria |
| Namesake | EmpressAugusta Victoria |
| Operator | Hamburg America Line |
| Builder | Stettiner Maschinenbau AG Vulcan |
| Launched | 1 December 1888 |
| Maiden voyage | 10 May 1889 |
 Russia | |
| Name | Kuban |
| Namesake | Kuban in southern Russia |
| Owner | Imperial Russian Navy |
| Acquired | 1904 |
| Fate | Broken up in Stettin, 1907 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Ocean liner, laterauxiliary cruiser |
| Tonnage |
|
| Length | |
| Beam | 16.90 m (55.4 ft) |
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | |
| Capacity | 400 1st class, 120 2nd class, 580 steerage |
| Crew | 245 |
Augusta Victoria, laterAuguste Victoria, placed in service in 1889 and named for EmpressAugusta Victoria, wife of GermanEmperor Wilhelm II, was the name ship of the Augusta Victoria series and the first of a new generation of luxuryHamburg America Lineocean liners. She was the first liner built in continental Europe with twin propellers and when first placed in service, the fastest liner in the Atlantic trade. In 1897, the ship was rebuilt and lengthened and in 1904 she was sold to theImperial Russian Navy, which renamed herKuban.
The ship had eight double ended main coal fired boilers and an auxiliary boiler. The main boilers provided steam for the two inverted three cylinder triple expansion engines each driving a steel four bladed 18 ft (5.5 m) diameter propeller with 32 ft (9.8 m) pitch. Maximum power was about 25,000 ihp. Coal bunker capacity was 2,260 tons and consumption about 220 tons per day.[1]
Albert Ballin commissionedAugusta Victoria and her sister shipColumbia in 1887, soon after joining the Hamburg America Line as head of passenger service.[2][3]Augusta Victoria, the first to be put in service, was originally to have been calledNormannia but was renamed for the Empress after Wilhelm II became Emperor.[4][5] In the 1890s the line added the largerNormannia andSS Fürst Bismarck to the series.[6]Augusta Victoria was the firstcontinental European liner withtwin screws,[n 1] which made her both faster and more reliable.[2][7] (The two previous twin-screw liners were the British-builtCity of New York andCity of Paris of theInman Line.[8]) In May 1889, her maiden voyage to New York broke a record, taking only seven days.[6][9][10][n 2] In November 1889,Nellie Bly sailed to Southampton on theAugusta Victoria on the first leg of her 72-day race around the world.[11]
She was also the first luxury liner at Hamburg America, introducing the concept of the "floating hotel";[2] she had "a rococo stairhall, illuminated by a milky way of pear-shaped prisms and naked light bulbs clutched by gilded cherubs, a reception court choked by palm trees and a dark and gothic smoking room."[12][13] Ballin had her interior design work done byJohann Poppe, the designer at Hamburg America's rival line,North German Lloyd, whose ships already had a reputation for elegance.[14] She was immediately successful, but she and her sister ship were an economic drain on the line because they required more coal than slower ships and could not carry much freight or many steerage passengers and were therefore profitable only in the summer season, and it was risky to operate them at all fromHamburg in very bad weather, when theElbe was packed with ice.[15]
Off-season pleasure cruises were therefore started in 1891,[4] andAugusta Victoria's cruise in the Mediterranean and the Near East from 22 January to 22 March 1891, with 241 passengers including the Ballins themselves,[16] is often stated to have been the first evercruise.[n 3]Christian Wilhelm Allers published an illustrated account of it asBackschisch (Baksheesh). Some people claim the BritishOrient Line was the first to offer cruises since the late 1880s.[17][18] However, those ships were principally for the transportation of passenger, goods and mail between two or more ports, such as between England and Australia, with leisure travel being an adjunct.
In 1897, the ship underwent a comprehensive rebuilding atHarland & Wolff inBelfast arriving in the graving dock 19 December 1896. She was lengthened by 61 ft (18.6 m), her tonnage increased, and her speed increased by half a knot, and the middle of her three masts was removed.[4][19] The new section was to be inserted between the second and third boiler compartments with an additional boiler inserted to total nine. Part of the original forward boiler compartment would be converted to staterooms.[20] Her name was also changed toAuguste Victoria to correct an original inaccuracy; the Empress spelt her name with ane.[5][21]
WhileAugusta Victoria was under construction, the Emperor persuaded both Hamburg America and its rivalNorddeutscher Lloyd to make their future liners convertible toauxiliary cruisers in time of war. Like all German fast liners built from then until 1914, she therefore had reinforced decks which could support gun platforms.[22] In 1904 she and the other three ships in the series were sold to the Russian Navy; she was renamedKuban and became a cruiser,[5][6] but was assigned to be a scout ship. She sailed in the Far East with AdmiralZinovy Rozhestvensky's fleet in theRusso-Japanese War, but did not see action.[23] She was broken up atStettin in 1907.[5][6]
