RMS Celtic (1901)

According to Mark Chirnside, conception of Celtic and her sisters came about in 1898 following a noticing of an opportunity to introduce a series of liners which would prioritize more on comfort rather than speed. This was accomplished in comparing the net tonnage (a measure of a ship's total enclosed space) between their two newest North Atlantic Liners; SS Cymric, which had entered service in February 1898, and RMS Oceanic, which was nearing completion at Belfast. Cymric had initially been designed as a combination passenger and livestock carrier, thus was designed with smaller engines capable of more modest speeds. When this combination proved unpopular to travelers, Cymric was reconfigured as a full passenger vessel. The result of this was that although she was considerably smaller than the new Oceanic, her smaller engines and fewer boilers allowed more space for passenger accommodations. Thus, contracts were made in September 1898 for Celtic, and her keel was laid at Harland and Wolff on 22 March 1899.[4]

Her final design gave her accommodations for 2,859 passengers in three classes: 347 in First Class, 160 in Second Class and a staggering 2,352 in Third Class, which in addition to a crew of 335 elevated her carrying capacity to 3,194 persons. Her layout would be similar to that aboard Teutonic, Majestic and Oceanic, with First Class located amidships, Second Class just aft of First Class and Third Class divided at the forward and aft ends of the vessel.

Celtic was launched on 4 April 1901 from the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast, and set off on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York City on 26 July.

She and her three sisters proved to be immensely popular with travelers, particularly immigrants. During the 1904 Rate War she set the record for the highest number of passengers carried in a single crossing in White Star's history. She arrived in New York on 16 September fully booked with 2,957 passengers on board.

At the beginning of the First World War, Celtic was converted into an armed merchant cruiser; however since the vessel had a high fuel consumption it was decided to convert her into a troop ship in January 1916 when she was used to carry soldiers to Egypt. She was put back on the transatlantic route in March 1916.

In 1917, Celtic struck a mine off the Isle of Man. Seventeen people on board were killed, but Celtic survived. A number of passengers were rescued by the London and North Western Railway ship Slieve Bawn. Celtic was towed to Peel Bay and repaired in Belfast. In March 1918, U-Boat UB-77 torpedoed Celtic in the Irish Sea. Six people on board were killed, but again Celtic remained afloat. Eventually, the damaged vessel was towed to Liverpool and repaired again.

After the war, Celtic was involved in two collisions. The first incident occurred in 1925 while in the Mersey, when she accidentally rammed the Coast Line’s ship Hampshire Coast. Both vessels suffered only minor damage. The second collision took place on 29 January 1927, when Celtic was rammed in thick fog by the American Diamond Lines' Anaconda off Fire Island.[5][6]

Early on 10 December 1928,[7] Celtic became stranded on the Cow and Calf rocks, adjacent to Roches Point as she approached Cobh with more than 200 passengers aboard. The Ballycotton Lifeboat T.P.Hearne 2, along with tugs, a destroyer and local life-saving teams, arrived. Tenders from Cobh disembarked the passengers.[8] Seven thousand tons of cargo were scattered. A salvage team from Cox and Danks was provided to attempt recovery, but several men died after a hold loaded with grain and flooded with seawater was found to have filled with toxic fumes; due to structural failures it was judged the ship could not be moved or salvaged, and was abandoned to the insurance company who declared the ship to be a total loss. Celtic was completely dismantled for scrap by 1933.[9]

Celtic stranded on rocks.

• Chirnside, Mark (2016). The 'Big Four' of the White Star Fleet: Celtic, Cedric, Baltic & Adriatic. Stroud, Gloucestershire: The History Press. ISBN 9780750965972.
• Osborne, Richard; Spong, Harry & Grover, Tom (2007). Armed Merchant Cruisers 1878–1945. Windsor, UK: World Warship Society. ISBN 978-0-9543310-8-5.