SS City of New York

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SS City of New York City of New York was a British built passenger liner of the Inman Line that was designed to be the largest and fastest liner on the Atlantic.

SS City of New York
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City of New York was a British built passenger liner remembered for nearly colliding with the RMS Titanic as the latter ship began her doomed maiden voyage When she entered service in August 1888, she was the first twin screw express liner and while she did not achieve the westbound Blue Riband, she ultimately held the

eastbound record from August 1892 to May 1893 at a speed of 20.11 knots. City of New York, and her sister City of Paris are considered especially beautiful ships and throughout their careers were rivals to the White Star Teutonic and Majestic. In February 1893, the Inman Line was merged into the American Line and by act of Congress, the renamed New York was transferred to the US flag. Beginning in the mid-1890s, New York and Paris were paired with St Louis and St Paul to form one of the premier Atlantic services. New York continued with the American Line until 1920 and was broken for scrap in 1923. She served the US Navy as Harvard during the Spanish American War and Plattsburg in World War I. She is also remembered for nearly colliding with the RMS Titanic as the latter ship began her doomed maiden voyage in 1912.

11/04/2023

On this day 111 years ago, only a few minutes after RMS Titanic departed at noon, an accident was narrowly averted as Titanic passed the moored liners SS City of New York of the American Line and what would have been her running mate on the service from Southampton, White Star's RMS Oceanic her huge displacement caused both of the smaller ships to be lifted by a bulge of water and then drop into a trough.

New York's mooring cables could not take the sudden strain and snapped, swinging her around stern-first towards Titanic. A nearby tugboat, Vulcan, came to the rescue by taking New York under tow, and Captain Smith ordered Titanic's engines to be put "full astern".

The two ships avoided a collision by a matter of about 4 feet (1.2 m). The incident delayed Titanic's departure for about an hour, while the drifting New York was brought under control.

📷 The Father Browne SJ Photographic Collection

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