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RMS ''Oceanic'' was a transatlantic ocean liner built for the White Star Line. She sailed on her maiden voyage on 6 September 1899 and was the largest ship in the world until 1901.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher=Jeff Newman )〕 At the outbreak of World War I in 1914 she was commissioned into Royal Navy service on 8 August 1914, as an armed merchant cruiser. On 25 August 1914, the newly designated HMS ''Oceanic'' departed Southampton to patrol the waters from the North Scottish mainland to the Faroes, in particular around Shetland. She ran aground and was wrecked off the island of Foula there on 8 September 1914. ==Construction== Oceanic's keel was laid in January 1897 under the supervision of her designer, Thomas Ismay, director and owner of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, better known as White Star Line. The company's future flagship was named after the line's original namesake, their first successful liner the ''RMS Oceanic (1870)''.〔(Oceanic II ) - thegreatoceanliners.com〕 A sister ship for ''Oceanic'' to be named Olympic was planned. However she was cancelled after the death of Thomas Ismay in 1899, and the company's resources were diverted to develop a new set of larger liners, known as the "Big Four". The name ''Olympic'' was later bestowed upon the RMS Olympic of 1910. ''Oceanic'' was the first ship to exceed Brunel's ''SS Great Eastern'' in length, although not in tonnage, and was, when she was launched, the largest ship afloat, a title she retained until 1901 when White Star Line's ''RMS Celtic'' was launched.〔 At 17,272 gross tons, the future "Queen of the Ocean" cost one million pounds sterling and required 1,500 shipwrights to complete. Her launching on 14 January 1899 was watched by over 1000 invited guests, including the Marquis of Dufferin, Duke of Abercorn and Lord Londonderry. RMS ''Oceanic's'' bridge was integrated with her superstructure giving her a clean fluid look, this design feature would later be omitted from the next big four White Star ships, ''Cedric'', ''Celtic'', ''Baltic'' and ''Adriatic'' with their odd but distinguishable 'island' bridges. "Nothing but the very finest", was Ismay’s policy toward this new venture, and she was constructed at Harland and Wolff’s Queen's Island yard at Belfast, as was the tradition with White Star Line ships.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=RMS Oceanic )〕 ''Oceanic'' was built to accommodate slightly over 1,700 passengers, with 349 crew. In his autobiography, ''Titanic and Other Ships'',〔 republished as a Gutenberg of Australia eBook〕 Charles Lightoller gives an account of what it was like to be an officer on this vessel. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「RMS Oceanic (1899)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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