Titanic’s Forebears: The ‘Big Four’ Ocean Liners
Meet White Star’s most successful series of ships…
The ‘Big Four’ ocean liners were the most successful series of ships of the White Star Line, the shipping company most commonly known for operating the ill-fated Titanic.
The ‘Big Four’ class was introduced in the transatlantic service between 1901 and 1907 and included the Celtic, Cedric, Baltic, and Adriatic. Designed to be the largest and most luxurious vessels afloat, the four ships would serve for a combined 110 years, and through their career, they carried around 1.5 million passengers from Europe to the United States.
General Characteristics
The ‘Big Four’ were designed to have a tonnage of over 20,000 tons. They had two propellers driven by steam quadruple expansion engines and could reach an average speed of 16 knots (30 km/h).
The vessels had luxury on an unprecedented scale. Notable features included a dining room dominated by a glass roof, a lounge with a reading and writing room, a smoking room decorated with stained glass windows, and a covered promenade deck.
The ‘Big Four's size, design, and luxury amenities would act as a blueprint for the construction of the more-publicized ‘Olympic’ class ships, which included the…
