Burdigala : Emerging from the Shadows

Burdigala

To seasoned technical shipwreck divers, one only has to mention the destination of Greece to illicit an immediate query of “Britannic?” While H.M.H.S. Britannic undoubtedly is one of the most spectacular wreck dives in the world, another liner—one that shares an eerily similar fate with Britannic, but perhaps possesses a more interesting service history—rests in very close proximity to Titanic’s sibling and is just now emerging from the shadows. That wreck is the 600-foot-long (183-meter-long) French liner Burdigala, formerly known as Kaiser Friedrich.

The waning years of the nineteenth century witnessed a competitive race, literally and figuratively, in the Atlantic passenger trade. Transatlantic carriers were focused on providing not only the fastest and most luxurious vessels to curry favor with wealthy potential customers, but also the largest vessels to allow the carriers to accommodate significant numbers of immigrant passengers in third-class, which provided the greatest profit to the shipping lines. It was in this environment that the liner Kaiser Friedrich was spawned. In 1895, the German company Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL), known as North German Lloyd, ordered two grand ocean liners to be named after former German Emperors: Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse and Kaiser Friedrich. To insure these vessels would be contenders in the important transatlantic route, as well as protect the company from great financial risk, NDL mandated, amongst other requirements, these vessels have a service speed of 22 knots; if the conditions of the contract were not met, NDL would not accept the ships.

Following delivery by in September 1897, became the largest ship of her time and was would go on to capture the Blue Riband in 1898, which was a highly-coveted accolade given to the fastest passenger liner in regular service crossing the Atlantic. Unfortunately, did not share a similar story following her launching.