GERMANY: Bremen Uber Alles

Proud scores, proud hundreds of Bremen burghers trotted down with all their kinfolk to the mammoth docks at Bremerhaven last week to cheer themselves purple in the face. “Hoch der Bremen!” roared stout sires. Dimpling Frauleins echoed, “Hoch der Bremen!” Radio carried the massed cheering to remotest German hamlets. From stern Prussia to mellow Saxony the whole Fatherland throbbed and thrilled as croaking loud speakers announced that any moment now there would sail from Bremerhaven on her maiden voyage the giant S. S. Bremen—a supership built to wrest from Britain the trans-Atlantic speed record held for the past 22 years by Cunard’s famed Mauretania.

Time was when Germans dreamed of equaling Britain in sea power, but they learned to be less presumptuous at Versailles. Not long ago His Britannic Majesty’s government made known that the U. S. is to-day the only nation which they will abide on a parity of naval strength (TIME, July 4, 1927, et seq.). Last week the North German Lloyd was challenging very modestly no more than a passenger speed record, yet even that was bold, and of all who went to watch the Bremen steam away none knew this better than STIMMING.

The General Director of the North German Lloyd is a very tiny Prussian (he stands scarce four feet ten) yet full proportioned, hard, compact. A dynamo of vital energy, he has built up for the North German Lloyd a whole new post-Versailles fleet of 700,000 tons. A stickler for short cuts, he insists on being called only “STIMMING.” Even the German Who’s Who does not seem to know that the great little Prussian’s parents used to refer to him as “Karl.” Last week as he stood in the enormous shadow of the Bremen, the General Director must have felt as proud as a flea that had whelped a whale. Too modest and certainly too wise to boast, STIMMING compressed his exultation into three sentences that spoke volumes, “Mein herren” he said in his always calm low voice to correspondents. “Gentlemen, every one likes to talk in periods of decades —of ten years. It is always a case of how things were ten years ago. But I should like to remind you that only eight years ago, thanks to the terms imposed upon Germany at Versailles, the total shipping carrying the flag of the North German Lloyd was exactly one tender, a tender scarcely big enough to convey the baggage now aboard our new Bremen.”

“Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles!” sang the Bremerhaven throngs as the Bremen steamed away, and many a patriot recalled the grave yet stirring words of President Paul von Hindenburg when he launched the great ship last year. “It is our wish to give this newest and largest vessel of Germany’s revived fleet to its elements. I hail the Bremen … as a manifestation of the indestructible German capacity for work!”

STIMMING did not sail on the Bremen. He put President Philip Heineken of the North German Lloyd aboard and saw that the old gentleman was comfortable. Reporters were told that “pressing business detained” the General Director in Germany. But intimates of STIM-MING know that he never crosses the Atlantic on his own ships, always on those of competing lines, studying them, working hard, thinking harder.

Seven hundred sea miles in 24 hours—for 22 years the Mauretania has been shooting at that goal. Her best shot was a 676, made in 1911 on a record crossing from Cherbourg to Manhattan. Last week the Bremen, on her first day out from Cherbourg sped 687 miles for a new world’s one-day record. As she nosed into Manhattan plump Captain Leopold Ziegen-bein snapped his stopwatch and beamingly announced that the Bremen’s time from Cherbourg to Ambrose Light had been 4 days, 17 hours, 42 minutes. The Maure-tania’s best record for the same course was 5 days, 2 hours, 34 minutes. On her second day out the Bremen jauntily crossed the imaginary goal line of a 700-mile day with a clean four miles to spare. Rueful Britons were compelled to recognize that it was “Bremen über dies!”

Full up as she was last week the Bremen carried 800 first class passengers, 300 second, 500 tourist third, and 600 third. She is the fourth largest, the third longest, the fastest ship in the world.*

How has such superspeed been achieved? German engineers answered last week “chiefly by streamlining the Bremen’s hull, by fitting her with a unique bulbous bow.” Every layman knows that air friction against a raindrop causes it to assume a bulbous foreshape and to taper off behind—this being the form which offers least resistance to the air. With daring originality, the Bremen’s designers gave her below the water line somewhat the shape of a falling raindrop; but above the water line her bow ceases to be bulbous, is keen as a bayonet edge. Luxury features of the Bremen include a street of arcaded shops; an all-night night club called The Astoria; and an optional Ritz Restaurant, where first class passengers may pay extra for a la carte food. First class Bremen tickets cost $315 up—”Highest minimum rate on the Atlantic.”

Launched almost simultaneously with the Bremen last year was her sister ship, the Europa (Time, Aug. 27). While still under construction the Europa caught fire and burned for a loss of three million dollars, the most stupendous in the annals of marine fire insurance, (TIME, April 8). At the time incendiarism was suspected, could not be proved. Last week the Europa had been sufficiently salvaged and repaired to be launched a second time. As she slid into the water at Hamburg all seemed well; but suddenly a potent explosion blasted away almost half the launching ways and gear. Fortunately the Europa was two-thirds in the water when the detonation came and she escaped unharmed. Once again, as when the Europa burned, General Director STIMMING, calm, clear mouthed said: “There is no explanation. Deny all insinuations.”

* The largest ship (Lloyds’ rating): Majestic (56,621 tons, according to U. S. Shipping Board rules 61,206), Leviathan (34,282 tons, or by U. S. Shipping Board measure 59,957 tons), Berengaria (52,226 tons), Bremen (50,000 tons).

The longest: Majestic (915 ft.), Leviathan (907 ft), Bremen (888 ft.), Berengaria (883 ft.).

The fastest: Bremen (28 knots), Mauretania (25% knots), Majestic (25 knots), Leviathan (24 knots).