Fights for the Blue Riband 155 



able to build their own, and so well were 

 they able to build that in 1897 the Kaiser 

 Wilhelm der Grosse actually secured the 

 Blue Riband from the Cunarders. She 

 was considerably bigger, and had an in- 

 crease of speed of about a knot. This four- 

 funnelled liner belonged to the North 

 German Lloyd, but within three years of 

 her coming into service the rival company, 

 the Hamburg- Amerika, brought out the 

 Deutschland, which was even faster, and 

 she became the Blue Riband holder. 



As may be imagined, the British were 

 not at all comfortable about this loss of 

 supremacy in the Atlantic speed contest, 

 and there were great hopes that either the 

 White Star or the Cunard would get it 

 back again. The Inman, as we have noted, 

 were now definitely out of the race. When 

 it was known that the White Star was 

 building their second Oceanic, and that she 

 was to be much bigger than the German 

 flier, hopes ran high, but when she came 

 into service in 1899 it was found that she 



