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Description
Merseyside Maritime Museum
SS Hanoverian, SS Mayflower, later SS Devonian
582 feet
13,507 tons
1902-1929
American tycoon J.P. Morgan's International Mercantile Marine Company owned several shipping lines, four of which at various times operated a particular 582-foot, 13,507-ton ocean liner built by Hawthorn Leslie's Hebburn shipyard on the Tyne in 1902. She entered service as Leyland Line SS Hanoverian, then spent part of 1903 as SS Mayflower. Most of her career was with the White Star Line as RMS Cretic, which the British government used as a troopship during World War I. In 1918, she helped SS Lapland and SS Justicia carry the U.S. Army's 308th Infantry Regiment from New York to Liverpool, but the 2000 troops aboard the Cretic had to practice "hot racking" (taking turns sleeping) as there were only 1500 beds aboard. After the war, RMS Cretic continued sailing as a White Star liner until 1923, when she returned to the Leyland line but was renamed SS Devonian, a name she kept until 1929 (including three Red Star Line charter voyages from Antwerp, Belgium to New York) when she was retired and scrapped. This model of RMS Cretic is displayed in the White Star Line gallery of the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, England.

Description
Merseyside Maritime Museum
SS Hanoverian, SS Mayflower, later SS Devonian
582 feet
13,507 tons
1902-1929
American tycoon J.P. Morgan's International Mercantile Marine Company owned several shipping lines, four of which at various times operated a particular 582-foot, 13,507-ton ocean liner built by Hawthorn Leslie's Hebburn shipyard on the Tyne in 1902. She entered service as Leyland Line SS Hanoverian, then spent part of 1903 as SS Mayflower. Most of her career was with the White Star Line as RMS Cretic, which the British government used as a troopship during World War I. In 1918, she helped SS Lapland and SS Justicia carry the U.S. Army's 308th Infantry Regiment from New York to Liverpool, but the 2000 troops aboard the Cretic had to practice "hot racking" (taking turns sleeping) as there were only 1500 beds aboard. After the war, RMS Cretic continued sailing as a White Star liner until 1923, when she returned to the Leyland line but was renamed SS Devonian, a name she kept until 1929 (including three Red Star Line charter voyages from Antwerp, Belgium to New York) when she was retired and scrapped. This model of RMS Cretic is displayed in the White Star Line gallery of the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool, England.