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Description
I’m back with more snazzy boats! This time it’s RMS Berengaria (formerly Imperator) and SS Leviathan (formerly Vaterland). Please admire Leviathan’s stupid whale shoes. I worked really hard on those lol

Design Notes - Berengaria:
-Her outfit’s overall aesthetic is that of a 1920s gangster (although she herself is not, in fact, a sexy gun-toting mafia dude). The reasoning behind this is simple: like many other foreign liners, Americans used her for booze cruises to dodge Prohibition. She was well-known enough for this that she gained the nickname “Bargain Area,” and because I associate her so strongly with Prohibition (and that nickname) I decided to give her bootlegger vibes.
-The rolled sleeves of her shirt, meanwhile, give her sort of a bartender vibe, for the same alcohol-related reasons.
-Her shoes have a vaguely eagle-shaped art deco design. I’m not entirely satisfied with how they turned out, but it’s hard to change when you use a pen, and I guess it gets the point across in any case.
-I went with gold for the pinstripes on her suit because of the elaborate golden adornments on her hull. My design for Majestic matches this; Leviathan is the odd one out.
-Her tie and hat band are actually more red-orange than they look here. I had to adjust the colors so everything else would look right and it was a necessary sacrifice
-You can’t see it here, obviously, but she gets sick a lot. This is a reference to the long list of issues that plagued her as a ship.
-Like many of the other large ships, she and her sisters are super tall! She and Leviathan are 6 feet 4.5 inches tall, while Majestic is half an inch taller, making her the same height as Queen Mary 2, the tallest of the liners.
-Update 9/16/22: Forgot to mention it earlier, but Berengaria is trans. I haven’t been able to definitively confirm it, but as Imperator the ship’s pronouns were allegedly masculine (at the very least Imperator is a masculine word in both German and the original Latin), and as Berengaria she was decidedly female. Originally I wanted to give her a more androgynous look because of this, but ultimately I decided that it would make more sense and be more in line with the other ships if she were simply given her ideal sex upon being turned into a human. Turns out whatever force humanized the ships in-universe is delightfully gender-affirming!

Personality - Berengaria:
Berengaria is, in many ways, very stereotypically German. She’s serious and blunt, and she often comes across as humorless - although she does appreciate a good joke, as long as it’s not about her - and sometimes even aloof. Her efficient, down-to-earth conversation style does, however, mean she’s good at articulating her thoughts, making her a good person to come to for honest advice.
Despite her outwardly serious nature, though, Berengaria definitely knows how to have fun. Her experiences with Prohibition-era booze cruises instilled in her a certain taste for excitement and adventure, and she’s skilled at finding and exploiting loopholes, particularly when it means she’ll get to do something fun. She enjoys parties even though she’s not the most social of ships, and when she’s drunk she tends to relax a bit more, even laughing at the occasional joke at her expense. Just don’t call her Bargain Area…

Design Notes - Leviathan:
-Leviathan’s whole look was really fun to design, but I’m proudest of her stupid little whale shoes! Originally they were going to be normal shoes with heels shaped like little whale tails, but then I just went “what the hell” and made them look entirely like whales. They’re really silly and I absolutely adore them.
-The whale motif as a whole is connected to her name, which refers to either a Biblical sea monster that’s generally depicted as a very large whale or just a very large creature or thing, often specifically sea creatures… usually whales.
-Her dress and coat are based on this really cute outfit I found when I was looking up references for her! The coat in particular gives her a very American look, as she is, well, pretty Americanized. Also, y’know, it’s got that navy aesthetic, which suits her as well.
-I’m not too satisfied with how her face turned out (specifically, her nose doesn’t look quite right to me) but I am pretty pleased with her hair! It was pretty tough to draw, so I’m glad it turned out okay. Those curls do kinda look like Swiss rolls though.
-I should probably mention her hair and eye colors! Like the Cunard and White Star liners, ships built for the Hamburg-America and Norddeutscher Lloyd lines are sort of “counterparts,” so they have the same general color scheme. Specifically, HAPAG and NDL ships have hair that comes in blonde/gold, black, and white, although unlike the Cunard and White Star liners it’s more common for them to only have two of the three colors. Their eyes range from gold to copper; Leviathan and Berengaria, for instance, have sort of a dark gold or perhaps bronze color to their eyes, a trait which their sister Majestic also shares. As a side note, ships retain the traits/colors of the company they were built for, even if they ended their careers in different fleets; that’s why Berengaria, for instance, has blonde hair instead of red.

Personality - Leviathan:
Although her life has been plagued by misfortune and failure, Leviathan is still an upbeat, optimistic ship. She’s cheerful and outgoing - although she went through a phase of extreme shyness and anxiety during WW1, when she was the target of quite a bit of anti-German sentiment even after her conversion into an American ship - and she’s usually very happy and friendly. She absolutely adores music and is incredibly skilled at discerning pitch and tone; this ability originally helped her to decipher what American and British ships were saying before she learned to speak English, and now it allows her to sing any song she’s heard and quickly learn new instruments.
Leviathan’s life isn’t entirely perfect, though. Aside from her persistent bad luck, now that she’s a human she has one particular thing weighing her down: Lusitania. The two ships were friends once; when Leviathan was detained at her Hoboken dock, the only ships who would talk to her in any reasonably-friendly manner were the other detained German liners, many of whom didn’t want to talk, and Lusitania, who was always polite and reassuring. Leviathan couldn’t understand most of what she was saying due to the language barrier, but she could tell by the tone of her voice that Lusitania was saying genuinely kind things despite their nations being at war with one another. This kindness strengthened Leviathan’s optimism, and she was devastated when she received news of Lusitania’s sinking. The two have been reunited as humans, but… something is wrong. Leviathan has discovered, to her horror, that Lusitania no longer seems to want to be her friend; the older ship reacts strangely to her presence, becoming quiet and nervous and pushing her away. Although she’s tried to convince herself that maybe Lusitania just doesn’t recognize her, deep down Leviathan knows that’s not true. She’s stayed optimistic, though: perhaps, she thinks, Lusitania will get over her other weird behaviors soon, and the strange unfriendliness will go away too.

None of the Imperator-class liners had the glorious careers their builders hoped for; none of them even sailed under the German flag for a particularly great length of time, if at all, and all three were plagued by issues such as stability problems, cracked superstructures, and plain bad luck. However, they deserve to be remembered for their grandeur just as much as for their faults, as despite their flaws they were truly magnificent ships.

SS Imperator
SS Imperator - RMS Berengaria
SS Imperator/RMS Berengaria

SS Leviathan
The Ocean Liner Leviathan
Ship of Death: The Tragic Tale of the USS Leviathan

Description
I’m back with more snazzy boats! This time it’s RMS Berengaria (formerly Imperator) and SS Leviathan (formerly Vaterland). Please admire Leviathan’s stupid whale shoes. I worked really hard on those lol

Design Notes - Berengaria:
-Her outfit’s overall aesthetic is that of a 1920s gangster (although she herself is not, in fact, a sexy gun-toting mafia dude). The reasoning behind this is simple: like many other foreign liners, Americans used her for booze cruises to dodge Prohibition. She was well-known enough for this that she gained the nickname “Bargain Area,” and because I associate her so strongly with Prohibition (and that nickname) I decided to give her bootlegger vibes.
-The rolled sleeves of her shirt, meanwhile, give her sort of a bartender vibe, for the same alcohol-related reasons.
-Her shoes have a vaguely eagle-shaped art deco design. I’m not entirely satisfied with how they turned out, but it’s hard to change when you use a pen, and I guess it gets the point across in any case.
-I went with gold for the pinstripes on her suit because of the elaborate golden adornments on her hull. My design for Majestic matches this; Leviathan is the odd one out.
-Her tie and hat band are actually more red-orange than they look here. I had to adjust the colors so everything else would look right and it was a necessary sacrifice
-You can’t see it here, obviously, but she gets sick a lot. This is a reference to the long list of issues that plagued her as a ship.
-Like many of the other large ships, she and her sisters are super tall! She and Leviathan are 6 feet 4.5 inches tall, while Majestic is half an inch taller, making her the same height as Queen Mary 2, the tallest of the liners.
-Update 9/16/22: Forgot to mention it earlier, but Berengaria is trans. I haven’t been able to definitively confirm it, but as Imperator the ship’s pronouns were allegedly masculine (at the very least Imperator is a masculine word in both German and the original Latin), and as Berengaria she was decidedly female. Originally I wanted to give her a more androgynous look because of this, but ultimately I decided that it would make more sense and be more in line with the other ships if she were simply given her ideal sex upon being turned into a human. Turns out whatever force humanized the ships in-universe is delightfully gender-affirming!

Personality - Berengaria:
Berengaria is, in many ways, very stereotypically German. She’s serious and blunt, and she often comes across as humorless - although she does appreciate a good joke, as long as it’s not about her - and sometimes even aloof. Her efficient, down-to-earth conversation style does, however, mean she’s good at articulating her thoughts, making her a good person to come to for honest advice.
Despite her outwardly serious nature, though, Berengaria definitely knows how to have fun. Her experiences with Prohibition-era booze cruises instilled in her a certain taste for excitement and adventure, and she’s skilled at finding and exploiting loopholes, particularly when it means she’ll get to do something fun. She enjoys parties even though she’s not the most social of ships, and when she’s drunk she tends to relax a bit more, even laughing at the occasional joke at her expense. Just don’t call her Bargain Area…

Design Notes - Leviathan:
-Leviathan’s whole look was really fun to design, but I’m proudest of her stupid little whale shoes! Originally they were going to be normal shoes with heels shaped like little whale tails, but then I just went “what the hell” and made them look entirely like whales. They’re really silly and I absolutely adore them.
-The whale motif as a whole is connected to her name, which refers to either a Biblical sea monster that’s generally depicted as a very large whale or just a very large creature or thing, often specifically sea creatures… usually whales.
-Her dress and coat are based on this really cute outfit I found when I was looking up references for her! The coat in particular gives her a very American look, as she is, well, pretty Americanized. Also, y’know, it’s got that navy aesthetic, which suits her as well.
-I’m not too satisfied with how her face turned out (specifically, her nose doesn’t look quite right to me) but I am pretty pleased with her hair! It was pretty tough to draw, so I’m glad it turned out okay. Those curls do kinda look like Swiss rolls though.
-I should probably mention her hair and eye colors! Like the Cunard and White Star liners, ships built for the Hamburg-America and Norddeutscher Lloyd lines are sort of “counterparts,” so they have the same general color scheme. Specifically, HAPAG and NDL ships have hair that comes in blonde/gold, black, and white, although unlike the Cunard and White Star liners it’s more common for them to only have two of the three colors. Their eyes range from gold to copper; Leviathan and Berengaria, for instance, have sort of a dark gold or perhaps bronze color to their eyes, a trait which their sister Majestic also shares. As a side note, ships retain the traits/colors of the company they were built for, even if they ended their careers in different fleets; that’s why Berengaria, for instance, has blonde hair instead of red.

Personality - Leviathan:
Although her life has been plagued by misfortune and failure, Leviathan is still an upbeat, optimistic ship. She’s cheerful and outgoing - although she went through a phase of extreme shyness and anxiety during WW1, when she was the target of quite a bit of anti-German sentiment even after her conversion into an American ship - and she’s usually very happy and friendly. She absolutely adores music and is incredibly skilled at discerning pitch and tone; this ability originally helped her to decipher what American and British ships were saying before she learned to speak English, and now it allows her to sing any song she’s heard and quickly learn new instruments.
Leviathan’s life isn’t entirely perfect, though. Aside from her persistent bad luck, now that she’s a human she has one particular thing weighing her down: Lusitania. The two ships were friends once; when Leviathan was detained at her Hoboken dock, the only ships who would talk to her in any reasonably-friendly manner were the other detained German liners, many of whom didn’t want to talk, and Lusitania, who was always polite and reassuring. Leviathan couldn’t understand most of what she was saying due to the language barrier, but she could tell by the tone of her voice that Lusitania was saying genuinely kind things despite their nations being at war with one another. This kindness strengthened Leviathan’s optimism, and she was devastated when she received news of Lusitania’s sinking. The two have been reunited as humans, but… something is wrong. Leviathan has discovered, to her horror, that Lusitania no longer seems to want to be her friend; the older ship reacts strangely to her presence, becoming quiet and nervous and pushing her away. Although she’s tried to convince herself that maybe Lusitania just doesn’t recognize her, deep down Leviathan knows that’s not true. She’s stayed optimistic, though: perhaps, she thinks, Lusitania will get over her other weird behaviors soon, and the strange unfriendliness will go away too.

None of the Imperator-class liners had the glorious careers their builders hoped for; none of them even sailed under the German flag for a particularly great length of time, if at all, and all three were plagued by issues such as stability problems, cracked superstructures, and plain bad luck. However, they deserve to be remembered for their grandeur just as much as for their faults, as despite their flaws they were truly magnificent ships.

SS Imperator
SS Imperator - RMS Berengaria
SS Imperator/RMS Berengaria

SS Leviathan
The Ocean Liner Leviathan
Ship of Death: The Tragic Tale of the USS Leviathan