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Description
I finally finished this drawing! Meet SS Fürst Bismarck, a small, oft-overlooked old ship who is nevertheless very near and dear to my heart. Some of my ancestors a few generations back came to America on board her in 1903, and I have a copy of the passenger manifest with their names on it, so even though she’s a bit underrated she’s very important to me.

General Notes:
-The background comes from a brochure (or menu?) for her.
-She’s holding a plate of Bohemian dumplings with gravy and a piece of nondescript meat. Dumplings like that are a family recipe of mine, and it comes from the same side of the family that had some people immigrate on Fürst Bismarck (although it was actually my great-grandmother who made the dumplings really well whereas my great-grandfather’s parents and siblings came over on FB, although both sides actually came from the same tiny village lol). Usually when we eat those, we also have potatoes or green vegetables as well, and usually a bit more meat, but I wanted the spotlight to be on the dumplings because they’re the important heritage food, y’know?

Design Notes:
-Her dress is a blend of traditional German folk dresses (specifically dirndl) and Victorian fashion, with some influences from Czech* embroidery on her vest as well. I actually had to tone down the embroidery from my original plan because it would’ve been so intricate as to be difficult to reproduce.
-Speaking of the embroidery, I took design elements from her ship form and incorporated them into her clothes: the vents and portholes on her vest and the railings and lifeboats on her skirt are the most obvious, but her belt is also designed after the railing on her promenade deck. The embroidery on her collar and sleeve cuffs depicts traditional German symbols: cornflowers, oak leaves, and Tatzenkreuz (specifically the Iron Cross military emblem).
-The laces on her shoes match the ones on her vest!
-If you look closely, she has little crows’ feet by her eyes. I wanted her to look motherly and a bit older than most of the other ships.

*The ancestors associated with Fürst Bismarck were from Bohemia (modern-day Czechia) but they were ethnically and culturally German, so I drew inspiration from both cultures instead of just German stuff. Real-life German-Bohemian traditional clothes were usually more German in appearance but had some Czech elements as well; the amount of each would probably depend on where exactly a person was from.

Personality:
Fürst Bismarck is a very warm, motherly ship; even while serving as an auxiliary cruiser she never lost her compassionate nature. She enjoys making gifts - usually food - for her loved ones, and she gives good advice to anyone who thinks to ask, although she’s not a very talkative person when left to her own devices. She doesn’t have much in the way of a sense of humor and has difficulty keeping up with pop culture even from her own time period, leading her to struggle when it comes to following along with others’ conversations at times, but despite her issues connecting with the younger ships she’s very well-liked for her kindness and generosity.

Fürst Bismarck tends to get overlooked in favor of bigger, fancier ships, but she’s still a splendid liner in her own right, and she made a decent auxiliary cruiser too!

SS Fürst Bismarck (1890)
SS Fürst Bismarck (1), Hamburg-America Line

Description
I finally finished this drawing! Meet SS Fürst Bismarck, a small, oft-overlooked old ship who is nevertheless very near and dear to my heart. Some of my ancestors a few generations back came to America on board her in 1903, and I have a copy of the passenger manifest with their names on it, so even though she’s a bit underrated she’s very important to me.

General Notes:
-The background comes from a brochure (or menu?) for her.
-She’s holding a plate of Bohemian dumplings with gravy and a piece of nondescript meat. Dumplings like that are a family recipe of mine, and it comes from the same side of the family that had some people immigrate on Fürst Bismarck (although it was actually my great-grandmother who made the dumplings really well whereas my great-grandfather’s parents and siblings came over on FB, although both sides actually came from the same tiny village lol). Usually when we eat those, we also have potatoes or green vegetables as well, and usually a bit more meat, but I wanted the spotlight to be on the dumplings because they’re the important heritage food, y’know?

Design Notes:
-Her dress is a blend of traditional German folk dresses (specifically dirndl) and Victorian fashion, with some influences from Czech* embroidery on her vest as well. I actually had to tone down the embroidery from my original plan because it would’ve been so intricate as to be difficult to reproduce.
-Speaking of the embroidery, I took design elements from her ship form and incorporated them into her clothes: the vents and portholes on her vest and the railings and lifeboats on her skirt are the most obvious, but her belt is also designed after the railing on her promenade deck. The embroidery on her collar and sleeve cuffs depicts traditional German symbols: cornflowers, oak leaves, and Tatzenkreuz (specifically the Iron Cross military emblem).
-The laces on her shoes match the ones on her vest!
-If you look closely, she has little crows’ feet by her eyes. I wanted her to look motherly and a bit older than most of the other ships.

*The ancestors associated with Fürst Bismarck were from Bohemia (modern-day Czechia) but they were ethnically and culturally German, so I drew inspiration from both cultures instead of just German stuff. Real-life German-Bohemian traditional clothes were usually more German in appearance but had some Czech elements as well; the amount of each would probably depend on where exactly a person was from.

Personality:
Fürst Bismarck is a very warm, motherly ship; even while serving as an auxiliary cruiser she never lost her compassionate nature. She enjoys making gifts - usually food - for her loved ones, and she gives good advice to anyone who thinks to ask, although she’s not a very talkative person when left to her own devices. She doesn’t have much in the way of a sense of humor and has difficulty keeping up with pop culture even from her own time period, leading her to struggle when it comes to following along with others’ conversations at times, but despite her issues connecting with the younger ships she’s very well-liked for her kindness and generosity.

Fürst Bismarck tends to get overlooked in favor of bigger, fancier ships, but she’s still a splendid liner in her own right, and she made a decent auxiliary cruiser too!

SS Fürst Bismarck (1890)
SS Fürst Bismarck (1), Hamburg-America Line