dampfschiff

I heard about

My daughter was named after this ship. Her great great grandfather piloted her.

I had no idea. That's pretty awesome. The things you find when you Google yourself... :)

From wikipedia: SS Imperator was an ocean liner built for the Hamburg America Line (German: Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft or HAPAG) launched in 1912. She was the first of a trio of successively larger Hamburg America ships that included SS Vaterland and SS Bismarck built by the line for transatlantic passenger service. At the time of her launch in May 1912, she was the largest passenger ship in the world superseding the RMS Olympic. During World War I, the ship remained in port in Hamburg. After the war she was briefly commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Imperator (ID-4080) and employed for returning American troops from Europe. Following her U.S. Navy service, Imperator was handed over to Britain's Cunard Line as part of war reparations, and she sailed as the flagship RMS Berengaria for the final decade of her career. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Imperator

The slogan on the globe reads: "Mein Feld ist die Welt" (My Domain is the World), the well-known motto of HAPAG founder Albert Ballin.

Here's a color postcard of the ship: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/15283643@N04/4101365085/]

I believe she lost that eagle in a storm.

Probably the steamship of this name built in 1889. See www.maritimequest.com/liners/kaiser_wilhelm_2_1889_profil... and freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ziemer/RADOVAN...

swanq: thanks for the links. We'll add some information to the record.

From wikipedia: SS Imperator was an ocean liner built for the Hamburg America Line (German: Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft or HAPAG) launched in 1912. She was the first of a trio of successively larger Hamburg America ships that included SS Vaterland and SS Bismarck built by the line for transatlantic passenger service. At the time of her launch in May 1912, she was the largest passenger ship in the world superseding the RMS Olympic. During World War I, the ship remained in port in Hamburg. After the war she was briefly commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Imperator (ID-4080) and employed for returning American troops from Europe. Following her U.S. Navy service, Imperator was handed over to Britain's Cunard Line as part of war reparations, and she sailed as the flagship RMS Berengaria for the final decade of her career. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Imperator

The slogan on the globe reads: "Mein Feld ist die Welt" (My Domain is the World), the well-known motto of HAPAG founder Albert Ballin. The words rhyme in German.

Here's a color postcard of the ship: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/15283643@N04/4101365085/]

the figurehead would eventually be ripped off in a severe Atlantic storm

It's a wonder Robert Ballard hasn't found it...yet.