figurehead

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.

Looks to be SS Imperator: SS Imperator was an ocean liner built for the Hamburg America Line (German: Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft or HAPAG) launched in 1912. You can see the same figurehead on the photo in the Wikipedia article.

The NYT of June 20, 1913 query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990DE5DE113BE633A... reported that: "IMPERATOR MINDS HELM LIKE A YACHT; Cheered by Thousands Afloat and Ashore She Gracefully Swims Into Her Berth. The largest ship afloat, the 50,000-ton Imperator, steamed majestically up the harbor from Quarantine yesterday forenoon to her pier in Hoboken and docked with the aid of eleven tugs and her own powerful propellers in forty-five minutes." Two days later, query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=940CE1DE113BE633A... a piece described her luxury and included a picture of the figurehead.

cotinis and swang: Thanks for your information about the SS Imperator its figurehead, and the interesting NYT articles. We will update our source data and reload the description.

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Figurehead, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

click on the "Imperator" tag and see several other LoC photos of this ship.

The eagle was later removed and she chnaged to US and the UK owners and changed her name see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperator_%28ship%29

The eagle's wings were torn off during an Atlantic storm, in early 1914. Rather than restore them, the company removed the entire figurehead.

Picture of figurehead (or possibly of a model) with wings:

and one that is definitely on the ship

The damage was on a trans-Atlantic crossing from Bremen to New York, arriving in New York on March 19, 1914. See next day's NYT: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30716FD3A5B13738...

Thanks all, for your information on the figurehead and when it was damaged. We will add some of it to the image description when we update.