ssimperator

A similar photo was in the New Britain Herald. September 06, 1924, Page 11, top of column 6. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014519/1924-09-06/ed-... Beneath the photo is the following explanation: "'How come?' inquired boat officials when pretty Pauline Blair boarded the ship bound for Europe attired In this neat but not gaudy costume. She explained she had promised to respond to farewells of friends by doing a toe dance on the anchor instead of the more conventional Chautauqua salute and tears. The commander of the ship called off the dance and Miss Blair retired to her cabin and donned civilian attire."

www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q113799684

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.

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.