I get to answer my own question!

The Imperator (the first of Hamburg-Amerika Line's"Big Three") at over 52,000 tons.

-- Thomas M. Terashima (tom@nucleus.com), January 13, 1999

Answers

Thanks Thomas - a very interesting site. I was reminded there of the "Great Eastern", built in 1852 - nine years before the start of the Civil War and 60 years before Titanic's maiden voyage. This was the ship used to lay the first intercontinental telegraph cable across the Atlantic, though not specifically built for that purpose. It was an iron paddlewheel and propeller driven ship of - get this - 692 FEET and 25,000 gross tons! This was a time when 200 ft wooden sailing ships were the norm.

THIS is a technological leap, compared to the evolutionary Titanic which again, in every documentary about it I've seen, is hyped as some revolutionary advancement to over-emphasize its importance as a symbol of progress. The Great Eastern was scrapped because it was too huge to turn a profit at the time. But it did not sink; I guess because the overweening ambition and confidence to race it full speed through and ice field hadn't been invented until Ismay and Smith came along.

BTW: The first three attempts at laying a telegraph cable between the U.S. and England were failures. When will Mankind learn?! Hopefully never.

-- A detractor. Or maybe his valet? (foo@bar.com), January 14, 1999.

Oops, my mistake. I need to read more carefully! The Great Eastern was actually built in 1858 (Three years before the start of the Civil War - Does anyone know when the Monitor and Merrimac were built?) and was 28,000 gross tons not 25,000. It was not topped in length until the Oceanic was built in 1899 (41 years later) according to the chart. Titanic was surpassed only a year after it sunk by the Imperator at 909 feet. Oh, and in my above post it should read "an ice field" not "and ice field".

-- A detractor, who never attended Yale. (foo@bar.com), January 14, 1999.

The White Star Line and the Oceanic are credited with the development of the modern passenger steamship. It was the Oceanic, Majestic, Baltic, and Cedric that made the passenger trade and established a reliable safe way to cross trans-atlanticly. Until this time most crossings where in wooden sailing ships that were often lost at sea.

-- Ron Lawrence (Adak3@riconnect.com), January 22, 1999.