Bel Geddes "Whale" Ocean Liner
Type: Ocean liner
Tonnage: 81,237 GT (gross tonnage)
Displacement: 81,961 tonnes
Length: 1,019.4 ft (310.7 m) oa
965 ft (294.1 m) B.P.
Beam: 118 ft (36.0 m)
Height: 181 ft (55.2 m)
Draft: 39 ft (11.9 m)
Propulsion: 24 Yarrow boilers , 4 sets of Parsons single-reduction geared steam turbines on 4 shafts, 160.000 shp
Speed: approximately 28.5 kn (52.8 km/h; 32.8 mph) service speed.
Capacity: 2139 passengers: 776 first (cabin) class, 784 tourist class, 579 third class
Crew: 1101 crew
Dining on the "Whale" is considered excellent, her service was superb, and the living spaces were divinely comfortable and luxurious. Bel Geddes Line ships have enormous appeal throughout the 1920s as "Floating bits of paradise itself", as one brochure aptly stated. Service and accommodation were fine but the cuisine was its most outstanding feature, it is said that more sea gulls followed Bel Geddes vessels more than any other line of ships in hopes of grabbing scraps of the haute cuisine that were dumped overboard.
Interested passengers who are very often gentlemen aboard can be invited below decks by the chief engineer for a tour of the machinery. The very core the ship's energy system impresses onlookers, such as that in board the Whale, where the 34,000-ton liner could be driven at 21 knots with over 2,500 souls hardly feeling the effort.
