The little White Star ship that still survives
The preserved tender SS Nomadic still sits today in Hamilton Dock, where she has been restored as a museum vessel connected with the nearby Titanic Belfast complex. Built by Harland and Wolff for the White Star Line, her keel was laid on December 22, 1910, she was launched on April 25, 1911, and delivered on May 27 that same year. The ship measured about 233 feet in length and 37 feet in beam with a tonnage of roughly 1,273 gross tons and four decks. Designed to move passengers between shore and the giant transatlantic liners anchored offshore at Cherbourg Harbour, she could carry about 1,000 people and even kept the same class divisions used on the big liners she served. On April 10, 1912, she ferried 142 passengers out to the famous liner RMS Titanic, including well known travelers such as Benjamin Guggenheim and Cosmo Duff Gordon. Because her design team and decorative style closely matched the Olympic class liners, she is often described as a miniature version of Titanic and remains the last surviving ship of the White Star Line.
Her long career extended well beyond the Titanic era. During World War I she was requisitioned and used at Brest to land American troops before returning to passenger tender work in Cherbourg. White Star sold her in 1927, and after the harbor was enlarged she was renamed Ingenieur Minard. In World War II she helped evacuate people from Cherbourg and later served under British control as a coastal patrol vessel and minelayer. After the war she returned to civilian use in France and eventually became a floating restaurant on the Seine River near the Eiffel Tower. By the time she returned to Belfast in 2006 she was heavily altered and missing many original structures, but a major restoration project rebuilt her exterior and interior to closely match her 1911 appearance. Today she stands as one of the most tangible surviving links to the Titanic era and the only remaining vessel from the once famous White Star Line fleet.