Launch of the "Celtic"

Seawards heads a great ship, the biggest of its day

When an ocean liner takes 30 seconds to pass the camera you can tell it's pretty big. You can only imagine the noise and vibrations that must have rocked the camera operator bravely perched by the slipway.

Launched on 4 April 1901, the RMS Celtic was the first of the 'Big Four' ships commissioned by the White Star Line, and the biggest of its day. Three months later, the Celtic set off on its first transatlantic voyage from Liverpool to New York. After war service in the merchant fleet and as a troop ship it returned to passenger service before running aground off County Cork in southern Ireland in 1928, where it was later scrapped.