[Passengers of promenade deck of the S.S. Vaterland]

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Few liners of the period were larger than the Vaterland, the Hamburg America Line ship that was among the largest vessels afloat when she entered service in 1914. Here her passengers gather on a promenade deck, a space where travelers walked, sat, and watched the sea during a crossing. The halftone process used to reproduce the scene was then a common way to print photographs in newspapers and magazines. The ship's career changed sharply after World War I began, when she was laid up in the United States and later served as a troopship under the American flag as USS Leviathan.

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