Cleveland

Just for fun, a departure from my normal postings.

Image from Simplon Postcards, with permission.

The Cleveland dated 1909 on the Simplon Postcards site, was a passenger ship owned by HAPAG (now Hapag-Lloyd) Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft, or the Hamburg-America Line. It was on the New York service and after the war was ceded to the US and renamed Mobile.

Why it was renamed Mobile is not explained, nor why it was Cleveland in the first place. There is a Cleveland in north-east England (Redcar is the principal borough town in Redcar & Cleveland, once North Yorkshire), but it's much more likely that it was named for Cleveland in Ohio.