the incident with a hole in her hull, which was quickly repaired. A few months later, she was also affected by a minor fire which destroyed a cargo of cotton in her hold. On 25 December 1905, she encountered a rogue wave that hit the ship and caused damage to the second class facilities, in particular, glass panels in the smoking room, taking with it a door, and frightening the passengers. Despite these incidents, Celtic was a resounding success. In September 1904, she set a record by carrying, from Liverpool to New York, 2,957 passengers (more than her normal capacity), which was the absolute record of passengers carried by a liner of the White Star Line throughout the history of the company. In addition to the other Big Four-class liners, her success inspired the construction, again by Harland & Wolff, of of the German company HAPAG, which copied her profile and her characteristics, while being slightly faster and above all more luxurious. In April and May 1907, while the White Star Line had been part of the International Mercantile Marine Co. for several years, Celtic was used for two crossings by another company within the trust, the American Line, which used it to replace on the Southampton to New York route. During this period, however, the liner kept the colours of its original company. During the following summer, it was the White Star's turn to open its own service from Southampton, with its express ships, , and , which were quickly joined by the last Big Four-liner, . World War I At the start of World War I, Celtic was one of four White Star Line ships that were converted to auxiliary cruisers, along with Cedric, Oceanic and Teutonic. Intended for patrol missions in the North Sea, she was armed with cannons and joined the 10th Cruiser Squadron. Celtic was commissioned on 20 October 1914. She carried out her first patrol mission on 4 December 1914, under the command of a captain of the Royal Navy assisted by its former civilian commander, Captain Hambleton. However, the British Admiralty quickly became aware of the uselessness of such ships, too large to ideally fulfill the missions entrusted to them. On January 1916, Celtic was therefore withdrawn from service. However, she did not remain inactive; immediately after the end of her service as a cruiser, she was transformed into a troop transport, a