Royal descendants of Queen Victoria and King Christian IX were closely related due to their mutual descent from either Queen Victoria, King Christian IX or both. The most commonly cited example is the fact that Nicholas, his wife, Alexandra, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany were all first cousins of King George V of the United Kingdom. Other countries who fought against Germany in addition to Russia and the United Kingdom were Romania, whose queen-consort, Marie, wife of King Ferdinand I, was a cousin of the Kaiser, and Greece, whose queen-consort, Sophia, wife of King Constantine I, was the Kaiser's own sister. Additionally, King George V was a first
SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse heir to the German throne, and they subsequently commissioned another two superliners, and of 1903 and 1907 respectively. From 1903 to 1907 the Blue Riband was held by SS "Kaiser Wilhelm II". The company stated that the four liners were of the renowned Kaiser class and decided to market them as the "Four Flyers", a reference to their speed and associations with the Blue Riband. The career of "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse", despite its prestige, was not without incident. In June 1900 at her quay in Hoboken, New Jersey, she was the victim of a fire which killed one hundred