Mauretania 1907

Description

Mauretania and Lusitania represented a unique combination of size with speed. At over 31,000 tons they exceeded the world’s previous largest and power was 75 per cent greater than earlier vessels. They were built to meet two challenges: German liners had supremacy on the N Atlantic and Pierpont Morgan had created the International Mercantile Marine. Cunard nearly passed from British ownership and was granted a Government loan, conditional on remaining British and being capable of 24½ knots in normal weather. A subsidy was granted for the use of the ships in time of emergency. The first liners with quadruple screws, our boiler rooms had twenty-five boilers generating steam at 195 lb. psi. Mauretania’s maiden sailing, from Liverpool, on 16^th November began  7 years of an unrivalled,  immensely popular service.  In May 1915 Lusitania was torpedoed without warning, with the loss of almost 1,200 lives. Mauretania, then requisitioned, started a  series of voyages to the Dardanelles, first as a transport, then as a hospital  ship. Later she was used for trooping on the North  Atlantic. Throughout her war service she had a charmed life. After the war she transferred to the Southampton – Cherbourg – New York route. In 1920/1 her boilers converted from coal to oil.  For the next few years she maintained a weekly service, showing consistently high average  speeds. Her  supreme effort was in 1929 – just after the newly completed Bremen had  regained the Blue Riband – when Mauretania made a  westward crossing at 26.85 knots, returning at 27.22 knots.  Mauretania, outclassed by newer ships, was used mostly for cruises after 1931,   usually from New York. Finally, in 1935, she was sold for scrap and broken-up berth at Rosyth.