Superliners of the early 20th century, "AQUITANIA" the last four stacker and CUNARD's dream come true
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With the introduction of LUSITANIA and MAURETANIA, CUNARD recovered a lot of business lost mainly to Germany, the two sister's reputation and speed ensured CUNARD was again a prosperous and profitable company. In 1909 a decision was made to build a new liner to run alongside LUSITANIA and MAURETANIA, this would be a ship built with luxury and maximum comfort rather than for speed and most important of all built with solely CUNARD's funds, the new ship would sail regularly every three weeks at an average speed of 23 knots and would carry additional passengers to earn the extra revenue in order to make it profitable, CUNARD decided for unprecedented levels of luxury, it was also decided that all machinery would be positioned below the waterline to create the needed extra space for passenger facilities. A contract was signed with JOHN BROWN at Clydebank in December of 1910 for a new vessel of 45.647 G.T. with a service speed of 23 knots, CUNARD's greatest dream was a reality at last. "AQUITANIA" earned the nickname of "Ship Beautiful" during her career that lasted for nearly 36 years, this beautiful ship, the last four-funneled major liner, one of my favourite's ever and sometimes forgotten would survive two world wars, serving as a troop ship and her record for the longest service-career of any of the 20th century liner stood until 2004 when the QE2 became the longest-serving liner. "AQUITANIA" sailed over 3 million miles and carried over 1.2 million passengers, she was dismantled by Metal Industries of Faslane in 1950. All postcards above from my collection
After reading some nice stuff in your article I really feel speechlesscruise ships
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