SHE had been known as the ‘Ship Beautiful’, and in the decades between her maiden voyage in May 1914 and her final trip to Canada in 1949, she was one of Cunard’s most elegant distinctive liners. In both world wars the Clydebank-built Aquitania had served as a troopship; she, and the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, were said by Churchill to have shortened the second war by at least a year.
During the inter-war years she made 582 Atlantic crossings, steamed 1.7 million miles and carried more than half-a-million passengers. She spent her final years taking settlers and commercial partners to Canada. In February 1950 she was bought by the British Iron and Steel Corporation, and sailed back home to be broken up for scrap at Faslane.
That month she made her 443rd and last voyage from the Nab Tower, off Spithead, to the Cloch. She encountered a moderate swell off Land’s End, her port side creaking and groaning under the Atlantic rollers, but for the final 15 hours, reported the Glasgow Herald’s correspondent on board, the weather was glorious, and there was even a striking display of the northern lights. Submarines on exercises saluted the Aquitania with ‘R.I.P.’ messages. A Royal Fleet auxiliary tanker signalled “Goodbye old faithful.” At length, on the 21st, she reached Gareloch, pulled into the quayside and let go her anchors. At 4.10pm she gave her final signal, “Finished with Engines”. Aquitania’s long career was over.
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