FAREWELL TO MAURETANIA

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 104, 4 May 1935, Page 33

FAREWELL TO MAURETANIA

So the Mauretania is at last to go! the way of all ships—to the shipbreakers, says the "Shipping World." For some time she has been lying alongside the quay at the far end of Southampton Docks, her white paint no longer gleaming in the sun, a sad spectacle to all who recalled her fine record of achievement as the Queen of Atlantic liners for a period of about a quarter of a century. Ships, like human beings, wear out, and the time comes when neither men nor liners can be patched up so as to extend their lives. The marvel is that the turbine machinery of the Mauretania, designed though it was by a master engineer,- Mr. Andrew Laing, should have lasted so long and remained so

efficient under the strains and stresses of peace and war. The Mauretania,' which was built by Messrs. Swan, Hunter, and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., and engined by the Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Company, Ltd., was completed in 1907 and made her maiden voyage in the autumn of that year. She and her sister, ship, the Lusitania, had an immediate success and lowered the passage time across the Atlantic to 4* days. In 1909. the, Mauretania made a record passage1 from Danuts Rock to Sandy Hook at an average speed of 26.06 knots, and in the reverse direction at an average speed of 25.61' knots. In July, 1929, the German liner Bremen wrested from the. Mauretania the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic, which that fine old ship had held continuously for twentytwo years. Barely a month later, however, the Mauretania did the passage from Cherbourg to the Ambrose Lightship at an average speed of 26.85 knots, thus excelling all her own previous records and very nearly beating the Bremen. This was a marvellous performance for such an old ship, whose passing will be regretted by all who love ships and the sea. She was an historic ship and her achievements will never be forgotten.