RMS Mauretnia

RMS Mauretania was an ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by Wigham Richardson and Swan Hunter for the British Cunard Line, launched on the afternoon of 20 September 1906. She was the world's largest ship until the launch of RMS Olympic in 1910. Mauretania became a favourite among her passengers. She captured the Eastbound Blue Riband on her maiden return voyage in December 1907, then claimed the Westbound Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing during her 1909 season. She held both speed records for 20 years.1

The ship's name was taken from the ancient Roman province of Mauretania on the northwest African coast, not the modern Mauritania to the south.2 Similar nomenclature was also employed by Mauretania's running mate Lusitania, which was named after the Roman province directly north of Mauretania, across the Strait of Gibraltar2 in Portugal. Mauretania remained in service until September 1934, when Cunard-White Star retired her; scrapping commenced in Rosyth, in 1935.

In 1897 the German liner SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse became the largest and fastest ship in the world. With a speed of 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph), she captured the Blue Riband from Cunard Line's Campania and Lucania. Germany came to dominate the Atlantic, and by 1906 they had five four-funnel superliners in service, four of them owned by North German Lloyd and part of the so-called "Kaiser class".