Snapshot: Olympic & Mauretania

This photo was taken in 1935 and shows two former rivals at anchor - the White Star Line's Olympic and Cunard's Mauretania - shortly before going to the breakers that same year. Following the creation of the Cunard White Star Line in 1934, both aged ships were retired to make way for such new liners as the unfinished Queen Mary and planned Queen Elizabeth.

Mauretania went to Rosyth and Olypmic to Jarrow. The demolition of these two ships provided plenty of employment opportunities for these poverty-stricken areas.

Snapshot: The Mauretania's Funnels

These two photos (which I do not own, for the record) show the funnel construction for the second Mauretania, launched in 1938. She was the first ship ordered by the newly formed Cunard White Star Line.

These pictures were taken while the ship was being constructed at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England - right across the River Mersey from Liverpool.

Newsreels on Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Mauretania and Aquitania in World War II

The Cunard Line has played a role in transporting soldiers across the sea since the Crimean War in 1853, and World War II was no exception. The once-glamorous passenger ships were quickly transformed - camouflaged and armed - for the new task of trooping.


This collection of newsreels will show how the most famous ships in the world were pressed into service and took part in the overall Allied war effort.

"The Legend of 1900"

As Oscar Sunday is finally here, this is going to be my final movie trailer (for now, anyway).

"The Legend of 1900" was directed by Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore and released in 1998. Tim Roth stars as a musically gifted orphan named Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon 1900 - or 1900 for short - who spends his entire life aboard the fictional SS Virginian (There really was a ship by that name, however, which was launched in 1904).

The film's Virginian's appearance was very much inspired by both the Lusitania and the Mauretania, with the latter's First Class Dining Room acting as the model for the ship's.