Posted by Ray Lepien on July 29, 1998 at 13:12:48 in 204.25.231.34:
In Reply to: Re: Lustiania,Mauratania VS. Aquitania posted by Felix Bustelo on June 26, 1998 at 10:51:44:
: :
: : The structures in the Lusitania & Mauretania, were basically the same, only except
: : for a few minor differences. The Aquitania as mentioned in the 2nd post about this,
: : was not a sister ship to these, she was launched 6 years after the Lusitania & the
: : Mauretania. The Aquitania was around 901 feet long, & was a bit slower than the
: : Lusitania & Mauretania, at 23.5 knots, but yet, she had much more luxery than the
: : others. The Lusitania, as you know was sunk by a German U-boat during WW1, taking
: : 1,198 people to their deaths, the Mauretania was retired in 1929, & scrapped later,
: : & the Aquitania survived WW2, & ended up being scrapped in 1950, after 36 years of
: : service. Visit the Cunard archives at http://www.liv.ac.uk/~archives/cunard/ships/ndx.htm,
: : or visit www.cunardline.com, & visit The Fleet section of the website.....
: :
: : Steve B
: According to the "Picture History of the Cunard Line 1840-1990", which I just purchased and happen
: to have in my briefcase, Cunard needed a third superliner to maintain a weekly express
: service between Liverpool and NYC. The original plans were probably to build a ship similar to
: the Lusi/Mauri, but with White Star's Olympic, Titanic and "Gignatic" (eventually the Britannic)
: and the Hamburg-Amerika Lines successively larger Imperator, Vaterland and Bismarck,
: Cunard changed plans a built the Aquitania to be larger by about 100 feet and 15,000 tons.
: She was slower, Cunard did not install a power-plant to generate the speed of the other ships,
: but rather opted to make the Auqitania more opulent, and she was by that day's standards.
: Her career was a long one (1914 - 1949) and she served a troopers in both World Wars, in between
: as a popular liner, and in the end in austerity service, bringing home troops, war brides and babies
: home to North America and eventually refugees from Europe to Canada.
: She appears similar in lines to the Lusi/Mauri, but longer. She did have two very tall cowl vents
: were positioned on the fore-deck just forward of the cargo booms.
: Hope this helps. The book has lots of photos of her, is published by Dover books (softcover) and
: was written by Frank Braynard and William Miller, Jr. to two foremost authorities on
: ocean liners.
: Felix Bustelo
Dear Steve,
You may want to try for the Shipbuilder series - there are two one on the "Lusitania/Mauretania" and a separate book on the "Aquitania" - these books have far more in them concerning plans and photographs than the Braynard book - but to be sure the Braynard book was never meant to be a definitive article on these three ships. Although, I think Frank probably has enough material on these liners to write a definitive history as he did the "Leviathan" - a six volume series - wish more authors would write like Frank - if any of you ever have a chance to meet Mr. Braynard - you'll never meet a nicer man, and he's always interested in sharing information - he's a gem! But, back to "Aquitania" as John Maxtone-Graham described her as a White Star Cunarder - because her dimensions came so close to the "Olympic" class. Several British books have waterline plans in the them of the "Aquitania" - the latest is by John Bowen. This book also has waterline plans in 1:1200 scale for "Titanic" and "Baltic".
Ray Lepien