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 The RMS Scythia heading into port | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | RMSScythia |
| Owner |
|
| Port of registry | United Kingdom |
| Route |
|
| Ordered | 1919 |
| Builder | Vickers Ltd, Barrow |
| Yard number | 493[1] |
| Launched | 23 March 1920 |
| Completed | December 1920 |
| Maiden voyage | 20 August 1921 |
| Fate | Scrapped on 23 January 1958 |
| Notes | Longest-serving passenger liner of the 20th century. |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage | |
| Length | 600.7 ft (183.1 m) |
| Beam | 73.8 ft (22.5 m) |
| Draught | 32 ft 8 in (10.0 m) |
| Depth | 40.7 ft (12.4 m) |
| Installed power | 2,528NHP |
| Propulsion | |
| Speed | 16 kn (30 km/h) |
| Capacity |
|
RMSScythia was aCunardocean liner. She sailed on her maiden voyage in 1921, and became atroop and supply ship during theSecond World War.Scythia was the longest serving Cunard liner until 4 September 2005, when her record was surpassed byQueen Elizabeth 2.[2]
After heavy losses during theFirst World War, Cunard Line embarked on an ambitious building programme. It decided to build "intermediate", 19,000 GRT ships rather than the large liners it had previously employed.Scythia was the first ship in this new fleet, and building began in 1919.Scythia was built for the services betweenLiverpool andQueenstown in theBritish Isles to New York and Boston, in the United States. A luxury liner designed to appeal to Americantourists, in the mid-1920s, she began sailing from New York to theMediterranean.
Scythia was requisitioned at the end of 1939,[3] left Liverpool on 24 September 1940 with 48 children bound for Boston, sponsored by readers of theBoston Evening Transcript newspaper,[4] part of a wider British evacuation programme under theChildren's Overseas Reception Board.
She became a troop ship on 1 November 1940, and sailed from Liverpool to theMiddle East carrying the1st King's Dragoon Guards. She then saw service carrying evacuees from Liverpool to New York. In 1942,Scythia took part in theAllied invasion of French North Africa. On 23 November she was struck by anaerial torpedo. Her crew managed to get her toharbour atAlgiers, and she suffered only five casualties out of a complement of 4,300 men.
Scythia was salvaged and taken to New York for repair in January 1943, and afterwards ferried American troops to Europe. At the end of the war she took many US troops back from Europe, many of them accompanied by their new brides, before sailing to India to bring home UK troops from the war in the East. She was also a war bride ship taking Canadian war brides and their children from Liverpool toPier 21 in Halifax in the early part of 1946.[5] One of her last missions as a troop ship was to bring the 1st King's Dragoon Guards home to Liverpool, on 11 March 1948.
Later in 1948,Scythia was handed to theInternational Refugee Organization to takerefugees from Europe to Canada. In 1950 she became a passenger ship again, sailing from Britain to Canada and later to New York. Again in 1957 the Scythia was used to transport Hungarian refugees to Canada (departed Southampton England 19 Jan 1957), landing in Halifax, Nova Scotia atPier 21 (Canada's equivalent to Ellis Island in New York).
Her final route was around theNorth Sea. In 1958, after 37 years of service,Scythia was delivered toship breakersThos. W. Ward atInverkeithing by her finalMaster, Geoffrey Thrippleton Marr.