CUNARD'S OLD RELIABLE: R.M.S. SCYTHIA

 

News that the gallant old Scythia is bound for the scrap yard will be greeted with some sorrow by the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have travelled in her, in peacetime and war.

She was the first of a series of five 20,000-ton intermediate liners built for the Cunard Line after the first World War, and she outlived all her sisters, and in fact, nearly all passenger liners of her generation.

She was a comfortable old ship, with no pretensions to luxury.  She plodded along at about 16 knots, but always seemed friendlier than her pretentious rivals.

Norman Hacking, The Province, 12 October 1957

What was truly Cunard's "Old Reliable" and until exceeded by Queen Elizabeth 2 in September 2005, the longest serving Cunarder of all time, was also the first of a new generation of Cunard intermediate liners of the post First World War era.  Indeed, she was acclaimed as being "The Ship of Future" when introduced being briefly the largest oil burning liner and her design reflecting a new philosophy towards smaller, more economical vessels.   

For a line more famous for their record breaking superliners, as a workaday intermediate liner of solid comfort, modest size and speed, she was truer to the dependable Atlantic Ferry originally envisaged by Samuel Cunard and one plying the original Liverpool-Boston route he pioneered.  

She lived a life as varied as it was long, serving as a passenger liner, cruise ship, troopship, war bride and displaced person transport and variously running on most of Cunard's route network, both to New York and Boston and later to the St. Lawrence.  She is perhaps best associated with Boston before the war and Canada after it, forging an enduring "Hands Across the Seas" link with British and Irish immigrant communities in North America. Her war service was fulsome, logging 230,000 miles, carrying 134,000 troops and lasting from October 1940-August 1948, she was the very last requisitioned Cunarder to be released. 

On the 180th anniversary of Cunard Line, there can be no better vessel to celebrate as representative of the enduring virtues of The Cunarder than-- R.M.S. Scythia 1921-1957.    

A New Era: Kenneth Shoesmith poster for the Post-War Cunard as exemplified by a Scythia-class ship at New York. 

The new Cunard liner Scythia which left Liverpool on Saturday on her maiden voyage to New York, is particularly interesting as representing, with the exception of the Albania, the first of the series of 12 liners designed expressly to deal with what at the time was deemed to be the general post-war shipping conditions. They mark a definite break in the series of the immediate pre-war era, when the tendency of design was to approach by degrees a 1,000 ft. passenger liner. 

Shipbuilding & Shipping Record, 25 August 1921

Although overshadowed by the infamous sinking of Lusitania in 1915, the First World War had taken a grievous toll on Cunard as a whole, costing them 22 ships totalling 220,440 tons or 56 percent of their fleet. Their contribution to the Allied victory, including the transport of some 900,000 troops, was great, reparations in the form of captured German tonnage made good some of the losses, but the post-war era marked a new beginning for the line and a redefining of The Cunarder.

Scythia was in the vanguard of one of the largest and most comprehensive passenger fleet renewals ever: 12 new ships in all (just for Cunard alone) with a combined tonnage of 219,000 built in a five-year span.  In 1919, Cunard announced their plans for the post-war age, not just a resumption of commercial operations, but reflecting a wider corporate empire now encompassing Anchor and Donaldson Lines, achieved by a  rationalised and standardised fleet in a considerably changed field of Atlantic competition.  

The newbuilding programme also reflected Cunard's expectations for the post-war North Atlantic Ferry.  Having lost the war, Germany lost, too, most of her merchant marine and with it the most potent competition Cunard had prior to 1914.  The conflict had precluded the ultimate contest for North Atlantic supremacy for speed, size and luxury by HAPAG's Imperator, Vaterland and Bismarck and Cunard's Lusitania, Mauretania and Aquitania although the later trio, had fleetingly, established the first three-ship weekly trans-Atlantic express service weeks before the outbreak of hostilities. 

With the German lines hors de combat for the foreseeable future, Cunard hopefully believed the future lay instead in ships of moderate size and speed, but with great passenger and cargo capacity. Indeed, it was a full two decades between Aquitania and Queen Mary. And whilst they restored the weekly New York Express service, now based on Southampton, with Imperator (later renamed Berengaria) as a replacement for Lusitania, Cunard's post-war philosophy was manifested in a new fleet of passenger-cargo "intermediates" suitable for all routes and indeed the evolving cruise trade.  It was a type that pre-war ships like Cunard's Laconia and Andania, Anchor's Cameronia and Donaldson's Letitia helped to redefine. It  also represented precisely what had been decimated in the war. Except for Lusitania, all of Cunard's lost liners were intermediates including the pacesetting Franconia and Laconia and all of the new Canadian route "A" Class ships as well as all of Anchor Lines recently added intermediates.  

So it was that the post-war fleet evolved from the pre-war intermediates and were, to a large measure, standardised reflecting the potential of operational co-ordination envisaged with the combined Cunard, Anchor and Donaldson services.   

This epic fleet-- 12 liners for Cunard, five for Anchor and two for Donaldson--; (totalling some 317,200 grt) was contracted at the beginning of 1919 from Swan Hunter, Cammell Laird, Vickers, Hawthorn Leslie, John Brown and Beardmore:

The "20,000 tonners": Cunard:  Scythia, Samaria, Laconia, Franconia and Servia (launched instead as Carinthia)

The "16,000 tonners": Cunard: Tyrrhenia; Anchor: Cameronia, Tuscania, California, Transylvania and Caledonia

The "14,000 tonners: Cunard: Andania, Antonia, Ausonia, Aurania, Alaunia and Ascania; Donaldson: Athenia and Letitia

One of the first renderings of the new "20,000 tonners" (Walter Thomas) when what was launched as Carinthia was still to be named Servia.  Credit: eBay auction photo. 

On 15 January 1920 Cunard announced the names of all 12 of their newbuildings, all would repeat the names of ships lost in the First World War or past Cunarders (except for Tyrrhenia), breaking tradition that held among some seafarers that it was bad luck to repeat or change a ship's name.  The first of the 20,000 tonners was to be called Scythia, the first ship of that name having been built in 1875, and her sister ships named Samaria and Laconia.  

Walter Thomas was tasked with portraying the New Look Cunarder to look as imposing as the Atlantic Greyhounds. And as these early renderings show, was quite successful in doing so.  

Anchor Line's Cameronia would actually be the first of the programme launched and indeed the very first new British liner to take to the water after the war, but of equal if not greater interest was no. 493 which had been laid down at Vicker's Barrow yard in early 1919 being the first new Cunarder, the first built for the line by Vickers and the lead ship of the "20,000 tonners".  Acclaimed as "The Ship of the Future", she was then largest liner yet built for oil fuel and considered to represent a new era in Atlantic liner.  

The construction of Scythia's hull on the ways at Barrow. Credit: Shipbuilding & Shipping Record.

Fourteen months after the keel of Yard no. 493 was laid down at Barrow, Mrs. Jessie Maxwell, wife of Cunard Director M.H. Maxwell,  launched her as Scythia at 2:30 p.m. on 23 March 1920.  Antonia, one of six 14,000-tonners, was laid down immediately on the same slipway.

Scythia on the day of her launching at Barrow on 23 March 1920; the second new British liner launched after the war following Cameronia.  Credit: (left) Shipbuilding & Shipping Record and (right) Barrow Museum Services.  

British Pathé Newsreel Footage of the Launching of Scythia 

Sankey Postcards of Barrow published a full set of cards on the occasion of Scythia's launching. Credit: eBay auction photo.

Another in the series showing the temporary "bridge" structure erected amidships and showing the very full hull form of these ships. Credit: eBay auction photo.

The completion of Scythia was problematic and protracted.  On 7 June 1920 whilst being towed from Devonshire Dock to Barrow's Buccleugh Docks to have her engines installed, the stern part of her superstructure snagged the Barrow Bridge's steelwork, damaging the structure, but only brushing the liner. More than that, her construction came up against a time of great turmoil in British shipbuilding.

Cunard's newbuilding programme was severely impacted by the conditions affecting much of British industry immediately after the war including protracted strikes and staggering wage and price inflation. Shipbuilders were paying a wartime bonus wage rate until mid 1921 and steel prices were high. Moreover, these vessels were built on a "cost plus" basis rather than a fixed priced contract so that their completion costs, caught up in ever escalating labour and material inflation, became prohibitive. Overall, there was an astonishing 300 per cent increase in replacement costs of ships between 1914-1920. The cost for Scythia was casually cited at her launching as being "£220,000" and probably cost considerably more upon completion. Per ton, these early post-war ships were among the most expensive ever built and this alone might account for their longevity.  Cunard, at least, got their money's worth and more out of Scythia in the end. 

For shipbuilders and their customers, a more immediate issue was the crippling and protracted joiners strike that began in November 1920 and brought fitting out of the first group of new ships to a halt and caused most to miss completion for start of the 1921 spring season as planned. 

Scythia (right) and Antonia (left) in Buccleuch Dock, Barrow, on 1 March 1921. Scythia is getting a final coat of paint before undertaking her trials later in the month, but she is incomplete inside and will be fitted out in Lorient, France. Credit: Barrow Museum Service. 

On 22 December 1920 Cunard took the unprecedented step of ordering work to be paused on the fitting out of Scythia, Servia (which would be instead eventually be christened Carthinia on launching) and Antonia.  On 7 January work, too, stopped on Albania and Samaria.  At the time, it was rumoured that Scythia might be sent to Rotterdam for her final fitting out if the joiners strike continued. 

The Boston Globe reported on 31 January 1921 that "Scythia was scheduled to leave Liverpool Feb. 18 for New York, but it now seems probable that she will not be available until March, or perhaps April."

Scythia leaves Barrow for Lorient. 

A French press photo of Scythia arriving at Lorient for completion of her fitting out. Credit: eBay auction photo

At Barrow, work was able to resume on Antonia to enable her launching early in March 1921 and on the 17th it was announced that Scythia would be dispatched to a French yard the following week for completion.  The otherwise completed vessel ran her trials in the Irish Sea in less than ideal conditions on the 23rd. Owing to the seas, a party of Vickers workmen aboard could not be landed by tender at Barrow and were instead disembarked at Liverpool. Late the same day Scythia proceeded to Lorient, France, for fitting of her interiors, where she docked on the 26th. 

British Pathé Newsreel of the Departure of R.M.S. Scythia (and yes... they left out the "c'!) from Liverpool on her maiden voyage.

 

Having missed the 1921 summer season it was not until 12 August 1921 that the finally completed Scythia arrived at Liverpool to prepare for her maiden voyage.  

Scythia's maiden arrival in New York back when such things were a more low-keyed affair.  Heavy fog made her late in docking and she carried almost no cargo on her first trip, riding high out of the water. Credit: eBay auction photo.

Captain William Prothero said that there had not been any attempted to speed the ship on her maiden voyage, but it had occupied 9 days 15 hours and 19 minutes from Queenstown to the Ambrose Channel Lightship. The machinery had worked well, he said, and that she would make better time after a voyage or two.

New York Times, 31 August 1921

Scythia sailed from Liverpool on 20 August 1921 and  averaging 15.5 knots and hardly pushed on her maiden voyage, docked at New York for the first time on the 30th. Fog and ice warnings made for a slow first trip and she was additionally held up for sometime off Nantucket Lightship owing to fog. Her first passenger list comprised 300 First, 249 Second and 584 Third Class passengers.  Among those aboard was Mr. M.H. Maxwell, Cunard Director who, complaining the seas over had been too smooth to judge the ship in bad weather, said he "hopes to encounter a big storm on the voyage home and watch the Scythia bring buffeted by the heaviest billows of the Atlantic".  Captain Porthero proclaimed to reporters that "She's a wonderful vessel." 

Another view of Scythia on her first arrival at New York.  Credit: eBay auction photo

The liner Scythia, the new oil burning one stacker of the Cunard company, left for Europe yesterday on the return lap of her maiden voyage. Much tooting of whistles and cheering marked her sailing.

Capt. William Prothero expected to see what his ship could do in the way of speed, but will not force her to the limit until the turbines have been well tried out.

New York Herald, 4 September 1921

The maiden arrival as depicted in the Daily News. showing her Captain, William Prothero, who would command her for most of her first decade.  

Scythia's maiden eastbound crossing commenced on 3 September 1921 with 45 First Class, 66 Second Class and 72 Third Class.  Returning to Liverpool on the 12th, "she maintain a steady speed despite fog throughout her voyage, but was not pushed." (Northern Whig).   

One of the first official postcards for the new ship, from a painting by Odin Rosenvinge. Credit: author's collection

Built on staunch and graceful lines, the Scythia is generally described as the 'ship of the future.' She is the largest passenger vessel afloat to have been designed and built oil fuel. She is also the first great liner to possess propelling machinery of the double-reduction geared turbine type. The auxiliary machinery of the Scythia and the steering gear, too, provide further departure from previous practice. These new features effect a definite improvement in the comfort and convenience of the passenger, or in the extensiveness of the accommodation, and place the Scythia in the very forefront, not of  post-war ships, but of the great passenger ships of the world.  

American Shipping, 10 March 1921

"The construction of the Scythia, in the judgement of Cunard Line officials, marks the end of the operation of leviathans of the sea. She is of 21,000 gross tons, with accommodations for 2,300 passengers in three classes. Experience has convinced English ship owners that a vessel of this size is the ideal for economy and comfort."

The Evening World,  20 August 1921

"There seems to have been some disappointment when the ship first appeared from her builders at having only one funnel. But she was a splendid looking ship and I think the most applicable adjective in her case is 'dignified'. She looked big, sturdy and handsome, with high freeboard and a sweeping line of sheer."  J.H. Isherwood, Sea Breezes, July 1975.

"Ship of the Future" in the 1920s, enduring classic today. Credit: John L. Lochhead photo, Mariners Museum.

"Ships Have Been Boring Long Enough".  When Cunard introduced their new Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1969, they appeared to be disowning what they had, in large measure, created.  On the eve of the First World War, Cunard had defined in image, size, speed and splendour The Ocean Liner with their "Big Three"-- Aquitania, Mauretania and Lusitania.  Now,  they sought to "reimagine" it all. 

Whilst it seems odd nowadays for what might be considered traditional looking vessels, the new generation of intermediate Cunarders were billed as "The Ships of the Future" and "The One-Funneled Wonder Ships".  They were, like QE2, indeed novel, almost radical, eschewing not only the size and speed of Cunard's "Big Three" but also their profile, presence and popular image.  Their design credo also suggested that had it not been for the Germans, Cunard would have been content with more Caronias and Franconias and that The Big Three, whilst still projecting the image of both the company and ocean travel, were expensive indulgences not warranting repeating in the post-war competitive vacuum.

It was a testament to his skill and range as a naval architect that all of this was rendered into real ships, among the most famous and enduring of all time, by the same individual as, indeed, had every Cunarder since Umbria/Etruria.  Without skipping a beat, Cunard's Chief Naval Architect Leonard Peskett followed up his ultimate expression of the Edwardian Floating Palace, Aquitania, with a veritable armada of new intermediates which took their cue from his Franconia/Laconia of 1911, but fully embraced post-war developments like oil burning, geared turbines and a radical new single-funnel profile to reflect the new promise of purposeful, practical profitability. 

Leonard Peskett, O.B.E. (1861-1924), Cunard's Chief Naval Architect practically invented the modern Cunarder singlehanded and was responsible for the design of all of them from Campania/Lucania right through to the entire post-war newbuilding programme including Scythia and her sisters. One of the most prodigious and influential naval architects in history.

Projecting a New Image. Credit: eBay auction photo. 

More than any one element, it was these ships' single funnel that both provoked traditionalists and promised modern practicality.  After a generation of projecting an ocean liner's power and prestige by the number of its funnels (although no Cunarder ever suffered the contrivance of a "dummy" funnel), publicity agents were tasked to point out that "Among  other advantages the single funnel reduces superstructure weight, and this adds to the ship's steadiness at sea" and that modern oil burners needed fewer funnels.  It was also admitted that prospective immigrant travellers would need "education" as to opting to sail in a ship with only one funnel when they had been hitherto induced to settle for not less than two.  The practical advantages of fewer fire rooms, one less intrusive, space robbing funnel casing taking up valuable earning and living space were reason enough. But the reality remained: these ships always looked like the intermediates they were in specification and service.

One and you're done... of all her features, Scythia's single amidships funnel was the most remarked upon and indeed controversial.  Although a feature of the dozen new intermediates, it was not emulated by other liners and was a generation ahead of its time.  Here, at least, there is none of that nonsense about fewer funnels "increasing deck space"! Credit: Historic England

Ships of the Future, but still Cunarders and it was telling that Peskett ensured that Scythia and her fleetmates all retained counter sterns whilst their Anchor and Donaldson cousins had the rather more modern cruiser designs. Indeed, the one and only Cunarder with a cruiser stern before Queen Mary, Tyrrhenia/Lancastria, had, of course, been laid down for Anchor Line.  The hull form of these ships differed from Peskett's pre-war designs in having considerably more flair to their bows as the earlier designs made them somewhat "wet" forward and all had a good amount of sheer which, on the 20,000-tonners like Scythia, imparted a graceful quality, somewhat offsetting  the heavy, full superstructures and broken visual elements of the upper works.  

Although he provided the new Anchor and Donaldson intermediates with modern cruiser sterns and balanced rudders, a Cunarder was still a Cunarder and Peskett retained the already old-fashioned counter sterns and rudders for them.  Credit: The Shipbuilder. 

Scythia had principal measurements of 19,751 tons (gross), 14,410 tons (deadweight) and 11,926 tons (nett), 623 ft. 7 ins. (overall length), 600 ft. 5 ins. (length between perpendiculars), 73 ft. 5 ins. (beam) and 32 ft. 8 ins. draught. In tonnage, she compared to the 19,595-grt Caronia/Carmania but was a good 50 ft. shorter.  

Showing her classic counter stern coming alongside at Liverpool. Credit: Liverpool Maritime Museum.

The cargo capacity was immense...some 9,000 tons or a 337,500 cu. ft.( bale) and 42,530 cu. ft. (reefer) capacity in seven holds-- three forward, one trunked through the superstructure aft of the bridge island, one trunked just after of the main superstructure and two aft-- worked by mast derricks and three sets of kingposts.   It was, in fact, too much and certainly during much of the 1920s when high tariffs depressed the freight trade and during the Depression, her holds were seldom filled to anything like capacity.  Even when converted to accommodate 4,800 troops in wartime, Scythia could still carry 86,700 cu. ft. of cargo.

Old habits died hard, and intermediates or not, Cunard publicists could not resist comparing the "20,000 tonners" with some of the more notable landmarks ashore.  "The Washington Monument could be carried in the hull of one of the popular twenty-thousand tonners..."  Credit: Norway Heritage

Scythia's machinery and auxiliary gear was notable in several ways. She was the first Atlantic liner with double-reduction gearing, the largest to date with oil-burners and her winches and steering gear were operated by electro-hydraulic power.  The later rid the ship of steam piping throughout the accommodation and decks.  The main propulsion machinery comprised two sets of Brown-Curtis turbines driving twin screws through double reduction gearing and developing 12,500 s.h.p. at 80 r.p.m. (interestingly, less than that produced by the smaller Cameronia's machinery: Scythia having 6,250 shp per turbine set vs. 6,750 shp on Cameronia.)  Steam was produced at 220 psi by three double-ended and three single-ended oil-fired boilers. All this gave Scythia a service speed of 16 knots and although she was capable of 17, there was not a lot of reserve speed to make up for weather and other delays.  

The machinery plant of these immediate post-war intermediates was initially problematic. The early double-reduction gearing had issues and both Scythia and Laconia suffering breakdowns early in their careers.  There was also considerable caution in pushing the ship on her initial voyages which were accomplished at remarkably slow speeds. Marine Engineering of November 1921 stated that:  "As in the case of most vessels, however, the first two runs of the Scythia have been made a comparatively low speeds to properly work in all bearings and afford an opportunity to tune up the engines and boilers.  On her last Atlantic crossing she maintained an average speed of 14.1 knots with the engines indicating 8,000 shaft horsepower turning at 70 revolutions per minute.  The fuel consumption for the run was 95 tons of oil per day or at the rate of about 1,106 pounds per shaft horsepower per hour." 

In their Cunard White Star Liners of the 1930s, Richard P. De Kerbrech and David L. Williams also noted that "In the case of the Scythia class, advantage was taken of the higher steam temperature conditions used [with their Scotch boilers] and the vessels fitted with  smoke-tube super heaters to give a steam temperature of 410˚ F. In the event, these caused so much trouble that they were quickly abandoned and the vessels were operated unsuperheated."  This may, more than the oft stated "running in" of the machinery may have been reason for the ship's dilatory speeds on her initial voyages. 

Providing proper lifeboats ("collapsible" boats having fallen out of favour) for all resulted in a veritable flotilla of beautiful wooden clinker-built boats, numbering no fewer than 42 and comprising 30-ft. and 28-ft.lifeboats, doubled nested on Boat Deck and the house tops of A and B Decks forward and aft and a pair of 26-ft. cutters abreast the bridge house.  All were carried in Welin davits.  There were, initially, even two sets of collapsible boats, forward on Boat Deck although these were eventually removed when Third Class capacity was reduced.

First brochure for Scythia, artwork by Walter Thomas. Credit: eBay auction photo

In a few words, the "Scythia" will be a miniature "Aquitania”; for everything conducive to comfort will be found in her accommodation.

American Shipping, 25 May 1920

R.M.S. SCYTHIA General Arrangement & Deck Plans

from  Marine Engineer & Shipping Age November 1921

courtesy William T. Tilley

(LEFT CLICK on image to view full size scan)

Profile & Rigging Plan

Boat Deck

"A" Deck

"B" Deck

"C" Deck

"D" Deck

"E" Deck

"F" Deck

"G" Deck

If her exterior was novel, even provocative, Scythia’s interiors were indeed soothingly evocative of Aquitania on a smaller scale.  Indeed, never before had an “intermediate” liner been so generously decorated and fitted out.  Whereas the pre-war Franconia and Laconia had opted for the understatement of Georgian décor, Scythia and fleetmates were rendered in a mix of period revival that evoked the Floating Palaces of the Edwardian Era. 

Borrowed, for example, from Aquitania were the First Class garden lounges "where passengers will be able to enjoy the sun and the sea air amidst surroundings typical of an old English gardenbay trees and palms, evergreens intertwining through a treillage background with many comfortable, rest-inviting wood and wicker chairs. Cold winds and rain will not interfere with the comfort of those who seek the tranquility of these garden lounges for they will be enclosed on the outside of the vessel with sliding windows.”  And also providing Second Class with its own veranda café.   Some interior elements were indeed novel including the incorporation of alcoves within larger public rooms.

First Class Garden Lounge rendering. Credit: eBay auction photo.

First Class Garden Lounge. "Here again is the attractive suggestion of growing plants. Of amiable hours without telephone interruption. Of those days on shipboard where you don’t have to do anything unless you want to, yet where there is plenty to do if you like to go where things are more animated. From the window the view is always changing. When you tire of the sea, turn your armchair around and you are within a trellised garden enclosure." (Cunard brochure, c. 1930). Credit: English Heritage.

The First Class public rooms on A (Promenade ) Deck were introduced via a spacious central hall, main staircase and passenger lift, leading to the drawing room, writing room and smoking room.  

First Class Central Hall. "The photograph gives an excellent idea of the general architectural plan of the ship. Always the main companionway gives the impression of a grand stairway, with the contemporary note in the pretty little elevator which becomes the lift in England. Long corridors lead to the big general rooms. Everywhere there is cheerful lighting. Everywhere there are ferns and flowers." Credit: English Heritage

The Drawing Room, in Empire style, was dominated by a splendid central dome of white glass, and was oval in shape.  The ceilings were richly carried out in delicately ornamented white plaster.  Four seating alcoves, diagonally opposite each other, had separate windows.  A focal point of this splendid room was a marble fireplace framed by a brace of gilt console tables.  The furnishings introduced colour: black and gold, grey and gold, vermillion and gold as well as in old mahogany with upholstery in black and gold and blue and gold in Chinese designs and grey velvet.  Underfoot was an impressive Adam style carpet.

First Class Drawing Room rendering. Credit: eBay auction photo.

First Class Drawing Room. Credit: English Heritage

First Class Drawing Room. "This is a particularly pretty room, with the light coming through the glass-domed ceiling. It is full of charming late eighteenth century furniture. Shield-back Hepplewhite chairs. And cane chairs of the type Mr. Sheraton made for the famous architect, Robert Adam." (Cunard brochure, c. 1930).  Credit: English Heritage

Looking rather more inviting than the rather barren, unretouched builders' photographs, this postcard view of the Drawing Room (Lounge) dates from the post 1928 Cabin Class era.  Credit: author's collection.

First Class Writing Room & Library.  "Another well equipped room which has the flavor of the days when Sir Joshua Reynolds was painting portraits of the beauties of London, and Gainsborough was making his reputation at Bath. The division of the floor space into three definite units is decoratively attractive and eminently practical. The wide, curtained windows make an effective termination of the long vista." (Cunard brochure, c. 1930).  Credit; English Heritage.

First Class Writing Room & Library Alcove. 

Forward was the writing and library with alcoves on either side.  Over the central portion was an elliptical dome with a fan shaped panel on each side and there was a fireplace with an antique grate.  The main colour scheme was white with Adam furniture in dull old mahogany and decorated satin wood upholstered in velvet and damask of Adam design. As in the drawing room there was full carpeting, in Adam pattern, underfoot.  Opposite the fireplace was an impressive carved mahogany bookcase. 

First Class Smoking Room. Credit: English Heritage

A dark paneled, conservative room. It has that sense of decorum which is so ideal a background for cards or general relaxation. Because it indicates that you can have a game in quiet. There are so many other lounging spots in these ships that it is possible for a smoke room to remain in character. It doesn't get chatty until tea time. And then everyone is ready for the causerie. It is eighteenth century English in concept. (Cunard brochure, c. 1930). Credit: English Heritage

One of Scythia's hallmarks was her First Class Smoking Room. This was paneled throughout in rich oak and featured a central area with a coach-top roof and two side wings.  The furniture was a mix of Louis XVI in waxed beech covered with green and gold tapestry and large settees and easy chairs covered with antique brown hide.  A large marble fireplace provided the focal point.  

First Class Dining Saloon. Credit: English Heritage

First Class Dining Saloon. Credit: English Heritage.

First Class Dining Saloon. "A very companionable sort of room in which, again, the area has been planned so that there are smaller rooms opening into a large central space. It is the modern idea of providing various cozy dining rooms in place of the staring openness which was the dream of the old-fashioned hotel and the démodé steamship. It gives a sense of withdrawal into privacy which the sophisticated traveler prefers and enjoys." (Cunard brochure, c. 1930). Credit: English Heritage.

Especially impressive was the Dining Saloon which gave no hint of being aboard an “intermediate”. This extended the full width of the vessel with a length of 64 feet with a lofty central portion surmounted by a dome with indirect lighting.  Behind this dome and screened was the musicians gallery which played out of sight.  Seating 208 passengers, the 61 tables, for two, four or six, had individual table lamps.  The walls and ceilings were finished in white decorated plaster. 

First Class cabin, no. 33. Credit: English Heritage. 

First Class cabin C-15. "The port is as neatly curtained with chic fabric as your own room in or out of New York. The beds are exceedingly comfortable. There is steam heat. There is hot and cold running water. There are night tables, so that you can lie in bed and read. There is a slant-back wicker chair for you to relax in when you know that you really ought to be dressing." (Cunard brochure, c. 1930). Credit: English Heritage.

By the early 1930s, a typical Cabin Class stateroom looked like this. Credit: meiserdrucke.com 

Accommodation for First Class comprised 337 berths in two suites each with sitting room and full bath, eight double-berth cabins, each of two sharing a full bathroom between and two- and three-berth cabins all with washbasins with hot and cold running water.  Cabins and suites on B (Lower Promenade) Deck had carved mahogany bedsteads.  The suites were elaborately decorated in Louis XVI style with marble fireplaces and electric fires, the bedrooms in French grey and white.   The staterooms with shared bath were decorated in Empire style.  The suites, staterooms and cabins on B Deck all had windows, not portholes, looking onto the promenade deck.  Further accommodation (154 berths) was found forward on C Deck and forward on the starboardside of D Deck (62 berths).  All of the twin berthed inside cabins on C Deck had a small rectangle window at the top of the outboard bulkhead which permitted natural light and additional ventilation and opened out at the base of the covered promenade deck directly above.  

First Class B Deck Promenade. Note the "coaming window" below the main stateroom window which provided natural light and air to the inside cabin directly below on C Deck. Not to mention being able to overhear any shipboard gossip from the deck chair occupants!  Credit: English Heritage. 

First Class had extensive deck space with open promenade space on Boat Deck, partially covered promenades fore and aft of the winter gardens on A Deck and a full promenade deck on B Deck which was glass enclosed amidships.  

Second Class Veranda Cafe. "The Verandah Café is also on "B" deck, an attractive garden lounge furnished in wicker. This overlooks the stern of the vessel, and from it, the fascinating swirl of the water churned by the huge propellers may be watched with interest for hours. "B" deck also provides the open promenade, there being ample space for deck games and walking."  (Cunard brochure, 1927). Credit: English Heritage

Scythia's Second Class (331 berths) was especially impressive for the era and size of the vessel, "the comfort of the traveler has received the fullest consideration." For the first time in an intermediate, Second Class had a passenger lift, veranda cafe and running water was provided in all cabins. 

Second Class Lounge. "On "B" deck is the combination writing room, library, and lounge, a spacious, attractive apartment with windows either side that affords a view of the sea, cozy nooks for tête-à-tête conversations, and a delightful fireplace, around which the circle gathers, as at home." (Cunard brochure, 1927). Credit: English Heritage.

Second Class Smoking Room. "On "C" deck is the smoking room, a comfortable lounge for men, of such size that there is never any crowding. On this deck, there is also a covered promenade which is available for a walk when the weather is inclement." (Cunard brochure, 1927). Credit: English Heritage

Traditionally situated aft, the Second Class public rooms comprised a lounge, smoking room, veranda cafe and dining saloon.  The lounge, on B Deck, was finished in plain mahogany with cane backed chairs covered in moquette and corded velvet and there was full carpeting underfoot.  In the aft B Deck house was the veranda cafe overlooking the stern with wicker furnishings.  The smoking room was aft on C Deck, panelled in chestnut with oak furniture with moquette upholstery. The floor was in "rublino in an octagonal tile pattern.  The dining saloon, aft of that for First Class and separated by the galley, was on E Deck and had 199 seats at tables for four or six.  

Second Class Dining Saloon. Credit: English Heritage 

During the 1928 changeover from Second Class to Tourist Third Cabin, the Dining Saloon was considerably improved with new freestanding armchairs, new decking and individual table lamps. credit: eBay auction photo.

Second Class cabin. Credit: English Heritage.

Second Class cabin. Credit: English Heritage.

Second Class cabins, 2-4 berths, had wash basins with running water, and were situated on C Deck (217 berths), D Deck starboardside amidships (86 berths) and E Deck aft (28 berths).

Second Class Promenade Deck. Credit: English Heritage.

Very early Third Class fold-out brochure. Credit: eBay auction photo.

Third Class originally had an astonishing 1,538 berths although a contemporary journal marvelled that "never on any ship before has such care been devoted to the design of accommodation for third class passengers. Open berths have been entirely dispensed with and throughout the ship the third class passengers are berthed in commodious rooms each accommodating two to four persons. Spacious alleyways separate the groups of rooms and any congestion is now completely eliminated. Two large dining saloons, a general room, and a smoking room, all commodious and well-lighted and ventilated, and ample open and covered promenade space complete a scheme of accommodation unexcelled in any ship."

"Having great time, wish you were here.." Possibly not, but Cunard thought enough of Third Class to produce this multi-view postcard of it.  The fit and finish of the cabins, mostly four-berth, was an improvement on pre-war ships. And the bunk blankets are quite wonderful!  Credit: author's collection.

Most of the cabins were four-berth with accommodation blocks of 134, 224 and 70 berths forward on E Deck, 36, 68 and 104 berths aft, 238 and 216 berths amidships and 160 (portable) and 144 (portable) forward on F Deck.  The permanent cabins had washstands with cold tank supplied water.  

Third Class General Room. Credit: English Heritage.

By 1928, improvements, even a hint of "decor" and real furniture instead of tramcar benches, rendered the Third Class Lounge more inviting and comfortable.  Credit: eBay auction photo

Third Class Smoking Room. Credit: English Heritage.

Third Class had a smoking room and general room on the portside of D Deck and a covered promenade aft on the same deck.  Open deck space was in the fore deck of C Deck and right aft on the same deck. There were two large dining saloons, seating 263 and 303 respectively, aft on F Deck.

Third Class Dining Saloon. Credit: English Heritage.

Scythia's forward Third Class deck space... in  rare fine weather like this, the nicest part of the ship. No deck chairs but a hatch cover or bollards do very nicely instead. Credit: Finnish Heritage.

Immigration restrictions enacted the year Scythia entered service meant that the Third Class capacity was almost never fully utilised and by 1924, the portable accommodation was removed to give a total of 1,100 permanent berths. 

In 1928, her accommodation was re-arranged to 400 Cabin (the original First Class), 450 Tourist Third (the original Second) and 850 Third Class.  Improvements were made in all classes.  Cabin Class accommodation was now concentrated on B and C Deck (taking the former Second Class cabins on C Deck starboardside) and more cabins were rearranged to provide full private baths so that in addition to the suites, 17 cabins on B Deck and 10 on C Deck were now so fitted.  Cabin Class also gained a gymnasium in a new deck house on the A Deck mid stern island.

Scythia's new Cabin Class gymnasium was housed in a new deck house on the A Deck island and competed for space with the Tourist Class lift machinery house and... the mainmast. Credit: Gienvick-Gjonvick Archives

The new Tourist Third Cabin assumed most of the original Second Class with cabins, now all with hot and cold running water, on D Deck starboardside, aft on E and F Decks. The former Second Class dining saloon was refitted with free-standing chairs instead of the old-fashioned swivel ones.

Third Class was reduced in capacity and the public rooms improved and redecorated. Cabins remained concentrated fore and aft on E Deck and F Deck.  

The line announced  on 27 March 1938 that improvements had been carried out in the Third Class accommodation of the five "20,000 tonners" during their winter refits.  "Many rooms with hot and cold running water have been added, and berths have been cut out to add to the spaciousness of the state-rooms. Changes made in some of the vessels put third class in an exceptionally high plane, the rooms containing beds, wardrobes, dressing tables and electric fans, in addition to hot and cold running water." (Philadelphia Inquirer).  Free standing chairs finally replaced the swivel chairs in the dining saloon and the lounge and smoking room got all new furnishings.  The overall capacity of Third Class was cut to 398 berths with an additional 240 in cabins interchangeable with Tourist Class.

In 1950, Scythia underwent a major refit at John Brown's, Clydebank.  This gave her considerably reduced and improved accommodation for 248 First and 630 Tourist Class or roughly one-third her original capacity.  

First Class cabins, on Promenade Deck (formerly B Deck), were all outside with two suites forward and these and nine others had private full bathrooms while another three had private shower and toilet.  The remaining First Class cabins were on Main Deck (formerly C Deck), mostly outside, and 10 with private bath. The public rooms remained, in location, function and decor, largely original but completely restored and refreshed.  The starboardside winter garden was converted into a cinema.  

The First Class Writing Room (top left), Smoking Room (top right) and Lounge (bottom centre) following the 1950 refit. Credit: Laurence Miller/FIU Wolfsonian Collection. 

First Class stateroom, the new cinema and Dining Saloon following the 1950 refit. Credit: Laurence Miller/FIU Wolfsonian Collection. 

Tourist Class cabins, now all with washbasins, wardrobes, dressing tables and hot and cold running water, were on aft on Main Deck, A Deck (formerly D) starboardside, Restaurant Deck (formerly E) and B Deck (formerly F). Tourist Class public rooms now comprised a Games Room (in the former gymnasium) on Upper Promenade Deck, a lounge and veranda café aft on Promenade Deck, cinema (shared with First Class) midships on the same deck. lounge and smoking room aft on Main Deck and dining saloon and smaller annex aft on Restaurant Deck.  

Ironically,  Scythia and her consorts were, as built, the wrong ships for the wrong time initially. Their immense Third Class and cargo capacity largely underutilised precisely at a time of immigration restrictions and a depression in cargo carryings owing to high tariffs.  But as the trans-Atlantic market became more diverse with a growing emphasis on "cabin" and tourist travel and suitably refitted and improved over the years, these inter-war intermediates were, by any standards, among the most successful and long-lived passenger ships ever built.  The records of Scythia, Cameronia and Letitia stand out in the annals of the Merchant Navy.  

Among Odin Rosenvinge's most distinctive postcards was this series of pen and ink portraits from the mid 1920s. Although in this case, what is labelled as R.M.S. Scythia rather looks like Franconia/Carinthia without the separate bridge island.  Credit: author's collection. 

And so, Scythia began her 37-year career, mostly routine and unremarkable, the ultimate accolade that can be afforded any passenger ship. Her life was nevertheless busy and eventful, punctuated by the vagueries of North Atlantic weather, enriched by the lives and dramas of her passengers, officers and crew and impacted by the eras she bridged.  She begin her career during the  "Roaring 'Twenties" during which she successfully made the shift from immigrant travel to "tourist third" and "Cabin" travel, established a unique bond with that first of Cunard's American ports... Boston... and helped to further establish Cunard in the cruise trade.  

Few ships which went on to enjoy such a long and successful career had worse timing in their coming into service as did Scythia and her intermediate consorts.  What had been the foundation for the modern trans-Atlantic passenger trade since the 1870s, almost unrestricted immigration into the United States, suddenly was severely shaken with the passage in May 1921 of the "Quota Law" or "Three Percent Act" which limited annual immigration numbers to 3 per cent of the foreign born population of the U.S. based on the 1903 census.  This not only limited numbers but country or region of origin being based on a period prior to widespread immigration by Mediterranean and Slavic nationalities.  Even more restrictive legislation, the Johnson-Reed Act, was enacted in 1924 which restricted immigration to 2 per cent and based on the census of 1890.  The overall figures went from 750,000 to 1 million annual new arrivals in the country before the war to only 150,000 ten years later.

Although the new American restrictions effectively ended Cunard and Anchor's Mediterranean services at a stroke, 50 per cent of immigration under the new acts now originated (as intended) from Britain and Ireland so that the impact on British lines was mitigated. Then, too, Canadian immigration was actively encouraged by the Empire Settlement Scheme and more than justified Cunard's considerable investment in the St. Lawrence trade as well as ensuring Halifax received more calls en route to New York and Boston.   Even so, Cunard's Third Class carryings from British/Irish ports to/from U.S. ports went from 73,790 in 1913 to 28,366 in 1924 and that year was the first with more overall traffic east than westbound.

For Scythia, all this rendered her immense 1,553-berth Third Class underused and  as with the rest of the fleet, saw her increasingly cater to the one growing segment of the trans-Atlantic trade, the tourist and cruise market which would burgeon in the 1920s and for which the intermediates were readily adapted to. Her North Atlantic carryings for the decade reflect she was off the route for three months cruising and the increased traffic, almost all tourist oriented, in the late 'twenties. 

1921: 4,959     1926: 6,245

1922: 9,153       1927: 7,665

 1923: 7,118      1928: 9,988

  1924: 9,564       1929: 12,323

1925: 7,115                            

1921

Meanwhile, the traditional challenges of seas and weather tested the new ship, even in harbour. Scythia's second arrival at New York on 31 September 1921 coincided with a sudden and unexpected gale which swept the harbour with 54 mph winds and sheets of rain just as the ship was coming into Pier 56 North River as dramatically reported by the New York Times:

The new Cunarder, Scythia, docking on her second voyage to New York, was in grave peril when the wind at its fifty-four-miles-an-hour height caught her just as she was breasting into her pier.

Not a line had been run out as the vessel, almost 20,000 tons, churned her way shoreward, portside on. The squall seized her and drove her towards the pier. The 1,100 passengers were gathered on the decks and the vessel, very light as to cargo, was riding high out of the water.

After giving her a disdainful fling, the wind sharply heeled her over and the Scythia listed so badly it seemed there was danger for an instant of her capsizing or being broadsided into the dock.

Captain William Prothero, on the bridge, found himself blinded by the rain that beat down in sheets. His voice was drowned in the roar of the wind and the booming of the thunder.

Before those on the crowded decks had realized the full significance of the ominous tilting under their feet, Captain Prothero had signalled for full speed astern and the big craft, rapidly gaining way, backed into the stormed-tossed river, crowded with small craft, almost helpless in the sudden blow. Captain Prothero said afterward he knew their danger, but it was the only chance to keep his ship from heeling over or smashing into the dock, and he took it.

Once in the clear, he stilled the engines with another quick signal and dropped anchor in the middle of the river. By then the Scythia was standing straight up as any good ship should, and the danger was past.

'It was a tight corner,' the Captain said afterward.

New York Times 1 October 1921

Immigration restrictions not withstanding,  Scythia managed to disembark 1,016 Third Class passengers  in addition to 88 First and 390 Second at New York on 9 November 1921.  She also brought in 78 boxes of gold bars worth $2,540,000.

Starting with Scythia on 21 December 1921, Queenstown became a regular call again from Boston and New York en route to England after being cancelled during the Irish Uprising leading to the creation of the Irish Republic of Eire that year.  Queenstown itself was renamed Cobh at the same time but it was some years before Cunard at least referred to it as such. Name aside, the Irish market remained hugely important for Cunard and the intermediates in particular.  

The Cunarder Scythia, which has been in commission only a few months had her first real trial in tempestuous weather on the trip ended yesterday from Liverpool. Sir James McKechnie, head of Vickers Ltd., builders of the ship, was no less pleased with her storm defying qualifies than her commander, Capt. William Prothero. She passed through the  tumult, seldom equalled in December, without a scar, although somewhat belated.

The skipper called the seas 'mountainous' which means much from the lips of a veteran. The Scythia carried the largest quantity of Christmas mail yet arriving her in one liner. There were 4,230 sacks and 2,286 bags of parcel post. Three mail boats at Quarantine relieved her of the burden. She left 2,000 sacks at Halifax, where she also landed 259 passengers of all classes.

New York Herald, 20 December 1921

In 1921, Scythia completed eight crossings and carried 4,959 passengers.

One of the incomparable series of vertical portraits of Cunarders by Charles Turner has Scythia being "buzzed" off the English coast by a flight of R.A.F.  Avro 504 trainers. 

1922

Not uncommon with these ships. Scythia, en route to New York, experienced a disarrangement of her gearing on a turbine coming into Halifax on 21 February 1922. There, she landed her 2,232 bags of mail and most of her First and Second Class passengers who went by train to New York.  Repaired, Scythia proceeded to New York where she docked on the 24th. 

Boston learned on 14 February 1922 it would finally see the new Scythia on 23 March when she would stop at the port en route from New York to Liverpool.  

By happy coincidence the day that her sister ship, Samaria, left the builders yard of Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, on her trials on 7 April 1922, Scythia was across the river at Liverpool.  The party of guests were invited to luncheon aboard first before proceeding by tender to embark in Samaria "so they had ample opportunities of comparing the workmanship of Barrow with that of Birkenhead, and of appreciating the very fine accommodation provided on both the new liners."  (The Glasgow Herald, 10 April 1922.) 

Advertisements for Frank's "Cruise De Luxe to the Mediterranean 30 January 1923, the first of seven annual charters for Scythia in Harper's Bazaar and Life. 

In April 1922, Cunard chartered Scythia to Frank Tourist Co. of New York for a long winter Mediterranean cruise the following January.  This would become an annual event for the vessel through 1930 and added a new role to the already versatile Cunard-Anchor "intermediates" although it meant they operated with empty cargo holds and empty Third Class accommodation. In the case of the Frank cruises, capacity was limited to 450 or, in effect, only the First and best Second Class cabins, it being advertised that "all cabins have hot and cold running water".  

Carried on her deck on arrival at New York 26 August 1922, Scythia brought Rose, one of the British 20-ft. yachts to compete in that year's America Cup race on 9 September.  

Brochure cover for Cunard's Boston Service dating from its 1922 reopening by Samaria and Scythia. Credit: Gienvick-Gjonvik Archives

Revival of a regular Boston service for Cunard after the war was fraught with problems, not the least of which being the delays in completing Scythia, Samaria and Laconia which were meant to operate it.  Indeed, it was not until August 1921 that Anchor Line's Assyria first sailed from the port for Liverpool and Glasgow.  By February 1922 there were hopeful reports that Scythia would be the first of the new intermediates to call at Boston en route from New York to Liverpool on 23 March as well as the initial sailings of the new Laconia scheduled for 3 and 31 May. None of these occurred owing to delays in completing Laconia.  Then the new Samaria developed engine troubles in June and had to be taken out of service for repairs.  This finally enabled Scythia to make her maiden call at Boston in her place on 21 July 1922.  She was well patronised, with 50 First, 150 Second and 250 Third Class joining the 500 who embarked at New York.  Among those boarding was Charles Stewart, Boston agent of Cunard Line, "who stated that he anticipates next season will see the establishment of regular fortnightly sailing from Boston by the Samaria, Laconia and Franconia."

The beginning of a 17-year connection with the port: advertisement for Scythia's first sailing from Boston Credit: Boston Globe, 18 July 1922

Scythia called again at Boston on 1 September 1922 en route from New York to Cobh and Liverpool, embarking 12 First, 35 Second and 55 Third passengers in just an hour, adding to the 400 already aboard.

With the 11 November 1922 sailing of Scythia, Cunard resumed their traditional Saturday sailings from Liverpool to New York, maintained by her, Samaria, Tyrrhenia and Ausonia. 

Coming into her West 14th Street Pier late on 20 November 1922, Scythia had another near miss when, caught in a strong flood tide and brisk westerly wind, she almost collided with Berengaria in the adjacent slip.  "Electric commands and swift maneuvering on the part of Capt. Prothero of the Scythia resulted in merely the mowing down of Berengaria's taffrail flagstaff. The British merchant ensign itself was in the flag locker, as it was long after dark, and was thus saved a ducking. " (New York Herald).

Scythia's officers and crew recounted an remarkable incident on the last eastbound crossing over when 400 miles from New York on 27 October 1922 during a stormy night, the ship was suddenly swarmed with 1,000 or more birds of all descriptions-- owls, thrushes, larks, robins, finches-- who took up residence in the masts, rigging and boats and were fed en route by the passengers and crew with pans of bread crumbs and water and who mostly departed the ship when she reached Cobh eight days late.

Advertisement for Scythia's voyage on Cunard-Anchor's Mediterranean service. Credit: The New York Herald, 8 October 1922.

Her next eastbound sailing from New York on 25 November 1922 was unusual as having the Mediterranean and Adriatic as its destination as Cunard then still operated a winter service there with Caronia and Carmania, augmented by this single sailing by Scythia.  She left with 180 First, 67 Second and 377 Third Class passengers for Madeira, Gibraltar, Naples.

In 1922, Scythia completed 20 crossings and carried 9,153 passengers.

1923

Scythia  departed New York on 30 January 1923 on Frank's Mediterranean cruise with 312 passengers.  The 63-day voyage called at Madeira, Lisbon, Cadiz, Gibraltar, Constantinople, Athens, Palermo, Naples and Monte Carlo before heading north to Cherbourg and Southampton and home from there on the next Cunarder for New York or a later sailing following a sojourn in Britain.   Such was the immediate popularity of the cruise that Frank's announced on 26 May a repeat for the next winter, sailing on 30 January 1924.

Superb Walter Thomas poster for Cunard's revived Boston service by the "20,000-tonners".

On 26 January 1923 Cunard set their schedules for the coming season.  Effective in May, Scythia and Samaria would maintain a fortnightly service from Liverpool and Cobh direct to Boston. Scythia sailed from Liverpool on 12 May, but while en route, was detoured to Halifax to land 403 passengers on the 21st after the immigration quota to the U.S. was exhausted.   Upon arrival at Boston the following day, she disembarked 48 First, 99 Second and 94 Third Class.  She sailed eastbound on the 26th. Her eastbound sailing began on the 26th and she took away 105 First, 250 Second and 300 Third Class in addition to "an exceptionally large cargo, consisting of grain, provisions and general merchandise." (Boston Globe).

It would be a few years before Cunard stopped referring to "Queenstown" instead of Cobh as it had been renamed in 1921. Credit: Boston Globe 3 July 1923

With the largest cabin list of any steamer from the Port of Boston to date, Scythia sailed for Cobh and Liverpool on 23 June 1923 with 348 First, 252 Second and 401 Third Class.

Scythia hit a gale on her August westbound crossing, forcing her to bypass Cobh on the 2nd and proceeding direct to Liverpool where she docked the next day. 

HARVESTERS' RUSH TO CANADA. The rush of harvesters to Canada is taxing the accommodation of the various shipping companies, and yesterday the liner Scythia left Liverpool for Halifax without a single vacant berth. Practically all trades and professions were represented among those proceeding to the Dominion under the harvesting scheme of the Canadian Government, and the liner left the Mersey some enthusiastic scenes were witnessed. Indeed, the Scythia presented the appearance of a troopship during the war as the harvesters had climbed the rigging and occupied every point of vantage to wave good-bye to the extraordinary large crowd friends ashore.

Aberdeen Press & Journal, 11 August 1923

Scythia landed her 1,374 British farm labourers at Halifax on 16 August 1923. 

Credit: Boston Globe, 1 October 1923

In heavy fog off the Irish coast (off the Coningberg Lightship off the south coast of Wexford, about 30 miles southwest of Tuskas), the outbound Scythia (which had sailed from Liverpool on 30 September and the inbound White Star liner Cedric, which had called at Cobh earlier that morning, collided at 11:30 a.m. on 31 September 1923. The White Star liner first striking the Cunarder's  bow and Scythia then swung around and glanced off her side. 

'We recognise that it was the promptitude and skill of Captain Prothero, commander of the Scythia, that saved a terrible disaster,' declared the Rev. Cameron Mann, Bishop of Florida, when seen by a Press Association representative on board the Scythia yesterday morning. 'After leaving Liverpool,' he continued, ' we ran into a thick fog, which continued overnight, and the next morning we were going dead slow when the collision occurred. I was sitting in the smoking room at the stern of the ship. Our foghorn had been sounding all through the night and morning. I heard another horn blowing. It seemed to get nearer. I went out on to the deck, and going to the rail, after a few moment, I saw the stem of another vessel heading toward is. I seemed impossible to avoid a collision, as we looked like being struck amidships. The Cedric struck us at the bow on the on the starboard side just beyond the bridge. The impact was not so severe as I had expected. Immediately afterwards we were summoned to the boat stations.  When I got back to the smoke room I found my overcoat, which I had left on a chair, covered with broken glass from one of the windows.  In less than six minutes we had been fitted on by the stewards with lifebelts and were assembled at the boat stations. It was the most remarkable display of discipline that had ever come to my notice. There was no panic of any kind, and the ship's stewards and officers were most helpful and considerate in every way. After the collision there was a danger of Cedric's stern swinging in and giving us another nasty crash. The Scythia was swung round in such a way as to make a second collision as light as possible. It was very light when it came, the vessels were alongside stem to stem for a few minutes before drawing apart.' 

Belfast News-Letter, 2 October 1923

Damage to Cedric (left) and Scythia (right) after their collision. Credit: Liverpool Echo, 2 October 1923

Her voyage cancelled, Scythia returned to Liverpool the morning of 1 October 1923 and initially anchored in the Mersey showing a list caused by cargo shifted by the impact.  She had a 12-15-ft. by 8 ft. rent in her starboardside forward about 12 ft. above the water line, probably caused by Cedric's anchor. Her cargo was shifted to Caronia. Under repair for three weeks by David Rollo & Sons, Scythia resumed service with her next scheduled sailing from Liverpool on 3 November for New York only, the direct Boston ending in October.

In 1923, Scythia completed 16 crossings carrying 7,118 passengers and one cruise with 312.

After battling one of the most severe winter Atlantic storms in years, Scythia and La Savoie finally reached New York on 29 January 1924. The Cunarder was three days later and had deck equipment and fittings damaged by the tempest.  

Off to more placid and warmer seas, on her second Mediterranean cruise for Frank Tourist Co., Scythia left New York on 30 January 1924 with 393 passengers on the 67-day voyage to 13 different countries. On this departure she also carried 47 Third Class passengers as far as Naples.  

Cunard continued to tinker with the Boston service for Scythia.  Returning to New York from Liverpool via Halifax on 22 April 1924, she returned with an eastbound call at Boston on the 27th. This pattern continued until high summer with eastbound sailings from Boston on 25 May and 20 June.  There was no direct Liverpool-Boston service that year, but effective with Laconia on 1 June, fortnightly westbound calls were made there by Samaria and Scythia (first call 14 July) the day before arriving in New York and also eastbound the day after sailing from New York.

In May 1924 Scythia was credited in the newspapers for a "smart turn-around" in Liverpool having arrived there on the 13th, landing some 500 passengers at the Landing Stage and then proceeding to her dock where she discharged some 1,000 tons of grain and 3,060 tons of general cargo.  Taking on loaded 540 tons of cargo and some 400 passengers, she left on the afternoon tide on the 15th.

Credit: Boston Globe 8 July 1924

The combined New York/Boston service prospered as the eastbound summer season began. Five hours late owing to fog on the run up from New York, Scythia left Boston for Cobh and Liverpool on 20 June 1924 with the largest First Class compliment yet to sail from the port: 515 (240 of whom boarded there)  and 800 Third Class, with half that number Boston embarks.

Heavy weather and fog much of the way across made Scythia a full day late arriving at Boston on 14 July 1924 with a light list of 85 First, 172 Second and 78 Third Class.  Over half of these disembarked there and the remainder proceeded to New York that afternoon.

Scythia did not often attract film stars, but when she did, they were impressive.  Arriving at New York on 16 September 1924 were D.W. Griffith and the cast of what was then to be called "The Dawn" but released that November as "Isn't Life Wonderful" and now regarded as one of Griffith's finest films. Credit: Daily News, 17 September 1924.

En route from Boston to Liverpool on 27 August 1924 Scythia's Captain William Prothero developed an acute case of appendicitis.  He refused to leave the bridge even when physicians aboard determined he required an immediate operation.  This was eventually performed in his cabin by Sir John Bland-Sutton, President of the Royal College of Surgeons and one of the most eminent authorities on surgery, who was a passenger aboard.  Capt. Prothero made a complete recovery during which Capt. F.G. Brown assumed temporary of Scythia. 

Upon arrival at Liverpool on 28 October 1924, it was reported that Scythia had struck a 35-foot-long whale shortly after leaving Boston on the 19th, the poor creature wedged against her bows all night and finally released when the liner was reversed.  That was her last Boston crossing for the season and she reverted to the Liverpool-Halifax-New York run for the rest of the year.

In 1924, Scythia completed 18 crossings carrying 9,564 passengers and one cruise with 390 passengers.

1925

Scythia's third Mediterranean cruise for Frank Tourist Co. got underway from New York on 29 January 1925 with 353 aboard. The 66-day voyage was marked the Golden Anniversary of the Frank Tourist Co. As with the previous year's cruise, this also carried 21 Third Class passengers to Naples.

Credit: Boston Globe 25 March 1925

For 1925, Samaria and Scythia maintained fortnightly Boston calls west- and eastbound via New York, starting with Scythia's eastbound departure on 19 April, the day after she left New York and through 1 November

"After one of the roughest trips in the experience of her officers," Scythia docked at Boston at 9:00 am on 27 October 1925, three days late. "She sailed from Liverpool on Oct 17, and due here on Monday, but was delayed by unfavorable weather which struck her the day after she left Queenstown. From that time until she was nearly at Boston, she was beaten and thrashed by heavy seas, but surviving without mishap of any kind."  (Boston Globe).  She 649 passengers aboard, 328 landing at Boston and the others continuing on to New York. 

Advertisements in the Boston Globe promoting "The Boston Cunarders" in 1925, that on the right highlighting the special Ireland immigration quota for 1924-35 and reminding that the Liverpool-Boston run was Cunard's oldest.  

Sailing from Boston on 1 November 1925, Scythia was done for the year upon arrival at Liverpool and drydocked for her overhaul before resuming service in January. 

In 1925, Scythia completed 16 crossings carrying 7,115 passengers and one cruise with 353 passengers.

1926

On 19 November 1925 Scythia's charter by the Frank Tourist Co. was announced for her fourth Mediterranean cruise from New York on 26 January, lasting 66 days and steaming 15,000 miles. Professor Walter Scott Perry, Director of the School of Fine and Applied Arts, Pratt's Institute, was aboard to give lectures on the ports... 18 in all... visited during the cruise. 

Arriving off Cobh, en route from Liverpool to New York, on 10 January 1926, a fierce southerly gale prevented Scythia from picking up her pilot and she hove-to off Daunts Rock in hopes the weather moderated and she could embark the 100 passengers awaiting passage. In end, she had to cancel the call and proceed on her way and docked at New York on the 20th.  Six days later she was off to the Mediterranean with 340 passengers, her sister ship Samaria sailing two days later on a similar cruise for Raymond & Whitcomb. 

Many liners of the period had their tales to tell during Britain's General Strike in May 1926.  For Scythia, which arrived at Liverpool on the 7th it was of members of the Waterloo rugby team and university students pitching in and unloading 1,500 of perishable foodstuffs during her five-day turnaound.  As it was, she still had to sail back to New York with much of her heavier cargo unloaded.

Recalling when New York Harbor was packed with vessels of every description, amid a maritime "traffic jam"  of barges, tugs and ferries, both Scythia and Volendam pulled out of their North River Piers within three minutes of each other on 19 June 1926, but could not turn directly down river due to the traffic.  Both drifted down ride broadside, separated by 1,200 ft. for a good 15 minutes before they could turned seaward when traffic cleared sufficiently. 

Beginning a tradition for the ship which would establish her with the Welsh people, on both sides of the Atlantic, it was announced on 6 April 1926 for that year's Royal Welsh Eisteddfod at Swansea,  Scythia would make a special call at Fishguard on her New York-Liverpool voyage departing 17 July, omitting the call at Cobh, and arriving at the Welsh port on the 25th. This attracted more than 200 Welsh-Americans and Scythia would be the official ship for every successive annual festival up to the war. 

Capt. William Prothero, who was Welsh, with Scythia's Welsh flag. Credit: eBay auction photo.

LINER'S WELSH FLAG SCYTHIA BRINGS PATRIOTS TO THE EISTEDDFOD. A radio message from the Cunard liner Scythia says enthusiastic scenes were witnessed prior to the departure of the vessel from New York on Saturday with a large party of Welsh-Americans on board corning for the Welsh National Eisteddfod at Swansea. Lusty cheering was followed by the singing of Welsh national Bangs as Scythia 's commander broke the Welsh flag at the mast-head. The Scythia is the first Atlantic liner to fly this flag. The party will land at Fishguard, and they will be the first considerable body of Welshmen to land from an Atlantic liner direct at the Welsh port. On Sunday an impressive Welsh choral service was held on board.

Western Mail, 20 July 1926

Everything about the Cunarder was Welsh on this trip. Her skipper, Captain William Prothero, is a Welshman, and the excursion conductor on board, D.W.Smith, was also of the same nationality. In addition to this, for the first time on any Atlantic liner, the Welsh flag was flown at the topmast of the Scythia. On arrival of the party at Swansea the flag was presented on behalf of the Cunard Line to that ancient city.

The Gazette, 27 July 1926

The voyage was successful to warrant Scythia again diverting to Fishguard the next year on her 16 July 1927 crossing from New York to carry another party of Welsh-Americans to that year's Eisteddfod. 

In 1926, Scythia completed 16 crossings carrying 6,245 passengers and one cruise with 340 passengers.

1927

Continuing her annual routine, Scythia started 1927 with a Liverpool to New York crossing, arriving there on 17 January, before setting off on 5th "Annual Cruise de Luxe to the Mediterranean" for Frank Tourist Co. on the 26th with 348 passengers.  With interest in the antiquities of Ancient Egypt and the "Roaring 'Twenties at their height, it was a Golden Age for these long winter Mediterranean voyages and in addition to Scythia, Doric, Homeric, Transylvania, Rotterdam, Samaria, Empress of France and Carinthia all were "off to the Med" that winter.  

And it was also back to Scythia's seasonal Boston calls commencing 11 April 1927 when she disembarked 346 passengers before continuing to New York with the remaining 500. She, Samaria and Laconia maintained fortnightly calls through November although Scythia's last call was westbound on 2 September. 

Credit: Boston Globe, 10 September 1927

One of Scythia's most memorable voyages was that taking American Legionnaire members to Le Havre for the A.E.F. (American Expeditionary Force) Convention on 19 September 1927 in Paris marking the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first American troops on the Continent.  This was a special routing for the ship, eastbound from New York and Boston to Le Havre and return.  She sailed from New York on the 8th with 459 members and their families and from Boston the following day where 712 boarded, making for a total of 1,171 aboard. Overall, more than 5,000 delegates and their families sailed in a veritable armada of liners in addition to Scythia including Tuscania, Ausonia, De Grasse, Caronia and Caledonia. 

Probably the ship's most gala sailing was that from Boston on 9 September 1927 carrying the New England contingent of American Legion members and their families to the A.E.F. Convention in Paris. Credit: Nicolas Haché collection.

A single tug made fast to the ship's bow, like a bull-dog on a bull's nose. A whistle shrilled on the bridge; hawsers splashed, and the water at the ship's stern boiled up as the mighty screw began to turn over.

Everyone shouted, ashore and aboard; the fireboat nearest by let out a hellish whoop from its siren, and went on, up and down, up and down, like a gale in the lowest circle Dante ever saw. The Scythia slid astern gravely, and as her butt cleared the wharf every steam whistle in the harbor turned loose in salute.

By now there were six planes overhead, three of them Naval flying boats. They began to perform their stunts before the ship was fully turned, flying close alongside, dipping steeply down to seaa and rooming up again; flashing their varnished wings in the sun in terrific bands, roaring close over the decks.  

As the steamship straightened out the fireboats shot up their graceful white fans of water in great bouquets, and howled farewell as the Scythia began to gather way. The ambassadors of good will were on their way.

The Boston Globe, 10 September 1927

On Board SS Scythia, Sept 12 by George Noble

Gathered on the afterdeck of the big Cunarder, the Legionnaires held a simple but beautiful service for the buddies who were left behind in France.

As the ship's bells struck 8, 4 pm shore time, the ensign after was lowered, taps was sounded and all of the passenger knelt in prayer.

… Throughout the ship one hears remarks on every hand of the spirit of sacred pilgrimage that has prompted the Legion to convene this year in France, where of the graves of the soldiers can be visited.

The Boston Globe, 12 September 1927

Scythia arrived at Le Havre on 18 September 1927. The Legionnaires returned in Scythia which left Le Havre on the 24th, arriving back at Boston on 3 October and New York the following day.  Rather extraordinarily, she was idle in the port until she sailed on the 22nd for Cobh and Liverpool.  She remained on this route for the rest of the year with the addition of a westbound call at Halifax on 11 December. Royal Mail Ships in more than title, Scythia and Berengaria docked at New York on the 13th with 5,500 and 10,500 sacks of Christmas mail respectively.  

In 1927, Scythia completed 18 crossings carrying 7,665 passengers and one cruise with 348 passengers.

1928

In 1928 Scythia and Laconia joined the burgeoning fleet of trans-Atlantic "Cabin" steamers.

On 11 December 1927, Cunard announced that Scythia and Laconia would sail as Cabin steamers effective the following April, accommodating 400 Cabin, 450 Tourist Third and 850 Third Class. 

Scythia returned to New York on 17 January 1928 from Liverpool via Halifax (15th).

Scythia sailed on her 6th annual Mediterranean cruise for Frank Tourist Co. on 25 January 1928 with 366 aboard.  Coming home, she left Gibraltar on 21 March and arrived at Southampton on the 24th. There, her passengers made immediate connections for the New York-bound Berengaria, or opted to lay over in Britain and take a later sailing.  Some stayed aboard, bound for the Grand National, as Scythia hurried up to Liverpool where she docked the next day. There, she was prepared for perhaps her most unusual and publicised role: accommodating the King and Queen of Afghanistan during an official visit to Britain and including an overnight aboard in Liverpool before attending that year's Grand National race.  

Credit: The Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News, 7 April 1928

Flying the Afghan flag from her foremast, and gaily dressed, the Scythia will proceed alongside the landing-stage  early in the afternoon to await the arrival of their Majesties, who will be met by Sir Thomas Royden, Chairman of the Cunard Line, and Lady Royden, and conducted aboard shortly after five o'clock, when the Afghan Royal Standard will be broken at the main.

The Scythia will be transformed into a floating palace of flowers, and at nightfall will present a brilliant spectacle.  Thousands of multicoloured electric lights will outline her masts, funnel and hull. High pillars, surmounted by two flaming torches, will mark the Royal entrance to the ship, in which King Amanullah and his Consort will spend the night.

Belfast News-Letter, 27 March 1928

Credit: The Liverpool Echo, 28 March 1928

British Pathé Newsreel Footage of The King & Queen of Afghanistan boarding Scythia at Liverpool Landing Stage.

Scythia made her maiden departure from Belfast to Halifax and New York on 7 April 1928. She was the largest steamer to call at Belfast that season and embarked 159 passengers, mostly emigrants bound for Canada. This also her first crossing designated as a Cabin steamer and she arrived at New York on the 16th with 122 Cabin, 40 Tourist Third and 104 Third Class (after landing 30 Cabin, 26 Tourist and 472 Third at Halifax two days earlier). Her first eastbound crossing as such left New York on 28 April with 132 Cabin, 81 Tourist Third and 50 Third Class passengers and embarked another 101 Cabin, 76 Tourist and 35 Tourist at Boston the following day. This began Scythia's seasonal Boston call which was maintained through her sailing from there on 11 November.  

The ship continued her Welsh connections and on 19 April 1928 her charter to the Anthracite Male Chorus of Scranton, Pennsylvania, was announced. She would take the chorus, friends and other Welsh-Americans to the National Eisteddfod at Treorky where the chorus would perform.  Commanded by Capt. Prothero, Scythia sailed from New York on 20 July and the next day from Boston for Wales where she anchored in Barry Roads arrived on the 29th.

The steamship Scythia anchored in Barry Roads soon after eight o'clock on Sunday night. One of the Campbell pleasure steamers, the Glengower had previously set out from Cardiff carrying many hundreds of passengers. As the Glengower nosed her way down Channel the passengers suddenly noted the appearance on the horizon of the beautifully-lined liner, the Scythia. Bright bunting was run up to the mastheads of each boat, and the Red Ensign was hoisted on the Glengower. In reply the Scythia flew the Welsh flag and the passengers on both ships sang old Welsh hymns.

Western Mail, 30 July 1928

An atmospheric depiction of Scythia by Sam J.M. Brown.  Credit: author's collection

American tourism to Europe burgeoned during the "Roaring 'Twenties" and the spring eastbound boats were always well patronised.  On 27 May 1928, Scythia left Boston with some 700 passengers. "Swarming through the alleyways until progress was almost impossible, a crowd of visitors estimated at 1500 went aboard at East Boston to bid bon voyage to friends.  Great heaps of candy and flowers-- parting tokens of business men and women who wish love and friendship-- piled up with such rapidity that the stewards were literally swamped. " (Boston Globe, 28 May 1928)

A day late, Scythia docked at Boston from Liverpool and Cobh the morning of 16 July 1928. Her progress had been impeded by heavy fog after clearing the River Mersey and also more fog encountered three days from her destination. 

During the seven years of Captain Prothero's command the Scythia has gained the reputation of being one of the most comfortable and best-Governed passenger ships crossing the Atlantic. Passengers have admired his dignified courtesy and his' hearty sailor-like bearing. Officers and crew have grown to feel a complete confidence in his seamanship and capacity for, every emergency and a high sense of his fairness and firmness in all matters of discipline and control. 

Blyth News, 24 September 1928

Commanded for the last time by Capt. William Prothero, Scythia arrived at Liverpool on 20 September 1928. and Liverpool.  He was appointed as Relief Captain for Cunard's "Big Three" (Berengaria, Aquitania and Mauretania) and replaced in command of Scythia by Capt. Robert B. Irving, OBE, RNR.  who had been with the line for 25 years and had recently taken Franconia around the world. 

Some of the estimated 12,000 school children who visited Scythia and other ships during a harbour festival there. Credit: Liverpool Echo 22 September 1928

A battered Scythia docked at Boston from Liverpool and Cobh a day late on 8 October 1928. On the night of the 3rd, in a ferocious northwest gale, a wave broke completely over the vessel, dislodging a companionway ladder and breaking the steam whistle connection.  Hearing the unceasing whistle, passengers thought the ship was endangered and many donned lifejackets and rushed out on deck in some distress and panic until assured there was no danger.  

At 11 am yesterday, when the British Empire turned its thoughts toward the cenotaph in Whitehall, London, and the ceremonies there in memory of the fallen soldiers, the Cunarder Scythia stopped its engines and the big ship, then just entering Boston Harbor, gave itself up, fore and aft, to two minutes of silence except for the 'Last Post' from bugler Edward Norman.

The Boston Globe, 12 November 1928

Scythia's sailing from New York on 10 November 1928 was delayed ten minutes when Felix, her cat mascot who had been born aboard, was still on the pier when she raised her gangways.  He was found, put in a sack and hoisted aboard.

In 1928, Scythia completed 18 crossings with 9,988 passengers and one cruise with 366.

1929

The ship's crew must have enjoyed winter 1929. After one Liverpool-Halifax-New York crossing, arriving there on New Year's Eve, she cruised for the the rest of the season.

The colourful brochure cover for Scythia's first and only long West Indies cruise. Credit: eBay auction photo. 

The Scythia leaves New York on January 7th on one of the Cunard West Indies Cruises… She is the trump card cruise-ship for these clever, short, colour-packed voyages which are planned by the Cunard Line to take the winter nip out of January… To sit in the Scythia's verandah café on a January day (the Caribbean flows lazily below you, and a golden nerve-soothing sun falls on a rattan table, smartly set with Cunard napery and tinkling glasses) this is to know one of the Nine Artful Relaxations of Life...

Expanding her cruising role, Scythia sailed from New York on 7 January 1929 on a 12-day West Indies itinerary to Port-au-Prince, Kingston, Colon, Havana and Nassau.  

The brochure for Scythia's 7th Mediterranean cruise. Credit: eBay auction photo.

Scythia then sailed on her seventh Mediterranean cruise with 328 aboard for Frank Tourist Co. This departed New York on 29 January 1929 and called at Madeira, Cadiz, Gibraltar, Algiers, Naples, Palermo, Tunis, Malta, Syracuse, Alexandria (24 February-6 March), Haifa (7-9 March), Constantinople, Athens, Cattaro, Ragusa, Venice, Messina, Naples, Monte Carlo, Gibraltar and Cherbourg,  ending at Southampton on 29 March.  There, one could connect the same day on Berengaria to New York arriving 5 April or layover and take any Cunarder home.  On the return leg of this, she embarked about 100 passengers at Cherbourg from Transylvania, on a Mediterranean cruise (for Frank C. Clark), which had run aground on 28 March on La Coeque Rocks ten miles outside the harbour. By some coincidence, Scythia arrived at Cherbourg the same day.

Canada enjoyed a immigration boom in 1929 thanks to the introduction of a flat £10 Third Class fare for qualified migrants.  For the first two months of the year, twice as many immigrants for the Dominion left Britain than the same period in 1928.  To cater to this expanded traffic, Cunard added Scythia, Lancastria, Carinthia and Caronia to the Canadian trade for extra crossings that spring.  For April, 11 ships, totalling 175,000 grt, would make five sailings from Liverpool, six from Southampton and four from Glasgow and Belfast. Scythia left Liverpool on 6 April, numbering among her 418 Third Class passengers Mr. & Mrs. Morgan Walters of Llanelly and their 15 children.  The total fare for the whole family came to £14.  The Walters and Scythia arrived at Halifax on 14 April. This was Scythia's one contribution to the mini migrant boom that spring. Docking at New York on the 16th, her homeward crossing beginning the 28th included the first Boston call of the season the following day and she continued on this route for the rest of the year. 

Scythia, in outer New York Harbor, 7 July 1929 Credit: William B. Taylor photograph, Mariners' Museum.

A day late owing to heavy fog off the Grand Banks, Scythia docked at Boston on 10 June 1929.  Capt. Irving told reporters he thought the fog was caused by the presence of icebergs and field ice on the banks and said "the weather was cold and rather disagreeable during the trip."  It was also reported "that because of the increase in the demand for tourist room on transatlantic liners, additional staterooms for the class of travelers have been provided by rebuilding the hold forward of the bridge. This change increases the accommodations by 175." (The Boston Globe).  The ship's eastbound crossing embarked a record 674 passengers at Boston on the 16th joining the 500 who had boarded in New York and the area surrounding the pier jammed with an estimated 2,000 cars belonging to visitors and wellwishers. 

Advertisement for Scythia's first calls at Galway, Ireland, in 1929.

For the Catholic Emancipation Celebration in Dublin that summer, Cunard announced special voyages to Ireland. Scythia sailed on 11 July 1929 for Galway with hundreds of passengers intending on climbing Croagh Patrick on the 28th, the ascent  being a traditional healing pilgrimage for the lame and sick.

In July 1929 a revision to the U.S. immigration laws increased the quota from Great Britain and Ireland from 34,731 to 65,731 per annum.  This materially improved carryings for Cunard, Anchor and White Star Line and resulted in a major focus by Cunard to expand their services from Ireland in coming years. 

Making her fastest passage in several years, Scythia arrived at Boston on 1 September 1929, taking 6 days 17 hours from Liverpool.  She disembarked 519 before continuing to New York.

Gale conditions in the Mersey on 22 September 1929 kept three Atlantic liners (Scythia, Adriatic and Duchess of Atholl) and one bound for Australia (Themistocles) in port until the following day.  Six tugs managed to get Scythia out of Huskisson Dock into Sandon Basin, but it was considered too risky to get into the river and she and her 183 Cabin, 280 Tourist Third and 259 Third Class passengers were finally on their way the following day.

Gales and rough seas encountered during the last 600 miles of the crossing made Scythia almost 24 hours late in reaching Boston where she docked the morning of 25 November 1929.  

In 1929, Scythia made 18 crossings and carried 12,323 passengers and one cruise with 318.

Resulting from the new U.S. quota for immigrants from Ireland, Cunard announced on 8 December 1929 an expansion of their Irish service for the coming year. Effective with Scythia's sailing from New York on 19 April 1930, she would make eastbound regular calls at Galway in addition to Cobh. The westbound service from Galway would be maintained monthly starting 8 February by Scythia, Laconia and Lancastria. 

c. 1930 postcard of Scythia sailing from Liverpool from a painting by Sam J.M. Brown. Credit: author's collection.

Into her second decade, Scythia, somewhat unusually, phased out her limited cruising career and reverted to a fulltime Atlantic liner amid the Depression.  As such, she became a mainstay of the Boston service as well as being a linchpin of Cunard's much expanded Irish calls.  Before the decade was out, Cunard had rejoined the North Atlantic field of competition for biggest and fastest with Queen Mary. But Scythia and her intermediate consorts had already established themselves as the faithful ferries of the North Atlantic. 

The 'thirties, and certainly the North Atlantic Ferry, were dominated for three quarters of the decade, by the American and then world Depression.  Overall traffic dropped for most lines and many ships. Many found brief employment as cruise ships, both out of the United States and Britain, during an intense but shortlived "Cruise Boom".  Unlike her sisters, Scythia did not largely figure in this and indeed, she stopped cruising altogether in March 1932. Instead, she found full employment on Cunard's increasingly popular intermediate run, offering lower fares than the express steamers and serving the Irish ports... Cobh, Galway, Dublin and Belfast... which gave steady trade both east and westbound. Scythia was the veritable Boston Irish Boat during this period and no other Cunarder came to more associated with The Hub and the Emerald Isle between the wars and she was often "The Christmas Boat" for holidays in The Old Country.   Her carryings during the decade are indicative of a turbulent decade, but she did better than many ships during this period and indeed overall, she carried more passengers in the 1930s than she did during the "Roaring 'Twenties":

1930: 13,600     1935: 7,953

1931: 8,183       1936: 9,703

 1932: 11,174      1937: 10,237

1933: 8,185        1938: 6,936

1934: 7,350        1939: 4,960

Scythia or one of her sisters at Boston: the "20,000-tonners" were a familiar sight in Boston Harbor for 17 years. Credit: Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

1930

As late as early December 1929 Frank Tourist Co. was still actively advertising what would have been Scythia's eighth long Mediterranean cruise, departing New York on 29 January 1930.  Alas, it fell victim to the aftershocks of the Stock Market Crash in October and was quietly cancelled. 

Ending a veritable winter tradition, there was no long Mediterranean cruise for the ship for 1930 when Frank Tourist Co. cancelled at the last moment their eighth charter due to poor bookings after the Stock Market Crash of October 1929 and with three other ships programmed for similar cruises at the same time, Carinthia (Raymond & Whitcomb), Homeric (Thos. Cook & Son) and Transylvania (Frank C. Clark).  Scythia instead plied the rather less appealing Liverpool-Halifax winter run the next two winters.  

Cunard hastily programmed additional trans-Atlantic sailings in winter 1930 for Scythia on a Liverpool-Belfast-Halifax-New York routing. Credit: Belfast Telegraph, 25 January 1930.

Getting ready to sail from Liverpool on 4 January 1930, Scythia was struck by the steamer Port Bowen as she was coming into Canada Dock, but the damage was confined to two bent railing stanchions and she was still able to get away on time. She called at Halifax on the 12th and arrived at New York on the 14th.  For the first time in eight years, Scythia sailed in January (18th) from New York, not bound for the Mediterranean, but for Halifax, Cobh and Liverpool.  She plied this route, calling outbound at Belfast, through April. On 20 April she made her first seasonal call at Boston eastbound which was maintained up to her 2 November sailing.  

Scythia approaching New York, 30 April 1930. Credit: William B. Taylor photograph, Mariners' Museum.

On 22 June 1930 Scythia saved the crew of the blazing motor boat Innisarcain, which was seen to be on fire by Captain Irving after passing the Fastnet. The occupants, a father and his three sons, none of whom could swim, jumped into a leaking rowboat to escape the flames and Scythia arrived just in time to lower a lifeboat and take them aboard.  The father was treated for burns aboard and the ship's passengers collected money for them before they were landed at Cobh.  

Frank Tourist Co. made one more effort at reviving Scythia's long Mediterranean cruise with a 27 January 1931 departure. But, it like the 1930 one, did not take place and the company which did not survive the Depression, ended their cruise ship charters.  Credit: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 7 September 1930. 

Among Scythia's cargo brought into Liverpool on 15 September 1930 was the first consignment of American fruit for the season, nearly 11,000 barrels and boxes of apples and pears, 3,000 packages of prunes and 2,500 packages of grapefruit.  

Ascania, Franconia and Scythia in Huskisson Dock, Liverpool in the early 1930s.

Leaving Boston on 2 November 1930, the Boston Globe reported that "After calling at Cobh, the Scythia will be put into drydock for an overhauling at Liverpool, and she will cruise about the first of May."  Her place on the route would be taken by Carmania.  

In 1930, Scythia completed 22 crossings and carried 13,600 passengers, the most of any year before the war.

1931

Contrary to the Boston Globe report, there was no Mediterranean cruise that winter (and the last time it would be attempted), Scythia was back instead on the winter Liverpool-Cobh-New York run.  That season, she was also the Boston winter ship, maintaining a monthly call in both directions. She arrived at New York on 19 January 1931, sailed on the 24th and stopped at Boston the next day.  

The ship's cargo carryings continued to feature large fruit shipments and on 26 January 1931, she left Boston with 2500 cases of New England apples, one of the largest consignments in several months. A slightly more unusual cargo came in on 17 February 1931 when Scythia arrived at Boston with a "valuable shipment of Asian jungle birds for the bird sanctuary at Augusta, Mich."

Capt. B.B. Oram brought Scythia into Boston at dusk on 5 July 1931, exactly on the 91st anniversary of the first arrival of Britannia there, beginning the Cunard service.  

On 30 September 1931 it was announced that Scythia had been chartered to the American Osteopathic Foundation for a 130-day "Health Cruise cruise to the Orient, Old World and Mediterranean" routed westerly through the Panama Canal and sailing from New York 1 December 1932 and returning 11 April 1933.  Like several other ambitious world cruises planned during the Depression years, this did not materialise. 

Scythia's 1 October 1931 sailing from Boston on a cruise to Nassau and Havana was the first of its kind from the port. But like so much as the Depression set in, it was a hard sell and fares were slashed 30% to encourage bookings.  A group booking by the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company swelled her list and ensured a gala send-off. 

Scythia made two 10-day cruises for National Tours from New York and Boston on 30 September and 10 October 1931 to Nassau and Havana respectively.  Scythia's departure from Boston on 1 October 1931 on an eight-day cruise to Nassau was the first of its kind direct from the port. She embarked 275 members of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company (the oldest chartered military organisation in America) for their 294th Fall field day at Nassau.  "Drums and band instruments blared a farewell to the famous artillery company as the big liner pulled away from her dock, into the darkness. Fireboats, with sirens blasting a raucous message, shot great streams of water into the air as the Scythia slipped out of her dock. On the roof of the pier, the 175 members of the Boston Fire Department Band played, while the orchestra of the liner gave back an answer. Further up the harbor, ferry boats and tugs added their whistle blasts to the farewell." (Boston Globe, 2 October 1931).  The second cruise to Havana was also fully booked including 350 fire department chiefs who embarked the day before in New York bound for a convention in the Cuban capital.

Cuba continued to be the winter destination of choice and on 30 October 1931 Cunard announced Carinthia, Caledonia and Scythia would replace Caronia and Carmania on the New York-Havana run on the fourth season the line had operated on the route.  Scythia would make the first cruise on 15 January 1932 and she, together with Carinthia, would operate a weekly service every Friday with a single departure by Caledonia on 11 March. The cruises would call at Nassau en route and give two days in Havana.

Amidst the worst of the Depression, many cruise programmes were changed or cancelled owing to lack of demand. That for Scythia planned for winter 1932 was originally:

• 15 January '32: 9 days to Nassau and Havana
• 29 January '32: 9 days to Nassau and Havana
• 12 February '32 9 days to Havana and Nassau
• 27 February '32: 23 days to San Juan, St. Pierre, Fort de France, Barbados, Brighton, Port of Spain, La Guaira, Curacao, Colon, Kingston and Havana
• 16 April '32: 12 days to Nassau, Kingston and Havana

None of these took place and in early December 1931, they were cancelled, and Scythia reprogrammed for winter 1932. This coincided with the announcement that the calls at Galway would be increased from seven in 1932 to 16 in 1932 by Scythia, Laconia, Carinthia and Andania.

Thirty-six hours late owing to Atlantic gales most of the way across, Scythia finally docked at Boston on 22 December 1931.  She landed a small list of 17 Cabin, 17 Tourist and 23 Third Class passengers, 200 tons of cargo and then proceeded to New York.  

In 1931, Scythia completed 21 crossings and carried 8,183 passengers, and two cruises.

1932

Scythia rang in the New Year 1932 with a nine-day cruise to Nassau and Havana from New York starting 26 December 1931 which featured New Years Eve in Havana and returned to on 3 January 1932.  Instead of her originally planned West Indies cruises, she made an extra round Atlantic voyage, departing on the 8th to Liverpool and including one of the calls at Galway on the 17th whilst the westbound crossing called at Belfast on the 24th and Halifax on the 31st.  She docked at New York on 2 February. 

Advertisements for what proved to be Scythia's last cruise, from New York to Havana, on 19 March 1932.  

She went on to make three nine-day cruises from New York to Havana and Nassau on 5 and 19 February and 4 March 1932. This was followed by an eight-day cruise just to Havana on 19 March for Frank Tourist Co. This proved to her final cruise and henceforth she was a fulltime trans-Atlantic liner.

Advertisement for Scythia's extra sailing from Boston in April 1932. Credit: Boston Globe 7 March 1932

Scythia's 1932 Atlantic season from Boston began a month earlier than planned owing to heavy demand arising from a new deferred payment plan for passages as well as a 20 per cent reduction in fares.  She docked there on 4 April from New York and embarked 50 passengers, joining the 115 who boarded in New York.  

Handled with dispatch in spite of rain and fog, the transatlantic sailing of the Cunarder Scythia yesterday from East Boston was marked by two outstanding points, the largest cargo taken out of Boston in recent years by a passenger ship on Sunday, and an influx of visitors that swarmed aboard the liner.

More than 500 tons of Boston cargo were put aboard the liner during her four-hour stopover at this port, on her way from New York to Galway, Queenstown and Liverpool. This cargo, said Edward H. Hagarty, Cunard freight manager at Boston, is the largest ever taken out by a passenger ship making Boston a port of call.

Gangs of stevedores worked with great activity to sling the casks and bales aboard in time for the ship to get away at 6 o'clock. About half of this cargo consisted of tallow on the way to a large British soap manufacturer.

Fog, clinging low over the Massachusetts Coast, caused Capt. B.B. Oram to slow his vessel down and the liner was two hours late arriving her from her overnight trip from New York.

When the Scythia reached the dock at 2 p.m., 3000 visitors were waiting in the shed. They flocked aboard until the corridors were jammed. It was necessary to shorten the visitors' time in order that all might be ashore before the liner sailed.

Boston Globe, 2 May 1932

Two days late, Scythia arrived at Boston on 13 April 1932 owing to storms en route during which she had to hove-to for several hours.  She had aboard 1,285 passengers, including a record 544 for Boston.

Beginning with the departure of Scythia on 24 June 1932, the Cobh and Liverpool run ships would sail from New York  at 9:00 p.m. to reach Ireland the following Friday and England Saturday. Previously, they had left late morning on Saturdays.   Scythia left with 1,610 passengers, mostly bound for Galway and the Eucharistic Congress.

Credit: Wilkes Barre Record, 29 June 1932

For Scythia, the big news of 1932 was not of the ship, her crew or passengers but rather her fuel. Neither oil nor coal, but rather an experimental mixture of both.  The so-called "colloidal" fuel, composed of oil and pulverised coal in a proportion of 3 to 2, held the promise of lower cost and a boon to Britain's struggling coal industry.  Scythia was selected to test the use of the new fuel on a round voyage to New York departing 11 June, returning to Liverpool on 4 July.  She carried 150 tons of colloidal fuel and this was used to fire one of her boilers through the course of the voyage. Although the trial was heralded as a complete success, this was the last that heard of the endeavour. 

In 1932, Scythia made 24 crossings, carrying 11,174 passengers and five cruises.

1933

For 1933, Scythia ran year-round on the Liverpool-Cobh-Boston-New York run.

With a light list of 208, of which 50 disembarked there, Scythia docked at Boston on 30 January 1933. "The liner encountered heavy weather, especially the last four days, and escaped injury although she pitched and rolled considerably.  The northeasterly gale of the last few days drove the liner ahead at a speed that made it necessary to slow down the engines." (Boston Globe)

The ship's next westbound crossing  arriving at Boston 26 February 1933 had every extreme of weather:  

Shirtsleeves, semitropical skies and peaceful seas started the voyage with the Cunard Scythia. Overcoats, blinding, snow-filled skies and heavy seas marked the finish of the trip. 

She got in yesterday afternoon at East Boston after running the scale of temperature and weather from Liverpool and Queenstown. Even four days out of the channel, the Scythia basked in warm sun and quiet seas.  The passengers said they thought they were on a Southern cruise. But howling wind and snow greeted them off the Massachusetts coast. Unable to see little more than his bow in front of him, Capt. B.B. Oram dropped anchor early yesterday off Boston Lightship. The visibility held poor throughout the forenoon and Scythia could not reach her dock until 2 p.m.

Boston Globe, 27 February 1933

Scythia took a bite out of her East Boston pier head whilst docking on 29 April 1933. Credit: Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection.

Riding majestically almost end to end along the upper channel of Boston harbor and free, for the moment, from the ocean fog which brought them in port at the same time, three great British transatlantic liners offered a spectacle of shipping just before 6 o'clock last night which Boston's waterfront had not seen in years.

Within a few a hundred yards of each other, the White Star motorship Georgic, Cunarder Scythia and the Anchor liner Cameronia sailed along the same channel-- the first time in years that three vessels of such size an type have been underway in Boston at once and so together that they could be included in one glance.

All of which means that the port of Boston yesterday was literally teeming with business-- hundred of arriving and departing passengers, thousand of visitors, and tons of cargo. It was the business day of the year for post officials.

Boston Globe, 17 July 1933

Heavy fog north of Nova Scotia delayed Scythia for more than 12 hours arriving at Boston from Liverpool, Cobh and Galway on 19 June 1933. She was also forced to stop twice crossing the Grand Banks on account of icebergs in the steamship track.  Among her cargo unloaded there was 350 tons of wool. 

Scythia in the Lower Bay, New York Harbor 23 July 1933. Credit: William B. Taylor photograph, Mariners' Museum.

A heavy gale delayed the inbound Scythia off Mersey Bar all night 1-2 August 1933 and she was not able to dock until the 2nd.  

With 783 passengers (293 landing there) Scythia docked at Boston on 11 September 1933 from Liverpool, Cobh and Galway. Slowed by westerly gales, her time from Black Head, off Galway, to Boston on 7 days 10 hours 12 minutes.  

A new mail delivery routine was begun with Scythia's Boston arrival on 5 November 1933. All 2,400 bags of her mail  were landed there and that destined for the New York area and beyond was put on mail cars instead of staying on ship on the final leg to New York, saving more than 24 hours.  

Scythia was often The Christmas Boat from New York and Boston to Ireland and England as she was in 1933 as advertised above, including a specially escorted party to Galway.

With only 6 Cabin, 18 Tourist and 10 Third Class for the port, it hardly seemed worth the effort for Scythia to dock at Boston, a full two days late owing to westerly gales and then a snowstorm off the New England coast that kept off Quarantine for almost 24 hours, on 5 December 1933.  She had rough seas most of the way across.  With the coming of Christmas, her mail holds were well-filled and she unloaded all 2,826 bags there before proceeding to New York.  But, by far, the most welcome part of her cargo were the first 64 cases of French champagne for a Boston dealer and a larger consignment of liquor, including 500 cases of whiskey, for New York in anticipation of the repeal of Prohibition.

British ships, especially those sailing from Scottish and Irish ports, were never more welcome in the U.S. than those arriving in December 1933-January 1934 with the repeal of Prohibition and quite possibly the only ones to feature in liquor store advertisements.

In 1933, Scythia made 24 crossings and carried 8,185 passengers.

1934

Once again, Scythia was the "all year" ship for the Liverpool-Cobh-Boston-New York run. Much to the disappointment of her passengers who missed ringing in the New Year at home, Scythia finally reached Boston direct from Liverpool on 2 January 1934. The Cobh call had been dropped owing to lack of passengers from the port.  The ship, encountering continuous gales all the way, averaged less than 12 knots.  "During the recent subzero weather, the vessel iced up so badly that precautions had to be taken to prevent members of the crew from being struck by falling ice. Tons of ice formed on the decks, rails, shrouds and superstructure. When the temperature rose the ice began to drop from aloft and the men were kept from the deck." (Boston Globe).  Her first eastbound crossing of the year, from New York on  January, called unusually at Halifax, too, after Boston on 8 January, and again on 2 April.

In an extraordinary coincidence, Scythia's February westbound crossing of 1934 had almost the same weather extremes as that almost a year, to the day, previously.  Docking at Boston on 25 February 1934, the Boston Globe the following day reported:  'For the first two days out of Liverpool and Cobh, the Scythia's passengers strolled without overcoats along the sunny decks, wondering if Spring had not come early. In mid-Atlantic they wore all available clothing if they ventured on deck at all. Heavy seas shook the big vessel, green combers raked the bow and the ship pitched and tossed like a rocking horse, with the temperature well below zero from the howling gale."

Not an uncommon sight during the winter of 1934; an ice encrusted Scythia docking at a frigid New York on 27 February 1934. Credit: The Daily News, 28 February 1934.

On arrival at New York on 21 May 1934, Scythia's Capt. W.A. Hawkes recounted spotting 15 icebergs about 100 miles west of Cape Race, the nearest one being about two miles away from the ship. The largest bergs were 300 ft. long and 165 ft. high. 

Whilst she was berthing at Liverpool on 5 July 1934, Scythia was involved in a "slight collision" with the Isle of Man steamer Viking as she was departing the Landing Stage for Douglas.  Neither vessel sustained any damage. 

The "Big Event" of 1934 was, of course, the merger of former rivals to form Cunard-White Star Line in July.  Scythia and Lancastria shared the honour of showing the new dual houseflags sailing from Liverpool on the 7th.  

On her next sailing on 7 July 1934, Scythia, bound for Boston and New York, and Lancastria, on a cruise to Iceland and Norway, were the first ships to fly the new  combined houseflags of Cunard-White Star Line, from the Mersey a after the official transfer of the ships registry to the new company.  Aquitania and Alaunia had the honour from Southampton on the same day.  

More weather peculiarities featured on Scythia's westbound crossing which reached Boston on 15 July 1934. For three days on the trip over from Liverpool, Cobh and Galway, the ship's steam heat was turned on and the temperatures ranging from mid 50-56 degs. F.  Purser Edward C.F. Moore could not remember in his 35 years at sea (including 150 voyages in Scythia) when the heat was turned on during a July voyage. 

In 1934, Scythia made 24 crossings and carried 7,350 passengers.

1935

For 1935, Britannic and Georgic which had formed the former White Star contribution to the Liverpool-Boston-New York intermediate service and doubtless the most impressive of its ships, were transferred to a new London based, Channel ports intermediate route.  Scythia again served this route year-round and Boston calls in both directions were now weekly from May-September with Laconia, Samaria, Carinthia detailed to it during this period. 

On  first crossing of 1935, Scythia's called en route at Belfast on 5 January and loaded a consignment of Irish linen for New York dealers, worth £32,000 and 500 cases of Irish whisky valued at £1,500.  She also called at Galway before continuing to Boston and New York.   She was now commanded by Capt. G.R. Dolphin and Capt. W.A. Hawkes going to Britannic. 

Although gales and heavy seas had put the ship 12 hours behind at the onset of her voyage from Liverpool to Cobh, better weather en route and a fast passage saw Scythia arriving almost on time at Boston the evening of 10 March 1935 and disembarking 54 of the total of 250 passengers the follow morning.  

Whilst lying in Huskisson Dock, Liverpool, on 27 March 1935, Scythia was the venue for the British Legion "Eve of Grand National Ball" before the running of the famous race the next day.  "The Scythia is being converted into a fairyland of spring flowers with thousands of fairy lights, a feature being the talkie cinema show giving the Grand National race of previous years. Two free voucher for a Cunard White Star cruise are also to be presented." (Liverpool Echo, 27 March 1935)

Upon arrival in Liverpool on 20 May 1935 the first off Scythia was Capt. Constantine Christides, master of the Greek freighter Johannes P. Goulandris, who was carried off in a stretcher.  He had been taken off his own ship in mid Atlantic sending a distress call for urgent medical attention.  He, in fact, been ill for most of the voyage from Montreal, bound for Hull, and had been self medicating himself before falling serious ill.  The freighter rendezvoused with Scythia which was 100 miles away and the captain transferred by ship's boat and treated aboard and then rushed to hospital in Liverpool.

Antonia and Scythia (left New York on 23 November) finally docked in Liverpool on 3 December 1935 after being delayed off Mersey Bar by weekend gales. Antonia was held up a full 48 hours and Scythia was 12 hours late.  

In 1935, Scythia made 24 crossings and carried 7,953 passengers.

1936

On 2 December 1935 Cunard-White Star cancelled Scythia’s sailings until February, for what was initially planned as a drydocking.  Instead it was revealed on 6 January 1936 that she had been chartered to carry troop reinforcements to Egypt during the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. California and Vandyck were also "called up" for the same purpose.  Scythia was the first liner "called up" since the Great War. At Huskisson Dock she underwent "extensive structure alterations": Over 100 men have been working on the liner late into for the past ten days… From the changed appearance of the once popular passenger liners it would appear that she is likely to be retained on War Office service for some time. There has been an amazing change in the ship in a short time. Racks have been fitted to carry thousands of rifles and bayonets, while Army orders are posted in the corridors and on decks giving details of the routine of the ship." (Sheffield Independent).  She left Liverpool on the 5th for Southampton.

Scythia at Southampton preparing for her transport voyage to Egypt. Credit: Alamy

An Army lorry being loaded aboard Scythia. Credit: Alamy

With a brigade composed of 1,484 men of the Cheshire, Gloucestershire, York and Lancaster Regiments under Maj. Gen. Geoffrey W. Howard, Scythia sailed from Southampton on the 8th and reached Alexandria on 16 January 1936.  She was back at Southampton on the 24th and after a quick refurbishment and refit, resumed her Boston-New York on 15 February. 

On her first trans-Atlantic crossing since November, Scythia arrived at Boston on 23 February 1936 "thoroughly reconditioned" after her single transport voyage and, with a following wind across, logging an average of 400 miles daily from Liverpool and Cobh.  On the run down from Halifax she ran into a heavy snowstorm that put six inches on her decks, occasioning a snowball fight among some of her more energetic passengers.  

The incomparable Kenneth Shoesmith depicts Scythia leaving New York for this c. 1936 postcard.  Credit: author's collection. 

Twelve hours late owing to bad weather across, Scythia docked at Boston on 18 May 1936.  Her Chief Officer, Charles Ford, was rushed off the ship to a waiting ambulance to take him to hospital having come down with appendicitis two days before. This was the last voyage for Purser Edward C.F. Moore who was retiring when the ship returned to Liverpool. He had first joined Cunard in 1904 and was Chief Purser of Scythia since her maiden voyage, doing 172 voyages in her over 14 years, and in all had crossed the Atlantic 344 times.  True to the ship's Boston roots established over that time, he met his wife during a call there.  On the return call at the port on the 24th, two of the Cunard 20,000-tonners were together in Boston for the first time with Carinthia arriving from Britain about an hour before Scythia sailed.  

With 16 tons of gold in 314 boxes, worth $17,500,000 among her cargo, Scythia left Liverpool on 6 June 1936 for Boston and New York.

Heavy fog at Liverpool 24-25 November 1936 delayed many ships including Scythia, arriving from New York and Boston, which was forced to anchor off Mersey Bar for 24 hours and finally landed her passengers by tender on the evening of the 24th. Her sailing, too, for New York was delayed 24 hours. 

Making that year's Christmas crossing, Scythia sailed from Boston on 13 December 1936 for Galway, Cobh and Liverpool with 277 aboard.    

The officers of the Cunard liner Scythia raised their glasses yesterday in the first formal toast to their King, in American waters. Docked at Pier 56, they hailed the new King, the new Queen and the Princess Elizabeth.

Daily News, 11 December 1936

In 1936, Scythia made 22 crossings and carried 9,703 passengers.

Cunard-White Star poster c. 1937 promoting their ever expanding services to/from Ireland and featuring a Scythia-class ship.

Cunard-White Star announced on 24 December 1936 an expansion of Irish calls for 1937 with Dublin becoming a regular fortnightly westbound call and then calling at Galway.  The first sailing from Dublin was by Scythia on 10 April 1937. In all, from April-September there would be 75 calls at Dublin, Galway and Cobh. 

1937

Making her first crossing of the season and with a new skipper, Capt. Charles H. Bates, formerly  commander of the Laurentic, Scythia pulled into Boston from Liverpool and Cobh  on 26 January 1937 with 155 passengers (55 for the New England port), 17 cages of canaries, one coop of pigeons and seven dogs.  In her holds were 700 tons for Boston including 1,500 cases of whisky, 1,000 cases of ale, wool ,hides and machinery.  "Southwest gales, rough seas, snow squalls and low temperatures were encountered at the very onset of the voyage, continuing until the ship was 24 hours off shore, when the weather moderated.  Favorable conditions enabled her to make a fine run yesterday and she managed to make up about two hours of the time lost." (Boston Globe).

The next month found Scythia with yet another new Captain,  Ernest Edkin, O.B.E., R.D., R.N.R., formerly of Lancastria, and 36 hours late coming into Boston on 22 February 1937 after another stormy winter crossing.  Again, her list was light with 27 passengers disembarking there and 86 bound for New York. Spring business promised to be better, buoyed by the Coronation of King George VI in London in May for which Cunard-White Star arranged a special sailing by Carinthia from Boston on 28 April.

Credit: The Tablet 8 May 1937

Coming in from Liverpool, Cobh and Galway (for the first time that season), Scythia docked at Boston on 22 March 1937 after, for a change, enjoying fair weather on the way over and with 236 passengers including Labour Leader Lord Elton, and Lady Elton, lecturing in America on "Public Opinion and World Peace."

Marking the first crossing of the new Dublin-Boston-New York service (Scythia sailing from the Irish Capital for the first time on 10 April 1937), New York Mayor LaGuardia was presented with a silver-bound cask of Irish whisky, a gift from Dublin Lord Mayor Alfred Bryne. 

The Cunard-White Star and Donaldson Lines combined services from/to Eire and Northern Ireland in 1937 were the most extensive ever offered, calling variously at Cobh, Dublin and Galway in the Republic and Belfast in Northern Ireland to New York, Boston and Montreal. 

A longshoremen's strike on the Eastern Seaboard delayed Scythia's departure from New York scheduled for 24 April 1937 for Boston, Galway, Belfast and Liverpool until the next day.  She had 301 aboard, many bound for the Coronation, when she left Boston on the 25th, one of six Cunarders sailing eastbound in time for the ceremonies.

Although mist overhung the Mersey this morning hundreds sought the stages and promenades on both hanks in order to view the river spectacle provided by the presence of six representative Liverpool liners decorated and moored line ahead in midstream. The vessels are the Aba (Elder Dempster Line), the Mandasor (Brocklebank), Nova Scotia and Pacific President (Furness Withy), the Alfred Holt liner Sarpedon and the Cunard White Star steamer Scythia. The tender Skirmisher, gaily beflagged, took her first complement of Liverpool nurses, who were bound for a tour of inspection of the Scythia. To-night the vessels will be illuminated by myriad coloured lights, with the lines of the anchored ships picked out in fairy lights. There will be river cruises to view the display at 11 p.m. 

Liverpool Echo, 12 May 1937

In a change of pace for the ship, Scythia, after Liverpool, called westbound at Greenock on 15 May 1937 direct to New York.  That year, of course, saw Scythia regularly calling at Dublin and on 12 July she came into the Boston from the Irish capital, Galway and Liverpool with 341 and a large cargo after a smooth crossing. Her next arrival at the New England port on 9 August was three hours late in docking owing to fog in the harbour.  Her list was the best so far that season with 275 for Boston and 455 for New York although a 72-year-old passenger contracted pneumonia and died aboard just a day before arrival.  

With the best list in many years, Scythia docked at Boston on 6 September 1937 from Liverpool, Dublin and Galway with 1,416 aboard, almost all returning American tourists including a party of Boy Scouts who attended the International Jamboree in the Netherlands.  Sadly, one of the group, aged 17, passed away aboard from diabetes and a lady passenger died of a heart attack in the course of the voyage in what seemed a spate, fortunately shortlived, of deaths aboard.

''Transatlantic airplane travel, now in the experimental stage, will develop to such an extent that in 10 or 15 years thousands of persons will choose this method of travel.' Frederick W. Whitehead, British airplane motor manufacturer, predicted yesterday when he arrived here as a passenger on board the Cunard-White Star liner Scythia." (Boston Herald, 5 October 1937). He was among another large list of 1,007 passengers coming from British and Irish ports.  

Credit: The Tablet 9 October 1937

Cunard-White Star announced on 8 October 1937 resumption of their traditional Boston-Cobh service with the sailing of Scythia on the 10th for port, Galway and Liverpool.  For the summer season, Dublin had replaced the southern Irish port for the Boston ships.  It was recalled that Canada inaugurated the Cobh-Boston service back on 6 November 1859 with Cunard going on to play an enormous role in Irish links with The Hub which continued to the present day. 

Scythia's final westbound crossing of the year, arriving at Boston on 7 December 1937 before continuing to New York, introduced another new captain for the vessel, Capt. J.G.P. Bisset who, of course, went on to great fame commanding Queen Elizabeth during the war and after.  

In 1937, Scythia made 24 crossings and carried 10,237 passengers. 

1938

Head gales and rough seas met en route from Liverpool and Cobh, then fog off the coast, put Scythia a full 36 hours off schedule by the time she docked at Boston  the morning of 22 March 1938.  Of her 319 passengers, 67 disembarked there.  

A variation on the Kenneth Shoesmith painting of Scythia/Samaria/Laconia with gold (which quickly aged to brown!) background.  Credit: author's collection.

Business was bad in 1938 owing to war scares in Europe during the Munich Crisis as well as a severe recession in the United States.  When Scythia cleared Boston on 27 March she had only 225 passengers for Cobh and Liverpool.  On her return to the port on 25 April she numbered among her passengers a dozen Jewish refugees from Germany.

22 May 1938 was Maritime Day in Boston Harbor and marked by no fewer than three Cunarders in the port: Scythia, inbound from Liverpool, Belfast and Greenock after a rough passage but early, and as she sailed for New York, Lancastria and Samaria entered the harbour.

Delayed by fog, Scythia was six hours late docking at New York and Georgic, three hours late, on 19 June 1938.  Both ships spotted icebergs en route even on courses separated by 100 miles.  

After a fast run despite head winds and bringing in her best list of the year, Scythia came into Boston on 10 September 1938 with 984 aboard, 271 for the New England port.  The ship continued to put in fast passages and was 12 hours early reaching Boston on her next crossing which arrived 9 October.  Her westbound call there was cancelled on the 17th owing to thick fog which had her anchored off Nantucket Lightship most of the previous day.  The 50 intending passengers were trained to New York in time to catch Queen Mary midweek.  

Dense fog in the Mersey prevented Scythia from getting away on time on her first crossing of 1939 and unable to make up the time on the trip across, arrived at Boston about 24 hours late on 13 February  with 144 passengers, 43 for Boston and landed 450 tons of cargo.

Trans-Atlantic traffic remained depressed amid renewed war fears with the German occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia in March. Scythia docked at Boston from Liverpool, Cobh and Galway on  the 26th with 67 passengers of her 288 total landing at the port. She was commanded by Capt. W.C. Battle. Dense fog suddenly rolled in and Scythia was unable to sail for New York until the following day.  

In 1938, Scythia completed 22 crossings and carried 6,937 passengers.

1939

It was announced on 20 May 1939 that all of the Cunard intermediates would be or had been fitted with new solid magnesium bronze screws in place of the old-fashioned bolted bladed propellers which were much more efficient and reckoned to increase their speed by a full knot.  

Scythia had another new skipper on the bridge as she came into Boston on 21 May 1939 from Liverpool, Belfast and Galway, Capt. Reginald J. Finlow.  She had only 200 passengers aboard, 45 for Boston.  Her eastbound sailing, however, on the 27th embarked 339 at the port, one of the best lists in sometime.  "A lessening of political tension abroad with the increasingly belief that Europe will be as peaceful and attractive as ever this summer as the reasons advanced by James J. O'Connor, assistant passenger manager for the Cunard White Star, Ltd. for the recent upward trend in bookings." (Boston Globe, 31 May 1939).

Not often patronised by film stars, Scythia's arrival at Boston on 17 July 1939 did number Errol Elynn's mother and sister, of Belfast, among her 225 passengers.    Local film fans who waited near the pier were disappointed to learn that they were bound instead for New York where Mr. Flynn would meet them.  

Coming in from Liverpool, Belfast and Greenock, Scythia docked at Boston on 13 August 1939. She brought in 409 passengers, landing 93 an 450 tons of cargo there. Among her passengers were another 100 Jewish refugees, many from Austria.  

Scythia left New York at noon on 18 August 1939 and Boston the next day at 10:00 p.m. with 370 passengers for Galway, Belfast and Liverpool on what proved to be her last peacetime crossing. Off the coast of Ireland, she collided with the British freighter Tregarthen on the afternoon of 25th.  The cargo ship reported a "glancing impact between no. 4 and no. 5 holds, vessel's side set-in above waterline about five frames" and Scythia suffered only minor damage and both proceeded on the voyages.  Scythia arrived at Galway the next day and Liverpool on the 27th.

With another European war imminent, Cunard-White Star announced on 28 August 1939 the cancellation of several westbound sailings including that of Scythia scheduled for 1 September. More than a few of her passengers were booked on the Donaldson liner Athenia instead which, of course, was torpedoed off Ireland on 3 September.  

Pre-war idyll... R.M.S. Scythia at her Chelsea, New York pier. Credit: Nicolas Haché collection.

The first Cunarder requisitioned for duty in the Second World War, part of the first convoy in the war and the last of the line's ships released from government service, Scythia weathered bombs and torpedoes, carried troops of most of the Allied nations, POWs, war brides, displaced persons, refugees and British child evacuees during an exemplary decade On H.M. Service. 

The first "called up" and the last Cunarder to be "demobbed," Scythia put in a full decade of service outside her designed role and by doing so, she and her other intermediates proved just how valuable and versatile they were.  She was spared the conversion into an Armed Merchant Cruise, a function for which no passenger liner was really suited for, and instead put in almost another full season on the North Atlantic passenger run before conversion into a transport.  Unlike some of her more cruising compatriots, this role took her to hitherto unknown oceans, continents and conditions.  

After surviving being torpedoed, Scythia's war played out without serious incident. And when it was over, she another fulsome four years ahead. The aftermath of the World War had Canadian troops in Holland, Polish Displaced Persons in Kenya and India, German POWs in Manitoba and Italian ones in England, and the wives and children of Canadian soldiers in England.  And Scythia was tasked with helping to bring them home or to start new lives in new countries.  Peace brought the upheaval of Empire and Scythia found herself first bringing British forces back from India after Japan surrendered, then returning others to keep order during the partition of India and finally, with Independence, bringing them all home, along with British civilians.  Finally, Scythia carried thousands of "DPs" (Displaced Persons), the war wracked remains of families, orphans and the stateless, to new lives in Canada.  

In Scythia's long, rich career, these were the most varied and valuable years of her life.  

1939 

Pressed into service almost "as is", Scythia was part of the very first troop convoy in the Second World War, bound for Gibraltar. She sailed from Liverpool on 4 September 1939 for Gibraltar with the 1st Battalion of the Welsh Guards, in convoy FS1 arriving on the 11th.  Sailing home on the 26th with Convoy HGF1, she arrived at Liverpool on 1 October. 

A remarkable panoramic photo of the first wartime British convoy leaving the Clyde for Gibraltar of which Scythia was a part. Ships from left to right are: Scythia, Montcalm, Orford, Reina del Pacifico, Orion, Clan Ferguson, Britannic, Durban Castle, Duchess of Bedford, Straithaird and Orcades. Credit: Australian War Memorial

War did not mean a complete cessation of trans-Atlantic commercial travel, indeed demand for westbound passage by stranded tourists, refugees and British evacuee children was acute.  To cater to this, Scythia would, after her single transport voyage, return to her familiar Liverpool-New York run after a quick refit which armed her defensively with a single six-inch gun aft, smoke generators and even armoured "pillboxes" on her bridge wing and after docking station.  Her hull remained black but her upperworks and funnel were now painted grey.  

When Scythia returned to New York on her first wartime crossing, she sported armoured "pill-boxes" on her bridge wings designed to protect navigating officers in the case of a surface attack.  Credit: Historicimages.com

Scythia sailed from Liverpool on 21 October 1939, arriving at New York on 31st with 36 Cabin Class, 53 Tourist and 85 Third Class and sailed eastbound on 4 November with 30 each in Cabin and Tourist Class and 47 in Third Class. For the rest of the year, Cunard still maintained a thrice monthly service with Scythia, Samaria, Georgic and Britannic.  

In 1939, Scythia completed 18 crossings and carried 4,960 passengers. 

1940

Into 1940, Scythia's New York arrivals featured more and more Jewish evacuees leaving Britain.  On 19 January they numbered 125 of the 180 passengers.  Her 4 March arrival landed 589 passengers including 400 refugees.  She had left Liverpool on 22 February equipped for the first time with a degaussing cable around her hull as protection from magnetic mines. This was her first wartime crossing to call at Halifax (on 1 March) before docking at New York on the 4th. Not counted as passengers, she also brought over crew for the brand new and incomplete Queen Elizabeth which joined Scythia in New York on the 7th having sailed in great secrecy direct from the Clyde.  Henceforth, Scythia called westbound at Halifax before continuing to New York. 

Some of the 71 British child evacuees who arrived in New York aboard Scythia on 7 July 1940. Credit: Historicimages.com

Scythia's fifth wartime crossing brought 552 passengers to New York on 17 April 1940.  Among the 571 who were landed on 28 May were 300 more Jewish refugees.  With the fall of France and the threat of invasion, British children were evacuated to Canada and America beginning that summer.  Scythia brought in the first group of 71 on 7 July among her 344 passengers and another 162 on 12 August along with 75 Jewish refugees out of a total of 775 aboard.  Scythia sailed from New York on the 17th and reached Halifax two days later.  

Coming into New York on 12 August 1940, Scythia's anchor got fouled in underwater cables off Quarantine. Salvage derricks had to be called to clear the anchor, delaying her four hours. Credit: Historicimages.com

Taking a break from her commercial crossings, Scythia briefly resumed her transport duties when she sailed with 1,204 troops as part of Convoy TC.7 from Halifax on 27 August 1940 for the Clyde where she arrived on 4 September and then continued independently to Liverpool.  

Scythia  then undertook what would be her final commercial trans-Atlantic westbound crossing "for the duration," departing Liverpool on 24 September 1940 and arriving at New York on 3 October with 808 passengers including British author H.G. Wells.  Among her final group of 90 British children evacuees was 12-year-old child actor Roddy McDowell who co-starred in How Green Was My Valley the next year. She left New York for Liverpool direct on the 14th and docked there on 21 October.  After ten wartime trans-Atlantic voyages, Scythia now went to war as a fulltime troop transport.

In 1940, Scythia completed 19 commercial crossings.

Initially, Scythia's trooping voyages plied, in convoy, what was one of the principal routes as British forces were built up in North Africa.  These were brought, "the long way around", from Britain, down the west coast of Africa, calling at Freetown for bunkers, then proceeding to Cape Town and Durban and, additionally as required,  Suez.

Her first such trip commenced from Liverpool with 1,634 troops aboard on 1 November 1940, sailing with convoy W.S. 4 to Freetown (14-17th), Durban (3 December) and return via the same ports to the Mersey on 8 January 1941.  

1941

At Glasgow, Scythia got a hasty conversion into a transport with berths for some 4,000 men.  From the Clyde she joined WS.6A on 9 February 1941 to Freetown, Durban and Suez (20 April-1 May) and home with German POWs among her passengers, via the same ports and Gibraltar (22 June-4 July) to return to the Clyde on 12 July.  

Scythia's next "Winston Special" convoy, WS.11, got underway from the Clyde on 31 August 1941 to Freetown, Durban (3-16 October) and home via Capetown and Freetown, arriving Liverpool on 16 November.  Her next convoy, WS.14, left the Clyde on 8 December for Freetown, Durban (8-16 January 1942) and home via Cape Town and Freetown, arriving Liverpool 9 March.  

1942

After a long refit on Merseyside, H.M.T. Scythia's defensive anti-aircraft was photographed in a series of "record photos" on 7 May 1942. This shows a twin Hotchkiss machine gun position.  Credit: Imperial War Museum, © IWM A 8521

After a long refit, Scythia resumed service by joining WS.19 with 4,160 troops aboard from Liverpool on 9 May 1942 to Freetown, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Aden (arriving 17 July).  Instead of sailing home, she made several shuttles independently to Aden and then proceeded to Mombasa (7-9 August) before sailing south to Durban and Cape Town and then north to Freetown (13 September) before finally returning to Liverpool on the 29th.

Another view of the same anti-aircraft position and showing Scythia's double-banked lifeboats...fresh from a refit, she is... immaculate! Credit: Imperial War Museum, © IWM A 8518

Scythia went to participate briefly in the opening act of the final stage of the North African Campaign-- Operation Torch, the invasion of French Algeria and Morocco by mostly American Forces, supported by the British, on 8 November 1942.  Missing the initial invasion, Scythia sailed with reinforcements, 4,153 troops including the British 2nd Para. Battalion and RAF personnel from the Clyde on the 13th with convoy KMF 3, and arrived off Algiers harbour at 1000 hrs on the 22nd. 

Due to congestion in the port, Scythia and other ships were obliged in stay anchored off the south entrance to the harbour, still loaded with troops, and thus highly vulnerable to the ceaseless air attacks still being carried out two weeks after the port itself had been captured.  The first air raid alert was sounded at 1730 hrs, but was a false alarm followed by prolonged raid beginning at 2030 hrs during which a bomb fell just 50 yards off Scythia's portside, damaging steam pipes in her machinery spaces just from the concussion alone.

A second attack ensued late that evening by Italian and German torpedo bombers (SM.79s and HE-111s) between 1930-0330 hrs 22-23 November 1942. One aerial torpedo struck Scythia at 0430 hrs. on the starboard side forward. It was, fortunately far enough forward, in way of the no. 1 hold, to cause the least possible damage. One crew member died and five more wounded from the initial explosion. The order to Abandon Ship was given, but with the men at their boat stations, the Captain announced that the ship had been hit  in no. 1 hold and that the flooding had been stopped.   The ship remained at anchor for the rest of the evening as anti-aircraft fire filled the night with tracers and several men were wounded by shell splinters.  

Despite an urgent request at first light by her captain that Scythia be allowed to enter the harbour immediately, she was instead again forced to wait until noon and was finally alongside and her troops finally disembarked.  

1st Para. troops disembarking from Scythia at Algiers the morning after she was torpedoed.

It was found that Scythia had been saved by 500 mail bags in no. 1 hold which acted as a “plug” to the car-sized hole in her hull which extended from the bilge keel to the lower 'tween deck, as well as absorbing much of the explosive impact of the torpedo.  Even so it was a long road back and the ship was hors de combat for seven months.  

1943

Refloated and patched, Scythia at first went to Oran from Algiers on 14 January 1943 and then from there on 31 March to Gibraltar where she arrived on 1 April for more repairs. Sailing to New York where she arrived on 9 June 1943, she was fully repaired over 10 weeks.

Finally resuming service in the most familiar and traditional manner for her, Scythia left New York on 9 September 1943 with convoy HX.256 for the Clyde where she arrived on the 21st and return, docking at New York 11 October.  Another trans-Atlantic crossing ensued, from New York to Avonmouth 21 October-1 November.

Even more than most troopships, Scythia was very "camera shy" during her extensive war service so this rather poor photo will have to suffice.  This dates from her 1943-44 duties and taken in American waters.  Credit: Troop Ships of World War II, Roland Charles, 1947.

Back to North Africa, Scythia left the Clyde, in company with her old fleetmates Franconia and Samaria, on 15 November 1943 in convoy KMF.26 for Algiers (26th)) and back to Liverpool on 9 December.   

1944

Further afield, was a long voyage "Out East", leaving Liverpool on 17 December 1943 to Port Said, Aden, Bombay (20 January-13 February 1944), Colombo, Aden, Suez, Port Said and finally back to the Clyde on 15 March.  

Scythia renewed an old acquaintance, calling at Boston on 28 April-4 May 1944, from Liverpool, to embark 4,835 troops.  She continued on the Liverpool-New York route for the rest of that summer. 

During the operations connected with the passage of JW61 and RA61, another small and highly emotive convoy, JW61A, had made a fast, unobstrusive passage from Liverpool to Murmansk, leaving the Mersey on 31 October 1944 with a local escort of the Canadian-manned River-class frigate Nene, the destroyers Wescott and Beagle and the sloop Cygnet. The convoy consisted of only two passenger liners, the Canadian-Pacific liner Empress of Australia and Cunard's Scythia, both of whom carried some 11,000 incarcerated "Russian collaborators". Many of them were Ukrainians and all of them had been captured serving in the Wehrmacht, a large number as gunners, during the invasion of Normandy. Churchill had just returned from an "extremely cordial" dialogue with Stalin and the decision to repatriate these unfortunates preceded the discord which emerged after Yalta. Stalin´s insistence that these men were returned ranks with his halting of the Red Army before the gates of Warsaw as an example of the Soviet leader's wickedness; that it was sanctioned was a manifestation of the uncontrollable amorality of war, for JW61A was the least creditable convoy in a saga of otherwise honourable endeavour.

Arctic Convoys, Richard Woodman

So it was that Scythia participated in her most notorious voyage with her most unfortunate passengers, whose destination was doubtless their doom, when she sailed with with convoy JW.61A from Liverpool on 31 October 1944 for Murmansk where, after enduring appalling weather conditions en route, she arrived on 6 November.  Having delivered her wretched "passengers" to the Soviets, Scythia sailed home from Kola Inlet on Armistice Day 1944 and reached the Clyde on the 17th.  

1945

With 4,580 troops, Scythia sailed back to more familiar and warmer waters when she left Liverpool on 16 December 1944 with convoy KMF 37 (as far as Gibraltar) for Algiers where she arrived on the 23rd and returned to the Clyde on 6 January 1945. This was followed by a roundtrip to Naples with 4,414 troops from the Clyde 28 January-20 February.  

Scythia celebrated in VE Day in Halifax having arrived there from Belfast on 3 May 1945 and sailing for Liverpool on the 11th. Just before she docked at Liverpool the evening of the 25th, fire broke out in a hold filled with 6,000 mailbags and parcels.  She was met at the quayside by fire apparatus and the fire was eventually put under control and confined to the one hold, but 4,000 bags were destroyed or damaged. Scythia made another roundtrip to Halifax  and on 15 June she and Samaria, re-united again, arrived at Halifax together with more than 4,000 returning Canadian servicemen, war brides and children.  Aboard Scythia were 170 army personnel, 1,060 airmen, 500 civilians and 14 Catholic priests liberated from a German POW camp.

With VE Day, convoys were a thing of the past and Scythia, whilst continuing her transport duties without a pause, sailed henceforth independently.  On 11 July 1945 she made a round voyage to Bombay from Liverpool via Port Said, Suez, Aden.  She reached the Indian port on the 30th and returned to the Mersey via the same route on 26 August by which time the Second World War was over.  Yet, Scythia's government service was not, and although her funnel was restored to its Cunard livery and her defensive armament removed, she remained on HM Service for another very full and wide ranging three years.  

Marking her first voyage into the St. Lawrence, Scythia docked at Wolfe's Cove, Quebec, from Liverpool (whence she sailed 9 September 1945) the morning of 18 September 1945 with 659 returning R.C.A.F. , 1,969 army and 688 naval personnel.  She sailed for home two days later.

Scythia then undertook another around voyage from Liverpool to Bombay 25 October-9 December 1945.

On 17 December 1945 it was announced by Canadian Military Headquarters that five liners… Scythia (starting at the end of the month), Queen Elizabeth, Mauretania, Aquitania and Ile de France would be used to repatriate remaining Canadian Forces from Europe. Of the total of 260,000, 163,000 were home or sailed by 15 December.  In a change of plans, on the 27th it was stated that Scythia would, instead, be used together with Letitia, Lady Nelson and Lady Rodney to carry Canadian war brides to Halifax beginning in the new year.  There were 32,000 war brides and their children awaiting transport to the Dominion. In he end, she managed to carry a mix of them all for a few voyages.

1946

A very early advertisement for the limited resumption of commercial sailings from Canada to Britain on the return leg of repatriation voyages.  Scythia was among the first to offer space on her 9 January and 4 February 1946 return crossings to Liverpool. Credit: The Gazette, 31 December 1945.

After a fast passage from Liverpool, Scythia, after a fast passage from Liverpool, docked at Halifax on 5 January 1946 with 3,444 service personnel. She had first called at St. John's to land 17 servicemen, 22 war brides and 11 children. Scythia left for Liverpool on the 8th with civilian passengers. Her next crossing to Halifax commenced on the 24th with 3,539 aboard including 2,921 military personnel.  Very bad weather en route delayed her arrival by a day and she docked on 1 February.  "For the Scythia it was possibly the last time she was carrying Canadian troops home. On her next trip this month she will begin a series of transatlantic crossing with war brides and children." (The Province).

Some of the returning Canadian servicemen who arrived at Halifax on 1 February 1946 on Scythia's last repatriation voyage. Credit: The Windsor Star, 4 February 1946.

On 19 February 1946 Scythia indeed began her latest role as a war bride ship, sailing from Liverpool with 785 wives and dependents.  Their voyage did not make it far when her turbo-feed system broke down 24 hours later and she anchored off Whitehead in Belfast Lough on the 21st. Capt. Oliver Bateman radioed Cunard headquarters in Liverpool detailing the problem and equipment needed to be dispatched to Belfast.  Engineers from Harland & Wolff quickly made repairs and as "passengers lined the rails for a parting cheer the Belfast engineers who repaired the ship", Scythia weighed anchor and resumed her passage on the following day. She docked at Halifax after a stormy trip on 1 March 1946 disembarked 466 war brides and 309 children.  It was so rough that 100 children were treated daily for seasickness and many of the babies' milk bottles were broken, so many that the ship was searched for replacements, and finding a stash of empty beer bottles, these were sterilized and used instead.  On her return crossing, beginning on the 4th, carried 2,500 German POWs from camps in Western Canada to Liverpool.  

Warbrides and their children photographed on arrival at Halifax on 1 March 1946. Credit: The Windsor Star, 4 March 1946.

Scythia's next warbride voyage, from Liverpool on 18 March 1946, brought dependents of Newfoundlanders. Strong westerly gales made her a day late arriving at Halifax on the 27th with 239 women and 193 children for Newfoundland out of the more than 800 aboard.  Waiting in port were two Newfoundland Steamship Co.  Steamers, Baccalieu and Borgeo, to take them onwards to St. John's.

Again, her eastbound crossing from Halifax on 30 March 1946 to Liverpool returned German POWs, 2,567 in all, who arrived on 7 April. Scythia was to have sailed for Halifax on the 14th with another compliment of war brides, but on the 12th it was announced that engine trouble would postpone her departure and the brides transferred to other transports, including Letitia. 

Instead, once repaired, Scythia would not resume her warbride duties and embarked on a new phase of her post-war career which saw her sail "where to, as needed" as the war ravaged world tried to pick up the pieces.  The evening of 24 May 1946 she left Liverpool for Naples with 2,250 returning Italian POWs.  Sailing empty, she then proceeded on the 31st for Port Said, Suez and Bombay where she docked on 12 June.  Embarking returning British forces as well as civilians, Scythia sailed for home on the 14th via Suez and Naples (29th) and returned to Liverpool on 5 July.

Scythia's next sailing from Liverpool was controversial when, amidst shortages of berths and waiting lists for passages to South Africa, she left Gladstone Dock on 19 July 1946 in ballast and without a single passenger, bound for Bombay.  "Ministry of Transport representative say the Scythia is 'operational' and that there 'is a perfectly good reason why she is sailing empty.' They would not divulge the season." (Belfast Telegraph). It was later explained she was going to India to bring back civilian passengers.  She arrived at Bombay, via Suez, on 6 August and left on the 12th, returning to Liverpool on the 31st.

After a period of refitting, Scythia briefly went back on the Liverpool-Halifax run, sailing on 28 September with 226 war brides and dependents but also 500 commercial passengers.  Favoured by good weather and after drydocking, she reached Halifax a full 24 hours ahead of schedule on 4 October. With 500 commercial passengers, including six warbrides who decided not to settle in Canada,  Scythia steamed eastbound on the 8th and docked at Liverpool on the 16th.

A second trans-Atlantic round voyage ensued from Liverpool on 24 October 1946, arriving at Halifax with 782 passengers on the 31st and sailing eastbound on 4 November.  Among those disembarking at Liverpool on the 12th were 60 more returning Canadian warbrides.  

Her fleeting return to the Atlantic Run proved just a tease and Scythia now reverted back to fulltime transport service, mainly on the U.K.-India run, rotating troops, repatriating British civilians and transporting "DPs" (Displaced Persons).

1947

Bombay-bound once again, Scythia left Liverpool on 25 November 1946 on one of her more long ranging voyages which had her return via Durban (1 January 1947), Dar es Salaam (13 January) and Naples before finally arriving back at Liverpool on 4 February.  Her next trip to Bombay, from Liverpool on 23 February extended to Colombo where she arrived on 17 March and on the return call at Bombay, she and fleetmate Franconia arrived there together on the 25th.  Scythia was home on the Mersey by 14 April. She followed a similar itinerary on her third trooping assignment from Liverpool to Bombay and Colombo 3 May-20 June.  

High winds prevented Scythia from leaving Gladstone Dock to get to Prince's Landing Stage on 11 July 1947 to embark 646 passengers, mostly military dependents, for Port Said, Colombo, Singapore (8 August) and Hong Kong and they had to board her at the dock, instead.  Arriving at Hong Kong on 14 August, the next day marked the Independence of India.  The consequences of that would occupy her for the rest of the year as she brought home British servicemen, dependents and civilians.  Departing Hong Kong on the 22nd, Scythia called at Singapore on the 27th and Colombo on 2 September before arriving at Bombay on the 5th.  With 1,500 British servicemen, the third large batch to leave the country, including 800 men of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment who took part in quelling violence in the Punjab, and an equal number of civilians, Scythia sailed on the 11th and returned to Liverpool on 1 October after a very long and arduous voyage.

1948

After a well needed refit, Scythia was off again to the Far East, leaving Liverpool on 27 November 1947 for Malta (4 December), Port Said, Colombo (18th), Penang (22nd) and Singapore where she arrived on Christmas Eve.  She started her homeward voyage on the 29th which was routed via Rangoon (2-4 January 1948), Colombo (8th), Aden (13th), through Suez the 18th and arriving back at Liverpool on the 27th. At Port Said she embarked some 40 Polish displaced persons for transport back to England, the first of several such groups which would sail in the ship.

Scythia's next transport voyage was comparatively short: from Liverpool on 18 February 1948 to Malta (24th) and Port Said (27th) whence she sailed on the 29th home via Malta (4 March) and Gibraltar (7th). She returned to Liverpool on the 11th, disembarking the 1st Dragoon Guards, famed for their part in the Desert Campaign and the siege of Tobruk, met on Landing Stage by Brig. S.D. Howes, Colonel of the Regiment. 

No deck chairs, but the weather is still nice on deck and best of all, they're going home... R.A.F. personnel relaxing on deck, H.M.T. Scythia on 3 March 1948 en route from Port Said to Liverpool via Malta. Credit: eBay auction photo.

This was followed  on 13 March 1948 by another quick run to Malta (23), Tobruk and Port Said (26). Homewards on the 28th, she proceeded to Haifa (31), Salonika (2 April), Piraeus (4), Malta (6).  At Liverpool on the 13th, Scythia disembarked another crack British Regiment, the 1st Battalion of the Welsh Guards, home after two and half years in Palestine.

Scythia sails from the Grand Harbour, Valetta, Malta GC in April 1948. Credit Michael Cassar photograph.

Her spell of "short" Mediterranean jaunts over, Scythia cast off on 1 May 1948 for East Africa via Malta (7), Tobruk, Port Said (10), Suez (12), Aden (17) and Mombasa where she docked on the 23rd to embark 403 Polish displaced persons. Sailing for home on the 30th, she called at Mogadiscio (1 June), Aden (5),  Massawa (7), Port Sudan (8), Port Said (10), Suez, Malta (15).  By the time she arrived at Liverpool on 22 June, Scythia had more than 3,000 passengers  to land including four more famous regiments-- 2nd Battalion Royal Warwickshires, 1st Battalion Highland Light Infantry, 2nd Battalion Royal Fusiliers and 2nd Battalion East Surreys in addition to her Polish DP's.  The Warwickshires, on duty in Palestine from February 1947 to the end of the British Mandate there on 15 June 1948, also arrived with Bobby, their antelope mascot. 

Cunard announced on 19 May 1948 their hope to have Scythia and Samaria back in St. Lawrence service "later that season".

One more voyage was logged in Scythia's transport section of her log book when she sailed from Liverpool late in June 1948, calling at Gibraltar on 3 July, passed Malta on the 6th, Port Said (8th), Aden (14th) and docked at Mombasa on the 20th.  She sailed on the 26th with 490 Polish DPs from camps in Uganda and Tanganyika and en route home, called at Aden on the 31st, Suez (4 August), Malta (8) and on 15 August H.M.T. Scythia arrived at Liverpool to conclude what by, any standard, was an exemplary stint "On H.M. Service" in both peace and war.  

Scythia had one more assignment when she and Samaria were chartered to the International Refugee Organisation (I.R.O.) to transport Displaced Persons from Cuxhaven and Le Havre, via London, to Quebec or Halifax (in winter). This was announced on 11 August 1948. Between them, the two ships were to make ten round voyages and take 1,600 "DPs" a month to Canada. On 2 October it was stated that Scythia and Samaria would make three sailings a month rather than two.  A quick refit gave them very basic accommodation for 1,600 passengers.  

Under the I.R.O. charter, Cunard-White Star could sell berths on the eastbound crossings to London, a major step in re-opening their Canadian service. On 23 August 1948 the line announced in Montreal resumption of regular passenger service between Canada and London.  The first sailing would be in Samaria from Quebec on 2 October followed by Scythia on 16th.  The passage fare was a flat CAN$175 eastbound. 

Scythia sailed from Liverpool for Cuxhaven on 28 September 1948 whence she departed on the 30th and from Le Havre on 2 October with 1,608 passengers of whom 702 were“DP’s. She docked at Quebec on the 10th.  Her first eastbound crossing, beginning on the 16th, had only 59 passengers and arrived at London on the 25th.  Scythia's second voyage, from Cuxhaven on 4 November and Le Havre (6th) brought 825 DPs (out of a total of 1,508 aboard) to Quebec on 14 November and eastbound, she remarkably had the same number as before: just 59 and arrived London 2 December.  Scythia's last sailing of a very busy 1948 left Cuxhaven on the 9th, did not call at Le Havre, carried 1,300 DPs out of the 1,610 total aboard and arrived at Halifax on the 20th. Eastbound, she left on Christmas Eve with 40 passengers. Her arrival in Britain was accompanied by a severe winter gale and she was forced to seek shelter in Torbay on New Years Day before proceeding round the coast to London.

From September-December 1948 Scythia completed six crossings and carried 4,964 passengers.

By late 1948, Cunard's commercial service from Canada to Britain included regular eastbound sailings in Aquitania from Halifax to Southampton and Scythia and Samaria to London from Quebec or Halifax on the return legs of their DP voyages.  Credit: The Province, 2 October 1948

1949

Beginning 1949, Scythia left London on 11 January and arrived Cuxhaven the next day, called at Le Havre on the 15th and docked at Halifax on the 23rd with 1,501 passengers of whom 1,400 were DP's.

There was finally a window to give the hard working vessel something like a proper overhaul. And when Scythia sailed on 29 January 1949 with 58 passengers it was not to London but to Liverpool. Arriving on 6 February, she replaced the just refitted Samaria in dry dock which took up the service singlehandedly whilst her sister was refitted.

On 16 March 1949 Cunard-White Star announced that Scythia and Samaria were scheduled to make seven westbound trips, each carrying 1,200 displaced persons, to Quebec the rest of that season, for a total of 14,000. 

Resuming service,  Scythia sailed on 27 March 1949 for Cuxhaven whence she sailed on the 29th and from Le Havre on 4 April, landing 1,488 passengers at Halifax on the 12th.  There, Capt. W.M. Stewart (who assumed command of the ship the previous December) docked her without the aid of tugs during a strike.  The last such case of a Cunarder berthing without tugs was Queen Mary at New York in 1938. Scythia sailed from Halifax for the last time that season on the 16th with 285 passengers for London where she arrived on the 25th.  

The copious stores of a trans-Atlantic liner (Cunard, in fact, often assured Britons that almost everything in the larder was sourced in Canada or the United States and did not come from home suppliers) were a temptation for pilfering when domestic life in Britain was still grim, rationed and the black market thrived.  During her London turnaround on 27 April 1949 Scythia's butcher, was fined £10 at East Ham court, for stealing 5 lbs. of pork, 2½ lbs. of butter and 2 lbs. of sausage from the ship as she lay in King George V Dock.  A steward was fined £10 for receiving the goods and another £5 for trying to evade Customs duties and cigarettes and silk stockings.  

Scythia, possibly with a new butcher and one less steward, sailed from London on 3 May 1949 for Cuxhaven where she called on the 5th, to the Le Havre (7th) and a capacity list of 1,508 on to Quebec where she berthed on the 13th. All of her passengers were DP's including 31 European war orphans aged 4-16, all of whom were adopted by Canadian families.  With the approach of the summer season, even her eastbound sailing began to attract custom and she had 550 aboard when she left for London on the 21st, arriving on the 31st. 

Departing on what was her best patronised round voyage of this service, Scythia left London 9 June 1949 for Cuxhaven and Le Havre (11) and landed 1,563 DP's at Quebec on the 20th.  Among the 1,164 (a record for a eastbound crossing on this service) sailing for London on the 25th were 500 American university students sponsored by Youth Argosy, "an organization to promote good fellowship between U.S. youth and young persons of foreign countries and it helps its members to travel at minimum cost."  She docked at London on 5 July.  

During her London turnaround, Scythia was unloaded in rather unconventional fashion. On 7 July 1949 two of her seamen were fined £15 and £10 respectively for pinching 6 lbs. of butter, a cake, a tin of peaches and the other a cake, a 2 lbs. tin of syrup and a jar of honey. She had arrived in the middle of a dockers strike and the army was enlisted to help unload ships of perishable food stuffs, including 12,000 tons of flour in Scythia's holds. 

Scythia and her British troops cum longshoremen who unloaded her cargo of flour during a stroke made the headlines on 13 July 1949.

Two hundred half-naked Guardsmen, floured to the colour of snow-men, paused on the dockside yesterday, eager to wave away the first ship they had unloaded, the Cunarder Scythia.  But their officers had made an appointment with a cargo of dried milk in a nearby berth, much of it wanted for baby food. The troops turned their backs regretfully on a row of pretty nurses leaning over the Cunarder's rail-- she has been crewed to carry 2,000 displaced persons to Canada from camps near Cuxhaven, to which port she is steaming in ballast.

Daily Herald, 13 July 1949

Scythia embarked 1,539 passengers at Cuxhaven on 14 July 1949 and Le Havre on the 16th and landed them at Quebec on the 25th.  Her eastbound crossing, with 417 aboard, commenced on the 30th and arrived at Tilbury on 9 August.

Now commanded by Capt. W.M. Stewart, Scythia's next voyage was the first not to carry DP's by any number and bypassing Cuxhaven, she instead sailed direct from Le Havre on 20 August 1949. She arrived at Quebec on the 29th with 1,561 passengers including a French pilgrimage party,  French Boy Scouts and 1,164 returning Youth Argosy American students.  The eastbound crossing on 3 September attracted 274 travellers who arrived in London on the 12th.

On her final "DP" voyage, Scythia departed London on 20 September 1949 for Cuxhaven, calling there the following day and Le Havre on the 24th before setting off for Quebec with 1,652 passengers, 1,200 of whom were Canadian students returning from a Youth Argosy sponsored trip. Her last such crossing was her best patronised.  On 2 October 1949 she was alongside at Wolfe's Cove. With 151 passengers aboard, Scythia sailed for Liverpool where she docked the evening of the 16th.  

In 1949, Scythia completed 14 crossings and carried 13,811 passengers.

In all, Scythia carried some 15,000 Displaced Persons to new lives in Canada and played a role, too, in the revival of Cunard's Canadian service immediately after the war.  Now, more than a decade after the start of the Second World War, she would finally be fully restored to commercial service.

Like the ship itself, Kenneth Shoesmith's portrait of Scythia got a makeover for the post-war era, the original New York skyline and tugs have been removed in favour of a more generic background. And, in 1950, the Cunard-White Star name was dropped and it was just "Cunard" again.  Credit: author's collection.

After an extraordinary decade "On H.M. Service" in which she both helped to win a world war and then spent years helping to restore the lives of those torn apart by it, Scythia was finally, at the grand old age of 28, going back to full commercial service as a North Atlantic intermediate. She would get a much deserved and comprehensive makeover and then, building on her already fond and fulsome connections with Canada, help restore Cunard's St. Lawrence service, reunited with the other survivors of the "Class of 1919": Samaria, Franconia and Ascania.  

Just as it had been in the First World War, Cunard's Canadian fleet had been almost wiped out in the Second.  Of the six "A" class ships, Andania had been torpodoed and sunk as AMC in June 1940 while at the nadir of the war in March 1942, Cunard decided to sell Antonia, Ausonia, Aurania and Alaunia to the Admiralty for permanent conversion into fleet repair ships.  Seven years later they might have regretted the decision when demand on the Canadian run was greater than ever and, worse, they were left with one single vessel, Ascania, capable of proceeding up the St. Lawrence and docking at Canada's largest city, Montreal.  

So it was that Cunard were left in 1949-50 with cobbling together a four-ship fleet comprising Ascania, Franconia, Scythia and Samaria to restore a weekly service.  The later three were far too deep draught to navigate upriver to Montreal and were obliged to turnaround at Quebec.  It was hardly ideal, rather like serving New York City by docking at Wilmington.  It was "Make Do & Mend" but as such, right in character with post-war Britain.  All four of the veterans received substantial refitting and refurbishing, although it was remarkable that of all the major North Atlantic lines, Cunard's Canadian Services were held down by the oldest fleet.

For Scythia, dolled up but dignity intact and her capacity spaciously reduced to 878 (recalling it was originally 2,200!) it was both a new beginning and a very profitable and popular period for the veteran.  The Old Reliable was never better patronised than in her final seven years:

1950: 6,228     1954: 17,569

1951: 16,581     1955: 14,594

  1952: 14,868    1956: 14,096

  1953: 17,539     1957: 15,255

She may have been inevitably coursing towards the end of her long career, but in common with the rest of the Cunard fleet in the 1950s, "Getting There Was Half the Fun".

R.M.S. Scythia at New York in the 1950s. In addition to her St. Lawrence duties, she resumed her acquaintance with the Port of New York during the off season.  Credit: Nicolas Haché collection

1950

Cunard-White Star contracted John Brown & Co. Ltd. on 12 October 1949 to completely refit Scythia. She was destored and partially stripped whilst still at Liverpool and then sailed to Clydebank where she arrived on 19 November. On 3 April 1950, the line announced Scythia would resume service that August. The ship returned to her homeport on 31 July.

Five years after the war, Scythia finally resumed commercial service after a complete renovation at John Brown, Clydebank, the seventh Cunarder reconditioned after war service. She emerged with improved accommodation for 248 First and 630 Tourist Class, refurbished public rooms, new children’s playrooms for both classes and starboard winter garden converted into a 150-seat cinema. All Tourist Class cabins now had running hot and cold water. Her Promenade Deck was fully glassed-in, machinery overhauled and a radar mast erected atop her wheelhouse. 

Her First Class public rooms retained their pre-war elegance and there was little effort to impart modern effects except for some new furniture in the Smoking Room.  The "new" Scythia was still a veteran, slow and bit creaky, but certainly comfortable enough.  

Scythia's Promenade Deck was fully glass-enclosed during her refit but her classic double-banked clinker-built lifeboats remained, but reduced in number owing to her much lower passenger capacity. Credit: Nicolas Haché collection.

After a gap of many years, it is always most pleasant to renew acquaintance with an old friend, the more so if you can quite honestly say of, or to, her, 'You are looking even better than ever.' Put in one phrase, that is how I feel about the Scythia-- 'she is looking better than ever.' Reconditioned has had a tonic effect on her, and she is an admirable challenge to those who contend that you should not put new wine into old bottles.

I remember this ship coming out in 1921 when I was a 'junior 4th' clerk in what was then called the Saloon Department of the Cunard Line in Liverpool. We thought her, then, 'the last word', and reckoned that she and her sisters would make that famous foursome of the White Star Line-- the Celtic, Cedric, Baltic, and Adriatic-- toe the line (in reality, and in fairness to the old White Star Line, the 'ic' ships held their own well).

One of the best features of the Scythia's alternations is the conversion of the old starboard garden lounge into a permanent cinema fitted out with gay, red, compact-stowing seats, which can also be interlocked in a row. It doesn't pretend to be a 'Roxy afloat', but of its kind it is distinctly nice. Perhaps the most striking impression is gained from the decoration scheme for the tourist-class dining-saloon, a room with a bright, light-hearted atmosphere, the keynote to its success being the coverings of the chairs which look like chintz, but which in reality are of a plastic material which is easily washed down an so can be kept looking like new.

I must comment, too, on the excellent appearance of the silverware in both dining-saloons-- it looked, though it wasn't, brand new, and well-polished silver does set off a table remarkably well. The flowers, though, were atrociously arranged.

To my delight I found the original first-class smoking-room had been retained, though completely refurbished; it is a room of great character, and the manner of its furnishing now is distinctive and, to my mind, most acceptable. The large armchairs of this room are most striking design, and I think are the best I've seen anywhere-- and are exceedingly 'doze-worthy'. In one corner there is a small cocktail bar over whicch hand pictures of the Court beauties of the Restoration Period (1660-- not Scythia restoration), a very pleasant idea.

The tourist-class smoking-room is decorated in a style that may invite controversy as to its merits, but those who may not entirely like it will at least salute it for its originality.

The children's room in the tourist class has a lovely roundabout (which really does go round), a slide, a miniature stage, as well as other amenities which make it 'just heaven for all brats.'

The cabins that I saw are certainly comfortable rooms, although there is nothing, as might be expected, elaborate or notably novel about their appointments.

I came away feeling that this ship has a right to be proud of herself, and that her Captain's pride (which abounds) in her is very understandable. She may not be a 'Queen', but some old ladies-- and the Scythia is one of them-- retain, and will do so to the end, a certain fascination about them which, if not productive of queues of admirers, at least creates an enviable following.

C.M. Squarey, The Patient Talks, No. 19 December 1950

Credit: Laurence Miller/FIU Wolfsonian Collection.

On 3 April 1950 Scythia’s return to service was announced:  17 August from Liverpool to Quebec. Joining Franconia, Samaria and Ascania, the Canadian Service was restored to a weekly frequency, but only Ascania could proceed to Montreal and Samaria remained “austerity class” until refitted the following year.   On the 23rd it was revealed that after her sailing direct from Liverpool, Scythia would henceforth use The Port Of London as her terminal, with an intermediate call at Le Havre.

Credit: The Gazette, 5 April 1950

A new beginning and a final chapter: R.M.S. Scythia sails from Liverpool on 17 August 1950 on her first crossing to Canada after her refit.  Credit: thecanadasite.com

Under Capt. W.M. Stewart, Scythia's first voyage on 17 August 1950 after her refit was unfortunately delayed two hours.  As she was about to leave Sandon Basin to embark passengers at Prince's Landing Stage, a fault was found in her oil fuel feed system.  Ships engineers effected repairs within  30 minutes, but she missed the tide.  There was a spot of bother on the other side, too.  Canada's first nationwide railroad strike cancelled the boat trains meeting Scythia at Quebec on her arrival the evening of 25 August 1950.  Her 851 (235 First and 616 Tourist) passengers spent the evening aboard and disembarked the following morning and travelled by chartered buses instead. On the 29th, Scythia sailed from Quebec with 60 First and 554 Tourist Class passengers on her return maiden voyage to London.  She stopped at Le Havre on 7 September and docked at London the following day.

Before her next sailing to Quebec, Scythia was thrown open to public and press inspection whilst lying at King George V Dock on 12 September 1950 and "she presented a pleasing spectacle" (The Scotsman); "..now smartly and elegantly refitted in a way that blends attractively with the gracious stateliness of her age." (Nottingham Journal); "..a nine-month refit on the Clyde, which has abolished all traces of her long and arduous service.." (Belfast News-Letter); "Splendid Dowager" (Bradford Observer)

Scythia's London departure on 14 September 1950 marked the first by a Cunard passenger ship since 1939 and after her call at Le Havre the next day, she had 215 First Class and 640 Tourist Class passengers to disembark at Quebec on arrival on the 23rd.  

Scythia arriving at Quebec City on her second voyage after her refit.  Credit: The Gazette, 25 September 1950.

In 1950, Scythia completed 10 crossings and carried 6,228 passengers.

1951

On 30 December 1950 Cunard announced it was augmenting their 1951 St. Lawrence service with an additional voyage by Scythia which opened the season with her 21 April Quebec sailing for Southampton.  

In winter, Scythia plied the Liverpool-Cobh-Halifax-New York run, first leaving on 5 January 1951 and arriving at New York a day late owing to bad weather on the 17th. It was her first docking at the port since the war, but according to the New York Times, "she slipped quietly into port virtually unobserved."  Having landed 668 at Halifax, she brought in just 94 passengers. Scythia's arrival was less welcome when it was discovered that five of her crew had the influenza that had broken out in Britain that winter and there were a further 10 cases among the passengers landing at Halifax. 

Scythia's first return to New York since the War was marred when some of her passengers and crew were found to be infected with the worst outbreak of influenza in Britain since the Spanish Flu of 1918-19. Here, U.S.Public Health Inspectors check out some of arrivals aboard ship prior to disembarkation. Credit: Danville Morning News, 21 January 1951.

The Mersey was cloaked in such heavy fog when Scythia arrived on 29 January 1951 from New York and Halifax with 161 aboard that she had to anchor off the Bar until it lifted before she could proceed to the Landing Stage. 

Her final New York arrival that winter season was on 23 March 1951 and when she sailed four days later it was to Le Havre and Southampton where she docked on 5 April. For starting that summer season she and Samaria would instead be based on the Hampshire port whilst Franconia and Ascania sailed from Liverpool and consequently London ceased to be a Cunard passenger port. 

Marking the first time a Cunarder had sailed from Southampton for the St. Lawrence since Ausonia in 1939, Scythia (Capt. J.V. Locke) cast off on 10 April 1951 for Le Havre and Quebec.  Winning the Gold Headed Cane traditionally awarded the first liner up the St. Lawrence for the season, she brought in 108 First and 676 Tourist Class passengers on the 18th.

With four ships ("comfortable and steady..") now on the St. Lawrence run, Cunard could finally offer a full first-class service and appeal to the leisure traveller again.

Effective that year, Canada greatly increased its number of immigrants, burgeoning the carryings of all the Canadian route liners.  That year, Scythia averaged 787 passengers on each of her 10 westbound sailings of whom 500 or more per crossing were immigrants.   

Recalling pre-war years, among the 857 sailing from Quebec on 13 June 1951 in Scythia was the 30-voice chorus from St. Joseph's University, New Brunswick, travelling to compete in the Llangollen International  Music Festival at the Eisteddfod in Wales. 

That June, the very last of the Cunard fleet to be restored to full commercial service, Samaria,  joined Scythia on the Southampton-Le Havre-Quebec run.  Thus, almost a dozen years after the start of the War, Cunard's last trans-Atlantic was "back to normal".  But, of course, it was not since of the four ships, only Ascania, was built for the specific requirements of the St. Lawrence route and thus the only one that could directly sail to its busiest and largest port (and Canada's largest city)... Montreal. And, of course, it was an elderly fleet and, in fact, that oldest maintaining a major route.  So it was, a bit late, that on 20 December 1951 Cunard announced the order for two new 20,000-grt liners specifically designed for the St. Lawrence run, the first scheduled to enter service in summer 1954. 

Scythia in Southampton Water, 26 April 1952. Credit: author's collection. 

In 1951, Scythia completed 24 crossings and carried 16,581 passengers.

R.M.S. Scythia at Wolfe's Cove, Quebec City, 1952. Credit: Nicholas Haché collection

1952

For winter 1952, Scythia begin with two round voyages from Liverpool to Halifax, via Cobh, January-February, following by a crossing ending at Halifax on 17 March. From there she sailed on the 20th for Southampton. Slowed by gales in the Atlantic and the Channel, she arrived at Southampton on 29 March 1952,  22 hours late. After a refit, she begin her St. Lawrence season upon her Quebec arrival from the Hampshire port on 5 May. 

Scythia's emergency boat is lowered to rescue two of Wabana's crew in the water immediately following her collision with the collier in the St. Lawrence. Credit: The Leader-Post, 13 June 1952

On 5 June 1952, in fog 30 miles off Fame Point, near the Gaspé coast, the outward bound Scythia (Capt. Donald M. McLean) with 785 passengers collided with the 7,200-grt collier Wabana.  Hit on the aft starboardside, the collier's screw, 32-ft. of her starboardside was shorn off in the collision and one of her crew was missing and presumed lost and two others rescued from the sea by a lifeboat crew from Scythia.  Wabana was taken in tow by the tug Rocky River and taken to Quebec.  Scythia, too, would return there for an examination as a precautionary measure.  She had sailed from the port just the day before and returned on the evening of the 6th.     

Credit: The Gazette, 2 June 1952

At Davie Shipbuilding's yard at Lauzon, Quebec, the ten- by eight-foot hole in Scythia's port bow, just the below the anchor, was sealed with a welded plate and temporary repairs were made to her twisted stem. Rather prematurely on 8 June 1952 Cunard announced she would sail at noon on the next day and she shifted back to Quebec where she was joined by the inbound Franconia.  In the event,  Scythia did not resume her crossing until 4:20 a.m. on the 10th with 844 passengers.  She reached Southampton on the 19th and further repaired there, not sailing until the 26th.  

Scythia at Southampton showing her temporarily repaired bow stem after her collision with Wabana. Credit: F.R. Sherlock photo, author's collection.

Scythia continued to serve the Canadian Armed Forces in peacetime and figured prominently in the regular rotation of Army personnel stationed in Hannover, West Germany.  Indeed, she was the first British liner to take Canadian troops to Europe since the war when, on 19 November 1952, she left Quebec with 78 officers and 637 men of the 1st Battalion to Rotterdam.  Scythia returned to Halifax on 9 December with an equal number of the relieved 27th Infantry Brigade.  

In 1952, Scythia completed 20 crossings and carried 14,868 passengers.

1953

That winter Scythia kept to the Southampton-Le Havre-Cobh-Halifax run.

Among the 167 passengers sailing in Scythia, now commanded by Capt. Andrew McKellar,  on 9 January 1953 from Halifax were 50 RCAF officers and men en route to NATO assignments in the UK and Europe including an advance 32-man party to establish the new RCAF Fighter Wing at Zweibrucken.  The ship's arrival at Le Havre and at Southampton was delayed by heavy fog in the English Channel.  That year would also see the rotation of the Canadian 27th Infantry Brigade in West Germany.  A day late owing to high winds, Scythia docked at Halifax on 29 March with a small first contingent, 48 officers and men, with the main transfer, involving some 15,000 men and dependents, taking place in October-November.  The ship sailed from Halifax on 3 April with 674 passengers including another contingent of 65 RCAF ground personnel for Zweibrucken via Le Havre. 

Canada's "Mounties" were star attractions during the Coronation of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II and sailed over in Scythia in April 1953.  Credit: Windsor Star, 7 May 1953.

For the Coronation of H.H. Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953, Canada sent a total of 546 members of its Armed Forces as well as a unit of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to march in the Coronation Parade.  An advance party of 19 RCAF men and 36 officers and constables of the RCMP sailed in Scythia on 26 April 1953 from Quebec, her first sailing from the St. Lawrence that season.

The inbound Scythia rescued two exhausted women and one man found clinging to the sides of their upturned dinghy off Spithead on 20 August 1953.  They were sighted as the liner was coming into Southampton and she turned about and lowered one of her lifeboats to rescue the three, another man was taken aboard H.M.S. Plover.  

Among her passengers sailing on 7 October 1953 were 40 officers and 239 men of the 2nd Battalion, Royal 22nd Regiment, Royal Canadian Regiment, Princess Patricia's Light Infantry, Engineers and Medical Corps representing the advance party of replacements for the 27th Infantry Brigade in Germany.  Arriving at Southampton the evening of the 15th, they stayed aboard for the night and travelled on from Harwich to the Hook of Holland and on to Hannover. 

Scythia at Halifax in November 1953 bringing home Canadian forces from Germany. Credit: the canadasite.com

Cunard continued to take steps to renew their Canadian fleet and on 27 October 1953 placed an order for a third 20,000 tonner.  

In 1953, Scythia completed 26 crossings and carried 17,539 passengers.

1954

Scythia started the year with two round voyages on the Liverpool-Cobh-Halifax-New York route in January-February and arriving at Halifax from the Mersey on 15 March, she was bound for the Solent when she sailed eastbound on the 19th and sailed out of Southampton for the rest of year.

When she arrived at Cobh on 28 February 1954, Scythia's crew and passengers recounted a mid Atlantic drama when, responding to an urgent call from the German freighter Saarstein for medical attention for an engine room rating seriously ill from peritonitis from a ruptured appendix, she raced to the ship, some 140 miles away.  When the two ships rendezvoused, a lifeboat from Scythia manned by 10 volunteers and the ship's surgeon, crossed to the freighter and despite a heavy swell, the sick crewman was strapped to a stretcher and lowered to the tossing lifeboat which was then rowed back to the Cunarder.  Operated on successfully in the ship's hospital, he was landed at Liverpool and was reported to be in satisfactory condition in hospital there. 

Although losing out to the British freighter Isaac Carter for the award of the Gold-headed cane as the first ship to dock at Quebec for the 1954 season, Scythia was again the first liner to do, arriving on 15 April with a good list of 97 First and 667 Tourist Class passengers, most of the later were immigrants. 

On her June 1954 roundtrip to Quebec, two of Scythia's crew passed away aboard, a cook who was buried at sea and another crewman who died while the ship was in Quebec.

Among the 862 passengers sailing in Scythia on 23 July 1954 was the Archbishop of Canterbury and his wife, off on a two-month tour of Canada and the United States.  

Scythia at Southampton with another veteran, Royal Mail's 1927-built Alcantara.  Credit: Nicolas Haché collection.

In announcing the maiden voyage of the new Saxonia from Liverpool on 26 November 1954, Cunard also set Scythia's winter service which, with Samaria, would be on the Southampton-Halifax-New York route effective with her Southampton departure on 3 December.  

On her final crossing of 1954, Scythia sailed from Halifax on 18 December 1954 with 63 officers, airmen and airwomen of the RCAF, 11 of whom were accompanied by their wives and children, among the total list of 301.  "Prior to leaving Halifax arrangements were completed to provide a Christmas tree, presents and toys for all on board, as well as turkey dinner and all the trimmings."

In 1954, Scythia completed 24 crossings and carried 17,569 passengers.

1955

Making her first New York arrival from Southampton for 1955, Scythia docked there on 11 January with 206 passengers having landed another 240 at Halifax on the 9th.  Sailing on the 13th, she underwent her annual overhaul at Southampton on arrival and did not sail again until late February. Her final New York arrival for the season was on 4 April, sailing for Southampton on the 7th via Halifax.  Scythia's next voyage opened her St. Lawrence service, but on an unfortunate note.

In heavy fog on 30 April 1955, the inbound Scythia (Capt. F. Watts) with 694 passengers collided with Norwegian freighter Sunland, bound from Port Alfred to Antwerp, off Trois-Pistoles, 150 miles from Quebec, where the river was two miles wide.  A Scythia passenger said the ship "quivered all over, sideways and from stem to stern, and stopped dead in midstream… if we'd been going any faster, the Scythia would have cut her (the freighter) in two." The collision left a 20-ft. hole in freighter's side, but there were no injuries. Scythia suffered a few lost plates, a long dent on the bow and some loosened rivets.  A diver inspected the vessel on 1 May and reported no damage below the waterline.  

A "unidentified officer" aboard the Cunard was quoted in the Windsor Star (2 May 1955): "For the Scythia, a collision 'is becoming an almost-annual event', an officer recalled. He said the Scythia collided with another ship off Father Point, some 200 miles downstream from Quebec City, in the summer of 1953. Last summer she smashed into the quay here while trying up. In both cases damage was negligible."  Repaired sufficiently to be off on her way, Scythia sailed on schedule, on 4 May with 811 passengers for Cobh, Le Havre and Southampton.

Arising from a British dock strike, Cunard announced on 16 June 1955 the cancellation of Scythia's 17 June sailing from Southampton for Quebec. Her next arrival there was on 23 July.

Franconia (inboard) and Scythia at Liverpool. Credit: Shipspotting.com

With the addition of Ivernia, the second of the new 22,000 tonners on 30 June 1955, Cunard had six ships in the Canadian run, the highest accommodation capacity since 1939.  Between April-November alone they were programmed to make 50 westbound and 50 eastbound crossings.  The biggest improvement was the ability of Saxonia and Ivernia to proceed upriver to Montreal.  With them on the Liverpool based service, Franconia joined Scythia and Samaria from Southampton to Quebec whilst Ascania also shifted to the Hampshire port, but continued on to Montreal.  

Scythia at Southampton.  Credit: Nicolas Haché collection

A major operation, the relief of the 1st Canadian Infantry Brigade with the 2nd Brigade for duty in West Germany was announced on 11 July 1955.  Cunard's Scythia, Samaria and Franconia and CP's Empress of Australia would be chartered to make 11 sailings from Quebec and Halifax  to Rotterdam in both directions carrying a total of 18,000 men. This entailed the cancellation of sailings in October-November including that of Scythia 8 November eastbound and 26 October westbound. On 14 September more details were announced and the fleet expanded to seven liners including Columbia and Neptunia of Greek Line.  Scythia was to sail on 14 October with 875 men and again on 8 November.

With 875 officers and men, Scythia sailed from Quebec on 14 October 1955 for Rotterdam, the troops bound for Canadian military establishment in Soest, Western Germany for a two-year deployment.  The families of the troops followed in Empress of Australia.  Carrying back the fourth contingent of troops of the 1st Canadian Brigade, Scythia sailed on the 25th, arriving at Quebec late on 4 November and disembarking the following morning.  In addition to her military personnel, she carried 264 wives and 302 children dependents, among the total of 820 passengers.   She sailed on 7 November for Rotterdam with an equal number of personnel.  Departing Rotterdam on the 18th Scythia arrived back at Quebec on the 28th with her final contingent of returning forces comprising 20 officers, 458 men, 108 wives and 177 children.  

In 1955, Scythia completed 22 crossings and carried 144,594 passengers.

Scythia alongside Pier 90, North River, New York. Credit: eBay auction photo.

1956

For the winter season, Scythia joined Saxonia and Ivernia on the Liverpool-Cobh-Halifax-New York run for two voyages on 21 January and 25 February 1956.

Whilst lying at Sandon Basin, Liverpool, 13 January 1956 on Scythia was "brushed" by the docking Britannic, slightly damaging the latter's bridge wing.  

High winds up to 65 mph on Merseyside delayed Scythia's first sailing on 20 January 1956 when she was unable to leave Huskisson Dock to embark her 250 passengers at the Landing Stage.  Instead, they were taken to the dock direct by coach, but the ship was not able to get underway until the following day. The inbound Ivernia was delayed in arriving from New York 24 hours on account of the gale conditions.

Cunard announced its plans for the 1957 season on 24 October 1956.  With the third of the new ships, Carinthia, in service as of June 1956, Ascania was withdrawn that September and after some trooping voyages during the Suez, went Newport for breaking up in December.  Franconia, too, was withdrawn and went for scrapping at Inverkeithing  the same month.  So it was left to Scythia to be the last survivor of the Cunard "20,000 tonners".  She was to join the Liverpool-Cobh-New York run for 1957. And she now became the longest serving Cunard as she exceeded the 36-year career of Aquitania.

On 17 November 1956 Scythia  sailed from Quebec for the last time on the regular Cunard St. Lawrence service with 9 First and 107 Tourist Class passengers for Le Havre and Southampton.   

In 1956, Scythia completed 22 crossings and carried 14,096 passengers.

Scythia alongside at Wolfe's Cove, Quebec. 1956 was her final season on the St. Lawrence Run and by the end of the year she was the last of the "20,000 tonners" in service. Credit: Nicolas Haché collection. 

1957

Scythia got her final refit and refurbishment at Southampton before starting her winter assignment of three Southampton-Le Havre-Halifax-New York sailings on 19 January 1957.  After what Capt. Frederick Watts called "as bad a voyage as I've had in my experience at sea" with 75 mph winds and heavy seas, Scythia arrived more than a day late at Halifax on the 29th and landing 462 passengers and another 177 at New York on the 31st.  She sailed eastbound on 1 February with 92 fares and picked up another 132 at Halifax on the 4th. 

This was followed by another sailing from Southampton on 15 February 1957, arriving Halifax on the 24th and New York on the 26th.  Due to a tugboat strike in New York, Queen Elizabeth arrived at Halifax instead on 27 February and sailed from there on 3 March for Southampton.   Of her 1,400 passengers, more than 800 came from New York in Scythia which had arrived there on the 26th and sailed for Halifax on 1 March.  After she transferred her Queen Elizabeth passengers, Scythia sailed with 194 aboard.  

Vintage motorcars and a vintage ocean liner vie for attention at Liverpool, April 1957. Credit: Liverpool Echo. 

Heavy fog off New York delayed Scythia's arrival there for seven hours on 28 April 1957 and the ship, with 714 passengers, waited off Ambrose Lightship for the fog to lift before coming into port. 

In her last such errand of mercy, Scythia (Capt. Geoffrey Marr) took aboard the very ill captain of an American cargo ship in the North Atlantic on 18 July 1957.  At 4:42 a.m. the ship received a distress call from the 7,226-grt American freighter David Starr Jordan bound from Philadelphia to Antwerp.  A rendezvous was arranged and  Scythia sent over a lifeboat with its surgeon Dr. N. T Smith.  It was determined that the ship's master, Captain Andrew Poydock, was desperately ill with pleurisy pneumonia, and acute hepatitis. He persuaded the captain to relinquish command of his ship and be transferred to Scythia for medical attention. Captain Poydock was treated aboard Scythia until he was moved to hospital on arrival at Liverpool on the 22nd.

The Cunard liner Scythia is nearing the end of a distinguished career as a trans-Atlantic liner.

The 36-year-old vessel, hailed in 1921 as marking the beginning of a new era in ship transportation, is scheduled to make only two more appearances in this port. 

After her passenger are discharged she will empty to Quebec to undertake a brief assignment as a troop carrier. Follow that she will be probably be broken up for scrap unless she is saved by the British government for further military used.

The Scythia presents an off appearance when she appears among today's passenger vessels. Her tall slim smokestack and her blunt lines are in contrast to the streamlined funnels and sleek designs now employed.

When she made her maiden voyage in 1921 the Scythia was the first of a series of vessels brought out by Cunard to modernize the fleet that had suffered the ravages of World War I. The Scythia was the first passenger to break the tradition that a passenger ship needed multiple smokestacks to assure reluctant travelers that she was a safe vessel.  Such travelers believed that the number of stacks was in direction relation to their safety.  

The Scythia was design for one stack, the largest ship ever to carry only one at that time. She was also the first big ship to be designed with oil-burning boilers.

New York Herald Tribune, 23 September 1957

Another chapter in this city's passenger ship history ended yesterday with the final sailing from New York of the 20,000-ton Cunard liner Scythia. Her tall slender stack had been a familiar harbor sight since 1921, when she entered the New York-Liverpool run.

New York Times, 18 October 1957

Scythia soldiered on through 1957, making her final Southampton-Halifax voyage in March.  She ended her Cunard commercial career back on her original Liverpool-New York run, arriving at New York on 28 April.  She was participating in what proved to be the busiest trans-Atlantic season since the War and indeed the last in which more went by ship than plane.  The old ship was popular to the end with good lists on every crossing, both east and westbound.  After seven voyages, she sailed from Liverpool on for the last time on 5 October and arrived there on the 14th with 136 First and 670 Tourist Class passengers.  Bidding New York farewell, Scythia sailed, empty, at 6:00 p.m. the 14th to Quebec to begin the final assignment of her long career.

On 28 June 1957 it had been announced that the Canadian Government had chartered Scythia and Ivernia to rotate the Canadian Brigade in West Germany that autumn, making a total of five round voyages to Rotterdam from Quebec and Halifax. Fittingly, Scythia’s final voyages served the Dominion she was so associated with after the War.  

Scythia left Quebec on 23 October 1957 for Rotterdam with 565 personnel aboard where she arrived on 2 November. While in port on the 4th, a ferocious gale that morning broke ten ships loose from their moorings in the Waalhaven.  Scythia was hit by the Panamanian European Trader and the HAL Sommelsdik, but only minor damage was recorded.  In addition, a 50-meter-high dock crane, dislodged and hit the ship.  Scythia sailed on the 5th for Quebec where she docked on the 13th with 711 passengers.

Her next transport voyage got underway from Halifax on 16 November 1957 with 610 officers and men and concluded at Rotterdam on the 26th.  On 6 December  Scythia docked at Halifax with 772 returning soldiers of the Canadian Brigade, among a total of 1,600 expected that month coming into Halifax and St. John on a dozen different chartered liners including Queen Frederica which arrived on the 8th with 1,051 aboard. On the 10th, she sailed from Halifax with 640 officers and men for Rotterdam. Scythia left the Dutch port on the 21st empty and returned to Southampton on the 22nd. 

Captain Geoffrey T. Marr photographed on one of Scythia's last voyages. Credit: La Patrie, 24 November 1957.

Engine room storekeeper John McClelland of Liverpool, aged 68, served aboard for the whole of Scythia's career and missed only one voyage during the 1926 General Strike. 

In 1957, Scythia completed 26 crossings and carried 15,255 passengers.

On 23 January 1958, Scythia arrived at the Inverkeithing yard of Thomas W. Ward for breaking up.  A week later, a final message was received from the old ship:  

MESSAGE IN BOTTLE FOUND ON SEASHORE WALKING along the seashore near his home, a schoolboy, Matt McAlister. of Seaport Cottage. Portballintrae, found a large green sealed bottle lying among the rocks. Inside it was a message which revealed that the bottle had been floating in the sea for over eight months. The message, written on Cunard Line notepaper, stated that the bottle had been dropped overboard from R.M.S. Scythia 590 miles off the South-West coast of Ireland on June 7. 1957. The writer, Mr. Thurl W. Severy. of 13 Donard Street, Waterville. Maine. U.S.A.. bound from Liverpool to New York, asked that the finder should write telling him where and when the bottle was found. Matt says will write to Mr. Severy.

Belfast Telegraph, 31 January 1958

By September 1958, the erstwhile "Ship of the Future" had been reduced to scrap metal. 

In recognition of Scythia's great connection with the Armed Forces of Canada, Cunard presented her bell to the Royal Canadian Service Corps Museum in December 1958.  Credit: Windsor Star, 6 December 1958. 

R.M.S. Scythia exemplified the enduring virtues of a Cunarder throughout a fulsome 36 years and 2,400,000 miles steamed in faithful service in peace and war.  In 180 years of Cunarders, no ship did the Golden Lion more credit.  

R.M.S. SCYTHIA 1921-1957

• No. of North Atlantic Crossings (1921-40/1948-57:                          590
• No. of Cruises (1921-1932):                                                                        15
• No. of trans-Atlantic Passengers Carried (1921-39/1948-1957):  297,916
• No. of Military Personnel Carried (1939-45):                                    134,000
• Nautical Miles Steamed (1921-1957):                                                 2,400,000

Consumate Cunarder: R.M.S. Scythia (1921-1957). Credit: painting by Stephen J. Card.

Built by Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. Ltd., Barrow-in-Furness, England. Yard no. 493

Gross tonnage       19,730

                                 19,930 (post 1950)
Length: (o.a.)        624 ft.
              (b.p.)         600 ft. 7 ins.
Beam:                     73 ft. 6 ins.
Machinery: geared turbines, three double- and three single-ended oil burning Scotch boilers 220 psi. 12,500 s.h.p.
Speed:                    16 knots service
                                17 knots trials
Passengers             337 First Class 331 Second Class 1,538 Third Class (1921-1923)

                                337 First Class 331 Second Class 1,100 Third Class (1924-1927)

                                400 Cabin Class 450 Tourist Third Class 850 Third Class (1927-1937)

                                400 Cabin Class 450 Tourist Class 398 Third Class (1938-1940)  

                                4,800 troops (1940-1946)

                                780 war brides/children or 3,000 troops (1946-1948)

                               1,600 one-class austerity (1948-1949)

                                248 First Class 630 Tourist Class (1950-1957)                                       

Officers & Crew   409 (as built)

                               434 (1950-1957)      

                               

       

                   

Arctic Convoys, Richard Woodman, 2007

Atlantic Liners of the Cunard Line, Neil McCart, 1990
Cunard White Star Liners of the 1930s, Richard P. De Kerbrech & David L. Williams, 1988

The Patient Talks, C.M. Squarey, 1955

Tourist Third Cabin, Lorraine Coons and Alexander Varias, 2003

Troop Ships of World War II, Roland Charles, 1947

American Shipping

Sea Breezes

Shipbuilding & Shipping Record

Shipbuilder

Belfast News-Letter

Belfast Telegraph

Boston Herald

Daily News

Gazette (Montreal)

Glasgow Herald

La Patrie

Liverpool Post & Echo

New York Times

New York Herald

Northern Whig

The Province

The Tablet

Western Mail

Windsor Star

https://www.alamy.com/

http://www.dockmuseum.org.uk/

http://thecanadasite.com/

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

www.delpher.nl/

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

https://www.gjenvick.com

https://news.google.com/newspapers

http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/ports/index.html?arhome.htm~armain

https://www.iwm.org.uk/

https://www.marinersmuseum.org/

https://www.newspapers.com/

https://pier21.ca/research/immigration-records/ship-arrival-search

http://shipspotting.com/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/

Additions/Corrections/Contributions welcomed

contact the author at posted_at_sea@hotmail.com

© Peter C. Kohler