RMS Mauretania (1906) - Overview

Overview

In 1897 the German liner SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse became the largest and fastest ship in the world. Eventually Germany was dominating the Atlantic and by 1906 they had five four-funnel superliners, four of them being owned by the North German Lloyd and part of the so-called "Kaiser class".

With a speed of 22 knots (41 km/h), it captured the Blue Riband from Cunard Line's Campania and Lucania. At around the same time American financier J. P. Morgan’s International Mercantile Marine Co. was attempting to monopolize the shipping trade, and had already acquired Britain's other major transatlantic line White Star. In the face of these threats the Cunard Line was determined to regain the prestige of ocean travel back not only to the company, but also to Great Britain. In 1903, Cunard Line and the British government reached an agreement to build two superliners, the Lusitania and Mauretania, with a guaranteed service speed of no less than 24 knots (44 km/h), the British government were to loan £2,600,000 (£207 million as of 2012), for the construction of Mauretania and Lusitania at an interest rate of 2.75% to be paid back over twenty years with a stipulation that the ships could be converted to Armed Merchant Cruisers if needed; also to fund these ships further the admiralty arranged for Cunard to be paid an additional £150,000 per year to their mail subsidy.