Enormous as were the proportions, however, of these huge vessels, they were yet to be eclipsed by the Cunard Company’s later and most recent giant, the _Aquitania_, a vessel that might more fitly be described as a floating city of palaces, libraries, art galleries, and swimming baths, than the steamship child of the little _Britannia_ of 1840. Let us for a moment compare them, remembering that only the ordinary span of a human life-time intervened between them. The _Britannia_ was 200 feet long, a wooden paddle-wheel steamer of 1,154 tons, 740 horse-power, and a speed of 8½ knots. The _Aquitania_ is 902 feet long, of 46,000 tons, with quadruple screws driven by turbine engines of a designed shaft of 60,000 horse-power, maintaining a speed of 24 knots. With her Louis XVIth staircase, her garden Lounge, her Adams drawing-room, her frescoes, her Palladian lounge, her Carolean smoking-room, and her Pompeian swimming bath, she can carry in the comfort of a first-class hotel more than 3,200 passengers, together with a crew of over 1,000. Such then has been what one may best call, perhaps, the technical advance of the Cunard Company, and in 1914, at the commencement of hostilities, it had in commission 26 vessels, apart from tugs, lighters, and other subsidiaries. Of these, since we shall presently deal with their individual adventures, the following list may be found convenient: Name of Ship. Tonnage. Gross. AQUITANIA 45,646 MAURETANIA 30,703 LUSITANIA 30,395 CARONIA 19,687 CARMANIA 19,524 FRANCONIA 18,149 LACONIA 18,098 SAXONIA 14,297 IVERNIA 14,278 CARPATHIA 13,603 ANDANIA 13,404 ALAUNIA 13,404 CAMPANIA[A] 12,884 ULTONIA 10,402 PANNONIA 9,851 ASCANIA 9,111 AUSONIA 8,152 PHRYGIA 3,353 BRESCIA 3,235 VERIA 3,228 CARIA 3,032 CYPRIA 2,949 PAVIA 2,945 TYRIA 2,936 THRACIA 2,891 LYCIA 2,715 [A] This vessel was sold for breaking up a few weeks prior to the outbreak of war. Her career as a warship is referred to in these pages. [Illustration: THE “CAMPANIA” SINKING IN THE FIRTH OF FORTH] From this it will be seen that the total tonnage possessed by the Cunard Company in 1914 was considerably over 300,000, and the Company was operating services not only between the United Kingdom and the United States of America and Canada, but also between the United States of America and the Mediterranean, as well as from Liverpool and other British ports to the Mediterranean and France. CHAPTER II Combatant Cunarders