RMS Saxonia (1899)

History
RMS Saxonia around 1900

Name:	RMS Saxonia
Owner:	Cunard Line
Port of registry:	United Kingdom
Route:	Liverpool-Boston (1900–1911) Liverpool-Boston, Liverpool-New York, and Liverpool-Trieste/Fiume (1911–1914) Government war service (1914-1918) London-New York and London-Hamburg-New York (1919–1925)
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland
Launched:	16 December 1899
Completed:	mid-May 1900
Maiden voyage:	22 May 1900
Out of service:	1925
Fate:	Scrapped in the Netherlands in 1925
General characteristics
Tonnage:	14,281 GRT (as built) 14,197 GRT (after 1920 refit)
Length:	600 ft (180 m)
Beam:	64.2 ft (19.6 m)
Propulsion:	Steam quadruple expansion engines, twin propellers
Speed:	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Capacity:	1,964 passengers (as built, 164 First Class, 200 Second Class, 1,600 Third Class) 1,449 passengers (after 1920 refit)

The first RMS Saxonia was a passenger ship of the British Cunard Line. Between 1900 and 1925, Saxonia operated on North Atlantic and Mediterranean passenger routes, and she saw military service during World War I (1914–1918).

Saxonia's sister ships were Ivernia and Carpathia.

Around 1900, the Cunard Line faced tight competition from the British White Star Line and the German lines Norddeutscher Lloyd and Hamburg America (HAPAG). Cunard's largest liners, as of 1898 RMS Campania and RMS Lucania, had a reputation for size and speed, both being of 12,950 gross register tons (grt) and having held the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. However, Norddeutscher Lloyd's new liner SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse had taken the Blue Riband from them in 1897, while White Star was planning to place a new 17,000-grt liner, RMS Oceanic into service. Cunard also updated its fleet during this time, ordering three new liners, SS Ivernia, RMS Saxonia, and RMS Carpathia.

Rather than attempting to fully regain prestige by spending the additional money necessary to order liners that were fast enough to win back the Blue Riband from Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse or large enough to rival Oceanic in size, Cunard tried to maximize their profitability in order to remain solvent enough to fend off any takeover attempts by IMM. The three new ships were not especially fast, but all were larger than Campania and Lucania; in fact, Saxonia at 14,281 GRT was the largest Cunard liner up to that time – beating out Ivernia, which entered service a month before Saxonia, for that distinction – and the largest until Cunard placed RMS Caronia in service in 1905. Thus, although the decision to order and launch Saxonia in 1898-1899 was taken well before J. P. Morgan’s efforts of 1900-1902, to put together the large combination of shipping lines that was officially designated IMM in October 1902, Saxonia, her sister Ivernia, and her "half-sister" Carpathia became both instruments and models through which Cunard was able to successfully compete with its larger rivals – most notably IMM’s lead company, White Star.

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