RMS Scythia

Postcard of RMS Scythia
History
Name:	RMS Scythia
Owner:	1920-1934: Cunard Line 1934-1949: Cunard White Star Line 1949-1958: Cunard Line
Port of registry:	United Kingdom
Route:	New York to the Mediterranean London to Quebec Liverpool-Cobh-Halifax-New York
Builder:	Vickers Ltd., Barrow
Launched:	23 March 1920
Maiden voyage:	20 August 1921
Fate:	Scrapped on 23 January 1958
General characteristics
Class and type:	Ocean liner
Tonnage:	19,730 gross tons
Length:	183.08 m (600.7 ft)
Beam:	22.49 m (73.8 ft)
Installed power:	Steam turbines (double-reduction)
Propulsion:	Twin propellers
Speed:	16 knots
Capacity:	Passenger accommodations: 350 1st class 350 2nd class 1,500 3rd class

RMS Scythia was a Cunard liner. She sailed on her maiden voyage in 1921, and became a troop and supply ship during the Second World War. Scythia was the longest serving Cunard liner until 4 September 2005, when its record was surpassed by RMS Queen Elizabeth 2.

Following heavy losses during the First World War, the Cunard Line embarked on an ambitious building programme. They decided to build "intermediate", 19,000-tonne ships, rather than the massive liners they had previously employed. The Scythia was the first ship in this new fleet, and construction began in 1919. The Scythia was built for the services between Liverpool and Queenstown in the British Isles to New York and Boston, in the United States. A luxury liner designed to appeal to American tourists, in the mid-1920s, she began sailing from New York City to the Mediterranean.

The Scythia was requisitioned at the end of 1939, left Liverpool on 24 September 1940 with 48 children bound for Boston, sponsored by readers of the Boston Evening Transcript newspaper, part of a wider British evacuation programme under the Children's Overseas Reception Board.

She was used as a troop ship on 1 November 1940, and sailed from Liverpool to the Middle East carrying the 1st King's Dragoon Guards. She then saw service carrying evacuees from Liverpool to New York. In 1942, the Scythia took part in the British Army landings in North Africa. On 23 November she was struck by an aerial torpedo. The crew managed to get to harbour at Algiers, and the ship suffered only five casualties out of a complement of 4,300 men.