After an unsuccessful attempt to turn her into an armed merchant cruiser, Aquitania was refitted into a troopship. In June 1914 she left Liverpool with over 5,000 troops. After three voyages as a troopship, Aquitania was refitted into a hospital ship and served in this role during December 1915 and occasionally in 1916.
“The Ship Beautiful”
Aquitania made her first postwar voyage, from Liverpool to New York, on 17 July 1920. Soon, “The Ship Beautiful” became a favorite of celebrities, royalty, aristocracy and high-powered businessmen traveling between continents. She was, by any measure, the first Cunard “Queen” ship in everything but name and a floating embodiment of the Roaring Twenties.
The good times didn’t last forever, however. In 1932, with the Great Depression driving transatlantic passenger levels to new lows, Aquitania was used as a cruise ship for the first time. She left New York on 3 February and cruised the Mediterranean. In 1936, she was paired with Queen Mary as her transatlantic running mate.
Aquitania in 1946, her hull still painted in wartime camouflage gray.
Aquitania was requisitioned as a troopship on 21 November 1939, a little over two months after the outbreak of World War II. From March 1940 she was based in Sydney, transporting Australian and New Zealand troops. She also made two passages between Pearl Harbor and San Francisco. Aquitania was repositioned to the Atlantic for the remainder of the war.
On 1 April 1948, Aquitania was returned to Cunard. She was then chartered by the Canadian government to carry emigrants between Southampton and Halifax. She served in this capacity until 1949. In December of that year Cunard announced that Aquitania would be withdrawn from service. Aquitania was broken up in Scotland in 1950.
The Ship Beautiful and the last of the “four stackers” was gone forever.
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