Rare RMS Mauretania Medallion

If not snapped up, won't be relisted.

34 mm.

16 grams

RMS Mauretania built on Merseyside 1937-1939. The medallion is made from metal from the old Mauretania 1906-1935.

RMS Mauretania was an ocean liner built for the British Cunard Line, and launched on the afternoon of 20 September 1906. She was the world's largest ship until the completion of RMS Olympic in 1911, as well as the fastest until 1929. Mauretania became a favourite among her passengers.

Cunard White Star withdrew Mauretania from service following a final eastward crossing from New York to Southampton in September 1934. The voyage was made at an average speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph), equaling the original contractual stipulation for her mail subsidy. She was then laid up at Southampton, her twenty-eight years of service at a close.

Mauretania arrived at Rosyth in Scotland at about 6 am on 4 July 1935 during a half-gale, passing under Forth Bridge. By 6:30 am she passed the entrance to the Metal Industries yards under the command of Pilot Captain Whince. A lone kilted piper was present at the quayside, playing a funeral lament for the popular vessel. It was reported to author and historian John Maxtone-Graham that upon the final shut-down of her great engines, she gave a dark "final shudder...". Mauretania had her last public inspection on 8 July, a Sunday with 20,000 in attendance, with the monies raised going to local charities. Scrapping began shortly after and with great rapidity.

To prevent a rival company using the name and to keep it available for a future Cunard White Star liner, arrangements were made for "Queen" to be renamed Mauretania in the interim before the launch of the new RMS Mauretania in 1938.

The demise of the beloved Mauretania was protested by many of her loyal passengers, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who wrote a private letter against the scrapping. .