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Mauretania, So well ahead were the plans of Cammell Laird's Birkenhead shipbuilders last week that rivets were going into plates on the top decks of Great Britain's new 33,000-ton Cunarder, largest liner ever built in England,* and costing an estimated $10,000,000. Launching is scheduled for July. Nearly 3,000 tons bigger than her famed predecessor of the same name—scrapped two years ago—the new ten-deck Mauretania is 750 ft. long and, with a speed of 22 knots from her steam turbines, will cross the Atlantic in six days. Carrying 1,250 passengers and with air-conditioned public rooms, she is specifically designed for competition with such U. S. ships as the Washington and Manhattan. Because of an elaborate gymnasium she will be publicized in England as the "fitness ship." To keep the name Mauretania in the family, her owners, Cunard White Star Ltd., transferred it to a small pleasure steamer operating between Southampton and the Isle of Wight while the big new vessel was abuilding. Like other ships of subsidized British lines, the Mauretania's specifications are Admiralty-approved so that she can serve during hostilities as a swift auxiliary war vessel.
*The 81,000-ton Queen Mary was built at Clydebank, Scotland.