Wednesday · November 11, 2026
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American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
19141776 Club

Aquitania sails from Liverpool; not one passenger pulled out after yesterday's disaster on the St. Lawrence

Captain William Turner takes Cunard's new four-funneled flagship, 45,647 tons, out on her maiden crossing to New York with 1,055 aboard.

The day before Aquitania sailed, RMS Empress of Ireland had gone down in the St. Lawrence River with more than a thousand dead — and still, not a single passenger cancelled their booking. On May 30, 1914, Cunard's new flagship, the four-funneled RMS Aquitania, departed Liverpool under Captain William Turner, carrying roughly 1,055 passengers across the Atlantic to New York. At 45,647 tons, she was the largest ship in Cunard's fleet, designed to be the third leg of a weekly express service — and within ten weeks, the world she was built for would cease to exist…

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