After the stock market crash hurt the transAtlantic voyages, the ship was used on the Mediterranean where it especially became popular for the "Booze Cruise." Americans trying to drink legally during Prohibition were big customers then.
It was scheduled to be replaced by the RMS Queen Elizabeth in 1940, but then came the war and it was used as a troopship in the Pacific.
It is believed that the German raider Kormoran was looking for the Aquatania shortly before the Nov. 19, 1940 battle when it encountered the HMAS Sydney and both ships ended up sinking. The Sydney lost every crew member.. The Aquatania arrived on the scene shortly after the battle and, against orders, stopped to pick up the Kormoran survivors. I have written a lot about this battle in my Cooter's History Thing Blog.
Later in the war, the Aquatania transported American soldiers, including Mike Butlovich, across the Atlantic.
During World War II service,the ship sailed 500,000 miles and carried nearly 400,000 soldiers. Quite a statistic.
In 1946, it transported war brides and children to Canada.
The Aquatania was scrapped in Scotland in 1950.
Quite the Story. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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