Swan Song

After the war ended, in 1946 Aquitania repatriated Canadian and American troops.  On 1 April 1948, Aquitania was released by the Ministry of Transport and returned to Cunard.  She was then placed under charter from the Canadian Government to carry the wives and children of Canadian servicemen over to Canada.  The port of disembarkation for these voyages was Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Aquitania is still remembered of fondly.  This contract was renewed in 1949. By 1 December 1949 this role had been fulfilled.

Aquitania was not granted an operating license for 1950, and later that month Cunard announced that Aquitania would be retired.

After decades of service, Aquitania’s age was showing.  Cunard commodore Harry Grattidge in his autobiography Captains of the Queens mentioned that her decks leaked in bad weather and that a piano had fallen through the deck from above into an ongoing corporate luncheon.  John Maxtone-Graham’s Liners to the Sun mentions a rumor that circulated, most likely untrue, stating that all that was holding Aquitania’s funnels together was layers of paint on top of the deteriorated steel after decades of service.  Overhauling Aquitania at her age, when the Queens were already in service, was thought to be uneconomical, bringing Aquitania’s career to a close.

On 9 January 1950, Messrs Hampton & Sons Ltd. was employed to auction Aquitania’s furnishings and equipment.  Her wheel is now on display at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, along with a detailed, scale model of her.

Later that month she was sold to the British Iron & Steel Corporation Ltd for £125,000. Aquitania, the Ship Beautiful, Old Irrepressible, made her final voyage from Southampton to Faslane, Scotland where she was scrapped.

Throughout her career of nearly 36 years, the longest serving express liner of the 20th Century, Aquitania had steamed 3 million miles in 450 voyages, carried over 1.2 million passengers, and was the last surviving four-funneled ship.