Reprieve and Glory

With the advent of Queen Elizabeth in 1940, Aquitania was scheduled to be retired.  But with war breaking out in September 1939, Aquitania was requisitioned as a troop transport on 21 November 1939, capable of transporting 7,724 servicemen.  At first she transported Canadian troops.

John Maxtone-Graham’s Liners to the Sun recounts an amusing anedote from Aquitania‘s first World War II crossing back to England. As Aquitania‘s contemporaries had been scrapped by the beginning of the war, Aquitania was the only four-funneled ship in existence.

During this crossing, an old destroyer from the reserves came out to meet her and signalled with an Aldis lamp, “FOUR FUNNEL SHIP PLEASE INDICATE.”

Captain George Gibbon’s reply was, “We are the only ***** four-funnel ship in the world and that so-and-so wants our name. Tell him to read ‘The News of the World.’ ”

The destroyer signaled again, asking, “DO YOU REQUIRE AN ESCORT”?

Aquitania, meant to run in tandem with Lusitania and Mauretania, the fastest ships on the Atlantic, signaled back, “CAN YOU KEEP UP”?

Aquitania, continuing at full speed, began to outdistance the destroyer. The final signal from the other destroyer read, “YOUR FINE SPEED REQUIRES LITTLE PROTECTION.”

In 1940, Aquitania underwent a refit in the United States and was defensively armed with six inch guns.   She stayed docked in New York waiting for further orders.  Queen Elizabeth made her secret maiden crossing across the Atlantic and met up with Aquitania in New York, where together with Queen Mary and Normandie, the four ships made an impressive sight.

In March, Aquitania sailed for Sydney, Australia, in her Cunard livery, for further transporting of Australian and New Zealand troops.  She made two passages between Pearl Harbor and San Francisco.  Later in 1940, Aquitania took part in a convoy sailing out of Sydney with Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth, and Ile de France.

Now in battleship grey, Aquitania was in Singapore in November 1941. Allegedly the crew of the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran had heard of Aquitania’s departure from Singapore and planned to ambush her, but encountered the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney instead on 19 November.  After a fierce battle, both ships sank.  Aquitania arrived on the scene and picked up the survivors of the Kormoran, the Aquitania’s captain going against orders not to stop for survivors.   There were no survivors from the Sydney.

Aquitania served eight years under the British Armed Forces, employed on the Atlantic for the remainder of the war.   She steamed more than 500,000 miles and carried nearly 400,000 soldiers to and from all corners of the globe.