RMS Scythia

H.M.S. Scythia was a Cunard liner. She sailed on its maiden voyage in 1921, and became a troop and supply ship during the second World War.

History

Following heavy losses during the first World War, the Cunard Line embarked on an ambitious building programme. They decided to build "intermediate", 19,000-tonne ships, rather than the massive liners they had previously employed. The "Scythia" was the first ship in this new fleet, and construction began in 1919. The "Scythia" was built for the services between Liverpool and Queenstown in Britain to New York and Boston, in the United States. A luxury liner designed to appeal to American tourists, in the mid-1920s, it began sailing from New York to the Mediterranean.

The "Scythia" was requistioned at the end of 1939, and first used as a troop ship on 1 November 1940, when she sailed from Liverpool to the Middle East carrying the 1st King's Dragoon Guards. She then saw service carrying evacuees from Liverpool to New York. In 1942, the "Scythia" took part in the British Army landings in North Africa. On 23 November she was struck by an aerial torpedo. The crew managed to get to harbour at Algiers, and the ship suffered only five casualties out of a complement of 4,300 men. The "Scythia" was salvaged and taken to New York for repair in January 1943, and afterward ferried American troops to Europe. At the end of the war, she took many American troops back from Europe, many of them accompanied by their young brides, before sailing to India to bring home British troops from the war in the East. It was also a warbride ship completing a number of [voyages] [http://www.kenscott.com/voyage/avoyage.htm] to take Canadian warbrides and their children from Liverpool to Pier 21 in Halifax in the early part of 1946. One of her last missions as a troop ship was to bring the 1st King's Dragoon Guards home to Liverpool, on 11 March 1948.

Later in 1948, the "Scythia" was handed to the International Refugee Organisation to take refugees from Europe to Canada. In 1950 she became a passenger ship again, sailing from Britain to Canada and later to New York. Her final route was around the North Sea. In 1958 the "Scythia" was delivered to the shipbreakers at Inverkeithing by Captain Geoffrey Marr, her final commander.