Steam Powered War Heroes

Tessa Glover delves into her great-grandfather's memoirs to tell the story of the ocean liners that helped shorten World War Two by a year

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Today, the ocean liner is often considered a glamorous yet thoroughly outdated form of transport. While ships such as the RMS Titanic and the RMS Lusitania remain household names, their lesser-known contemporaries have slipped almost entirely out of public memory. The history of these once state-of-the-art steel giants is fading quickly as they glide further into the past. Yet Cunard historian Michael Gallagher once said: "Winston Churchill credited Aquitania, with Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, for shortening World War Two in Europe by a year." A year. Thousands - potentially hundreds of thousands of lives saved. But how?

My great-grandfather Maurice Hobday served as a gunnery officer aboard RMS Aquitania. As I read his memoirs and delve into the pasts of two of these ships - the RMS Aquitania and RMS Queen Mary - I hope to uncover how passenger liners were converted into warships during the deadliest conflict the world has ever seen, as well as the varied experiences of those aboard.

The RMS Aquitania, launched in 1914, had already had a long and sparkling career by the time World War Two broke out. After 25 years of wartime and passenger service, the Aquitania was ready for retirement when called for duty on 21 November 1939. The vessel had already served as a hospital ship in World War One a war that saw the sinking of its older sister the RMS Lusitania. Now, decades old and needing several repairs, the Aquitania was a little more unsteady on her feet.