During the roaring twenties, with prohibition in the United States, the Transatlantic trade expanded rapidly. Cunard with Mauritania and the Clyde built Aquitania, were experiencing severe competition from White-Star, the French Compagnie Générale Transatlantique and German Norddeutscher Lloyd. The advent of the Bremen in 1929 demanded a response and while the French line laid down Normandie, and White-Star planned a new vessel, to be named Oceanic, Cunard planned to have its own vessel built on the Clyde. Yard number 534 The steamship with yard number 534 was laid down in John Brown’s yard in December 1930. Good progress was made with the construction of the hull but the project fell victim to the depression that followed the Wall Street crash. Work was suspended late in 1931 as the Cunard Company could not raise the capital to complete the ship. The partially completed hull lay...