RMS Campania was a British ocean liner owned by the Cunard Line, built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Govan, Scotland, and launched on Thursday, 8 September 1892.

Identical in dimensions and specifications to her sister ship RMS Lucania, Campania was the largest and fastest passenger liner afloat when she entered service in 1893.

She crossed the Atlantic in less than six days, and on her second voyage in 1893, she won the prestigious Blue Riband, previously held by the Inman Liner SS City of Paris.

The contracts were awarded to the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, which at the time was one of Britain’s biggest producers of warships.

Plans were soon drawn up for a large, twin-screw steamer powered by triple expansion engines, and construction began in 1891, just 43 days after Cunards' order.

[1]: xli During Campania's first trips across the Atlantic, hull vibration was noted to be a problem and sea-spray had been a nuisance to passengers in heavy seas.

According to maritime historian Basil Greenhill, in his book Merchant Steamships, the interiors of Campania and Lucania represented Victorian opulence at its peak — an expression of a highly confident and prosperous age that would never be quite repeated on any other ship.

[2]: 39  Greenhill remarked that later vessels' interiors degenerated into "grandiose vulgarity, the classical syntax debased to mere jargon".

[2]: 40 All the first-class public rooms, and the en-suite staterooms of the upper deck, were generally heavily paneled in oak, satinwood or mahogany; and thickly carpeted.

[1]: xlii–xliii On 21 July 1900, she sank the British barque Embleton in a collision 30 miles (48 km) north east of the Tuskar Light in the Irish Channel.

Campania earned one more distinction in the history of wireless communication in 1905, when she became the first liner to have permanent radio connection to coastal stations around the world.

However, the First World War broke out and Aquitania, having completed only three voyages, was immediately commandeered by the Navy and converted into a fully armed merchant cruiser.

While Campania awaited demolition, the Admiralty stepped in at the last minute and bought her with a view of converting her to an armed merchant cruiser that could carry seaplanes.

Two weeks later she joined the fleet at Scapa Flow as HMS Campania, and subsequently began manoeuvres in the North Sea.

HMS Campania served with the Admiralty right up until 5 November 1918—just six days before the armistice was signed, when she was involved in an accident in the Firth of Forth during high winds.