RMS Etruria was a transatlantic ocean liner built by John Elder & Co of Glasgow, Scotland in 1884 for Cunard Line.

[3] Just as Etruria was to start her regular service to New York from Liverpool at the beginning of 1885, a crisis involving Russia's threat to invade Afghanistan was coming to a head.

With the dispute reaching a settlement, Etruria was released from Admiralty service within a few days, but her sister ship was retained for six months.

On her second crossing, westbound from Liverpool to New York, she won the Blue Riband (see the table below) and flew the pennant for Cunard.

The 4,276-ton cargo ship Canada, owned by the National Steamship Company of Limerick, collided with Etruria, on her starboard side.

In November 1895 Winston Churchill, then 20 years old and a lieutenant in the 4th Hussars, secured a few weeks' leave to visit Cuba, in order to observe the Cuban War of Independence against Spain.

[4] On 8 August 1896 Etruria sank the floating steam elevator[clarification needed] Ceres ( United States) in a collision in New York Bay.

[5] On 10 December 1897 Etruria rescued the crew of the steamship Milfield which was foundering in heavy seas about 140 miles west of Fastnet Rock.

In 1900 Etruria remained on the North Atlantic service while Umbria was requisitioned to carry troops to and from South Africa during the Boer War.

Etruria then made sail and William Cliff took her in tow; the ships headed for Horta, in the Azores, which were 500 miles to the south-east of her stricken position.

A number of first-class passengers were sitting in deck chairs close to the bridge, and they caught the full force of the water.

[1] In January 1907 two of Etruria's crew were killed as they tried to secure the lashings of the starboard anchor in very rough weather, during a westbound crossing.

On Wednesday 26 August 1908, RMS Etruria was moving astern from her pier in Liverpool to anchor opposite the Princes' Landing Stage, where her passengers would embark.

[1] On 11 April 1910, the Mersey tug Black Cock towed Etruria to her final destination of Preston, Lancashire, where she was scrapped.

[9] Etruria is the ocean liner in the opening sequences of Thomas Edison's produced, Edwin S. Porter directed, 1904 film The European Rest Cure.