Scythia was the longest serving Cunard liner until 4 September 2005, when her record was surpassed by Queen Elizabeth 2.

[2] After heavy losses during the First World War, Cunard Line embarked on an ambitious building programme.

Scythia was built for the services between Liverpool and Queenstown in the British Isles to New York and Boston, in the United States.

A luxury liner designed to appeal to American tourists, in the mid-1920s, she began sailing from New York to the Mediterranean.

She became a troop ship on 1 November 1940, and sailed from Liverpool to the Middle East carrying the 1st King's Dragoon Guards.