A new policy to this end was put into effect by Cunard's new chairman, John Burns, and announced in the London Times.

Although Servia did not achieve any speed records, she was a competitive liner that performed well, and in 1884 she managed to make a crossing in less than seven days, averaging at 16.7 knots.

This sacrifice was viable because at that time, tramp steamers had taken over much of the freight across the Atlantic, while the demand for passenger transportation had increased.

The following list is a summary of those features: Servia was the first major ocean liner to be built of steel, which gave her large hull the advantage of additional strength while at the same time making her lighter.

She was also the first liner to re-introduce the cellular double-bottom design which Brunel had invented 20 years earlier for the Great Eastern.

[4]: xxiv  However, a larger more extensive installation aboard the American coastal liner Columbia performed by Thomas Edison the following year, became the first commercial and practical application of electric lighting at sea.

[8] The installation also included a Siemens built dynamo which fed direct current electricity to an electromagnetic inverter operating at 650 revolutions per minute.

The dining salon could sit 220 of Servia's 480 first-class passengers on five long tables, and was richly decorated with carved panels and carpets.

Writers Jane Addams and Henry James both sailed on a crossing aboard Servia in August 1883, though it does not appear they met.

[11] British novelist Thomas Hughes (Tom Brown's Schooldays) was on board on 6 October 1884 when he signed an autograph for another passenger & remarked about rough seas.

[12] Industrialist Andrew Carnegie with philosopher Herbert Spencer and his friend Mr. Lott were fellow travelers on the Servia from Liverpool to New York in 1882 [12]