The 9.111 GRT steamship was built at Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Ltd. in the northern English city of Wallsend on the Tyne built and ran on 4 March 1911 by the stack . The completion took place in May 1911. The 142.04 meter long and 17.1 meter wide ship had a maximum draft of 8.96 meters and was powered by six - cylinder turbines from the Palmers Company from Jarrow , which made 976 nominal horsepower (nhp) . The ship was equipped with two propellers , two masts and two chimneys equipped. The top speed was 13 knots. On board there was space for 200 second class and 1500 third class passengers .
The ship was used for the in Dundee sedentary shipping company Thomson Line built and under the name of Gerona set to Kiel. The Thomson Line was founded in the middle of the 19th century as a pure freight company, but has also carried passengers from Great Britain to Canada and the Mediterranean region since the 1880s . In 1907 the Thomson Line was integrated into the Cairn Line, but kept its name and ships.
Even as the completion of which was Gerona by the Cunard Line bought. The Thomson Line handed over all of its passenger ships to Cunard in 1911, as from then on it was again only active in freight traffic under the name Cairn-Thomson Line. The ship was renamed Ascania as part of the takeover . On May 23, 1911, she ran from London on her maiden voyage via Southampton to Quebec and Montreal . She stayed on this route, which was new to Cunard, throughout her entire service life.
On June 13, 1918, the Ascania ran on a voyage from Liverpool to Montreal 20 nautical miles east of Cape Race ( Newfoundland ) in heavy seas on a reef and stranded . The ship broke apart and sank in the following days. The 191 passengers and eight crew members were brought ashore by a patrol boat . There was no personal injury, but the ship was a total loss.
