Watch The LINERS SHIPS OF DESTINY online: Episode 2 Ships of war

Despite the outbreak of World War I, the trans-ocean liners continued to py their opulent trade across the Atlantic until, in 1916, the Lusitania was attascked and sunk, with horrifying loss of life, by the German navy. Con- tinued attacks over the following months were one of the major factors that saw America enter the war and, ironically, Germany's greatest liners, strand- ed in New York harbour, were impounded and used to ferry the troops over to France. Post war years saw the liners of all nations sailing the seas again this time taking immigrants to America and, in the Prohibition years in America, providing legal off shore havens for revellers. However, the key years were 1927-1936, as France, Germany, Italy and Britain launched liners that were to become legends.

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