This Franconia, Cunard's second ship with that name, was
launched in 1922 at John Brown & Co., of Clydebank. She
made her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on 23
June 1923 and until 1933 she was generally used on that
route in summer and spent winters cruising from New York
to the Caribbean.
She was painted white (as shown here) for a 1933 world
cruise, after which she spent a year on the
London-Southampton-New York route before returning to
Liverpool in 1935. After another world cruise in 1938,
Franconia was refitted as a troopship.
During the war, she took part in the evacuations of Norway
and France and the invasion of Sicily, and served as the
headquarters ship at Yalta. In all, she carried nearly
150,000 troops and steamed over 300,000 miles in nearly 9
years.
In 1949, Franconia returned to Cunard's service, on the Canada
routes from Liverpool and (in 1955) Southampton. She also
resumed her winter cruising.
After a summer of cruises out of New York in 1956, she made her
final transatlantic voyage, Liverpool-New York-Liverpool, in
November, and was scrapped at Inverkeithing by Thos. W. Ward.
Sources: Haws' Merchant Fleets; Bonsor's North Atlantic Seaway.
