Pride in United Kingdom shipbuilding seldom shined so much as it did on September 20, 1906 when three great ships were launched from three different yards. The first ship was launched at Harland & Wolff in Belfast, the White Star liner Adriatic went down the ways at 11:15 a.m. and was witnessed by a few hundred people including Lord and Lady Pirrie. White Star ships did not enjoy the pomp and ceremony like other ships of the time, they received no christening and were unceremoniously sent down the ways.

At Wallsend from the yard of Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson the Mauretania was sent down the ways by the Duchess of Roxburghe to the joy of thousands of cheering people. The sister to the Lusitania was built with turbine engines and would be the fastest liner on the north Atlantic. The launch was quick as well, at 4:15 p.m. the Dowager Duchess of Roxburghe broke the wine on the bows and only 40 seconds later the great hull slid flawlessly into the Tyne.

Like the Adriatic and most all liners built during that period of time, the crown paid for a great deal of the construction costs, sometimes as much as half of the total cost. Of course the agreement was that should war be declared these ships could be called into service of the government and used at their discretion, sometimes as troopships, sometimes as hospital ships and sometimes as armed merchant cruisers, the latter being abandoned quite early in the war due to the fragile nature of a passenger ship.

While the merchant ships took center stage at the Chatham Dockyard the cruiser Shannon was launched. The smallest of the three ships launched that day, she however was involved in the greatest sea battle of the Great War, the Battle of Jutland. All beginnings have an end and in the end all three of these ships were later scrapped.