Biography
His family called him 'Laurie'. It was a difficult birth and his mother, who had been hoping for a girl, was uncomfortable even looking at him at first. Later she expressed her envy of her sister Mary, who had "three splendid daughters" instead of one "clumsy boy".
After Lowry's birth his mother's health was too poor for her to continue teaching. She is reported to have been gifted and respected. She was an irritable, nervous woman who had been brought up to expect high standards by her stern father. Like him she was controlling and intolerant of failure. She used illness as a means of securing the attention and obedience of her mild and affectionate husband and she dominated her son in the same way. Lowry had an unhappy childhood. At school he made few friends and showed no academic aptitude. His father was affectionate towards him but he could not gain the approval that he craved from his mother. Lowry had many friends of the same gender, of whom he talked about alot to his mother. One of them looked like the man he drawn naked. he never amitted that he carried around feelings for men but alot if people think he did and that's why he never got married. He also said "you can't have enough friends."

Early life
Lowry attended part-time classes, over a number of years, at Manchester School of Art (now Manchester Metropolitan University).

Education
His father died in 1932 leaving debts. His mother was subject to neurosis and depression, and became bedridden. Lowry's mother had always been a very important figure in his life and now he had to care for her. He painted from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. after his mother had fallen asleep. He frequently expressed regret that he received little recognition as an artist until the year that his mother died and that she had never been able to enjoy his success. From the mid 1930s until at least 1939 Lowry took annual holidays at Berwick-upon-Tweed. With the outbreak of war Lowry served as a volunteer fire watcher in Manchester and accepted an invitation to become a war artist. In 1953 he was appointed Official Artist at the coronation of Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.
With the death of his mother in October 1939, Lowry became depressed and neglected the upkeep of his house to such a degree that the landlord repossessed it in 1948. He was not short of money and bought "The Elms" in Mottram in Longdendale, Hyde, Manchester. Although he considered the house ugly and uncomfortable he stayed there until his death almost thirty years later.

Death of his mother
Lowry never married although he had several young female friends. He claimed never to have "had a girl". He said that he lived for his mother and that all he wanted was her smile or a word of praise from her. His father was indifferent to his artistic activity and although Lowry believed that his mother did not understand his painting, "she understood me and that was enough".
In later life, starting in the 1950s, Lowry would often spend holidays at the Seaburn Hotel in Seaburn, Tyne & Wear, painting scenes of the beach, as well as nearby ports and coal mines. It is believed that the sea air appealed to him, as well as the industrial scenes that were very different from the satanic mills of Greater Manchester. Lowry is fondly remembered in the city as a kindly old man, always wrapped up even at the height of summer, who kept himself to himself.
When he had no sketchbook with him, Lowry would often draw scenes in pencil or charcoal on the back of scrap paper such as envelopes, serviettes, and cloakroom tickets and present them to young people sitting with their families nearby. Such serendipitous pieces are now worth thousands of pounds; a serviette sketch can be seen at the Sunderland Mariott Hotel (formerly the Seaburn Hotel).
He may have had Asperger's Syndrome (the high-functioning form of autism) but this remains a contentious diagnosis that is not shared by those that knew him personally.. His friends have observed that his anecdotes were more notable for their humour than their accuracy and in many cases he set out deliberately to deceive. His stories of the fictional Ann were inconsistent and he invented other people as frameworks upon which to hang his tales. The collection of clocks in his living room were all set at different times: to some people he said that this was because he did not want to know the real time; to others he claimed that it was to save him from being deafened by their simultaneous chimes.
The contradictions in his life are exacerbated by this confusion. He is widely seen as a shy man but he had many long-lasting friendships including the Salford artist Harold Riley and made new friends throughout his adult life. He was contrary and could be selfish but he was generous and concerned for the well-being of his friends and of strangers. It may be as Sheila Fell has said: "He was a great humanist. To be a humanist, one has first to love human beings, and to be a great humanist, one has to be slightly detached from them."
In later life he grew tired of being approached by strangers on account of his celebrity and he particularly disliked being visited at home in this way. Another of his unverifiable stories had him keeping a suitcase by the front door so that he could claim to be just leaving, a practice he claimed to have abandoned after a helpful young man insisted on taking him to the station and had to be sent off to buy a paper so that Lowry could buy a ticket for just one stop without revealing his deceit. However, he was unfailingly polite to the residents of Mottram, who respected him and his privacy; he used the bus to get about the area in his retirement. A bronze statue of him has recently been erected at the traffic lights in that village.
Lowry was a supporter of Manchester City Football Club.

Personal life
Lowry retired from the Pall Mall Property Company in 1952. During his career he had risen to become chief cashier but he never stopped collecting rents. The firm had supported his development as an artist and he was allowed time off for exhibitions in addition to his normal holiday allowance. It seems, however, that he was not proud of his job; his secrecy about his employment by the Pall Mall Property Company is widely seen as a desire to present himself as a serious artist but the secrecy extended beyond the art world into his social circle.
Margery Thompson first met him when she was a schoolgirl and he became part of her family circle. He attended concerts with her family and friends, visited her home and entertained her at his Pendlebury home where he shared his knowledge of painting. They remained friends until his death but he never told her that he had any work except his art.
In the 1950s he regularly visited friends at Cleator Moor, Cumbria (where Geoffrey Bennett was Manager at National Westminster Bank) and Southampton (where Margery Thompson had moved upon her marriage). Lowry painted pictures of the bank in Cleator Moor, Southampton Floating Bridge and other scenes local to his friends' homes.
He befriended the 23-year-old Cumbrian artist Sheila Fell in November 1955 and supported her career by buying several pictures that he gave to museums. In 1957 an unrelated thirteen-year-old schoolgirl called Carol Ann Lowry wrote to Lowry at her mother's urging to ask his advice on becoming an artist. He visited her home in Heywood, Greater Manchester some months later, and befriended the family. His friendship with Carol Ann Lowry was to last the rest of his life.

Retirement
He died of pneumonia at The Woods Hospital in Glossop on 23 February 1976 aged 88. He was buried in Chorlton (Southern Cemetery), Manchester, next to his parents. He left his estate, valued at £298,459, together with a considerable number of artworks by himself and others to Carol Ann Lowry, who, in 2001, obtained trademark protection of the artist's signature.

Death and legacy
He was awarded an honorary Master of Arts from the University of Manchester in 1945, and Doctor of Letters in 1961, and given freedom of the City of Salford in 1965. In 1975 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Salford and the same degree by the University of Liverpool. The art world celebrated his 77th birthday (in 1964) with an exhibition of his work and that of 25 contemporary artists who had submitted tributes to Monk's Hall Museum, Eccles. The Hallé Orchestra also performed a concert in his honour and prime minister Harold Wilson used Lowry's painting The Pond as his official Christmas card. Lowry's painting Coming out of School was the stamp of highest denomination in a series issued by the Post Office depicting great British artists in 1967.
Lowry declined an OBE in 1955, a CBE in 1961, knighthood in 1968, and CH in 1972 and 1976. He holds the record for the most honours declined.

Awards
During his life Lowry made about 1000 paintings and over 8000 drawings. The lists here are some of those that are considered to be particularly significant.

Works
In a raid on the Grove Fine Art private gallery in Cheadle Hulme, Manchester, 5 artworks (thought to be worth more than £1.5m in total) and Lowry's palette and brushes were stolen by a gang of three armed men. The most valuable works are the Viaduct, at about £700,000 and The Tanker Entering The Tyne, which is worth between £500,000 and £600,000.

Stolen Lowry Works

1906 Still Life — a bowl of fruit for the first evening classes.
1912 Portrait of the Artist's Mother
1910 Clifton Junction Morning —
1917 Coming from the Mill — early exemple of what has become known as the Lowry style.
1919 Frank Jopling Fletcher — portrait demonstrating that Lowry's stylisation was a choice and not a consequence of any lack of skill.
1922 A Manufacturing Town — archetypal Lowry industrial landscape.
1922 Regent Street, Lytham — pastoral scene in sharp contrast to A manufacturing town.
1925 Self Portrait — a large-nosed young man (he would have been 38 years old) in a large flat cap.
1926 An Accident
1927 Peel Park, Salford — an art gallery and museum that Lowry particularly liked and that held Salford's excellent collection of his work before the opening of the Lowry Centre.
1927 Dwellings, Ordsall Lane, Salford — the first Lowry painting to be bought by the Tate Gallery (from his first London show in 1939).
1928 A Street Scene — the first Lowry painting to be bought by Salford City Art Gallery.
1928 Going to the Match — a crowd heading for a football match at Burnden Park, Bolton.
1930 Coming from the Mill
1934 The Empty House — an isolated house in grounds.
1935 A Fight
1935 The Fever Van
1936 "Laying a Foundation Stone" The mayor of Swinton and Pedlebury, laying a foundation stone in Clifton.
1937 The Lake — an environmental nightmare against an industrial background.
1938 A Head of a Man — it has been suggested that this red-eyed man might be a portrait of Robert Lowry (who would be much older than the portrait suggests) or a form of self-portrait.
1940 The Bedroom – Pendlebury — his late mother's room.
1941 Barges on a Canal
1942 The Sea A mournful painting off the Berwick coast [1]
1942 Blitzed Site — a man stands amidst the bombed ruins.
1943 Britain at Play — huge busy urban scene which clearly depicts St Michael's Flags and Angel Meadow Park, Manchester.
Going To Work — painted as a war artist.
1945 V.E. Day
1946 The Park
1947 A River Bank - bought by Bury Council for £150 in 1951, it was controversially sold by the Metropolitan Borough of Bury in 2006 to fund a £10 million budget defict for £1.25 million at a Christie's auction
1947 Iron Works
1950 The Pond — used as a Christmas card by Harold Wilson in 1964.
1953 Football Ground — fans converging on Bolton Wanderers's old football ground Burnden Park; painted for a competition run by the Football Association it was later renamed Going to the Match and was bought by the Professional Footballers Association for a record £1.9 million in 1999.
1955 A Young Man — a haunted youth stares at the viewer.
1955 Industrial Landscape
1956 The Floating Bridge — one of a pair owned by The City of Southampton, where the bridge operated until 1977.
1957 Man Lying on a Wall — note the gentle joke that the man's briefcase bears the initials 'LSL'.
1957 Portrait of Ann — a fiction.
1959 On the sands, Oil on cavas. [2]
1960 Gentleman Looking at Something
1961 River Wear at Sunderland — one of Lowry's favoured holiday destinations.
1962 Two People
1963 The Sea — typically understated seascape.
1965 Industrial Scene
1967 Tanker entering the Tyne Paintings

1908 Head from the Antique — very accurately observed.
1914 Seated Male Nude — realistic rendition with no trace of 'matchstick men'.
1919 Robert Lowry — the artist's father.
1920 The Artist's Mother
1931 Pendlebury Scene
1936 Dewars Lane-Lowry Trail In Berwick
1956 Berwick Pier and Lighthouse
1957 Woman with Beard — a woman Lowry saw on a train.
1958 The Elms — Lowry's house in Mottram-in-Longdendale.
1961 Colliery, Sunderland
1969 The Front, Hartlepool
undated Palace street Berwick
undated The Match[3] Collections
In 1978, two years after his death, Mancunian duo Brian and Michael hit number one in the UK pop chart with their only hit, the Lowry tribute Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats And Dogs. Written by Ancoats born Michael Coleman and produced by Kevin Parrott, the record sold 750,000 copies.
To mark the centenary of his birth, Royston Futter, director of the L .S. Lowry Centenary Festival on behalf of the City of Salford and the BBC commissioned the Northern Ballet Theatre and Gillian Lynne to create a dance drama in his honour. A Simple Man was choreographed and directed by Lynne, with music by Carl Davis and starring Christopher Gable and Moira Shearer ( in her last dance role) and it won a BAFTA award as the best arts programme in 1987. It was subsequently transferred to the stage and first performed in Manchester in 1987 and in London at Sadlers Wells in 1988.
In 2000, a £100-million arts and entertainment centre called "The Lowry" was opened in Salford Quays, Greater Manchester. The Lowry is named after the artist and features his work.
In January 2005, a statue of Lowry was unveiled in Mottram, Tameside.1 Lowry lived 100 yards away from where the statue stands in a linked detached property, "The Elms", in Stalybridge Road from 1948 up until his death in 1976. Unfortunately this has become a target for local vandals with the statue being vandalised several times since being unveiled. 2
In Hope High School, a house (a large group of pupils) is named after him. This is also true for Wardley C of E primary school - There is Brindley, Bridgewater, Lowry and another.
The Manchester rock band Oasis paid tribute to Lowry by releasing a music video for the single "The Masterplan" in October 2006 which uses Lowry style animation.

Bennettsville is a city in Marlboro County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 9,425 at the 2000 census and center of an urban cluster with a total population of 12,070. It is the county seat of Marlboro County.

Demographics
The city is run by an elected Mayor-council government system.

Mayor
Sandy Donaldson, Wilhelmina R. Pegues, John M. Jackson, III, Dexe Bostick, Freddie Hodges, Roosevelt Henegan, Jr.

Sir Michael Lyons (born 1950), is a former Labour councillor and council chief executive, who has also been involved in some of the key central government commissions and reports into local government finance from 2000 to 2007.

Former President Jerry Rawlings Addressing the UN General Assembly
Jerry John Rawlings (born Jeremiah Rawlings John June 22, 1947 in Accra) was twice the head of state of Ghana, a military dictator. He first appeared on the Ghanaian political scene on May 15, 1979 when an unsuccessful coup d'état he led resulted in his arrest, imprisonment, and a death sentence. But before he could be executed, his friends in the Ghana military led by Major Boakye Djan overthrew the then military government of General Fred Akuffo in a bloody coup on June 4, 1979. Major Boakye-Djan and his men also set Rawlings free from prison, and installed him as head of the new government - the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC). At the time of the coup, Ghana was already far into the process of returning to civilian rule and general elections were already scheduled. Hence, the AFRC was forced to hand over power to Dr. Hilla Limann who won the popular vote in the election to establish the Third Republic. Less than two years later, Dr. Limann's civilian and constitutional government was overthrown again by Jerry Rawlings on December 31, 1981. He then installed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime. So in all Jerry Rawlings performed three coups d'etat in Ghana, two of which were successful.
In the early 1990s internal pressures led by a group identified with the Danquah-Busia tradition coupled with external pressures from Ghana's development partners forced the PNDC dictatorship to accept constitutional rule. Rawlings on many platforms professed his hatred for multiparty democracy saying that it was alien to the Ghanaian people. But as elections drew near, he switched from being a military dictator, retired from the military, then run and won in the 1992 elections which the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) claimed was a stolen verdict although international observers judged the elections largely free and fair.
After two terms in office, barred by the constitution from standing in any election, he anointed his vice-president John Atta-Mills as his choice to replace him as President. Ghanaians rejected his choice in the 2000 election by voting for the opposition NPP's candidate, John Kufuor.
Rawlings is married to Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings and has four children: three girls and a boy. He is the joint recipient of the 1993 World Hunger Award.

Background
In March, 1968, he was posted to Takoradi in the Western Region to continue his studies. He graduated in January 1969, and was commissioned a Pilot Officer, winning the coveted "Speed Bird Trophy" as the best cadet in flying and airmanship. He earned the rank of Flight Lieutenant in April 1978.
During his service with the Ghanaian Air Force, Rawlings perceived a deterioration of discipline and morale, reflecting the corruption of the Supreme Military Council (SMC) at that time. As promotion brought him into contact with the privileged classes and their social values, his view of the injustices in society hardened. He was thus regarded with some unease by the SMC. He read widely and discussed social and political ideas with a growing circle of like-minded friends and colleagues.
On May 28, 1979, Rawlings, together with six others who were arrested earlier, appeared before a General Court Martial in Accra, charged with leading a mutiny of junior officers and enlisted men of the Ghanaian Armed Forces on May 15, 1979. There was strong public reaction, especially after his statement had been read in court, explaining the social injustices that had prompted him to act. The ranks of the Armed Forces, in particular, expressed deep sympathy with his stated aims.

Military career
When he was scheduled for another court appearance on 4 June 1979, Rawlings was sprung from custody. In the early 1990s, the economy of Ghana was still not performing as well as it had in the early 1970s, and ethnic unrest was on the rise. On the other hand, the basic needs of the citizens were being met, many of them by domestic products, and the economy showed steady improvement with guidance from the International Monetary Fund. And Rawlings's reputation on foreign policy received a boost when he acted as a key figure in a mediated peace settlement between factions in nearby Liberia, a nation burdened by five years of civil war. [ http://www.jjrawlings.info JJ Rawlings Website]

Democratic President
[ http://www.jjrawlings.info JJ Rawlings Website]

Achieved political and economic stability in a region rife with conflicts (for example Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, Togo, Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone).
Created 110 districts through non-partisan district level elections. Education, infrastructure developments and healthcare all devolved to the district level. Annual government subvention by law goes to the district — unthinkable in many other African countries.
Absorbed hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians living in Nigeria who were expelled. Housed them at El -Wak stadium in 1983 and then moved them to their family homes. Most other economies, including even advanced ones such as Germany saw their economies suffer when they reunified with integrated citizens (for example German reunification).
Built first ever memorials to Kwame Nkrumah and W.E.B. DuBois.
Followed an independent foreign policy (unlike the pro-West policies of the PP and NPP or the pro-East policies of the CPP).
Returned Ghana to democratic rule in 1992, after a public referendum by a wide majority approved a new constitution. Neither Nigeria, Iraq, Togo, or Côte d'Ivoire were able to achieve this feat (in Nigeria two governments were overthrown during this period).
Passed the value added tax (VATR of 10%) to secure government revenue base, which today funds most government public expenditures.
Passed the Ghana Educational Trust Fund (GET Fund) that is today educating millions of Ghanaians.
First Ghanaian President in 20 years to be received on a state visit of the US.
Expanded electricity to Northern parts of Ghana - hitherto ignored by ruling elites since 1957.
Both Bill Clinton and Queen Elizabeth II visited Ghana during Rawlings tenure to highlight the successes of the country.
The NDC's agricultural policy and programme 1994-2000 resulted in the recognition of Ghana's Food Production Index of 148% for 1995-1997 as "the third highest achievement in the record after Jordan (157%) and China (156%) in the World Bank's "1999-2000 Development Report."
Contributed immensely towards dispute resolution and peace keeping in several of the unstable countries in the West African sub-region and beyond.
The first African military ruler, who gained political legitimacy through the ballot-box and handed over power at the end of his mandate. Achievements of the Rawlings regime
there majority of his ministers where from the akan tribe

Accusations of torture and murder of people that opposed his regime.
Jailed dissidents who plotted to overthrow regime.
Gonda Military barracks was used as a playground for the then-military to do as they please.
Largely favoured promotion of people from the Ewe tribe into government posts regardless of their abilities to govern, drawing accusations of nepotism.
The cedi has still not recovered from the lows it reached under his leadership.
That while the court martial and executions of former Presidents Kutu Acheampong and Akuffu Addo might be understandable, those of Rear Admiral Joy Amedume, Roger Felli, Boakye and Afrifa are believed by some to not be justified.
Oversaw so-called Public Tribunals, which were criticized for their "disregard of normal juridical procedures".
Was sometimes hostile to freedom of the press - though it was also during his regime that the press was privatized and many opposition papers and radio stations grew. Although editors and writers of mainstream papers-such as Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng of The Graphic-were forced to flee as a result of their opposing stance
Accused of complicity in murder of 3 judges - though independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission headed by Supreme Court Justice G.E.K. Aikins absolved Rawlings of any connections to the killings.
Maintained relations with Libya's Qadaffi, Burkina Faso's Thomas Sankara and Palestine's Yasser Arafat. Quotes
JJ Rawlings Website

The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk is a medium-lift utility or assault helicopter derived from the twin-turboshaft engine, single rotor Sikorsky S-70.
The S-70 was the winner of a United States Army Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System (UTTAS) competition in the early 1970s to replace the UH-1 Huey family. Though the two final competing designs were each developed to Army specifications, the UH-60 was selected over the Boeing-Vertol YUH-61 entry from Boeing-Vertol. It would go on to serve as the basis for variants in service with other branches of the US military.

Overview
The Black Hawk was developed to meet a US Army requirement for a UH-1 Iroquois replacement in 1972. Four prototypes were constructed, the first (YUH-60) flying in October 1974, and evaluated against a rival Boeing-Vertol design, the YUH-61. The Black Hawk was selected for production and the UH-60A entered service with the US Army in 1979. In the late 1980s the model was upgraded to the UH-60L (First production aircraft 89-26179) which featured more power and lift with the upgrade to the -701C model of the GE engines. A newer model is being engineered (UH-60M), which will extend the service life of both UH-60A's and UH-60L's well into the 2020s, features still more power and lift and state of the art electronic instrumentation, flight controls and aircraft navigation control.

Variants
Sikorsky offered the design in the defense market, leading to its purchase by over 20 other countries. It is currently in service with the militaries of:
Originally, such countries as the United Kingdom and Canada purchased the design, but it was traded in when the smaller AgustaWestland EH101 were produced.
 Morocco
 Philippines
 Republic of China (Taiwan)
 Saudi Arabia
 South Korea
 Turkey
 Thailand
 United States Operators
(The Army is now replacing the M60 machine gun with the M240H machine gun.) (1,200 nm, 2,220 km)
Service ceiling: 19,000 ft (5,790 m)
Rate of climb: 700 ft/min (3.6 m/s)
Disc loading: 7.19 lb/ft² (35.4 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.959 hp/lb (158 W/kg)
Guns: 2× 7.62 mm (0.30 in) M60 machine guns or M134 miniguns
Can be equipped with VOLCANO minefield dispersal system. See UH-60 Armament Subsystems for more information. Performance

Black Hawk U.S Army fact file
Army Aviation Training Center (at Ft. Rucker) UH-60A Black Hawk page
Sikorsky Aircraft's BLACK HAWK page
UH-60A, H-60, AH-60L and Sikorsky S-70 on GlobalSecurity.org
H-60 Series aircraft photos and info on HawkOnline.us
UH-60 Black Hawk page on CombatAircraft.com
S-70A-42 Black Hawk of the Austrian Army
UTTAS program, origin of the Black Hawk

Andrew Stuart Luster (b. December 15, 1963) is the great-grandson of cosmetics giant Max Factor, Sr. and an heir to the Max Factor cosmetics fortune who was convicted of a series of rapes in 2003. For much of his life, he was supported by a $3.1 million trust fund as he traveled and surfed at various beaches.
In 1996, 1997 and 2000 Luster gave three women GHB, a known date rape drug, and raped them while they were unconscious. Luster was brought to trial in 2002. Soon afterward, police officers found videotapes of Luster raping the women in question, including one tape labeled "Shauna GHBing."
On January 6, 2003, the trial court found the appellant had voluntarily absented himself from the trial and declared him a fugitive. He was later convicted of 86 of 87 counts including multiple counts of rape. He was sentenced in absentia to 124 years in prison. On the same day, the trial court found that the appellant willfully absented himself from both the court and the state on January 4, 2003.
The California Court of Appeal refused the appeal his attorneys filed on his behalf,
During his flight, Luster found his way to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where he lived under the assumed name David Carrera, surfing and partying. He was captured by bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman, his son Leland Chapman, Tim Chapman, and two TV crewmen in a noisy scuffle on June 18, 2003 and was then taken into custody by Mexican authorities. Chapman was subsequently arrested for deprivation of liberty, a charge that was ultimately dropped in August 2007. The next day, Luster was returned to the U.S., and was imprisoned.
After he vanished, a movie called A Date with Darkness: The Trial and Capture of Andrew Luster was made based on him and his victims. The film was supposed to end with a picture of the real Andrew Luster, asking the audience to notify authorities if they should see him. When Luster was finally captured, the film was still shooting. The ending was re-written to incorporate his capture.
On July 18, 2003 the domain name andrewluster.net was registered by his mother, Elizabeth Luster. The website claimed Luster's conviction was a miscarriage of justice and contained the following text:
"Disclaimer: This web site is created by a group of concerned citizens for judicial fairness. All content (with the exception of family photographs and biography) are supplied by followers of the Andrew Luster case. None of the facts uncovered, conjecture, logic, nor observations, are supplied by anyone in the Luster, nor Factor family. No liability, nor responsibility is to be imposed, nor inferred to these families."

RMS Mauretania (also known as "Maury"), sister ship of the Lusitania, was an ocean liner built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson at Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, and was launched on September 20, 1906. At the time, she was the largest and fastest ship in the world. Particularly notable was her steam turbine propulsion, which was a revolutionary development in ocean liner design. Mauretania became a favourite among the passengers because of her luxury, speed and safety.
The name Mauretania was originated from a Berber kingdom on the Mediterranean coast of north Africa (named after the Maure tribe, after whom the Moors were named), not related to the modern Mauritania.

World War I
Mauretania returned to civilian service on September 21, 1919. Her busy sailing schedule prevented her from having a massive overhaul scheduled in 1920. However, in 1921, Cunard Line forced her out of the service when the fire broke out in the first class cabin and decided to give her a much needed overhaul. Like the RMS Olympic, her boilers were converted from coal to fuel oil. In 1922 she returned to service and later she broke her own Atlantic record with a speed of 26 knots. In 1928 Mauretania was modernised with new interior design and in the next year her speed record was broken by a German liner SS Bremen with a speed of 28 knots. On August 27, 1929, Mauretania collided with a train ferry near Robbins Reef; fortunately, no one was killed or injured and her damage was quickly repaired. In 1930, with a combination of the Great Depression and newer competition, Mauretania became a dedicated cruise ship to keep her busy. When Cunard Line merged with White Star Line in 1934, Mauretania, along with Olympic, Majestic and other aging ocean liners, had to be retired in order to make room for 81,000 tonnes Queen Mary.
The Mauretania is remembered in a song "Firing the Mauretania", with versions collected separately by Redd Sullivan and Hughie Jones. They both start "In 19 hundred and 24, I… got a job on the Mauretania"; but then go on to say "shovelling coal from morn till night" (not possible in 1924 as she was oil-fired by then); the number of "fires" is said to be either 64 or 34; but perversely the last verse on Hughie's version says "trimmers" not "stokers", so perhaps this is a reference to oil.
Cunard withdrew the Mauretania from service following a final eastward crossing from New York to Southampton in September, 1934. The ship was laid up, her furnishings were sold at auction, and in July, 1935, the Mauretania headed for the breaker's yard at Rosyth.
Some of the furnishings from the RMS Mauretania were installed in a bar/restaurant complex in Bristol called the Mauretania Bar (now Bar III), situated at the bottom of Park Street (the hill leading to the Wills Memorial Building of Bristol University) behind the Council House on College Green. The lounge bar was paneled with mahogany, which came from her 1st class library. The neon sign on the south wall still advertises the "Mauretania," and her bow lettering was used above the entrance. Additionally, the 1st class reading-writing room has become the board room at Pinewood Studios, west of London.

See also

Mauretania, by Humfrey Jordan
Atlantic Liners: A Trio of Trios, by J. Kent Layton