1913 The New World. Technologically advanced, confident, ready for a century of marvels and brilliant discoveries. Only 56 years to the moon, after all.

Pity about all that unpleasantness in-between. Pity it all came about so quickly:

Aquitania's maiden voyage was under the command of Captain William Turner on 30 May 1914 with arrival in New York on 5 June.

This event was overshadowed by the sinking of the RMS Empress of Ireland in Quebec the previous day with over a thousand drowned. The following month Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, and the world was plunged into World War I, interrupting Aquitania's civilian career.

Turner, by the way, was the Captain of the Lusitania when it went down. The Aquitania lasted a good long time - longer than any other express liner of the 20th century, wikipedia says, and the last of the four-funnel ships to be scrapped. It met its end in 1950.