The New York Times, 8 April 1937
MAJESTIC CONVERTED INTO A TRAINING SHIP
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Once Proud Liner Sails Today to 'Exile' Off Rosyth, Scotland---Will Accommodate 2,000
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Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES
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LONDON, April 7---Many who knew the liner Majestic when she was the largest and proudest vessel flying the British flag will look on sadly as she sails tomorrow from Southampton harbor into "exile" off Rosyth, Scotland.
Although she has been saved from the fate that befell the Homeric, the Mauretania and the Olympic, which long ago were sold for scrap, she probably will never again pit her 56,600 tons against an angry sea.
Extensive alterations have been completed, converting her into a training ship for Britain's naval cadets, and hereafter, rechristened H. M. S. Caledonia, she will ride comfortably at anchor on the placid inland waters of the Firth of Forth.
For more than a dozen years the mighty Majestic reigned supreme, but with the launching of the more modern superliner Queen Mary her doom was sealed. Because of her. great size, limited docking facilities restricted her sphere of further usefulness, so after a time the liner was sold for scrap. Breakers were in the midst of the work of tearing out the elaborate fixtures when the Admiralty issued a reprieve.
The Majestic will now be commissioned on April 23 and will accommodate 1,500 youths and 500 artificers and apprentices. The estimated cost of purchase and conversion was about £391,000. Stateroom partitions have been broken down to provide large classrooms as well as barracks.
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