The hull built up in lifts in 1/10 in.=1 ft. scale, the starboard side finished with a red bottom, white waterline, and black and white topsides with inset portholes, anchor, lowered gangway, rudder and brass propeller. The decks are of veneer with the planking lines carefully drawn in India ink, and detailed with jack staff, chocks, hawse pipes, anchor windlass, vents and ventilators, companionway, cargo masts and booms with cargo winches, fore and aft masts with standing and running rigging, crow's nests and wind indicator; promenade deck, boat deck, enclosed bridge with bridge wings, double stacked life boats, funnel in red and black Cunard livery, deck railings, flagstaff and other details.
The port side of the model is cutaway and illustrated with the cross section of the ship (similar to the fold out deck plans popular for the period) showing from the keel to the deck the locations and rooms including: the food and supply stores, boiler room, engine room, crews quarters, 1st and 2nd class accommodations, grand staircase, dining rooms, lounges, men's smoking room and women's drawing room, captain's and officers' quarters, and numerous other areas of the ship meticulously laid out and detailed. Displayed on three baluster turned German silver pedestals on a mahogany plinth within a mahogany framed glass case.
The passenger liner R.M.S. ASCANIA was built at Armstrong Whitworth & Co. Ltd of Newcastle for the Cunard Line of Liverpool and she was launched on May 22nd, 1925. Her passenger accommodation was for a total of 1700 in two classes in addition to a compliment of 270 officers and crew. The ASCANIA left for her maiden voyage on 22nd May 1925 from London to Montreal and she stayed on that route until the outbreak of World War II in 1939 when she was placed in service as a troop carrier. In 1942 she was converted into troop ship, and in this role she was responsible for bringing the invasion forces to the beachheads for the invasions of Sicily, Salerno and the Anzio landings. R.M.S. ASCANIA was the only "A" class liner to return to passenger service after the war, and made her first post-war voyage on December 20th 1947 from Liverpool to Halifax. She was broken up in January 1957.
