The Ships of the M Class

 

The Mantua was the pride of the M-Class and the most recent addition to P&O passenger fleet.  She could accommodate 400 First Class and 200 Second Class passengers on her mail runs to India and Australia.

At 10,885 tons she was eighth in the succession of M-Class and the largest of the company's Caird-built ships.  However, her magnitude was soon eclipsed by the last two giants of her class, first of which, Maloja, slid off the stocks at Harland & Wolff, Belfast in December 1910.

The M-Class ships boasted ever better and bigger passenger accommodation with, "handsome and lofty dining saloons" and a music room, "sumptuously furnished as to carpets and upholstery, quiet and restful as to its scheme of decoration".  In addition to the customary oak-panelled smoking room, the Mantua featured a 'Divan' – a large saloon for the use of passengers of both sexes, where smoking was permitted.