Gordon Willbond Cunard (1 results)

Gordon Willbond (illustrator). This is the menu from Cunard's RMS Ascania from July 30, 1953, when she was sailing the Liverpool-Halifax route. For this menu, Cunard commissioned original artwork from the British artist Gordon Willbond. The cover is in the frame; the full menu is enclosed in a plastic envelope on the back. The menu is 8 3/8" x 10 1/4". Then there is 2" of white matting and a 3/4" black metal frame. The total size is 13 1/2" x 16". History of Ascania Ascania was launched on December 20, 2912 in Newcastle, the fifth of Cunard's six A-class liners. In summer, she sailed London-Montreal; in winter, London-Halifax-New York. In December 1934, in the mid-Atlantic, Ascania rescued the crew of the sinking SS Unsworth. In 1939, she was taken into naval service, becoming the 8-gun HMS Ascania and sailed with the North Atlantic Escort Force. She was deployed to New Zealand, then to the UK as a troopship. In 1943, she tookpart in the Invasion of Sicily, then the Anzio Landings and, in 1944, landings in the south of France (Operation Dragoon). In 1949, Ascania returned to Cunard and resumed passenger service on the Liverpool-Halifax route, with 200 first-class and 500 tourist-class passengers. In 1956, she went back to naval service for the Suez landings and, in December 1956, she was retired. Her bell is displayed at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, and a large model of her is at the Canadian Museum of Immigration Pier 21, next to where she docked.