The first so called superliner, the RMS

Royal Mail Ship

Royal Mail Ship , usually seen in its abbreviated form RMS, a designation which dates back to 1840, is the ship prefix used for seagoing vessels that carry mail under contract by Royal Mail...

 Servia was built in 1881 by J.&G, Thomson Limited of Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 for the Cunard Steamship Line Shipping Company

Cunard Line

Cunard Line is a British-American owned shipping company based at Carnival House in Southampton, England and operated by Carnival UK. It has been a leading operator of passenger ships on the North Atlantic for over a century...

. The ship served for 20 years and then was sold to Thomas W. Ward scrap yard and towed to Preston for dismantling. She weighed in at 7,391 tons. She was 532 feet long and 52 feet wide. She had a single propeller driven steam engine and her service speed was 17 knots. She could carry 1,050 passengers. Split into classes (450 first class and 600 third class).

She was the first ship to carry the Royal Mail under contract and thus have the prestigious "Royal Mail Steamship" ship prefix

Ship prefix

A ship prefix is a combination of letters, usually abbreviations, used in front of the name of a civilian or naval ship.Prefixes for civilian vessels may either identify the type of propulsion, such as "SS" for steamship, or purpose, such as "RV" for research vessel. Civilian prefixes are often...

.