ABSTRACT
The Mauretanias entered service in 1907. War Games at the Royal Naval War College (RNWC) a few months earlier assumed that Germany would use fast liners as commerce raiders, and that they would be chased by British Armed Merchant Cruisers (AMCs). British ships would not be converted on the high seas, but HMG retained the right to treat enemy ships so converted as it saw fit, in other words, as pirates. The Admiralty continued to assert its requirements for ships building. A meeting with Houlder Brothers reiterated the familiar specification for AMCs: coal endurance, coal protection, underwater steering gear, armament, watertight subdivision, stability and manoeuvrability, and a speed of 19 knots. Henry Campbell asserted that AMCs should be equipped and utilised on definite principles, should be available when required, and equipped rapidly. He asked why speed had been considered the governing factor as opposed to steaming endurance.
