Shot by an unknown American amateur filmmaker, this 1934 silent home film shows a trip of the RMS Mauretania (referred to in the film as SS Mauretania) to Venezuela and Panama. It was filmed by one of the guests on the ship and focuses on the other travelers and some tourist sights along the way. The passengers first travel to Caracas through La Guaira in Venezuela. They then head towards Panama, where they sightsee in Panama City and spend an extended amount of time on the Panama Canal. The film ends with series of close-ups of some of the guests from the journey. This journey was apparently one of the last voyages of the SS Mauretania before its retirement in September 1934.
00:00 Bon Voyage West Indies to the SS Mauretania, 0:17 a Humber Pullman, 0_26 passengers on the deck of the SS Mauretania gathering and posing for the camera, 1:26 couples walking slowly towards the camera, 2:05 close-ups of different passengers on the ship, 3:05 passengers walking along the deck, 3:34 the group begins boarding the ship, 3:57 the coastline at La Guaira, Venezuela, 4:40 passengers looking overboard at La Guaira, 4:56 boats taking passengers ashore, 5:29 the four stack RMS Mauretania is visible in the background 5:56 passengers and crew at the port in La Guaira, 6:37 views of the countryside from a train as it slowly climbs up a mountain on the way to Caracas, 7:02 people enjoying themselves at a hotel, 7:48 passengers on a boat travelling down the Panama Canal, 8:35 different ships on the Panama Canal, 8:49 the Panama City Ancient Ruins, 9:49 the Balboa Statue in Panama City, 10:18 passengers from the ship at the Chagres Club, 10:25 street scenes from Panama City, including a sign for Ron Baccarat. 11:00 the passengers at the Gatun Locks at the Panama Canal, 11:35 close-ups of some of the passengers of the cruise in a hotel, 14:54 passengers eating dinner together at a large table.
The RMS Mauretania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson on the River Tyne, England for the Cunard Line, launched on 20 September 1906. It was the world’s largest ship until the launch of RMS Olympic in 1910. She held the Blue Riband for fastest transatlantic for 20 years. Mauretania remained in service until September 1934, when Cunard-White Star retired her; scrapping commenced in Rosyth, in 1935.
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