A campaign to bring a piece of seafaring history back to a regional daily’s patch has failed, despite readers helping to raise £20,000 for the cause.

As previously reported on HTFP, the Liverpool Echo announced its backing for the Merseyside Maritime Museum’s drive to buy a 12 foot model of the RMS Mauretania, once the biggest and fastest ship in the world.

The model, pictured below, was built to celebrate the ship’s launch in 1906 and National Museum Liverpool, the body which runs the museum, had been aiming to raise the funds to bid successfully for the model.

But despite Echo readers and museum visitors donating £20,000 to the cause in just two weeks, they were unsuccessful at auction in London and the model was sold for £162,000 – more than three times its initial £50,000 estimate.

David Fleming, director of National Museums Liverpool, told the Echo: “We are bitterly disappointed to have lost out on acquiring this ship model for Liverpool, despite all the help we received, including from the Liverpool Echo and its readers.

“At the end of the day, we just couldn’t raise enough money to outbid others who wanted to own this magnificent model. It’s very sad.”

The donations will now be used to improve Merseyside Maritime Museum and its collections.

The Mauretania, which held over 2,000 passengers, was known as the ‘Big Scouse Boat’ and weighed a massive 31,000 tonnes.

Although it regularly traversed the globe, RMS Mauretania remained a Liverpool-registered ship from her launch in 1906 to her decommissioning in 1934.