IT was a proud day for the Tyne exactly a century ago when two stylish passenger liners were built on the river.

But the celebration was to turn to tragedy for the sister ships Laconia and Franconia, launched by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, when both were torpedoed by German U-boats within five months of each other.

Tomorrow, a poignant relic of the Franconia’s sinking will be sold in London by marine specialist auctioneers Charles Miller Ltd.

A compass from one of Franconia’s lifeboats is set to fetch £250-£350. The compass was acquired by Albert Walmsley, an air sea rescue pilot who was lost in the Second World War.

Completed by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson in 1911, Franconia was a strikingly pretty liner with a pair of handsome raked funnels and a classic straight-stem bow.

Initially used by Cunard for its Liverpool-New York and Boston service, she was requisitioned in 1915 for use as a troop transport. On October 4, 1916 she was sunk by the submarine U-47.

A first hand account of the sinking by an American journalist who was on board describes how the U-boat surfaced next to his lifeboat and questioned survivors about the identity of the ship that had gone down.

The launching ceremony of the Laconia in 1911 was performed by Mrs Whitelaw Reid, wife of the American Ambassador in London.

The Laconia was torpedoed and sunk by U-50 on February 25, 1917.

Items from one of the Tyne’s greatest liners will also feature in the sale.

A brass bell from the Mauretania, launched in 1906 by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, is estimated to fetch £8,000-£10,000.

The liner was broken up in 1935 and the bell hung in Cunard’s offices in the Liver Building in Liverpool.

A large lamp from Mauretania will also be in the auction and is estimated at £1,000-£1,500 with a smaller version at £700-£900.

It is believed that the lamps were from the first class dining room of the liner.

Newcastle Discovery Museum has several items from Mauretania, including lamps, the letter E from her name, a length of anchor chain and her fog triangle.

Also for sale for £500-£700 is a folder of more than 100 replies to Swan Hunter responding to an invitation to inspect the liner, contained in a red card folder inscribed S.S. Mauretania, a second folder of correspondence from Swan Hunter about a floating crane and three period brochures for the Wallsend Yard.

Auctioneer Charles Miller said: “The compass from the Franconia is poignant and also very rare in that the name of the ship is painted on its lid.

“It would have been carried into the lifeboat by somebody, which would have been a very sensible thing to do. The whole episode must have been absolutely terrifying.

“The liners built by Swans were great ships and no expense was spared on these greyhounds of the seas.”