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History of RMS Queen Elizabeth
RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by the
Cunard Line. With her running mate Queen Mary, she provided
luxury liner service between Southampton, the United
Kingdom, and New York City, the United States, via
Cherbourg, France. She was also contracted for over twenty
years to carry the Royal Mail as the second half of the two
ships' weekly express service.
While being constructed, in the mid-1930s by John Brown and
Company at Clydebank, Scotland, she was known as Hull 552
but when launched, on 27 September 1938, she was named in
honour of Queen Elizabeth, who was then Queen Consort to
King George VI and in 1952 became the Queen Mother. With a
design that improved upon that of Queen Mary, Queen
Elizabeth was a slightly larger ship, the largest passenger
liner ever built at that time and for fifty-six years
thereafter. She also has the distinction of being the
largest-ever riveted ship by gross tonnage. She first
entered service in February 1940 as a troopship in World War
II, and it was not until October 1946 that she served in her
intended role as an ocean liner.
With the decline in the popularity of the transatlantic
route, both ships were replaced by Queen Elizabeth 2 in
1969. Queen Mary was retired from service on 9 December
1967, and was sold to the city of Long Beach, California,
US. Queen Elizabeth was sold to a succession of buyers, most
of whom had adventurous and unsuccessful plans for her.
Finally she was sold to a Hong Kong businessmen, Tung Chao
Yung, who intended to convert her into a floating university
cruise ship. In 1972, while undergoing refurbishment in Hong
Kong harbour, she caught fire under mysterious circumstances
and was capsized by the water used to fight the fire. In
1973, her wreck was deemed an obstruction, and she was
partially scrapped where she lay
Building and design
On the day RMS Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage,
Cunard's chairman, Sir Percy Bates, informed his ship
designers that it was time to start designing the planned
second ship known as Hull 552. The official contract between
Cunard and government financiers was signed on 6 October
1936.
The new ship improved upon the design of Queen Mary with
sufficient changes, including a reduction in the number of
boilers to twelve instead of Mary 's twenty-four, that the
designers could discard one funnel and increase deck, cargo
and passenger space. The two funnels were braced internally
to give a cleaner looking appearance while the forward well
deck was omitted, a more refined hull shape was achieved and
a sharper, raked bow was added for a third bow-anchor point,
so that she was ten feet longer than the older ship.
Queen Elizabeth was built on slipway four at John Brown &
Company in Clydebank, Scotland. During her construction she
was more commonly known by her shipyard number, Hull 552.
The interiors were designed by a team of artists headed by
the architect George Grey Wornum. Cunard's plan was for the
ship to be launched in September 1938, with fitting out
intended to be complete for the ship to enter service in the
spring of 1940. The Queen herself performed the launching
ceremony on 27 September 1938 and the ship was sent for
fitting out. It was announced that on 23 August 1939 the
King and Queen were to visit the ship and tour the engine
room and 24 April 1940 was to be the proposed date of her
maiden voyage. Due to the outbreak of World War II, these
two dates were postponed.
Queen Elizabeth sat at the fitting-out dock at the shipyard
in her Cunard colours until 2 November 1939, when the
Ministry of Shipping issued special licences to declare her
seaworthy. On 29 December her engines were tested for the
first time, running from 0900 to 1600 with the propellers
disconnected to monitor her oil and steam operating
temperatures and pressures. Two months later Cunard received
a letter from Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the
Admiralty, ordering the ship to leave Clydeside as soon as
possible and "to keep away from the British Isles as long as
the order was in force".
Maiden voyage
At the start of World War II, it was decided that as Queen
Elizabeth was so vital to the war effort that she could not
have her movements tracked by German spies operating in the
Clydebank area. Therefore, an elaborate ruse was fabricated
involving her sailing to Southampton to complete her fitting
out. Another factor prompting Queen Elizabeth 's departure
was the necessity to clear the fitting out berth at the
shipyard for the battleship HMS Duke of York, which was in
need of its final fitting-out. Only the berth at John Brown
could accommodate the King George V-class battleship's
needs.
One major factor that limited the ship's secret departure
date was that there were only two spring tides that year
that would see the water level high enough for Queen
Elizabeth to leave the Clydebank shipyard, and German
intelligence were aware of this fact. A minimal crew of four
hundred were assigned for the trip; most were signed up for
a short voyage to Southampton from Aquitania. Parts were
shipped to Southampton, and preparations were made to
drydock the new liner when she arrived. The names of Brown's
shipyard employees were booked to local hotels in
Southampton to give a false trail of information and Captain
John Townley was appointed as her first master. Townley had
previously commanded Aquitania on one voyage, and several of
Cunard's smaller vessels before that. Townley and his
hastily signed-on crew of four hundred Cunard personnel were
told by a Cunard representative before they left to pack for
a voyage where they could be away from home for up to six
months.
By the beginning of March 1940, Queen Elizabeth was ready
for her secret voyage. Her Cunard colours were painted over
with battleship grey, and on the morning of 3 March she
quietly left her moorings in the Clyde where she proceeded
out of the river and sailed further on down the coast where
she was met by the King's Messenger, who presented sealed
orders directly to the captain. Whilst waiting for the
messenger the ship was refuelled, adjustments to the ships
compass and some final testing of the ship equipment was
carried out before she sailed to her secret destination.
Captain Townley discovered that he was to take the untested
vessel directly to New York without stopping, without
dropping off the Southampton harbour pilot who had embarked
on Queen Elizabeth from Clydebank and to maintain strict
radio silence. Later that day at the time when she was due
to arrive at Southampton, the city was bombed by the
Luftwaffe. After a crossing taking six days, Queen Elizabeth
had zigzagged her way across the Atlantic at an average
speed of 26 knots avoiding Germany's U-boats, where she
arrived safely at New York and found herself moored
alongside both Queen Mary and the French Line's Normandie.
This would be the only time all three of the world's largest
liners would be berthed together.
Captain Townley received two telegrams on his arrival in New
York, one from his wife congratulating him and the other was
from the ship's namesake – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, who
thanked him for safe delivery of the ship that was named for
her. The ship was then moored for the first time alongside
Queen Mary and she was then secured so that no one could
board her without prior permission. This included port
officials. Cunard later issued a statement that it had been
decided that due to the global circumstances, it was best
that the new liner was moved to a neutral location and that
during that voyage the ship had carried no passengers or
cargo.
World War II
Queen Elizabeth left the port of New York on 13 November
1940 for Singapore to receive her troopship conversion.
After two stops to refuel and replenish her stores in
Trinidad and Cape Town, she arrived in Singapore's Naval
Docks where she was fitted with anti-aircraft guns, and her
hull repainted black, although her superstructure remained
grey.
As a troopship, Queen Elizabeth left Singapore on 11
February, and initially she carried Australian troops to
operating theatres in Asia and Africa. After 1942, the two
Queens were relocated to the North Atlantic for the
transportation of American troops to Europe.
Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary were used as troop transports
during the war. Their high speeds allowed them to outrun
hazards, foremostly German U-boats, allowing them to
typically travel without a convoy. During her war service as
a troopship Queen Elizabeth carried more than 750,000
troops, and she also sailed some 500,000 miles (800,000 km).
Her captains during this period were the aforementioned John
Townley, Ernest Fall, Cyril Gordon Illinsworth, Charles
Ford, and James Bisset.
Post-war career
Following the end of World War II, her running mate Queen
Mary remained in her wartime role and grey appearance,
except for her funnels, which were repainted in the
company's colours. For another year she did military
service, returning troops and G.I. brides to the United
States. Queen Elizabeth, meanwhile, was refitted and
furnished as an ocean liner at the Firth of Clyde Drydock in
Greenock by the John Brown Shipyard. Six years of war
service had never permitted the formal sea trials to take
place, and these were now finally undertaken. Under the
command of Commodore Sir James Bisset the ship travelled to
the Isle of Arran and her trials were carried out. Onboard
was the ship's namesake Queen Elizabeth and her two
daughters, the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. During the
trials, her majesty Queen Elizabeth took the wheel for a
brief time and the two young princesses recorded the two
measured runs with stopwatches that they had been given for
the occasion. Bisset was under strict instructions from Sir
Percy Bates, who was also aboard the trials, that all that
was required from the ship was two measured runs of no more
than thirty knots and that she was not permitted to attempt
to attain a higher speed record than Queen Mary. After her
trials Queen Elizabeth finally entered Cunard White Star's
two ship weekly service to New York. Despite similar
specifications to her older sister Queen Mary, Elizabeth
never held the Blue Riband, as Cunard White Star chairman
Sir Percy Bates requested that the two ships not try to
compete against one another.
In 1955 during an annual overhaul at Southampton, England,
Queen Elizabeth was fitted with underwater fin stabilizers
to smooth the ride in rough seas. Two fins were fitted on
each side of the hull. The fins were retractable into the
hull to save fuel in smooth seas and for docking.
In 1959, the ship made an appearance in the British
satirical Eastman Color comedy film The Mouse That Roared
starring Peter Sellers and Jean Seberg. While a troupe of
invading men from a fictional European country cross the
Atlantic to 'war' with the United States on a tow boat, they
meet and pass the far larger Queen Elizabeth, and learn that
New York City is closed due to an air raid drill. The men on
the tow boat respond by loosing arrows at the two officers
speaking from near the ocean liner's bridge.
The ship ran aground on a sandbank off Southampton on 14
April 1947, and was re-floated the following day. On 29 July
1959, she was in a collision with the American cargo ship
American Hunter in foggy conditions in New York Harbour and
was holed above the waterline.
Together with the Queen Mary, and in competition with SS
United States, the Queen Elizabeth dominated the
transatlantic passenger trade until their fortunes began to
decline with the advent of the faster and more economical
jet airliner in the late 1950s; As passenger numbers
declined, the Queens became uneconomic to operate in the
face of rising fuel and labour costs. For a short time, the
Queen Elizabeth (now under the command of Commodore Geoffrey
Trippleton Marr) attempted a dual role in order to become
more profitable; when not plying her usual transatlantic
route, which she now alternated in her sailings with the
French Line's SS France, the ship cruised between New York
and Nassau. For this new tropical purpose, the ship received
a major refit in 1965, with a new lido deck added to her aft
section, enhanced air conditioning, and an outdoor swimming
pool. With these improvements, Cunard intended to keep the
ship in operation until at least the middle 1970s. However,
this strategy did not prove successful due to her high fuel
costs, deep draught (which prevented her from entering
various island ports), and great width, preventing her from
using the Panama Canal.
Cunard retired both ships by 1969 and replaced them with a
single, smaller ship, the more economical Queen Elizabeth 2.
Final years
In 1968, Queen Elizabeth was sold to a group of American
businessmen from a company called The Queen Corporation
(which was 85% owned by Cunard and 15% by them), at the same
time the ship's name was also altered as Cunard removed the
word "Queen" from the bow and stern. The new company
intended to operate the ship as a hotel and tourist
attraction in Port Everglades, Florida, similar to the use
of Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. The Elizabeth, as
it was now called, actually opened to tourists before the
Queen Mary (which opened in 1971) but it was not to last.
The climate of southern Florida was much harder on the Queen
Elizabeth than the climate of southern California was on the
Queen Mary. Losing money and forced to close after being
declared a fire hazard, the ship was sold at auction in 1970
to Hong Kong tycoon C.Y. Tung.
Tung, head of the Orient Overseas Line, intended to convert
the vessel into a university for the World Campus Afloat
program (later reformed and renamed as Semester at Sea).
Following the tradition of the Orient Overseas Line, the
ship was renamed Seawise University, as a play on Tung's
initials.
Near the completion of the £5 million conversion, the vessel
caught fire on 9 January 1972. There is some suspicion that
the fires were set deliberately, as several blazes broke out
simultaneously throughout the ship. The fact that C.Y. Tung
had acquired the vessel for $3.5 million, and had insured it
for $8 million, led some to speculate that the inferno was
part of a fraud to collect on the insurance claim. Others
speculated that the fires were the result of a conflict
between Tung, a Chinese Nationalist, and Communist-dominated
ship construction unions.
The ship was completely destroyed by the fire, and the water
sprayed on her by fireboats caused the burnt wreck to
capsize and sink in Hong Kong Victoria Harbour. The vessel
was finally declared a shipping hazard and dismantled for
scrap between 1974 and 1975. Portions of the hull that were
not salvaged were left at the bottom of the bay. The keel
and boilers remained at the bottom of the harbour and the
area was marked as "Foul" on local sea charts warning ships
not to try to anchor there. It is estimated that around
40–50% of the wreck was still on the seabed. In the late
1990s, the final remains of the wreck were buried during
land reclamation for the construction of Container Terminal
9. Position of wreck: 22°19.717′N 114°06.733′E The Queen
Elizabeth is surpassed only by the Costa Concordia in 2012
as the largest passenger shipwreck.
The charred wreck was featured in the 1974 James Bond film
The Man with the Golden Gun, as a covert headquarters for
MI6.
After the fire, Tung had one of the liner's anchors and the
metal letters "Q" and "E" from the name on the bow placed in
front of the office building at Del Amo Fashion Center in
Torrance, California, US that was intended to be the
headquarters of the Seawise University venture, where they
remain to this day. Two of the ship's fire warning system
brass plaques were recovered by a dredger and these are now
on display at The Aberdeen Boat Club in Hong Kong within a
display area about the ship. The charred remnants of her
last ensign were cut from the flag pole and framed in 1972,
and still adorn the wall of the officers' mess of marine
police HQ in Hong Kong. Parker Pen Company produced a
special edition of 5,000 pens made from material recovered
from the wreck in a presentation box and these are highly
collectable.
Following the demise of Queen Elizabeth, the largest
passenger ship in active service became SS France, which was
longer but had less tonnage than the Cunard liner.
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