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BRIEF HISTORY
RMS
Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed primarily on
the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard
Line (known as Cunard-White Star Line when the vessel
entered service). Built by John Brown & Company in
Clydebank, Scotland, Queen Mary along with her running mate,
the RMS Queen Elizabeth, were built as part of Cunard's
planned two-ship weekly express service between Southampton,
Cherbourg, and New York City. The two ships were a British
response to the superliners built by German and French
companies in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Queen Mary was
the flagship of the Cunard Line from May 1936 until October
1946 when she was replaced in that role by Queen Elizabeth.
Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on 27 May 1936 and
captured the Blue Riband in August of that year; she lost
the title to SS Normandie in 1937 and recaptured it in 1938,
holding it until 1952 when she was beaten by the new SS
United States. With the outbreak of World War II, she was
converted into a troopship and ferried Allied soldiers for
the duration of the war. Following the war, Queen Mary was
refitted for passenger service and along with Queen
Elizabeth, commenced the two-ship transatlantic passenger
service for which the two ships were initially built. The
two ships dominated the transatlantic passenger
transportation market until the dawn of the jet age in the
late 1950s. By the mid-1960s, Queen Mary was ageing and,
though still among the most popular transatlantic liners,
was operating at a loss.
After several years of decreased profits for Cunard Line,
Queen Mary was officially retired from service in 1967. She
left Southampton for the last time on 31 October 1967 and
sailed to the port of Long Beach, California, United States,
where she remains permanently moored. Much of the machinery,
including one of the two engine rooms, three of the four
propellers, and all of the boilers, were removed. The ship
serves as a tourist attraction featuring restaurants, a
museum, and hotel. The ship is listed on the National
Register of Historic Places. The National Trust for Historic
Preservation has accepted the Queen Mary as part of the
Historic Hotels of America.
Queen Mary is permanently moored as a tourist attraction,
hotel, museum, and event facility in Long Beach. From 1983
to 1993, Howard Hughes' plane Spruce Goose, was located in a
large dome nearby. (This structure is now used by Carnival
Cruise Lines as a ship terminal, and as a venue for the
local roller derby team, the Long Beach Derby Gals.) an
event venue, It was formerly a soundstage).
Even larger than the Titanic and just as elegant, the R.M.S.
Queen Mary was once considered the finest ocean liner
traversing the Atlantic Ocean. The Queen Mary made exactly
1001 transatlantic crossings in the mid-20th century before
it was converted into a hotel in Long Beach, California.
11 Facts about
the R.M.S. Queen Mary (BY KIM O'CONNELL)
1. IT WAS BUILT BY THE SAME FIRM AS THE R.M.S. LUSITANIA
The Queen Mary was built during an age when countries such
as Britain, France, and Germany were all racing to be the
top provider of luxury transatlantic travel. Two rival
British companies, the Cunard and White Star lines, sought
to outdo each other’s ships in terms of size, speed, and
amenities. A British shipbuilder called John Brown &
Company, commissioned by Cunard, began construction of the
Queen Mary—initially known only as Hull Number 534—in
December 1930 at a Clydebank, Scotland, shipyard. The
company was already well known for having built the R.M.S.
Lusitania, which was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat
in 1915.
2. THE GOVERNMENT KEPT HER CONSTRUCTION AFLOAT—BUT WITH
STRINGS ATTACHED
With the onset of the worldwide Great Depression,
construction on the Queen Mary came to an abrupt halt. Eager
to spur on the sluggish economy, the British government
agreed to give a loan that would allow construction on ship
#534 to continue, but only if Cunard and White Star would
merge. (Like Cunard, White Star—famous as the owner of the
ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic—had fallen on hard times.) In 1934,
the new Cunard-White Star Line was born, and construction on
the ship immediately resumed. As part of the merger, the
government stipulated that a sister ship to the Queen Mary
also be built—which was to become the Queen Elizabeth—so the
two ships could together dominate transatlantic travel. The
Queen Mary’s $30 million price tag would be the equivalent
of more than $560 million today.
3. THE SHIP'S NAME WAS SHROUDED IN MYSTERY
While it was under construction, the ship’s name was a
closely guarded secret. On September 26, 1934, Britain’s
King George V and his wife, Queen Mary of Teck, were on hand
in Southampton, England, to christen #534 after the royal
consort herself. "As a sailor I have deep pleasure in coming
here today to watch the launching by the queen of this great
and beautiful ship,” the king said to the thousands of
cheering onlookers gathered on the docks:
“We come to the happy task of sending on her way the
stateliest ship now in being. It has been the nation’s will
that she should be completed, and today we can send her
forth no longer a number on the books, but a ship with a
name in the world alive with beauty, energy and strength.”
The queen then cut a ribbon and broke a bottle of wine to
christen the ship. The R.M.S. Queen Mary began its maiden
ocean crossing two years later, on May 27, 1936, from
Southampton to New York. (R.M.S. stands for "royal mail
ship"—all vessels with this designation had a government
contract to carry British mail.)
4. SHE WAS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL SHIPS EVER BUILT
At 1018 feet long and more than 81,000 tons, the Queen Mary
was one of the largest ships ever built at the time, second
only to the French liner Normandie. (Titanic, by comparison,
was only 883 feet long and about 46,000 tons.) Queen Mary’s
rudder, at 150 tons, was then the largest ever built. Its
amidship dining room, located between two of the ship’s
three funnels, was the largest room ever constructed inside
a ship at the time—at 143 feet long and spanning the
vessel's entire width, it could seat 800 first-class
passengers at once. Two dozen boilers and four sets of
turbines generating 160,000 horsepower fueled four
propellers, which turned at a rate of 200 revolutions per
minute. Because of its technological innovation, a 1932
Popular Mechanics article called the Queen Mary “the
Sovereign Ship of the Seas.”
5. THE QUEEN MARY'S LUXURIOUS AMENITIES ATTRACTED ELITE
PASSENGERS
Inside, the ship boasted five dining areas, two swimming
pools, beauty salons, and a grand ballroom, which attracted
wealthy passengers and celebrities to the ship’s first-class
accommodations. A first-class breakfast menu included eggs
and pastries as well as onion soup gratinée and broiled
kippered herrings. An Art Deco mural in the main dining room
used a crystal model of the ship to track its progress
between England and New York. Royalty, Hollywood stars,
notable business magnates, and well-known politicians all
traveled on the Queen Mary, including the likes of Clark
Gable, Bob Hope, Queen Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill—and
even comedy duo Laurel & Hardy and Desi Arnaz of I Love Lucy
fame. In addition to first-class, the ship also had “tourist
class” (a.k.a. second-class) and third-class accommodations,
with the most cramped quarters reserved for the crew, who
sometimes bunked 10 to a room.
6. THE QUEEN MARY HELD THE BLUE RIBAND FOR MORE THAN 15
YEARS
In August 1936, clocking in at just over 30 knots, the Queen
Mary nabbed the Blue Riband, an unofficial accolade for the
ship crossing the Atlantic with the highest average speed,
making the crossing in just four days. (Riband is an archaic
word for “ribbon.”) Her rival the Normandie briefly captured
the title in 1937, but Queen Mary earned it back the
following year, and held onto the speed record until 1952,
when it was eclipsed for good by the S.S. United States, an
American passenger liner whose record of over 35 knots is
still unmatched by any ship of its class. (It’s probably no
coincidence that Blue Riband candy, a chocolate-covered
wafer now owned by Nestle, emerged in the UK in the late
1930s.)
7. THE SHIP GOT A NEW LOOK FOR WORLD WAR II
In September 1939, the Queen Mary had just crossed to New
York when the British government ordered that it remain in
port there until further notice. Eventually, Allied forces
determined that the Queen Mary, along with the Normandie and
Queen Elizabeth, also docked in New York, would become
troopships to carry soldiers to various battlefronts. The
ship’s hull and funnels were painted battleship gray,
earning the ship the nickname the “Grey Ghost.” It was also
outfitted with a degaussing coil, which altered the ship’s
magnetic field and helped to protect against the enemy’s use
of magnetic mines. These highly valuable troopships were
capable of moving as many as 15,000 soldiers at a time.
8. THE SHIP WAS INVOLVED IN A TRAGIC ACCIDENT
British forces assigned the H.M.S. Curacoa, built during the
First World War, to serve as an escort ship for the Queen
Mary during World War II. On October 2, 1942, the two ships
were scheduled to rendezvous off the coast of Ireland. As
was typical during wartime, the Queen Mary was on a zig-zag
course meant to throw off pursuit by enemy U-boats.
Historians believe the cruiser Curacoa was on a straight
course—and the two were headed right for each other. Before
the ships’ crews could take evasive action, the Queen Mary
collided with the Curacoa, cutting it in two and sending it
to the ocean floor. Although more than 100 sailors were
rescued, 337 men were killed. A British sailor on the Queen
Mary named Alfred Johnson later recalled, “I said to my mate
… ‘I'm sure we're going to hit her.’ And sure enough, the
Queen Mary sliced the cruiser in two like a piece of butter,
straight through the six-inch armored plating.”
9. AFTER THE WAR, SHE RECEIVED A MODERN UPGRADE
Once the war ended, the Queen Mary required 10 months of
work to be retrofitted so that she could go back into
commercial passenger service. The Cunard-White Star Line
added more berths in all three classes, as well as air
conditioning. She returned to the seas in July 1947, along
with her sister ship the Queen Elizabeth, and remained a
popular oceangoing vessel for the next two decades.
10. SHE HAD A CAMEO IN A FRANK SINATRA MOVIE
A 1966 action-adventure film written by Twilight Zone writer
Rod Serling and starring Frank Sinatra, Assault on a Queen,
takes place in part on the Queen Mary. Sinatra plays a
bandit who gets involved in an elaborate heist to rob the
liner during an ocean crossing. The film’s score is by
legendary jazz musician Duke Ellington. Despite the
promising setting, reviews of the performances were tepid.
"Sinatra swashbuckles like a pirate is supposed to. He's
quick with the bitter or sarcastic remark and he evokes some
pity. Miss Lisi [Virna Lisi, Sinatra's bombshell co-star] is
lovely to look at, even though she's not called on for too
much acting," The Miami Herald wrote.
11. THE QUEEN MARY IS NOW A FLOATING HOTEL
By the late 1960s, the popularity and ease of air travel had
effectively signaled the end of the great transatlantic
passenger liners. Cunard (which had reverted to its
pre-merger name) decided to sell the Queen Mary, which
departed on its final cruise on October 31, 1967. After
navigating nearly 3.8 million nautical miles, the ship
docked in Long Beach, California, on December 9 of that
year, where it has been ever since. The iconic ship is now a
floating luxury hotel, museum, and tourist attraction,
complete with three restaurants, shopping, and dining. The
Queen Mary Heritage Foundation is now developing a museum
and educational facility to preserve and enhance the ship’s
remarkable story. |
