The Cunard Queens: Elizabeth and Mary

The Cunard Line's Two Great Queens:
The Mary and the Elizabeth

Just before the merger in 1934, White Star was planning a liner that would compliment their "largest in the world" liner Majestic, and would give Cunard a run for the money. Cunard was planning the same. Obviously, only Cunard's dream was revealed. At the same time, the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique (the French Line) was planning a giant ship themselves. One man, Vladimir Yourkevitch, had drawn up a design for a huge three-stacked liner that would rival the designs of all other liners before it. He approached the Cunard Line with the project, but they turned him down, claiming that the design was too radical and new. So with that, he crossed the English Channel and met with the administration of the French Line. They were more than impressed with his design and began the building of the superliner Normandie. Upon hearing of the acceptance of his design by the French, Cunard had to come up with some designs to try to rival what Yourkevitch had shown them. The result was Hull 534: what would later become the Queen Mary. The original plan was to have the ship named Victoria, to follow the traditional vowel ending of Cunard's earlier ships, but that changed because of an amusing circumstance at Buckingham Palace. According to Frank O. Braynard and William H. Miller's book Picture History of the Cunard Line: 1840-1990,

"When the time came to inform King George V of this [naming] decision...it was left to Sir Ashley, who was Cunard's top representative in North America, to speak to the king. He said: "Your Majesty, we are pleased to inform you that Cunard wishes your approval to name our newest and greatest liner after England's greatest queen [meaning Victoria]." Without a moment's hesitation, the king replied: "My wife would be delighted." And that was that. This account was told to Frank Braynard in 1946 by Vincent Demo, a Cunard executive who became cochairman of Cunard in North America (72).

During the entire construction of both the Normandie and the Queen Mary, they were in direct competition with eachother. The Normandie entered service in 1935, a year earlier than her rival and tipped the scales at 79,000 gross tons. The Queen Mary entered service at 81,000 gross tons. The French Line was furious and built a large deckhouse on her stern section giving her a new measurement of 83,000 gross tons. Both shipping companies were in a heated battle to own the biggest and fastest. The Queen Mary sailed out of the river Clyde and the public was not sure what to think of this new giantess. The Normandie had a graceful appearance, but the Queen Mary seemed somewhat gaudy with her square air funnels, and she displayed a well deck forward, a feature that separated the forcastle from the superstructure and had been abandoned nearly twenty years earlier. The Normandie was bigger and faster, but this new Cunarder gave her a challenge. Crossing after crossing, the two ships exceeded eachother's speed. In the end, the Queen Mary was awarded the Blue Ribband. (Had the Normandie not been destroyed by fire, the Mary's speed record would have no doubt been challenged again.) Because both ships were launched during the Great Depression, sailings were made with very few passengers, very rarely more than half full. Then, in 1939, the first shots of what was to become World War Two rang out as Hitler invaded Poland. The Queen Mary was put back to drydock, painted gray, and rebuilt as a super troop ship. She carried record numbers of troops (16,683 at one time in 1943) and was an invaluable asset to Britain during this time of war. She was so elusive to the German u-boats, that she earned herself the nickname "the Gray Ghost" which she is still remembered as today. One unfortunate mishap occured in 1942, when the Queen Mary's escort cruiser H.M.S. Curaçoa attempted to cross in front of the monsterous ship. The collision that followed sliced the Curaçoa in half, and all 338 of her crew perished. The damage to the mighty Queen was merely a dent.

In 1940, a new ship had slipped into New York almost unnoticed. The Queen Elizabeth made her maiden voyage painted gray and was ready to report for duty as a troopship. Winston Churchill had ordered the Elizabeth to make a run for New York because of the threat from German bombers. She departed so hastily that she was not completely finished and some of the construction crew found themselves suddenly at sea bound for America. Even some of the lifeboats had been left in port as she darted across the Atlantic. Cunard's new

superliners would have extensive use during World War Two, and Cunard gained recognition for the fact that their ships were always ready to serve in war, as had scores of their ships from the past such as the Mauretania and Aquitania. Together in this war, the two Queens ferried nearly two million troops.
Now the war was over, and the Normandie was gone. The Queen Elizabeth was restored to be the luxury liner she was planned as, and the Queen Mary returned from war service the following year. They began sailing as a pair with weekly departures in both directions and found themselves to be the most popular ships on the transatlantic trade. The ships sailed for close to twenty years, the Elizabeth remaining the largest passenger ship built until her career came to an end

retired, and thousands of people lined the shores to see the Queen Mary sail out of New York Harbor for the last time on September 22, 1967. She was followed out to sea by tugs, ferries and private yachts, and aircraft whizzed by overhead. This departure was covered by newspapers, radio and even television. Cunard had left a lasting mark on the public. Many people made suggestions as to what would happen to this ship after her retirement. Some said an immigrant ship to Australia, some said a floating high school in Brooklyn. In the end, it came down to two offers. One from a Japanese scrapping firm, and one from the city of Long Beach, California. Cunard was offered slightly more from Long Beach, so it was decided that the ship would become a floating hotel and museum, where she remains to this day.

The Queens served their owners well during their time, and were common visitors to New York, often docking in a line with the other great liners of the world in "luxury liner rows." When these ships left port, it became popular to stop and watch the departure. The entire globe was fascinated by these huge mammoth ships, and they were some of the only remaining ambassadors from a time long ago when the luxury liners ruled the waves. The airliner had gained popularity and most of the people crossing the Atlantic were using them. The time for the liner was over. The world was shocked when the announcement was made that these symbols of glamour and power were to be

The Queen Elizabeth was retired in October of 1968 at the age of twenty-eight. She flew flags and a paying off pennant on the day of her last departure from New York. She was marked by rust in several places, but she still looked regal. She was to be sent to Port Everglades, Florida to be turned into a hotel, just as her sistership had done. Nothing came of this, and a shipping tycoon by the name of C. Y. Tung bought the ship. He had planned to turn the Elizabeth into a cruise ship/ university, and he renamed her Seawise University.

The conversion progressed rapidly and sloppily. On January 9, 1972, five separate fires broke out onboard, and the ship became a towering blaze, burning from stem to stern. The cause of the fire has never been proven, and arson has always been in question. Her end came very similarly to the Normandie's: she capsized the following day after being flooded with water from fire boats. This time, the Japanese scrappers that took interest in the Mary appeared again. The charred remains of the largest ship in the world was soon broken up and removed from Hong Kong harbor.

The Hotel Queen Mary is still operational in Long Beach, and serves as a reminder to a past where the giant ocean liner sailed the high seas transporting passengers and immigrants from one continent to another. She also stands as a monument to the Second World War, with some of her anti-aircraft guns still in place, and the front of her superstructure painted gray, as a reminder of her days as the Gray Ghost.
The Queen Elizabeth may be gone, but her legacy remains with the service of the Queen Elizabeth 2, the only ship still serving the transatlantic route. The Cunard Line has announced a plan that will bring the power of the ocean liner back to the Atlantic. The project Queen Mary II will produce a ship in the old ocean liner style and re-popularize transatlantic travel via ship. Perhaps this project will spark new interest in the old liners, and those days of glamorous ocean travel will once again be upon us.

Update on Project Queen Mary II
Official plans for the newest of the Cunard Liners has been unveiled. The Queen Mary 2 will be the largest passenger ship afloat to keep up with the new race for the biggest cruise ship that has recently begun, and she will resemble a very large Queen Elizabeth 2. Here is an artist's concept of how the new liner will appear. I had hoped that the ship would have been designed with more of a nostalgic look, resembling that of the original Queen Mary.