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The Queen Mary
by Richard Hollingham |
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The Queen Mary was described by her last Captain, John Treasure Jones, as ‘the nearest ship ever to a living being. She breathed, she had character and she had personality’. She almost didn’t get built.
Work on ship number 534 began on the Clyde in 1930 at a cost of six and a half million pounds. She was conceived to compete with the new German liners as a replacement to Cunard’s ageing transatlantic fleet. After only a year the construction was halted as the depression took hold, putting thousands of people dependent on the ship out of work. Eventually in 1934 the government stepped in and work resumed. Five months later she was named by Queen Mary, an event broadcast on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ – the first time most people in Britain heard her voice.
On the 27th May 1936 the Queen Mary left Southampton for her maiden voyage. On board movie stars, the bandleader Henry Hall and the harmonica player, Larry Adler, who was experiencing his first taste of fame.
Transatlantic competition was fierce and although the sumptuous luxury of the ship (at least to those in first class) was important it was its speed that gave it the edge. Southampton to New York in four days – the Queen Mary was the only way to travel.
The war turned her into a troop ship ferrying fifteen thousand troops at a time across the Atlantic, unescorted. On three occasions she was at the nerve centre of the Empire as Winston Churchill crossed the ocean to see Roosevelt.
Returning to passenger service after the war, the Queen Mary experienced a new golden period but her days were numbered. She may have been the height of luxury but four days was starting to sound a very long time when aeroplanes could make the crossing in a matter of hours.
The Queen Mary is now a hotel, officially a building she’s ‘moored’ at Long Beach California. Cunard are planning a Queen Mary II but in the words of Larry Adler, ‘it won’t ever be the same’.
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The Queen Mary gets a send-off |
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Larry Adler |
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