RMS Queen Mary

Arriving in New York Harbor, June 20 1945,
with thousands of U.S. troops

Career

Ordered:

April 3, 1929

Laid down:

December 1, 1930

Builder:

John Brown and Company

Location:

Clydebank, Scotland

Launched:

September 26, 1934

Christened:

September 26, 1934

Maiden Voyage:

May 27, 1936

Fate:

Retired December 11, 1967

Status:

Hotel/Restaurant/Museum

Current Location:

Long Beach, California

General Characteristics

Tonnage:

81,237 gross tons

Displacement:

80,667 long tonnes

Length:

1,019.4 ft (311 m) oa; 965 ft B.P.

Beam:

118.5ft (36.1 m)

Draft:

39 ft (12,00 m)

Height:

181 ft (55.17 m)

Main Engines:

160,000 shaft hp (119 MW) Parsons double reduction steam turbines; max. 200,000 shaft hp (149 MW) steam turbines, 4 shafts

Speed:

approximately 30 knots (56 km/h) - 29.5 knots (55 km/h) cruising in service; maximum sustained speed was 32.6 knots (60 km/h)

Passenger Capacity:

2139: 776 first (cabin) class, 784 tourist class, 579 third class)

Crew:

1101

RMS Queen Mary was a Cunard Line (then Cunard White Star Line) ocean liner that sailed the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967. Built by John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland, she was designed to be the first of Cunard's planned two-ship weekly express service from Southampton to New York, in answer to the mainland European superliners of the late twenties and early thirties. Queen Mary and her slightly larger and younger running mate RMS Queen Elizabeth commenced this two-ship service after their release from World War II troop transport duties and continued it until for two decades until Queen Mary's retirement in 1967.

Naming and construction

The ship was named after Mary of Teck, the consort of George V of the United Kingdom. Until her launch she was known simply as Cunard hull No. 534, since the name she was to be given was kept a closely guarded secret. Legend has it that Cunard intended to name the ship "Victoria", in keeping with company tradition of giving its ships names ending in "ia". However, when company representatives asked King George V's permission to name the ocean liner after Britain's "greatest queen," his wife, the former Princess Mary of Teck, announced that she would be delighted. And so, the legend goes, the delegation had of course no other choice but to report that No. 534 would be called RMS Queen Mary. However, this story was denied by company officials, and is probably apocryphal, since traditionally the names of sovereigns have only been used for capital ships of the Royal Navy. It is more likely that the name Queen Mary was decided on as a compromise between Cunard and the White Star Line, with which Cunard had recently merged, who had a tradition of using names ending in "ic".

Construction began in December 1930 on the River Clyde by the John Brown & Company Shipbuilding and Engineering shipyard at Clydebank Scotland but was halted in December 1931 due to the depression. Cunard applied to the British Government for a loan to complete 534. The loan was granted, with enough money to complete the Queen Mary as well as enough to build a running mate, hull No. 552 which became the Queen Elizabeth. One condition of the loan was that Cunard merge with the financially ailing White Star Line, which was Cunard's chief British rival at the time. Both lines agreed and the merger was completed in April 1934. Work on the Queen Mary resumed immediately and she was launched on September 26, 1934.

Early history

One of thee large mural carvings by John Skeaping, Starboard Gallery, Promenade Deck, R.M.S. "Queen Mary"

There was already a "Clyde steamer" named Queen Mary, so Cunard reached agreement with the owners that the existing steamer would be renamed TS Queen Mary II, and in 1934 the new liner was launched by Her Majesty as RMS Queen Mary.

When she sailed on her maiden voyage from Southampton England on May 27 1936, the Queen Mary, measured 80,774 gross tonnes http://www.atlanticliners.com/rms_queen_mary_home.htm. Her great rival Normandie which originally grossed 79,280 tonneshttp://www.ocean-liners.com/ships/normandie.asp had been modified the preceeding winter to increase her gross size, and therefore kept the title of the largest ocean liner.

Queen Mary however proved to be the faster ship. In August 1936 she captured the Blue Riband in both directions from Normandie with average speeds of 30.14 knots (55.82 km/h) wesbound and 30.63 knots eastbound. Normandie reclaimed the honours in 1937, but in 1938 Queen Mary took back the Blue Riband in both directions with average speeds of 30.99 knots (57.39 km/h) westbound and 31.69 knots eastbound, records which stood until 1952.

World War II

In late August 1939, the Queen Mary was on a return run from New York to Southampton. However, the international situation led to her being shadowed by the battlecruiser HMS Hood. She arrived safely, and set out again for New York on 1 September. By the time she arrived, the Second World War had started, and she was ordered to stay where she was, joining her great rival, Normandie. In 1940, the pair were also joined by Queen Mary's running mate Queen Elizabeth. Rather than keeping them bottled up, it was decided to use them as troopships. So, the Queen Mary left New York for Sydney, where she, along with several other liners, was converted into a troopship to carry Australian and New Zealand soldiers to the United Kingdom. Eventually joined by the Queen Elizabeth, they were the largest and fastest troopships involved in the war, often carrying as many as 15,000 men in a single voyage, and often travelling out of convoy and without escort. During this period, because of their wartime grey camouflage livery and elusiveness, both Queens received the nickname "The Grey Ghost". Because of their size and prestige their sinking was such a high priority for Germany that Adolf Hitler offered the equivalent of $250,000.00 and the Iron Cross to the U-boat commander who could sink them. However, their high speed meant that it was virtually impossible for U-Boats to catch them. Once, Germany was nearly successful, until a radio signal was intercepted in (?) that informed America about the situation. The Queen Mary changed course and escaped.

On 2 October 1942 Queen Mary accidentally sank one of her escorts, slicing through the light cruiser HMS Curacoa (D41), with the loss of 338 lives.

In December, 1942, the Queen Mary was carrying nearly 15,000 American troops from New York to Great Britain. While 700 miles from Scotland during a gale, she was suddenly hit broadside by a rogue wave that may have reached a height of 28 meters (92 feet). In his book, The Age of Cunard, author Daniel Allen Butler mentions that the immense wall of water damaged lifeboats on the boat deck and broke windows on the bridge â€" 90 feet above the waterline. The huge wave caused a list that briefly reached an astounding 52 degrees before the ship slowly righted itself. He reported that investigations later estimated that three more degrees of list would have made the vessel turn turtle. He also said that seasoned hands on the ship felt it would indeed capsize. The occurrence was kept secret at the time. An account of this crossing can be found in Walter Ford Carter's book, No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater Love. Carter's father, Dr. Norval Carter, part of the 110th Station Hospital on board at the time, wrote that at one point the Queen Mary "damned near capsized." "One moment the top deck was at its usual height and then, swoom! down, over, and forward she would pitch."

After World War II

After the war, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth dominated the transatlantic passenger trade. But in 1958, the first transatlantic flight by a jet began a completely new era of competition for the Cunard Queens. A many voyages, winters especially, Queen Mary sailed into harbor with more crew than passengers. By 1965, the entire Cunard fleet was leaving a trail of red ink. Hoping to continue financing their still under construction QE2, Cunard mortgaged Queen Mary and the rest of the fleet. Finally, under a combination of age, lack of public interest, inefficiency in a new market, and the damaging after-effects of the national seamens strike, Cunard announced that Queen Mary would be sold. Many offers were submitted, but it was oil-rich Long Beach, California who beat the Japanese scrap merchants. And so, Queen Mary was retired from service in 1967, while her running mate Queen Elizabeth was withdrawn in 1968. RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) took over the transatlantic route in 1969. And in turn, QE2 was replaced in 2004 by RMS Queen Mary 2 (QM2).

The Queen Mary in Long Beach

The Queen Mary as a hotel in Long Beach, California with a Russian Foxtrot class submarine

Queen Mary's wireless radio room

After her retirement in 1967, she steamed to Long Beach, California on the west coast of the United States, where she is now permanently moored as a tourist attraction, accompanied for a while by Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose. She was stripped of most of her motive power, second-class and third-class accommodations, and some of her public rooms and amenities. The first-class cabins were turned into a hotel. The first-class pool is abandoned but still in existence. She now serves as a hotel, museum, tourist attraction, and for-rent site for events, but her financial results have been mixed. [1]

The Queen Mary is said to have ghosts on board. Many areas are said to be haunted. People report hearing little children crying in the nursery room and a mysterious splash noise in the drained first class swimming pool. In 1966, 18 year old fireman John Pedder was crushed by a watertight door in the engine room during a drill, and his ghost is said to haunt this area.

On February 23, 2006, the Queen Mary 2 saluted its predecessor as it made its port of call in Los Angeles Harbor while on a cruise to Mexico. The event was covered heavily by local media, although much international media was there also. This brought much needed attention to the first Queen Mary, which, in the past several years, has faced financial difficulty.

The Queen Mary's original wireless radio room has now been converted to a powerful amateur radio station with the call sign W6RO ("Whiskey Six Romeo Oscar"). Volunteers from a local amateur radio club are there most of the time, and the radios can also be used by other licensed amateur radio operators. [2] [3]

Trivia

*Fiona Apple's video for "O' Sailor" was shot on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA.
*The movie The Poseidon Adventure was partially filmed on the Queen Mary, and the miniature Poseidon used in the film's special effects shots was a scale model of the ship. Parts of SOS Titanic were also filmed onboard the Queen Mary.
*The Queen Mary has been featured in many other movies, such as Pearl Harbor and several other films.
*From 1988 to 1992, the ship was leased from the City of Long Beach by media congolomerate The Walt Disney Company, and was to be integrated into a planned theme park in Long Beach, until the plans fell through and the company used an "early out" clause to terminate its lease. Those plans influenced the subsequent development of Tokyo DisneySea, which prominently features a "ship" resembling the Queen Mary.
*Toyota's advertisement for Celica All-trac Turbo in the 1991 Long Beach Grand Prix featured Queen Mary, and the text is On April 14th, we're going streaking in front of the Queen.
*In the third season finale of Arrested Development the Bluth family has their celebration at their patriarch George Sr.'s innocence on the Queen Mary. Gee's wife Lucille, in the end of the episode, activates the ship and drives it out to sea to avoid being arrested by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
*Although greatly exceeded in size by her new namesake RMS Queen Mary 2's 151,200 gross tons, Queen Mary, with a significantly deeper draft, is the heavier ship, with a dispacement of over 80,000 tons http://www.atlanticliners.com/rms_queen_mary_home.htm compared to the newer ship's approximately 76,000 tons.http://www.twbookmark.com/books/8/0821228846/chapter_excerpt18434.html
*In the B-movie Tidal Wave: No Escape, Harve Presnell destroyed the Queen Mary with an artificial tsunami.

References

*Cunard Line, Ltd., John Brown and Company archives.

RMS Queen Mary: Encyclopedia BETA

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