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QUEEN
ELIZABETHThe story of Cunard’s famous liner
JANETTE McCUTCHEON
00 Contents_NL.indd 3 18/04/2017 08:18Queen ElizabethQueen Mary Queen
Elizabeth
Janette McCutcheon
Jim Shaw
SHIPS
WORLD OF
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No
.02
OVER 250 OUTSTANDING PHOTOGRAPHS
QUEEN
ELIZABETHTHE STORY OF CUNARD’S FAMOUS LINER
Cover_issue2.indd 3 18/04/2017 08:04
4 I World of Ships I Queen ElizabethCHAPTER 1 .......................................6
HISTORY OF CUNARD
Queen Mary
About the author
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 2 .....................................22
THE FIRST QUEEN
Queen Mary
00 Contents_NL.indd 4 18/04/2017 08:18
Cover: jkhsajhskja sajhskhaskja
ahjsjahsjah shajhsjahsa shajshajsh
hjsahjshajs hjahsjahQueen Elizabeth I World of Ships I 5
CHAPTER 3 .....................................36
BUILDING THE QUEENQueen Elizabeth was launched in the
midst of the Munich crisis of 1938, but
then work all but ceased on her.
CHAPTER 4 .....................................54
WARTIME SERVICEQueen Elizabeth was required to carry
troops as part of the war effort, and she
could carry an entire division at a time.
CHAPTER 5 .....................................68
THE NEW QUEENQueen Elizabeth was unique in making
two maiden voyages, one in war and one
in peace. In 1946 she became the first
British liner to enter service after the
war, enjoying near-capacity sailings.
CHAPTER 6 .....................................86
THE NOMADIC YEARSQueen Elizabeth was sent cruising, but
in the late 1960s was sold and taken to
Port Everglades as a tourist attraction.
Sold once more, to Hong Kong, she
caught fire and ended her days a wreck.
00 Contents_NL.indd 5 18/04/2017 08:18
CHAPTER ONE
6 I World of Ships I Queen Elizabethueen Elizabeth
Britannia
Britannia
THE HISTORY OF THE
CUNARD LINECunard has a history stretching back over 175 years, but the start of the 20th century saw the company
build its most famous ships to date, the Blue Riband-winning Lusitania and Mauretania, which were the
largest and fastest ships on the Atlantic. They were followed by Aquitania, but by the 1920s it was time
to replace the express liners of the fleet.
01 History_NL.indd 6 11/04/2017 08:36Queen Elizabeth I World of Ships I 7
CUNARD HISTORY
ABOVE The first Cunarder was Britannia, built on
the Clyde by Robert Duncan of Greenock, with
engines by Robert Napier. She left Liverpool on
4 July 1840, arriving in Halifax on 17 July. This view,
an artist’s impression of preparations for the maiden
voyage, was drawn for Cunard in the 1930s.
Royal William
Britannia
Britannia’s
LEFT One of the earliest known shipping line
menus is this from Hibernia of 17 October 1843.
ABOVE Calabria, originally known as ‘the Australasian’, was built in 1857 by J. & G. Thomson of Glasgow. In
1859 she was sold to Cunard to become Calabria. She was built just a year after Persia, the last of Cunard’s
paddle steamers. Sail was still used at this time. The drawing is dated prior to 1869, when one funnel was
removed as she was re-engined.
ABOVE Oregon was built in 1883 at the Fairfield yard
of John Elder and had a short career with Cunard,
having been bought in 1884 after Guion Line could
not afford payments on her. On 14 March 1886 she
collided with a schooner, Charles Morse, en route to
New York and sank, but not before her passengers
and crew were rescued, along with 600 bags of mail,
by the North German Lloyd steamer Fulda.
01 History_NL.indd 7 11/04/2017 08:36
8 I World of Ships I Queen ElizabethBritannia Acadia
Caledonia Hibernia
Columbia Columbia’s
Cambria
Bothnia was built by J. & G. Thomson in
1872, and operated the New York service
until 1885, when she was transferred to
the Boston run, having been replaced by
Etruria and Umbria.
01 History_NL.indd 8 11/04/2017 08:36Queen Elizabeth I World of Ships I 9
CUNARD HISTORY
LEFT Broken up in Holland in 1925, Saxonia had
been built in 1900, along with her sistership
Ivernia. In 1912 both ships were used on the New
York-Fiume service, carrying Eastern European
migrants to the USA.
ABOVE Saxonia at the Landing Stage, Liverpool, when she was used on the Liverpool-Queenstown-
Boston service, circa1905.
ABOVE The most famous of the small Cunard
vessels was Carpathia, built in 1902-03 at Swan,
Hunter. Almost nine years after her maiden voyage
from Liverpool to Boston, she rescued over 700
survivors from the White Star Line’s Titanic off
Newfoundland. Her captain, A.H. Rostron, went
on to command Cunard’s largest vessels, including
Mauretania and Berengaria.
01 History_NL.indd 9 11/04/2017 08:37
10 I World of Ships I Queen ElizabethABOVE The back cover of a menu from Carmania
from 1912.
ABOVE Ascania and Ausonia were bought from Thomson Line and used on the Canadian service. Neither
survived World War I.
ABOVE Ascania was built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson at their Newcastle yard and entered service on 23 May 1911. She was lost while travelling empty
from Liverpool to Montreal near Cape Ray, Newfoundland.
01 History_NL.indd 10 11/04/2017 08:37Queen Elizabeth I World of Ships I 11
CUNARD HISTORY
LEFT A menu from Lusitania, from her second full
year of service.
Mauretania
ABOVE A postcard advertising Third class travel
aboard Caronia and Carmania. These ships were
built with different engines, Caronia with quadruple
expansion and Carmania with steam turbines, to
test the relative merits of each. Ultimately, turbines
won over reciprocating engines and the advances in
technology would power every crack Cunarder for
the next 65 years.
BELOW The Mediterranean service became
very important for Cunard, with emigrants going
westbound and tourists coming eastbound.
01 History_NL.indd 11 11/04/2017 08:37
12 I World of Ships I Queen ElizabethMauretania Lusitania
Lusitania, Mauretania and
Aquitania
01 History_NL.indd 12 11/04/2017 08:37Queen Elizabeth I World of Ships I 13
CUNARD HISTORY
ABOVE Lusitania and Mauretania swapped the
Blue Riband title during the first two years of their
careers, but ultimately Mauretania proved to be
the faster vessel. Normally to be found on different
sides of the Atlantic, the ships are shown together
in this rare view.
The boat deck of Mauretania,
circa1907.
RIGHT Mauretania (left) and Lusitania (right) in
Sandon Half Tide Dock, in the Mersey docks system
in 1909. When Lusitania was built, there were severe
vibration problems with her stern, partially solved
by new propellers and rather a lot of strengthening
work between decks.
RIGHT In 1914 a new Cunarder entered service.
Built by John Brown, at Clydebank, she was the
largest ship built for Cunard until the Queen Mary
arrived in 1936. Built without subsidy, she was built
for luxury, and enabled Cunard to offer a three-
ship weekly service to the USA from Liverpool. She
made around three round-trip voyages pre-war,
after entering service in May 1914.
Lusitania
Mauretania
Lusitania’s
Mauretania
Lusitania
Mauretania
01 History_NL.indd 13 11/04/2017 08:37
14 I World of Ships I Queen ElizabethLusitania
Mauretania
Mauretania
Lusitania
Queen Mary Queen
Elizabeth Lusitania Mauretania
Mauretania
Lusitania
Lusitania
Aquitania
ABOVE Two of the three largest Cunarders were
used in military service during the First World War.
The third, Lusitania, was used in passenger service,
providing one of the rare links between the USA
and the UK in the early years of the war. She was
sunk in May 1915 with the loss of 1,198 lives.
ABOVE The loss of Lusitania was used as a rallying
call to encourage Irishmen to join up, and also to
encourage America to enter the war.
01 History_NL.indd 14 11/04/2017 08:37Queen Elizabeth I World of Ships I 15
CUNARD HISTORY
Aquitania was commandeered as an
armed merchant cruiser in August 1914.
Her coal consumption was so huge that
the idea was quickly dropped. She came
into her own as a hospital ship during the
Dardanelles campaign, however.
ABOVE A poster by Oden Rosenvinge for the New
York service, showing Aquitania on her way.
ABOVE Mauretania was used as a troopship
and a hospital ship during World War I. By 1918
she sported this dazzle paint scheme, which was
invented by Norman Wilkinson as a means of
confusing a U-boat captain, leaving him few clues
as to the size, direction and speed of a target.
01 History_NL.indd 15 11/04/2017 08:37
16 I World of Ships I Queen ElizabethA cutaway of the interior
of Aquitania.
01 History_NL.indd 16 11/04/2017 08:37Queen Elizabeth I World of Ships I 17
CUNARD HISTORY
Cunard lost many ships during World
War I. Ivernia was torpedoed on
1 January 1917, 58 miles from Cape
Matapan, Italy. There were 2,800
soldiers aboard, and 36 crew and 87
troops were lost.
Lusitania. However, she was larger and wider
and more luxuriously appointed than her
older sisters. She was still under construction
when the Titanic disaster took place. As a
cations
were introduced to bring her up to the
standards of ships required by the British
Government after the disaster.
Aquitania’s interiors were again country
house style, tted in with the
expectations of her First class passengers.
These were designed by Arthur Davis, who had
worked on the design of Hamburg-Amerika
Line ships and the Ritz in Paris. The interiors
were light and spacious, with elements of
Jacobean, Georgian and Louis XVI styles.
ABOVE Cunard acquired Royal George from Canadian
Northern Line, but she was used for only a few
journeys at the end of the war. This passenger list
cover, showing Mauretania, dates from one of those
voyages and is dated 15 March 1919.
ABOVE At the end of the war Cunard and White
Star purchased two Hamburg Amerika liners,
Imperator and Bismarck, renaming them Berengaria
and Majestic. Being the largest vessel in the fleet,
Berengaria became the company’s flagship until 1936.
01 History_NL.indd 17 11/04/2017 08:37
18 I World of Ships I Queen ElizabethABOVE Cunard constructed many new vessels in the 1920s for their various services. This 1920s postcard shows three Cunarders in Liverpool Docks.
ABOVE Two weeks after she left Southampton for the last time, Mauretania in dry dock at Rosyth, just before her final scrapping. An auction had been held in
Southampton, and many of her fixtures and fittings were sold, some of which can still be found in Pinewood Film Studios.
01 History_NL.indd 18 11/04/2017 08:37Queen Elizabeth I World of Ships I 19
CUNARD HISTORY
Mauretania’s hull was painted white in 1931
and she was sent cruising. Her final voyage
left New York on 26 September 1934, the
day hull no.534 was launched. She is shown
in July 1935, passing under the Forth Bridge,
heading for Rosyth for breaking.
01 History_NL.indd 19 11/04/2017 08:37
20 I World of Ships I Queen ElizabethThe Cunard New York-Southampton
weekly service was operated from
1936 by Queen Mary, Aquitania and
Berengaria. Berengaria was sent for
scrap in 1938, and it was planned that
Aquitania would be scrapped in 1940,
but she survived to 1950, being the
last of the four-stackers.
01 History_NL.indd 20 11/04/2017 08:37Queen Elizabeth I World of Ships I 21
CUNARD HISTORY
LEFT A brochure cover advertising Third class
services to the USA and Canada. The funnel likely
depicts either Alaunia or Ascania, two of five A class
liners built during the 1920s.
ABOVE The cover of a passenger list for
Mauretania, when she was captained by A. H.
Rostron, of Titanic fame. He would go from
Mauretania to command Berengaria, the
company’s flagship.
Aquitania
Mauretania
Aquitania Mauretania
Imperator
Berengaria
Mauretania Berengaria
Aquitania
BELOW Along with Mauretania and White Star’s
Britannic, Aquitania would travel to Mudros
via Naples to collect the wounded from the
Dardanelles. They would be brought to Mudros in a
fleet of smaller hospital ships.
01 History_NL.indd 21 11/04/2017 08:37
22 I World of Ships I Queen ElizabethB
y the mid-1920s a worried
Cunard Board were
concerned that their
three ships, Mauretania,
Aquitania and Berengaria,
were getting old and were
being overshadowed by new,
more modern liners. These modern ships, such
as the French Ile de France, the Italian Rex and
the German Bremen, were taking trade away
from Cunard, with the latter two ships also
taking the Blue Riband for the fastest Atlantic
crossing. There were also rumours that the
French were planning a new superliner, which
By 1929 all of the major British passenger
liners that were left were getting old and would
be in need of replacement in the next few
years. Cunard carefully considered its needs
and decided to build two liners rather than
three. To operate a weekly service with just
two ships, each vessel had to be capable of a
speed of 30 knots, while there would be less
than three days turnaround at New York and
Southampton. This would require major work
to be undertaken at Southampton and New
York ports to accommodate the new ships.
John Brown’s Shipbuilders, on the River
Clyde, won the contract and received
rmation of the order on 3 April 1929.
ABOVE Shipyard workers returning to work at John
Brown’s yard in 1934. Queen Mary was a ship of the
1920s and had a somewhat troubled birth. Work
was cancelled on when she was known simply by
her build number, Hull 534, and the shipyard lay
quiet until the government paid for her construction
to resume. After work ceased in 1931, the workers
were laid off. In April 1934 it recommenced, when
these men entered the yard again to restart the
work of building her. But despite the problems of
her early life, Queen Mary became one of the most
famous ships of all time.
RIGHT With a simple act and a bottle of Australian
Chardonnay, HM Queen Mary named Hull 534 after
herself. The ship hurtled into the water in under a
minute, as tens of thousands watched from either
side of the banks of the river Clyde.
THE FIRST QUEEN
Cunard replaced the three-ship Transatlantic service with a two-ship operation. The first of these two
vessels was born out of the 1930s Depression, with her hull derelict for over a year, but she kick-started
Britain’s economy when work on her restarted. Initially known as Hull 534, she was launched as Queen
Mary and became one of the most famous ships of all time.
CHAPTER TWO
02 First Queen_NL.indd 22 11/04/2017 11:43Queen Elizabeth I World of Ships I 23
THE FIRST QUEEN
02 First Queen_NL.indd 23 11/04/2017 11:43
RIGHT King Edward VIII visited the ship once
she had been nearly completed and was almost
ready to make her first voyage from the Clyde to
Southampton.
24 I World of Ships I Queen ElizabethBELOW Queen Mary was painted a light grey upon
her launch to make things easier for the many press
photographers. She sported this livery through
1935, after she had been towed to the fitting-out
basin to have her machinery and fixtures fitted.
The first of her funnels has been added in this
photograph, dated 9 June 1935.
ABOVE It could be claimed that Queen Mary
kick-started the British economy again after the
Great Depression. The simple act of starting work
on her saw thousands back at work in the shipyard,
as well as tens of thousands of others all over the
UK, from glass-makers to cabinet-makers and from
equipment manufacturers to plastics manufacturers.
Queen Mary is shown prior to her launch on
26 September 1934.
02 First Queen_NL.indd 24 11/04/2017 11:43
ABOVE Tugs hauled Queen Mary from the fitting-out basin and took her downriver. She travelled light, with the minimum of coal and lifeboats, due to the
shallowness of the river, despite there having been months of dredging. She did encounter problems near Dumbarton, being stuck for around an hour, but
eventually she reached the Firth of Clyde, where she undertook her sea trials.
Some lucky passengers travelled down the Clyde on Queen Mary and are shown here
being taken off the ship by tug at the Tail o’ the Bank, Gourock on 24 March 1936.Queen Elizabeth I World of Ships I 25
THE FIRST QUEEN
02 First Queen_NL.indd 25 11/04/2017 11:43
RIGHT Resplendent in a fresh coat of black paint,
Queen Mary is watched by thousands as she leaves
the shipyard and heads down the Clyde at the end
of March 1936.
26 I World of Ships I Queen ElizabethOn 1 December 1930, after much preparation
work on the slipway and within the shipyard,
Hull 534’s keel was laid. At the same time, the
Southern Railway, owners of Southampton
Docks, had to be persuaded to build a new
graving dock to accommodate a 1,100ft
vessel, t the new
Cunarders, but other large liners too. This dock
was inaugurated in July 1933 by the Royal
Yacht Victoria and Albert. At the same time,
piers in New York were extended.
ABOVE The construction and entry into service
of Queen Mary was covered in newspapers and
magazines the world over. This is from one of the
rarer magazines, the Scottish Field.
ABOVE Much was made of the new ship, the
largest steamship in the world, and Cunard issued
numerous brochures comparing Queen Mary
with famous buildings and giving statistics on her
capacity and her engines.
ABOVE Many small boats watched the departure of Queen Mary on her namesake’s birthday, 27 May 1936.
The pleasure steamer companies, such as Red Funnel, Cosens and P&A Campbell, did a roaring trade,
selling tickets for tours of Southampton Water and the chance to watch the new Queen depart. Here, The
Glen Gower, Britannia and Brighton Queen escort Queen Mary from Southampton.
02 First Queen_NL.indd 26 11/04/2017 11:43Queen Elizabeth I World of Ships I 27
THE FIRST QUEEN
Queen Mary in dry dock at the end of
March 1936. At her bow, the brackets
which held the chains used to slow her
progress down the slipway w...