RMS Queen Elizabeth
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 Depiction of the RMS Queen Elizabeth. |
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| Career (UK) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | RMS Queen Elizabeth |
| Operator: | Cunard White Star Line |
| Port of Registry: |  United Kingdom |
| Ordered: | 1936 |
| Builder: | John Brown and Company Clydebank, Scotland |
| Laid down: | December 1936 |
| Launched: | 27 September 1938 |
| Christened: | 27 September 1938 |
| Maiden voyage: | 3 March 1940 |
| Out of service: | 7 December 1968 (Retired) |
| Status: | Scrapped in Hong Kong in 1974 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 83,673 gross tons |
| Displacement: | 83,000+ tonnes |
| Length: | 1,031 ft (314 m) |
| Beam: | 118 ft (36 m) |
| Height: | 233 ft (71 m) |
| Draft: | 38 ft (12 m) |
| Speed: | 28.5-knot (52.8 km/h) |
| Capacity: | 2,283 passengers |
| Crew: | 1,000+ crew |
RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner which sailed the Atlantic Ocean for the Cunard Line (then the Cunard White Star Line) and contracted to carry Royal Mail. At the time of construction in the 1930s, she was known as Hull 552 by John Brown and Company in Clydebank, Scotland. Named in honour of Queen Elizabeth (who was Queen Consort at the time of her launch in 1938),[1] she was the largest passenger liner ever built–-a record that was not exceeded for fifty-six years. She was a slightly larger ship with an improved design over her running mate, the Queen Mary. She first entered service as a troopship in the Second World War, and it was not until later that she served in her intended role as an ocean liner until her retirement in 1968. Together with the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth maintained a two-ship weekly transatlantic service from Southampton to Cherbourg to New York for over twenty years. Following a fire, she was scrapped in Hong Kong in 1975.
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[edit] Maiden voyage
At the start of World War II, the Queen Elizabeth had been launched, and was still in the process of fitting out. The ship and the John Brown shipyard were both targets for the German bombers so it was decided that the Queen should be completed to a state where she would be able to go to sea as soon as possible. It was also decided that as the Queen Elizabeth was so important to the war effort that she could not have her movements tracked by German spies operating in the Clydebank area. Therefore, it was falsely announced that she would sail for Southampton to complete her fitting out. It was also a priority to clear the dock at John Brown's to allow the battleship Duke of York to enter the shipyard for a refit, which could not be carried out until the Queen had departed.
There were only two spring tides that year where the water level was high enough for the Queen Elizabeth to leave the Clydebank shipyard and the Luftwaffe were aware of this. Thus, the new Cunarder had to be moved as soon as possible on Churchill's orders. The minimum number crew for the trip was four hundred and most were signed up for a short voyage to Southampton from the Aquitania, parts were shipped to Southampton, a booking was made to drydock the Queen when she arrived, and at the same time the names of Brown's shipyard employees were booked at hotels in Southampton to give a false trail of information - Captain John Townley was assigned as her first captain and he and his hastily signed on crew were told to pack for a voyage where they could be away from home for up to six months.
On 3 March 1940, the Queen Elizabeth sailed from the Clyde and was met en route by a King's Messenger where the captain was given sealed orders. Captain Townley discovered that he was to take the untested vessel directly to New York (without stopping to drop off the Southampton harbour pilot who had travelled down in the Queen from Clydebank). Later that day at the time when she was due to arrive at Southampton the city was bombed by the Luftwaffe. Six days later the Queen Elizabeth arrived in New York and the new Queen found herself moored alongside the Queen Mary, and the French Line's Normandie, this was the only time all three of the world's largest liners would be berthed together.
[edit] Troopship
Refitted for military use in Canada, Singapore and Sydney, the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary, were used as troop transports during the war. Their high speeds allowed them to outrun hazards, foremostly German U-boats, allowing them to travel without a convoy. During her war service as a troopship the Queen Elizabeth carried more than 750,000 troops and also sailed some 500,000 miles, during the second world war the Queen Elizabeth was captained by John Townley, Ernest Fall, C. Gordon Illinsworth, C.M Ford and James Bisset.
[edit] Liner
Following the end of the war, the Queen Elizabeth was refitted and completed as an ocean liner at Greenock by the John Brown Shipyard and her sea trials finally took place as the ship had been pressed into six years of war service before any trials could be carried out, the Queen Elizabeth was finally part of Cunard White Star's two ship, weekly service to New York. Despite similar specifications to the Queen Mary, her older sister ship, the Queen Elizabeth never held the Blue Riband as her sibling did, as Cunard White Star chairman Sir Percy Bates requested that the two Queens did not try to compete against one another.
The ship ran aground on a sandbank off Southampton on 14 April 1947, and was refloated the following day.
Together with the Queen Mary, and in competition with the SS United States, the Queen Elizabeth dominated the transatlantic passenger trade until their fortunes began to decline with the advent of the faster and more economical jet airliner in the late 1950s; the Queens were becoming uneconomic to operate with rising fuel and labour costs. For a short time, the Queen Elizabeth (now under the command of commodore Geoffrey Trippleton Marr) attempted a new dual role to make the ageing liner more profitable; when not plying her usual transatlantic route, which she now alternated her sailings with the French Lines SS France the ship cruised between New York and Nassau. For this purpose, the ship received a refit, with an new lido deck added to her aft section, enhanced air conditioning, and an outdoor swimming pool, however this did not prove successful due to her high fuel operating costs, deep draught (which had prevented her from going into various ports) and being too wide to use the Panama Canal.
Cunard retired both ships by 1969 and replaced them with a new, single, smaller ship, the more economical RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (the QE2).
[edit] Final years
In 1968, the Queen Elizabeth was sold to a group of Philadelphia businessmen who intended to operate the ship as a hotel and tourist attraction in Port Everglades, Florida, similar to the use of Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Losing money and forced to close after being declared a fire hazard, the ship was sold in 1970 to Hong Kong tycoon C.Y. Tung.
Tung, head of the Orient Overseas Line, intended to convert the vessel into a university for the World Campus Afloat program (later reformed and renamed as Semester at Sea). Following the tradition of the Orient Overseas Line, the ship was renamed Seawise University, as a play on Tung's initials.
During the conversion however the vessel was gutted by a fire that broke out at several different places onboard, believed to have been caused by arson. The ship capsized in shallow water in Hong Kong Victoria Harbour on 9 January 1972. The wreckage was dismantled for scrap in 1974-1975, before the project could ever be truly realised. Portions of the hull that were not salvaged were left at the bottom of the bay and later incorporated into landfill for the new Hong Kong International Airport.
The wreck was featured in the 1974 James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, as a covert headquarters for MI6.
Following her scrapping, the largest passenger ship in active service was the SS France, which was longer but had lesser tonnage than the Queen Elizabeth.
[edit] Timeline
- 6 April 1968 – Cunard officially announced that Queen Elizabeth would retire and become a tourist attraction in Port Everglades, Florida.
- 28 November 1968 – Queen Elizabeth departed Southampton for Port Everglades.
- 8 December 1968 – Queen Elizabeth arrived at Port Everglades. At 11:54AM EST, the ship was moored at her temporary home between piers 24 and 25.
- 14 February 1969 – Queen Elizabeth opened her doors to the public.
- May 1969 – Cunard offered to sell the ship to the highest bidder.
- 19 July 1969 – Cunard sold the ship to the group of men who oversaw the original plan by which ship came to Florida.
- 11 November 1969 – Port Everglades Fire Chief John Gerkin ordered the Elizabeth (Queen title dropped at Cunards request) closed to the public as a fire hazard.
- December 1969 – The ship reopened to the public.
- 9 September 1970 – The Elizabeth was put up for auction when her owners company "Queen limited" (of which Cunard had an 85% share) filed for bankruptcy.
- 17 September 1970 – purchased by C.Y. Tung of Hong Kong.
- 1 January 1971 – The ship was prepared for her journey to Hong Kong.
- 10 February 1971 – Ship was renamed Seawise University.
- August 1971 – arrived in Victoria Harbour. Work to convert the ship into a floating university commenced.
- 9 January 1972 – Several fires broke out simultaneously on board, and attempts to put them out flooded the ship. She listed onto her starboard side by the afternoon.
- 1973 – Footage was filmed of the wreck of the Seawise University for the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun as the secret location of MI6 headquarters.
- 1975 – Seawise University was scrapped.
[edit] References
- ^ Note: In 1952 became the Queen Mother
[edit] External links
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Normandie |
World's largest passenger ship 1940 – 1972 |
Succeeded by France |
