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"Enter
the New Ocean" by Chris Butler 1998 - A painting of the Queen
Mary rounding Cape Horn on her last voyage.
The above work of art is copyrighted by Chris Butler, is used with
permission and may not be copied or reproduced.
The art of Chris Butler is available for purchase. Click the link
above to learn more about this artwork.
Launched in 1934, the Queen Mary was part
of a plan by Cunard to replace the trio (Mauretania, Berengaria,
Aquitania) on the North Atlantic with two ships capable of maintaining
weekly service. Capable of 28.5 knots, the Queen Mary fit the
bill. She won the Blue Riband from her archrival, the CGT's Normandie.
In 1940, she was taken as a trooper and refitted
to carry 15,000 men! She and her sister both served honourably in
World War II, in fact it was said that they turned the tide of the
war by the volume of men they could carry at high speed.
She re-entered the Transatlantic trade in 1947,
where she remained in tandem with the Queen Elizabeth until
1967. When withdrawn, she did a marathon cruise around Cape Horn (she
is too big to transit the Panama Canal) and was permanently berthed
at Long Beach, CA, where she is now a hotel and museum. She is 1,019
feet long and 118 feet wide, and one of the oldest passenger liners
still intact, although not operating.
"The
Queen Mary" by Chris Butler 1998 - A painting of the Queen
Mary at Long Beach.
The above work of art is copyrighted by Chris Butler, is used with
permission and may not be copied or reproduced.
The art of Chris Butler is available for purchase. Click the link
above to learn more about this artwork.
The Queen Mary being guided
out of Cunard's NewYork pier. The Queen Elizabeth is on the
left.
This map adorns the wall of the
first-class Dining Room. The two dark lines are tracks on which crystal
models of theElizabeth and
Mary would travel to show their relative positions in the ocean.
Launched in 1938 and completed in 1940, the Queen
Elizabeth has always seemed to take a back seat to her sister,
even though she was actually bigger. (1,029 feet long, 118 wide, 83,673
GRT). She looked somewhat similar, but sported two stacks instead
of three.
The QE never made it into passenger service
before WW2... she went right from the shipyard to America and was
set up for troop-carrying. Six years later, she finally began transatlantic
service, with accommodation for 2,288 passengers in three classes.
She ran in tandem with the Mary for 20 years.
In the 'sixties, Cunard tried sending the Queens
cruising during the winter, when there were just not enough passengers
to make transatlantic crossings worthwhile (by then, people would
rather fly). The Queens were thought to be just too big for
cruising though (tell that to the builders of the Voyager of the
Seas, which surpassed the Queens' size by nearly half!)
and they were finally withdrawn in 1968.
 In
1970, the Elizabeth became the Seawise University for C. Y.
Tung. As the name suggests (C. Y's University... get it?) the ship
was to be deployed on worldwide cruises carrying students and others.
However, just before her conversion was completed in 1972, she caught
fire and sank in Hong Kong harbour, and was broken up where she lay.
The Seawise University, on her only voyage,
arrives Cape Town, South Africa enroute from Florida to Hong Kong,
where she burned and capsized. Photograph © Ian Shiffman
The Queen Elizabeth departs
New York
Coming
soon! Deck Plans of the Queen Elizabeth
from her cruising days.
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