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Step back into the Golden Age of Ocean Travel, a time when liners at sea were the embodiment of the good life. The classic traditions of the grand ocean voyage are very much alive, aboard the luxurious liners of Cunard - the world famous Queen Elizabeth 2 and Queen Mary 2 and will proudly expand this heritage with Queen Victoria scheduled to enter service in December 2007 - proving once again that, with Cunard, the journey may be even more magnificent that the destination.
The Cunard Line is the oldest line I know of today. The Cunard Line is launching the Queen Victoria in 2007. I am so excited.
CUNARD PROFILE
If travel is meant to be savoured, then crossing the oceans should be a majestic experience, not merely a hop across the pond. For travellers of this persuasion, only one name evokes the pleasures of a golden era: Cunard Line. Proudly continuing the tradition of luxury cruising that began in 1840, Queen Mary 2 debuted in 2004 as the new flagship of The Most Famous Ocean Liners In The WorldSM. As the grandest ocean liner ever built, Queen Mary 2 provides her guests with unprecedented amenities and accommodations at every turn. Maintaining the tradition of her Cunard and White Star Line predecessors, Queen Mary 2 is the only ship offering regularly scheduled transatlantic service. Queen Elizabeth 2 continues to set the standard of British elegance with superb White Star ServiceSM and gourmet cuisine. Sailing a definitive World Cruise and round-trip Southampton voyages, QE2 endures as one of the greatest liners of her time. The two Queens will be joined by Queen Victoria in 2007.
Cunard Line, one of the world's most recognized brand names with a classic British heritage, is operated by Valencia-based Cunard Line Limited. Cunard Line Limited is a unit of Carnival Corporation (NYSE:CCL).
Cunard Line Limited is a member of the exclusive World's Leading alliance, which also includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Costa Cruises, Windstar Cruises and The Yachts of Seabourn. Sharing a passion to please each guest, and a commitment to quality and value, member lines appeal to a wide range of lifestyles and budgets. Together they offer exciting and enriching cruise vacations to the world’s most desirable destinations.
Phone: 661-753-1000, 800-7-CUNARD
Web site: www.cunard.com
Ships in Service
Current Ships Year in Service Tonnage Guests Crew
Queen Mary 2 2004 151,400 2,620 1,253
QE2 1969 70,327 1,791 921
New Builds
Queen Victoria debut 2007
Destinations
Winter: World Cruise, Caribbean, Asia, Australia, Panama Canal, Cape Town Line Voyages, South America
Spring: South Pacific, Panama Canal, Caribbean, Far East, Colonial South, Transatlantic, World Cruise
Summer: Mediterranean, New England, Bermuda, Northern Europe, Ireland/Scotland, Transatlantic
Fall: Cape Town Line Voyages, Mediterranean, New England, Caribbean, Adriatic, Transatlantic.
Christmas Holiday: Caribbean, Canary Islands
Guest Profile
Cunard's liners attract those who love the sea and relish traditional elegance. The clientele includes World Cruise guests, who are typically well-travelled and have the leisure to indulge in season-long sojourns to exotic realms aboard Queen Elizabeth 2. Transatlantic Crossings on Queen Mary 2 attract a wide range of guests who may repeat the experience every year, or sail only once on this legendary voyage. More than half of Cunard's guests reside outside North America, particularly in Britain and Europe.
In 1898, Morgan Robertson (1861 - 1915), published his latest book. Robertson, the son of a sea captain, had joined the merchant marine service in 1877. By now he was a popular American writer of sea adventures. His latest book was about a gigantic ship wreck. The ship in the story was an 800 foot steel giant with three propellers, two masts, many water-tight compartments, and a top speed of more than 20 knots. She was the most luxurious and biggest ship in the world. Unfortunately, she had too few lifeboats. In the novel, the ship was struck by an iceberg on her starboard side at about midnight, sometime in April, and sank in the North Atlantic with a huge loss of life. Robertson named the book, Futility, and he called the ship, the Titan.
On March 31, 1909, three months after work started on the first "Olympic-class" ocean liner Olympic, work was started on the second and most famous of the three. When J. Bruce Ismay, superintendent of the White Star Line, picked out her name, he had no idea how famous it would become. He named the ship, Titanic.
For her brief life, Titanic was the largest moving object in the world. She was even more luxurious than her sister Olympic in that, she had two huge state rooms, each with it's own private promenade. She also had an enclosed forward promenade and a restaurant called the Cafe` Parisien. Although in 1913, Olympic had these features added to her, for the moment, Titanic was more luxurious.
On May 31, 1911, Titanic was launched. She was put under the command of Captain Edward John Smith who was captain of Olympic for her first nine voyages before being transferred to this ship. The maiden voyage of Titanic was to be his last. After that, he was going to retire. The launch lasted only a minute. It took many tons of soap and oil to grease the runway that she slid down into the water. She wasn't christened because it was customary for the White Star Line to launch without a christening. The next ten months were spent installing machinery and fitting her interiors. On February 3, 1912 she was dry docked in the Thomson Graving Dock in Belfast, Northern Ireland where her propellers were put on and a final coat of paint was applied. At the beginning of March she, for a short while, joined her sister Olympic, who returned to dry dock for the replacement of a propeller blade on one of her three propellers.
On April 2, 1912, Titanic set sail from Belfast on her sea trials. By the morning of April 10, 1912, she was sitting in Southampton, taking aboard her first passengers. Some of the passengers boarding here where supposed to go on other ships. But because of a coal strike, which meant that the people who dug up coal refused to work, there wasn't enough coal to power all the ships, so they were transferred to Titanic. It was almost noon when she left the White Star pier. Not many people know that disaster almost struck immediately. As she moved at six knots through the harbor, the huge suction made by the propellers caused the steamer New York, which was tied to the dock, to snap her lines and swing away from the dock to the port side. Tug boats frantically tried to get a line on the New York and Captain Smith cut the engines. The tug boat Vulcan was able to get New York out of the way without a collision. Although the incident ended happy, many passengers thought that this was a bad sign.
Titanic moved on to Cherbourg, France where more people boarded. Since Cherbourg didn't have a deep enough port for Titanic, she had to anchor off the coast and wait for her next load of passengers to be ferried out to her onboard the ferries Nomadic and Traffic. These small ships where specially built for the Olympic-class ships, to replace the older ferry, Gallic, which was too small for ships the size of Titanic and Olympic. It was unknown to the passengers that many decks below, there was a coal fire in Boiler Room 5. Nine or ten men were assigned to hose down the fire and empty the coal bunker that was on fire.
The ship then moved on to Queenstown, Ireland to pick up her last passengers. Again, she had to anchor off the coast while this time, the ferries Ireland and America brought her the passengers and mail. After the last people boarded, she set sail from Ireland carrying about 2220 people. Her 1335 passengers included many rich and famous. There was Scotland's Countess of Rothes. Mr. John Thayer, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and his family. The richest man in America, Mr. John Jacob Astor and his significantly younger and pregnant second wife of seven months, Madeleine. There was mining millionaire Benjamin Guggenheim, British royals Sir Cosmo and Lady Lucile Duff Gordon, and the famous Denver millionairess, Molly Brown, who by the end of this voyage would have the title, "The Unsinkable Molly Brown".
Over the next three days, it was a regular voyage. Thomas Andrews, the nephew of Lord Pirrie and managing director of Harland & Wolff, the company that built Titanic and her sisters, strolled the ship. Like Ismay on the maiden voyage of Olympic, he walked around, noting any flaws. During the voyage, millionaire George Widner of Philadelphia had a dinner party in the luxurious A la Carte Restaurant on C-deck. The gymnasium and racquet instructors encouraged people to use the gym equipment and racquet courts. The band played for the passengers at dinner, people used the pool and Turkish baths, third class passengers danced in the general room and in the well decks while the barber sold souvenirs to passengers. Stewards and stewardesses of all classes also played cards in the dinning saloons after their passengers had gone to bed.
From Friday to Sunday, Titanic's wireless operators, John "Jack" Phillips and HaroldBride, received a large amount of ice warnings. The first few were sent to the captain at once. But as time went on, more and more passenger messages came into the wireless room and soon, there were so many, that they didn't have time to sent ice warnings to the bridge. Capt. Smith had told them that sending the passenger messages was very important; they were, after all, from paying customers. So, if Phillips and Bride wanted to get paid, they had to put passenger messages above everything else.
On the night of Sunday, April 14, 1912 at about 11:40 PM, the unthinkable happened. Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee, two of the ship's look-outs, spotted an iceberg. First Officer Murdoch ordered the ship to be put hard to starboard. By turning the wheel to starboard, the ship would turn to port. He also ordered the engines to be put in full reverse. The iceberg kept getting closer and closer. Slowly, the ship began to turn. However, the turn came too late, Titanic was hit!
The impact was so subtle, most people slept right through it. Second class chief steward John Hardy, who was awake at the time, later described it as, "A slight jar, a gradual jar; I did not think it was anything at all." Frederick Fleet said it was, "Just a slight grinding noise." To first class passenger George Harder, it was, "a sort of rumbling, scraping noise." Second class passenger Lawrence Beesley later wrote, "There came what seemed to me, nothing more than an extra heave of the engines, nothing more than that." In the backs of their heels, awake passengers and crew felt a slight vibration, nothing more.
However, six small slits were cut into the ship's starboard side. In all, twelve square feet of the ship was left open to the sea. How could this be? Nineteen-twelve steel was weaker than steel today, but it should be able to hold up against a berg, right? Wrong. The cold waters of the Atlantic made her steel very brittle. Water began flowing in quickly. Thomas Andrews went down to G-deck to examine the damage. What he saw was devastating. The berg had damaged the first six of Titanic's water-tight compartments. She could stay afloat with her first four compartments damaged, but not six. At the same time, Captain Smith ordered Titanic's wireless operators, Jack Phillips and Harold Bride to send out distress messages.
"What are you sending?" Bride asked a few minutes later.
"CQD," replied Phillips. CQD was the standard call for distress at that time.
"Send SOS," Bride suggested. "It's the new call and it may be your last chance to send it." The men chuckled, then went on with there work.
It was 12:45 am, about an hour after Titanic had hit the iceberg, that the first life boat, No. 7, was lowered. The ship would have had 48 life boats to carry all passengers and crew. But, the line thought it would take up too much deck space for first and second class passengers. So, they only had fourteen standard boats that could hold sixty-five people, two emergency boats that could hold forty (emergency boats were just mini regular boats), and four collapsible life boats that could hold fifty-nine to sixty people (collapsible boats had a wooden bottom but their sides were canvas. You could fold them down to store the boat better.). The ship had a total of twenty boats, more than the required sixteen, but still not enough.
As if having too few boats was enough, No. 7, a standard boat, was launched with only twenty-eight people in it. The next boat, No. 5, left only half full. In fact, most of the first boats to leave left this way. Emergency lifeboat No. 1 left the ship holding only twelve! This went on because the officers loading the boats didn't know that the boats had been tested and were capable of holding a lot of people. They were afraid that the boats would crack. However, after Thomas Andrews came out on deck and informed them about the boats, they began launching them with more people in them, although only one or two boats left the ship completely filled. It was around this time that Fourth Officer Boxhall fired the first distress rockets.
In the beginning, not many passengers believed that the ship was really in danger so they didn't want to go in the boats. Most were confidant that the ship's safety features would keep her afloat. Even if the ship did founder, they were sure she would stay up long enough for help to arrive. Marjorie Newell-Robb was traveling with her father Arthur Newell and sister Madeline. After putting Marjorie and her sister in life boat No. 6, he said to them, "It seems more dangerous for you to get into that boat, than to stay here with me." However, Arthur died, and Marjorie and Madeline lived. Although on the upper part of the ship, everything seamed fine, down in the third class and crew area's of decks G and F, water was flooding in at a very fast rate.
Somewhere between ten and twenty miles away was the Leyland Liner, Californian. This ship had stopped for the night due to ice. The ship's officers reported that they did see some strange ship in the night firing rockets in the night, but the officers on the ship had always been told, if you don't understand the signal, it's best to stay away. The Californian had also turned of it's wireless and didn't hear Titanic's calls. The officers tried to contact Titanic using a lamp, but when they got no reply, the disregarded it as just a passing liner. The next closest shipwas the Mount Temple, about forty to fifty miles away. Unfortunately, a treacherous ice field lay between her and the sinking ship. There was no hope of her getting through in time. The next closest ship to Titanic was the Cunard Liner, Carpathia, fifty-eight miles away! Jack Phillips had reached this ship on the wireless. Right after getting the distress signal, Carpathia's wireless operator, Harold Cottam, informed his captain, Arthur Rostron. Rostron immediately altered the ship's course. They began racing towards the sinking ship their full speed of fifteen knots.
At the same time down in third class, there was complete chaos. Not many of the steerage passengers spoke English, so very few of them knew what was going on. Third class was seperated from second class and first class by locked gates. Unfortunatly, to some crew members, it was more important to save first and second class passengers than it was to save third class passengers. Daniel Buckley of third class later described being kept below. "They tried to keep us down on our steerage deck. They didn't want us to go up to the first class place at all. There was one steerage passenger, and just as he was going through a little gate, a fellow came along and shoved him back down into the steerage place." Buckley and a few others then bashed the gate and forced there way up to the boat deck where they got into boat No. 13. Most were dragged out of the boat by officers but an unknown woman wrapped her shawl around Buckley. The officers let him stay in the boat because they though he was a woman.
As time went on, Titanic sank lower and lower into the water. By 1:45 A.M., water had flooded all the way up to B-deck. By now, it was un-deniable that the ship was in trouble. It was at about this time that boats 2 and 4 began to row away from the ship. With all the standard and emergency boats gone, crew members were now working to load collapsible life boats C and D.
Second class passenger Winnie Troutt had made no attempt to save herself the entire night. She didn't think that a single woman like herself should be saved while husbands and wives were being separated.
Suddenly, a man holding a baby came up to her. Although he didn't want to be saved, there was no one to save the baby. With no one else willing, Winnie said that she would save the child. She now had a good reason to be rescued. She then made her way to collapsible D and a crew member helped her and the baby into the boat. Once the boat was loaded , Chief Officer Wilde ordered it to be lowered. As it slowly descended to the water, passengers Hugh Woolner and Mauritz Björnström-Steffansson, who had helped load and launch collapsible C, saw that although the boat was mostly full, there was a small space in the bow of the life boat. The two men leaped over the side of the ship. Steffanson landed in it the life boat, but Woolner found himself hanging over the side and Steffanson pulled him in.
By now, the water was just beginning to wet the forward part of the boat deck. There were now only two collapsible life boats left and over 1550 people still on the ship. In an article that appeared in the April 28, 1912 edition of The New York Times, Harold Bride described what happened next in the wireless room. "I looked out. The boat deck was awash. [Jack] Phillips clung on sending and sending. He clung on for about ten minutes, or maybe fifteen minutes, after the captain had released him. The water was then coming into our cabin.
While he worked, something happened I hate to tell about. I was back in our room getting Phillips' money for him, and as I looked out the door, I saw a stoker, or somebody from below decks, leaning over Phillips from behind. He was too busy to notice what the man was doing. The man was slipping the lifebelt off Phillips' back!
He was a big man, too. I am very small. I don't know what it was I got hold of. I remembered in a flash the way Phillips had clung on - how I had to fix his lifebelt because he was too busy to do it.
I knew that man from below decks had his own lifebelt and should have known where to get it. I suddenly felt a passion not to let that man die a decent sailor's death. I wished he might have stretched rope or walked the plank. I did my duty. I hope I finished him. I don't know. We left him on the cabin floor of the wireless room, and he was not moving."
After this event, Bride and Phillips left the wireless room. Phillips ran up aft and that was the last time Bride ever saw him alive. Bride then went to work on freeing collapsibles A and B. The two boats were stored on the roof of the officers' quarters. For collapsible A, crew men leaned several oars against the roof and the boat successfully slid down to the boat deck. Despite Sixth Officer Moody's idea that they should slide the boat into the water and let it be carried up, the crew members began to hook it up to the davits. Crew men attempted to do the same thing with collapsible B as had been done with A, but instead, B landed up-side-down. Before they had time to turn it over, the rising waters lifted up the boat. It was washed clear of the ship by the wave produced when the forward funnel collapsed and it drifted away with a few men clinging to it's bottom. More people would climb on as the boat drifted away from the ship. One of them was Second Officer Lightoller who had taken charge of the situation that night. In the air pocket under the overturned boat was Harold Bride. On top of the boat was his co- worker and friend Jack Phillips.
At the same time on the starboard side of the ship, many of the people in collapsible A, who were just ready to shove off, were washed out by the wave of the rising water. The boat eventually drifted away, less that half full and very low in the water. Many of that boat's occupants suffered from frost bitten feet because of the freezing water in the bottom of the boat.
At the same time on the Carpathia, there was lots of confusion. The passengers didn't know that Carpathia was preparing to save the passengers and crew of the sinking Titanic. They wondered, why were the crew members getting blankets and cots ready? Why were the cooks making large amounts of food and setting up tables in the dining rooms; breakfast wouldn't be served for many hours. Capt. Rostron had ordered the crew to ready the life boats so that they could be used to ferry passengers and crew to Carpathia if by chance, she managed to get to Titanic before the ship foundered. However, when passengers saw the boats uncovered, they began to worry that Carpathia was in danger. There was even a rumor going around that Carpathia had struck an iceberg and was sinking. Fourtunatly, this wasn't the case. Although she was steaming towards Titanic at her top speed, the tiny Cunard Liner was still many miles away from the sinking liner.
By now on Titanic, all the boats were gone and more than 1520 people were left behind! At about 2:20, the stern rose high in the air. The lights, which had been bright the entire night, flickered, then went off. Suddenly, the ship violently cracked in two! The bow went down, and the stern quickly began to flood. After a few moments, the stern rose completely vertical. It bobbed up there for a minute or two, then foundered. Chief baker Charles Joughin, who was on the very stern as it went down, described it as riding an elevator. Joughin had drunk a lot of alcohol that night so he was well insulated against the twenty-eight degree water. He soon located collapsible B, which was only a few hundred meters away, and began paddling towards it. Eventually, he got on.
"She's gone lads!" a man in boat No. 3 yelled. It was true. The great ocean liner was now lost. All she left behind was twenty lifeboats, many bodies, and hundreds of deck chairs floating in the water. In boat No. 1, the boat with only twelve people in it, leading fireman Charles Hendrickson, proposed the idea of going back to pick up swimmers, but was overruled. In boat No. 8, the Countess of Rothes and three others, also suggested the idea, but the same thing happened. The same went for most of the lifeboats.
Boat No. 4, did go back and picked up seven swimmers, all of them crew members. They were Steward Andrew Cunningham, Assistant Storekeeper Frank Prentice, Steward Sidney Siebert (who died within a few hours), Able Bodied Seaman William Lyons (who also died within a few hours), Trimmer Thomas Dillon, Greaser Alfred White, and Lamp Trimmer Samuel Hemming.
For people in the boats, things were hard. They had no food, no compasses, and very few blankets. Also, there weren't enough seamen in all of the boats to operate them. So, people like high-class men and women who had never before lifted a finger in labor now found themselves rowing oars and doing other things like that..
In life boat No. 6, Molly Brown took over. Despite the objections of Quartermaster Hichens, the man put in charge, Mrs. Brown had the women in the boat take turns rowing to keep warm and had people rotate on the job of manning the rudder. She gave her jacket to one person to keep him warm and had the people in the life boat sing too.
Atop collapsible B, thirty men, including Colonel Archiblad Gracie, who would later write a detailed account of the disaster, began to recite the Lord's Prayer. On this boat Officer Lightoller had them all stand and sit in certain places to keep the boat balenced. The frozen occupant's of the swamped collapsible A, who were shin deep in water, also said the Lord's Prayer as they tried to keep warm. Three of this boat's passengers would not make it through the night.
Fifth Officer Lowe in boat No. 14, had round up boats 10, 12, 4, and collapsible D. He ordered the five boats to be tied together. Lowe then evenly distributed the passengers and crew among four of the boats, and then, with a few other seamen, began to row No. 14 back to the scene. Sadly, they only found four living. they were third class passenger F. Lang, Steward Jack Stewart, first class passenger William Hoyt (who died within a few hours), and later, Bath Attendant Harold Phillimore. As time went on, there was nothing to do but wait.
Finally, at about 4:00 AM, Carpathia was seen on the horizon. In boat No. 15, men used pieces of cloth as torches, in hopes to signal the liner. In emergency life boat No. 2, Fourth Officer Boxhall used green flares to do the same thing. People in all the lifeboats began lighting hats and pieces of paper on fire to use for signaling. Those without a torch or flash light, screamed at the top of their lungs to get the ship's attention. On collapsible B, Second Officer Lightoller began blowing his whistle. One by one, the boats came a long side Carpathia to be picked up. Since two, including Jack Phillips, had froze to death in the night, the now twenty- eight men clinging to collapsible B, leaped from that boat, to boats 4 and 12. They included Harold Bride, Officer Lightoller, and Colonel Gracie. Other boats were emptied, then cast adrift or taken onto the ship. After an unsuccessful search for survivors in the water, Carpathia set sail for New York City with her crew, 750 passengers, over 700 survivors, and thirteen of Titanic's lifeboats, plus her own boats.
Of the 2220 people onboard Titanic, only 705 were saved. Among them was J. Bruce Ismay who had filled an empty space in collapsible C as it was being lowered. Although if he hadn't taken the seat it would have just gone empty, the papers criticized him for saving himself while others died. In first class, a total of 199 people were saved and 130 were lost. In second class, 119 were saved and 166 died. In third class, 174 were saved and 536 died. In the crew, 214 people were saved and 685 were lost. Of the eight officers, Captain E.J. Smith, Chief Officer Henry Wilde, First Officer William Murdoch, and Sixth Officer James Moody, perished. Only Second Officer Charles Lightoller, Third Officer Herbert Pitman, Forth Officer Joseph Boxhall, and Fifth Officer Harold Lowe survived. Thomas Andrews also perished. He was last seen in a state of shock in the 1st class smoking room, as the ship he built sank beneath him. None of the eight band members, who had nobly played to the very end to stop panic, survived. Of the twenty boats, only No. 14 and No. 4, had returned to save people after the ship had gone down.
In 1985, Robert Ballard, with two others, Ralph Hollis and Martin Bowen, peered through the icy waters, more that two miles down on the ocean floor. They found Titanic's wreck using a small sub named Alvin. It was the first time Titanic had seen light in over 70 years. Since then, many expeditions have been made and many artifacts have been surfaced.
At the American and British inquires into the loss of Titanic shortly after the disaster, many questions arouse. Why had the captain sailed through an ice field at 23 knots (the ship's top speed)? Why didn't the Californian take action when she saw the flares in the night? Was there another ship in between the Californian and the Titanic? Many people thought that the watertight doors should have been left open to cause even flooding. Although a test done on that theory over eighty years later proves that if the doors had been left open, the ship would have rolled onto it's side and sunk a full thirty minutes earlier that the real Titanic did, they didn't know that back then. We also know now that if the ship had rammed straight into the iceberg, only the first compartment would have been damaged and the ship wouldn't have foundered. But for the most part, the captain and officers did what they thought was best. I really don't think we should place the blame of the sinking on anyone. How can we? No one wanted Titanic to go down and no one meant for it to happen.
The day after the sinking, the Prinz Albert of the Hamburg-Amerika Line reported passing a large iceberg. On one side, red paint "which had the appearance of having been made by the scraping of a vessel on the berg", a watcher said, was plainly visible. The ship's passengers and crew watched as the iceberg sailed on .
Titanic was 883 feet long (1/6 of a mile), 92 feet wide and weighed 46,328 tons. She was 104 feet tall from keel to bridge, almost 35 feet of which were below the waterline... even so, she stood taller above the water than most urban buildings of the time. There were three real smoke-stacks; a fourth, dummy stack was added largely to increase the impression of her gargantuan size and power and to vent smoke from her numerous kitchens and galleys. She was the largest movable object ever made by man. The ship's immense size and complexity is illustrated by an incident recalled by Second Officer Lightoller. There was a gangway door on the starboard side aft "large enough to drive a horse and cart through." Yet three officers who joined the ship during her preparations spent a whole day simply trying to find their way to it.
Moreover, she was designed to be a marvel of modern safety technology. She had a double-hull of 1-inch thick steel plates and a (heavily publicized) system of 16 water-tight compartments, sealed by massive doors which could be instantly triggered by a single electric switch on the bridge, or even automatically by electric water-sensors. The press began to call her "unsinkable."
Her accommodations were the most modern and luxurious on any ocean, and included electric light and heat in every room, electric elevators, a swimming pool, a squash court (considered terribly modern), a Turkish Bath, a gymnasium with a mechanical horse and mechanical camel to keep riders fit, and staterooms and first class facilities to rival the best hotels on the Continent. First class passengers would glide down a six-story, glass-domed grand staircase to enjoy haute cuisine in the sumptuous first class dining saloon that filled the width of the ship on D Deck. For those who desired a more intimate atmosphere, Titanic also offered a stately ? carte restaurant, the chic Palm Court and Verandah restaurant, and the festive Cafe Parisien. She offered two musical ensembles (rather than the standard one) of the best musicians on the Atlantic, many of them lured from rival liners. There were two libraries, first- and second-class. Even the third class (steerage) cabins were more luxurious than the first class cabins on some lesser steamships, and boasted amenities (like indoor toilet facilities) that some of Titanic's emigrant passengers had not enjoyed in their own homes.
The original design called for 32 lifeboats. However, White Star management felt that the boat-deck would look cluttered, and reduced the number to 20, for a total life-boat capacity of 1178. This actually exceeded the regulations of the time, even though Titanic was capable of carrying over 3500 people (passengers and crew).
Cunard Line has a long history stretching back to the era of great ocean liners at a time when the only way to cross the Atlantic was by ship. Now days with all the Trans-Atlantic traffic gone to the airlines, Cunard Line has to adapt to the new economic realities in order to survive. Changing owners a few times, Cunard was finally acquired by Carnival Cruise Line and merged with Seabourn Cruise Line (three of the Cunard's ships were transferred to Seabourn). Like any other cruise line Carnival has purchased (Holland America Cruise Line, Windstar Cruises, Seabourn Cruises, Costa Cruises), Cunard Line was left to operate as a separate brand, preserving the image Cunard has built through the last century. The line was founded in 1840 by Samuel Cunard, a businessman from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Cunard applied for and received a contract from the British government to carry the Royal Mail from Britain to North America on a fleet of steam ships that would maintain a weekly service. The first route was from Liverpool to Boston via Halifax, but the western terminus was soon moved to New York. In the late 1920's Cunard Line lay down plans for a pair of ships that would be capable of maintaining the weekly service between Southampton and New York. Construction was delayed by the Great Depression, but the British government issued loan guarantees on the condition that Cunard Line merge with its rival, White Star Line. Cunard-White Star Line launched the ships Queen Mary in 1935 and Queen Elizabeth in 1939. Queen Mary won the speed record for the North Atlantic from the French ship Normandie and kept it for the next 16 years. In 1960, the British government agreed to lend Cunard Line money for the construction of a new liner on the condition that the ship could be requisitioned for national service in an emergency. In 1967, Queen Elizabeth II launched Queen Elizabeth 2, named for the earlier ship, Queen Elizabeth. QE2, as she became known, made her maiden voyage in 1969, as a two-class ship for crossings and a one-class ship for cruises. In 1998, Cunard Line was acquired by Carnival Cruises, which merged the management of Cunard with Seabourn Cruises, their other luxury brand. In January 2004, Queen Mary 2- the largest, longest, highest, and most expensive cruise ship ever built was christened by Queen Elizabeth II and made her maiden voyage attended by worldwide media coverage. In May, Queen Mary 2 took over the North Atlantic liner service between Southampton and New York and became the flagship of Cunard Line. In that month QE2 was repositioned to make cruises out of Southampton for the British market. Also in 2004 Cunard Line, as one of the Carnival family fleet of cruise lines, was moved under the Princess/P&O Cruises umbrella, where its operations will now be overseen by an almost entirely new staff (both onboard and on shore).
LUSITANIA
On May 7th, 1915 a German U-boat sank RMS Lusitania off the coast of Ireland. 1,195 people perished on a sunny spring afternoon, including 128 Americans. You will find that many fine ships went to the bottom during the course of both World Wars. Liners, because of their size and speed, were often used as troop transports and hospital ships. They were even used as auxiliary cruisers. Lusitania, however, was sailing as a civilian vessel. Although she was carrying munitions, her passengers and crew were civilian. In spite of this, the German sub commander fired one (maybe two) torpedoes into her side and sent her to the bottom in 18 minutes. One of the first "floating palaces", Lusitania had barely entered her prime when she was struck down. Today her wreck, battered and broken, lies as a sad monument to the perils of war and as a testament to the grandeur that was once the Golden Age of Ocean Travel...
Lost liners is an excellent website that has a lot of famous ships. THe most intresting ship I read about was the Queen Mary. It has a fasinating history. Check it out.
General Information (about sailing with CUNARD)
Cunard Line is a brand of Carnival plc.
Responsibility
Transportation of guests and baggage on Cunard are governed by the Cunard Passage Contract, a copy of which will be included with your preliminary documents or upon request. The Passage Contract represents theentire agreement between Cunard and the guest. It is important that you carefully read the entire Passage Contract, as it sets out the rights and responsibilities of Cunard and the guest. Cunard shall have the right to cancel or alter in anyway any scheduled sailing or itinerary which, in its sole judgment and discretion, is justified for any reason and to do so without liability for damage or for any loss to guests. Cunard also reserves the right, in the event of a full-ship charter or for any other reason, to cancel reservations and bookings whether or not a deposit or full payment has been received. In such an event, Cunard’s only liability will be to refund to guests the amount it has received. The guest is responsible for arriving at the respective ports on time for embarkation and for joining the vessel at its next port of call, if for any reason, a scheduled sailing is missed. Cunard reserves the right to refuse or discontinue passage to anyone when in Cunard’s sole judgment, it would be considered a risk to the guest’s own safety, well-being and health or a risk to the safety, well-being, comfort and enjoyment of any other guest or crewmember.
Deposits
A 25% deposit is required within seven days of reservation or sooner, as specified by Cunard. Staterooms are subject to cancellation if required deposit amount is not received within the specified option period.
Balance of Payment
Full payment for all voyages must be received by Cunard no later than 90 days prior to sailing. All reservations are subject to cancellation if payments are not received by the due date, and are guaranteed only when paid in full at 90 days prior to sailing. Reservations made within 90 days of sailing require full payment within three days of the reservation or sooner, as specified by Cunard.
Methods of Payment
Only U.S. dollar payments are accepted via agency check, personal check, wire transfer, American Express, MasterCard,Visa, Diner’s Club or Discover Card. Expenses incurred for onboard services/products by the guest or by Cunard on behalf of guests, shall be paid by guest prior to debarkation.
Cancellation by Guests
Regardless of stateroom resale, the following policies shall apply to all voyage cancellations.
2006 Sailings - 36 Days or Less
Days Prior to Voyages Cancellation Charge
120 to 91 days None
90 to 61 days 25% of full fare
60 to 31 days
50% of full fare
30 to 15 days
75% of full fare
14 days or less, or non-appearance
100% of full fare
2006 Sailings - 37-88 Days
Days Prior to Voyages Cancellation Charge
120 to 91 days 10% of full fare
90 to 61 days
50% of full fare
60 to 31 days
75% of full fare
30 to 15 days
100% of full fare
14 days or less, or non-appearance
100% of full fare
2006 Sailings - 89 Days or More
Days Prior to Voyages Cancellation Charge
120 to 91 days 25% of full fare
90 to 61 days
50% of full fare
60 to 31 days
100% of full fare
30 to 15 days
100% of full fare
14 days or less, or non-appearance
100% of full fare
Note: Policies may vary for World Cruise voyages; see the applicable World Cruise Website for details.
The above cancellation charges apply to all travel including cruise, airfare, land arrangements and optional hotel/land extensions. If non-voyage components only are cancelled, the guest will be responsible for any cancellation charges imposed by the airlines, other transportation carriers, tour and ground operators or hotel properties.
Refunds
Before a determination regarding a refund can be made, all cruise and air documents must first be returned to: Cunard Line, 24303 Town Center Drive,Valencia, California 91355. Partial use of cruise, airfare, hotel and land extension does not qualify a guest for a refund. All refund requests pertaining to cruise, land and air are subject to final review by Cunard.
CunardCare®
We strongly recommend that all guests purchase comprehensive Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance for the full purchase price of the cruise as well as air and/or land programme costs.We also urge you to purchase medical and emergency evacuation coverage if your health insurance does not provide coverage outside of the U.S.Your travel professional can provide additional information about the CunardCare Travel Protection Programme which has been specially designed and economically priced exclusively for Cunard guests.
Luggage and Valuables
Though we take reasonable care in the handling of luggage, Cunard’s responsibility for lost, damaged or misplaced baggage and other personal property is limited by the Passage Contract. Cunard Line is not responsible for camera equipment, laptops, cash or other similarly fragile and valuable items contained in checked or unchecked luggage. These items, as well as medications and prescriptions, should be carried on and off the ships by the guests themselves. Safe-deposit boxes or in-room safes are available free of charge onboard. For your safety, all guests and all baggage must pass a security checkpoint.
Children Travelling with an Adult
Children under 18 years of age must be accompanied by an adult and if that adult is not a parent or legal guardian, written permission from the parent or legal guardian is required.
Only children over the age of one (1) year at the date of sailing will be accepted for the following itineraries:
Africa
South America
South Pacific / Hawaii / Tahiti
World Cruises
Exotics (Including Asia / Orient, Antarctica, Indian Sub-Continent)
Transatlantic / Transpacific
Children over six (6) months of age at the date of sailing will be accepted on the following itineraries
Alaska
Canada / New England
Caribbean
Europe
Mexico
Transcanal
Australia / New Zealand (Coastal Cruising Only)
Embarkation/Disembarkation
The ship generally will be available for embarkation two hours before the scheduled sailing time. Due to limited facilities, guests should not arrive earlier than the embarkation time noted on final documents. On disembarkation day, staterooms must be vacated at the time advised by the Hotel Manager. Once customs and immigration clearance has been completed, guests making their own air arrangements should allow three to four hours for transfer time to the airport. For passengers not purchasing an air/sea package, Cunard Line offers optional transfers and hospitality services to the port on embarkation day. Group transfers and services use motor-coaches or minibuses; private transfers use luxury sedans for two guests or luxury club vans for four to eight guests. Where available, hospitality services provide you with transfers from your incoming flight to a deluxe hotel at which point your luggage is transported from the hotel directly to the ship.You are free to relax and enjoy the comfort of a Cunard hospitality room and use the hotel as a base from which to explore. Call your travel professional or 1-800-7-CUNARD for more information.
Guest with Disabilities/Special Diets
Guests with disabilities are welcome aboard Cunard vessels. Due to the configuration of our ships, however, wheelchair users and individuals with sight impairments may experience some difficulties in accessing certain areas. Where such individuals would be unable to be safely and comfortably accommodated due to such barriers or other criteria, we may suggest that the guest be accompanied by a companion. Some ports of call require tenders to go ashore and may preclude passengers using a wheelchair from leaving the vessel; this decision must be made by the ship’s Captain and is binding. Upon notification by a guest with a disability, Cunard Reservations will provide stateroom and bathroom doorway widths and other pertinent access limitations onboard the vessels. Cunard is pleased to permit individuals to bring service animals onboard. In order to make appropriate arrangements, notice that a guest will be travelling with an animal must be provided at the time of booking. Local laws or customs may prevent animals from disembarking at particular ports and countries. It is the guest’s obligation to obtain all documents/health certificates that may be required. Consult local customs authorities for information and requirements.
Guests with conditions requiring ongoing medical assistance may be asked to have their physician provide a confidential certification form to ensure that they may travel safely. If guests have special dietary needs, Cunard must be advised at time of booking or, at the latest, six weeks before sailing. Every effort will be made to comply with such requests.
Optional Air Programme
The availability of the air travel programme may be limited from each gateway. Cunard reserves the right to withdraw any gateway city without prior notice. Within 21 days of departure, the air travel programme is on a request basis and may be unavailable. Cunard reserves the right to choose the air carrier, service, routing and airport for each gateway city. Airline tickets issued by Cunard are highly restrictive and subject to cancellation and change fees. All airline tickets are the property of Cunard and must be returned to and are refundable only to Cunard. Flight schedules may require that you make connections or stops en route to your final destination or cruise departure. A fee may apply if you change or cancel your air arrangements prior to departure. An additional $50 reissue fee will be charged on changes made after tickets have been issued.
Some countries require passengers to pay an airport departure tax which is not included on the passenger air ticket. In most cases, this tax is collected at the airport upon check-in and may have to be paid in local currency. We recommend your travel agent verify any applicable tax for which the passenger is to be responsible.
Air fees, taxes and surcharges include all charges related to air transportation imposed by U.S. and/or foreign governmental or quasi-governmental authorities. Air fees, taxes and surcharges vary by gateway city, routing, destination and carrier, and are averaged for each gateway city. Refunds will not be made if actual air fees, taxes and surcharges are lower than estimated. Cunard reserves the right to collect any increases in air fees, taxes and surcharges in effect at the time of sailing, even if the fare has already been paid in full. Airline seat assignments cannot be confirmed by Cunard. We recommend that you have your travel agent contact the airlines directly for seat assignments, the addition of frequent flyer numbers to your airline record, or to request special meals. Please be advised that not all airlines provide pre-reserved seats. Requests for wheelchair assistance or other special needs, such as oxygen in-flight can only be made directly with the air carrier and are the responsibility of the traveller. Not all airlines allow the use of oxygen in-flight. It is strongly recommended that you verify both flight departure times and flight numbers at least 72 hours prior to your departure form home. Cunard is not responsible for airline schedule changes after tickets have been issued.
Optional Shore Excursions
Shore excursions purchased before sailing are subject to a 50% cancellation fee from the time of booking and a 100% cancellation fee if cancelled on board. Shore excursions purchased onboard are subject to a 10% cancellation fee from the time of booking and 100% free if cancelled after the published closing dates for the port in question. These dates will be provided by the tour office onboard. Failure or inability of the local tour operator to include any feature will entitle guests to be refunded only that portion of the total cost of the tour directly related to the feature excluded. Cunard cannot extend reimbursements to guests for circumstances beyond Cunard's control.
Services Provided by Independent Contractors
All shoreside tours & services described in this brochure, including air, transfers and shore excursions are provided by independent contractors. Cunard acts solely as the ticketing agent for all shoreside activities. Cunard shall have no obligation or liability of any kind to guests for acts or omissions in connection with or arising out of arrangements with independent contractors, including but not limited to airline carriers, ground/tour operators, hotels and onboard physicians since they are neither agents for nor employees of Cunard.
International Travel Documents and Health Information
It is the guest’s obligation to obtain and carry with them a valid passport, visas, parental authorizations if required, and public health documents for all applicable ports of call and overland tour destinations.Your passport must be valid for a minimum of six months past the last day of your trip. Consult your travel professional for advice on such requirements.
Approximately three months prior to departure, guests will be sent a visa application package and requirements for their specific itinerary from an independent visa service agency. We strongly recommend that all guests avail themselves of this service. Depending on the area of the world visited, vaccination/immunization requirements vary considerably, and are subject to change at any time. We suggest that guests travelling outside of their country of residence consider being immunized against Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Diptheria, Polio and Tetanus. An international certificate, approved by the World Health Organization, is the best medium for verification that inoculations and vaccinations have been satisfactorily performed, and is accepted by health officials at all ports of call. We strongly recommend that all guests contact their personal physician, the Department of Public Health, or the Centers for Disease Control to obtain expert medical immunization recommendations for their intended itinerary and travel plans and to specifically address Malaria and Yellow Fever requirements in time to receive any necessary vaccinations/immunizations. Any Malaria prophylaxis medication recommended must be obtained prior to joining the vessel.
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information presented is accurate at the time of printing. Ship details and other information presented are subject to change at any time, at the discretion of Cunard.
In 1926 a planning committee for Cunard Steamship company met to discuss the uncertain future of the well-known British shipping line. Times were perilous at best; Cunard's once iron-tight grip on the Atlantic passenger trade had been squeezed open by competitors on both sides of the Atlantic. American, French, German and Italian liners all steamed the same routes and passenger numbers were dropping. The United States had tightened restrictions on immigration and Cunard was still in the process of recovering from losses during World War one nearly a decade before. Their beloved Lusitania had been sent to the bottom by a German U-boat as had many other Cunarders. With one of the largest merchant fleets in the world, Cunard Line had lost more vessels than they cared to count. In the dwindling years of the Roaring 20's, they needed an answer to the economic uncertainty that loomed overhead. A plan was set down to modernize the Cunard fleet. The current greyhounds running their Atlantic route were Mauretania, Aquitania and Berengeria. The latter was a war prize, formerly Imperator, taken from Germany as reparations for the loss of Lusitania. But Cunard needed to maintain its weekly service with only two ships. Three vessels were extremely expensive to maintain, refit, and operate. Two new vessels, larger and faster than anything ever built, would need to shoulder the burden of the weekly run. The new liners would need service speeds in excess of 29 knots in order to fill the shoes, so to speak, of the three ships currently handling the North Atlantic route. Luckily, the advancement in oil-fired boilers made this an easily attainable goal. Plans were drafted for what would become one of the most beloved ocean liners of the Golden Age and, indeed, the Golden Age's only surviving relic.
Initially, the plans for Cunard's new liner were not so grand. The bare minimum in size, luxury and speed were called for. But in the end, the vessel was to be nearly 81,000 gross tons and over 1,000 feet long. A vessel of this size had not yet been built, even in this age of seemingly jaded age of ever-growing hulls, her proportions were staggering. From the shipyard where she would be built to the dry-dock where she would fit out to the docks on either size of the Atlantic where she would berth, the same problem arose; none of these facilities existed. Nowhere was there a place capable of handling a ship of this size. But one by one the various problems associated with breaking new ground in liner construction were conquered. A payoff here, a favor there no doubt, but the issues conflicting with Cunard's endeavor were eventually overcome. In 1928 the serious work of blueprinting the new liner began and in December 1930 the first keel plate was laid for No. 534 (her only designation until launching) at the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland.
Barely a year had gone by when the Great Depression, an economic fallout from the New York Stock Market Crash of 1929, overtook England with a fury. Britain's economy all but collapsed. Cunard found itself in dire straights. Unable to secure funding from the banks they so heavily relied upon, Cunard's leaders were forced to make an awful decision. Work on the new vessel stopped entirely on December 10, 1931. From there the economic tsunami rippled outward from the Clyde as not only the shipyard workers themselves lost their jobs, but all the factories across the British Isles canceled production of parts and accessories for the new vessel and laid off their workforces. In all nearly 10,000 people lost their jobs. The shipyard went silent as the Depression tightened its grip.
As the economic turmoil further embroiled Europe, Cunard watched helplessly as the French government stepped in to help CGI (The French Line) complete their own new super liner Normandie. Cunard's directors pleaded with the British Parliament to fund the completion of their new ship. Stalemate after stalemate confronted them as social services took priority as thousands and thousands of people fell on hard times. For more than two years the unfinished hull of No. 534 sat silent, collecting 130 tons of rust and god only knows how many tons of bird droppings as hundreds, maybe thousands of nests were built in the crevices of the steel skeleton. Cunard found an ally in its cause with Parliament in David Kirkwood. Kirkwood was a Labour Member of Parliament for Dumbarton Burghs. As a representative for the Clyde area, Kirkwood demanded that work on the liner resume to alleviate unemployment. In his words, "...I believe that as long as No. 534 lies like a skeleton in my constituency so long will the Depression last in this country. To me it seems to shout Failure! Failure! to the whole of Britain..." After a while, sympathy for the resumption of work grew. At long last a compromise was reached. Because the new liner was not built to Admiralty specifications (Cunard didn't really believe she would ever be used in war) the government refused to subsidize Cunard. In an ironic turn of fate, a deal was hammered out that would secure Cunard with the funds to finish No. 534, operate the company and build 534's sister ship.
In the very early years of the 20th century, Cunard had appealed to Parliament for the funds to build Lusitania and Mauretania by pointing out that the only other substantial British line, White Star, had been bought by an American interest. The scheme had worked, and once again it was the White Star Line that made it possible for Cunard to secure the money it needed from Parliament. But this time, it was White Star's financial woes; the company had never truly regained its standing after the loss of Titanic more than a decade before. In 1927, White Star's American owners had sold it to the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. It wasn't long before RMSP found itself in troubled waters and offered the ailing White Star up for sale. Cunard had actually contemplated purchasing its former rival but the board of directors decided that the financial risk was too great and passed. Now the British government, in return for a loan of £9.5 million, insisted that Cunard and White Star merge to form one company. Cunard Line accepted the offer and in March 1934 Cunard White Star Ltd. came in to being.
With new capital and a renewed vigor, the town of Clydeside awoke to a new day on Tuesday April 3rd, 1934 as more than four hundred men paraded through the town. Two kilted pipers led the way to the shipyard where the work of removing the rust from No. 534 would begin. Some would say that those two pipers led more than those workmen that day. Some might say they led all of Britain out of the Depression as the entire nation looked to this small town with inspiration, as hope that the choking grip of the times was not so tight after all...
Cunard's No. 534 served to inspire all of Britain through the difficult years of the Depression, but even before the economy went sour, she was a source of great pride. She was to be the first liner over 1,000 feet and truly, as had become almost cliché; "...the largest moving object every crafted by man..." Although the French Normandie was in service first, it was only because she had been financed by the French government from the start of the Depression. At 1,019 feet long and 119 feet wide, No. 534's final tonnage of 81,000 would certainly make her the largest British ship ever built. More than 8,000 experiments were conducted on twenty-two 17-foot long models to come up with her hull design. From start to finish the driving force behind 534 was that she would carry a traditional look and feel, while incorporating the very best in modern technology and efficiency.
The hull was comprised of steel plates ranging in length from 8 to 30 feet; the largest weighing upwards of 3 tons! Ten million rivets; weighing in at 4,000 tons, held the ship together. Her stern frame alone weighed 190 tons and the rudder an additional 180 tons. 70,000 gallons of paint were used, with the four layers of anticorrosive paint expected to last 40 years! Two-thousand portholes and windows were cut into the hull and 2,500 sq. ft of thick, strengthened glass used. 534 would be comprised of twelve decks and her hull was divided into 160 watertight compartments! Compare that to the 16 watertight compartments used in Titanic's construction twenty years prior. From her keel to the top of her forward funnel was to be 184 feet.
The ship's propellers were four-bladed screws, 20 feet in diameter. Four would be installed altogether, made from 50-ton "Turbiston" casting that took two weeks to cool off! Driving these massive props were four sets of quadruple expansion, reduced geared turbines, each having 257,000 hand-set blades. The 14-foot-wide reduction gear allowed the turbines to spin at high speeds (3,000 rpm) while the propellers themselves turned at low speeds (200 rpm) while harnessing the 50,000 horsepower generated by the engines. Twenty-four Yarrow-type water tube boilers provided the necessary steam. The boilers were fueled by oil from tanks that could hold 75,000 gallons! Heating and cooking aboard ship would be made possible by low-pressure steam provided by three double ended 'Scotch' boilers. Seven turboelectric generators developed 10,000 kilowatts to power the electrical systems on the new liner. This included the 30,000 light bulbs, twenty-two elevators, and nearly 600 clocks among other devices. More than 4,000 miles of electrical wiring was used to channel this power throughout the ship.
The ensure the safety of the new vessel's passengers and crew, twenty-four lifeboats would be installed, each 36 feet long and 12 feet wide. Built by Hugh McLean and Sons Ltd in Glasgow, the lifeboats could carry a total of 145 people for a total of 3,480. The new vessels total capacity was 3,240. This was broken down as follows: 776 Cabin Class, 784 Tourist Class, 579 Third Class and a crew of 1,101.
A lot of controversy surrounds the story behind the name that would eventually be given to No. 534. Many people at the time wondered, in light of the Cunard - White Star merger what the name of the ship would be. After all, Cunard had it's tradition of ship names ending in "ia" (as in Lusitania, Mauretania, Aquitania) and White Star's tradition was to end ship names with "ic" (as in Olympic, Titanic, Britannic). Now obviously Cunard was the winner in the whole rivalry thing, having "acquired" White Star. But many felt that it would be a civil compromise to establish a new naming trend. Throughout all the speculation, the ship's name was kept a closely guarded secret, however the most convincing story I have heard about how No. 534 would come to receive her famous name is as follows; Sir Ashley Sparks, then Chairman of Cunard Line's American offices, had been part of a delegation that had gone to King George V to ask his permission to name the ship after Queen Victoria. When he had an audience with the King, Sparks said, "Your Majesty, it is our wish to name this new vessel after England's greatest Queen!" King George's wife, Mary, was present and interjected, "I would be delighted!" And so...No. 534 had a name; RMS Queen Mary. Ironically, although Queen Victoria would have certainly started a 'new' naming method, it would have also continued Cunard's tradition as 'Victoria' did indeed end in "ia". Alas, 'twas not to be.
On September 26th, 1934 more than 200,000 people clambered to the sides of the River Clyde to witness the launch. The day was cold and overcast, as rain fell intermittently. The foul weather did little to deter the shivering British however, as they eagerly awaited the launch of Britain's greatest triumph, a ship that had rekindled national pride and helped resurrect England from the depths of the Great Depression. The King and Queen were on hand for the christening, as it was Queen Mary herself who would send the bottle of Australian White Wine smashing into the hull. It was the first time in Britain's history a reigning monarch had christened a merchant vessel and the crowd, still clueless as to the name of this fine vessel, would soon know why.
The Queen stepped forward and cut the line securing the wine bottle and pushed the button that would fire the launch triggers. Speaking into a microphone, she said, "I am happy to name this ship the Queen Mary. I wish success to her and all who sail in her..." With a roar of approval from the assembled crowd, the liner's hull began to slide down the slipway and into the water for the first time. Drag chains, more than 2,000 tons-worth, checked her momentum and brought her to a halt once she cleared the slip. A wave two feet high washed across the river, soaking spectators on the opposite bank. Queen Mary was then gently taken in tow and brought to her fitting out berth where her transformation into one of the most beautiful ships ever built would take place.
Once launched, Queen Mary was towed to her fitting out basin where the task of installing her machinery and fittings was to be handled. It was here that her superstructure and funnels would be added as well. Over the next year and a half, thousands of people visited the town of Clydeside to watch Britain's newest Queen being completed. As the work progressed, she began to look more and more like a liner. Soon the familiar smoke stacks were installed. The funnels were 30 feet in diameter and distanced 138 feet apart. Unique to Mary, each of the funnels was shorter than the one in front of it. The forward funnel was 70.5 ft tall, the second 67.5 feet and the third stack was 62.25 feet tall. The whistles; two on the forward funnel and one on the second, were more than 6 feet long and weighed 1 ton each. Tuned to a lower bass "A", the whistles could be heard for more than ten miles. I have heard these whistles personally, up close and I can tell you, LOUD does not adequately describe this sound. It is both beautiful and terrifying, but more on that later. Back to No. 534, as she was still known in 1934. As her funnels were installed and painted the familiar Cunard orange, her sleek hull glistened with fresh black paint, those who took in the site were awed by her beauty. She was so large, her stern stuck out from the fitting out basin by more than 100 feet. The name on her bow stretched for more than 55 feet; each letter was 2.5 feet high! So large and important, other ships being built and launched were carefully maneuvered around the new liner as she neared completion. Finally on Tuesday, March 24th, 1936 (I was born on March 24th 1974!!) at 9:45AM four blasts of her mighty whistles signaled to anyone within 10 miles that RMS Queen Mary was complete and ready to sail.
Such an occasion was the departure of Queen Mary from her birthplace that a national holiday was declared and more than a million people were on hand to witness her 15-mile journey down the Clyde. Parts of the river had actually been widened to accommodate the massive ship and all but two of Queen Mary's lifeboats had been removed to lessen her draft to avoid any grounding. Additionally her furniture had not been installed yet and only the fuel she need to get to Southampton was taken on. Despite this, when in midchannel, a gust of wind caught her and turned her so as to nearly block the entire river. Her stern ran aground and it was several seconds before the tugs could pull her free. Undamaged, Queen Mary was slowly taken down the Clyde at a stately 7 knots, running aground only once more on one of the many tight turns in the river. Crowds lined the banks of the Clyde the entire way to Gourock, where the river widened. Here Queen Mary anchored for two nights while some tests of her equipment were conducted. Each night she sparkled brilliantly against the dark sky, every porthole gleaming; a sharp contrast to the disheartening conditions of the Depression that still tugged at England's financial well-being. At 2:30 AM on March 26th, she weighed anchor and set course for Southampton, her home port. At 7AM on Friday March 27th (March 27th is my daughter Taryn's birthday) she anchored off Cowes to wait for the midday high tide. As she waited, nearly 750,000 people gawked and awed over her as airplanes circled overhead. Finally, when the tide was right, she steamed on to Southampton, where a new £1.85 million dry dock awaited her. The 1,200-foot long King George V Dry Dock had been built by the Southern Railway Company to ensure that Southampton, not Liverpool, would be Mary's home port.
Queen Mary arrived in Southampton waters to cheers and whistles on the shore and from ships in port. She passed by Germany's Bremen, outward-bound and signaling best wishes. As hundreds of craft swarmed around her, she approached the Southern Railway Dock, on which more than 12,000 people had gathered to see her in. Queen Mary passed the docks amid screaming sirens and whistles from other liners docked there and it seemed, if only for a moment, that all the worries and concerns that preoccupied the world had simply faded away, lost in the brilliant glory of this magnificent new vessel. At 2:20PM she approached the entrance to the dry dock and within 5 minutes had been expertly nudged into placed. As the gates were closed behind her and millions of gallons pumped out into the River Test, Queen Mary once again sat high and dry out of the water. Here her keel was cleaned, fresh paint applied and any remaining launch fittings removed. She was also provided with new propellers in anticipation of her sea trials. That Sunday, the 29th, people were allowed to view her in dry-dock, up close and personal, for a charge of one shilling. Hundreds of people signed her new propellers! Meanwhile, Queen Mary merchandise was sold at every street corner.
On April 8th, the dry dock was flooded and Queen Mary floated out. She was towed to the former White Star dock, now known as the Ocean Dock where she was moored opposite Cunard's massive Aquitania. Then on April 15th (the 24th anniversary of Titanic's sinking) she departed for the island of Arran where her speed trials would be conducted. After two days of steaming tests in the Irish Sea Queen Mary was once again anchored off Gourock. On Saturday, April 18th, she left Gourock at 4:30 AM and from 6:00 AM until 3:00 that afternoon Mary made 14 runs off Arran. Each mile long run, 4 minutes in duration, required 10 minutes on either end to build up speed or slow down. Recorded speeds ranged from 20 knots to 32.84 knots, although actual speeds were much higher as Mary ran the mile diagonally. Extensive tests were conducted including the usual full steam ahead, to full steam reverse, as well as maneuvering tests. Once the test had been successfully completed, Mary's whistles gave three farewell blasts and again steamed to Southampton where her remaining furniture and fittings were to be added.
On May 12th, the flags of John Brown were lowered and the flags of Cunard and White Star raised as RMS Queen Mary was officially handed over to her owners. Two days later she sailed on a 24-hour "Inaugural Cruise" with various dignitaries and many of the officials and contractors who had made her construction possible. On Friday the 15th of May she returned to Southampton to prepare for her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. On May 21st, 22nd and 23rd she was opened to the public for tours and on Monday the 25th the ship was cleared of all nonessential personnel for a final Royal Inspection by Queen Mary herself, accompanied by King Edward, the Duke and Duchess of York, their daughters Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose as well and the Duke and Duchess of Kent and the Duchess of Gloucester. Upon receiving Royal approval, Queen Mary was ready to sail. Britain's claim to dominance of the North Atlantic was to be once again secured with the sailing of the newest Atlantic Monarch.
On May 27th, at 4:30PM (tea time), Queen Mary departed from Southampton. After a two-hour delay at Cherbourg she was on her way to New York on what was hoped to be a record-setting maiden crossing. Despite her best efforts, she was unable to beat Normandie's crossing speed of 29.68 knots. Fog off the Grand Banks hindered her progress. While in this fog, Mary passed over the spot where Titanic had sank in 1912 and dropped a ceremonial wreath in memory. At 9:03 AM on Monday June 1st, she passed the Ambrose Lightship, the proverbial finish line for the Atlantic run. Her average speed of 29.13 knots put her shy of Normandie's record by two hours, thirty-three minutes. But Cunard, as they had from the beginning, stated that her speed was secondary in consideration of her size and luxury and that the Blue Riband was of less interest to them than the prestige of owning the world's largest and most beautiful ship. As Mary approached New York, a DC-3 flew overhead, loaded with press snapping photos of the new liner. Thousands of white carnations were dropped onto her deck as a sign of heartfelt welcome from America. As with her departure from Southampton, thousands had lined the docks in New York and the banks of the Hudson to greet her with cheers. Ships blasted their approval as she passed and again, everyone seemed to forget about their worries in the presence of this majestic vessel.
Queen Mary's majesty came in many forms. While her exterior design certainly called back to the early years of the 1900's, with a conventional profile, knife-edged bow and towering raked funnels, she also incorporated a modern approach to overall design. Her interior was indicative of the period. Her "Curvilinear" architecture epitomized the essence of art deco. With the use of more than 50 different types of wood veneers, towering pillars intersected by golden trim and runners that sparkled in the ambient lighting, she contrasted sharply with the palatial environments found on previous liners. She was a vessel of the new era, in which class and elegance overtook over-saturated aristocratic antiquity. Yet despite her departure from traditional interior design she was, without a doubt, a Queen among Queens. Her public rooms were no doubt the finest afloat. Her Dining Salon, for example, was 143 feet long and 118 feet wide; the largest room ever built aboard a ship. It could seat all 800 First Class passengers at once! In fact, Cunard's first vessel Britannia would have fit in this room with plenty of room to spare! Noted British artist Edward Wadsworth was commissioned for a painting called "Dressed Overall at the Quay" in the First Class Smoking Lounge. For special a la carte meals there was the Verandah Grill. Serving only lunch and dinner from it's own bar and kitchen, the Verandah Grill was located at the stern and required a £1 fee, even for First Class passengers.
For a four day crossing, the amount of supplies needed for meals alone was staggering. Now if you figure more than 3,000 people aboard, eating breakfast, lunch and dinner, that works out to be 10,000 meals a day! Mind-boggling to say the least. A typical crossing aboard Queen Mary consumed enough consumables to rival a small town; 77,000 lbs of fresh meat, 27,500 lbs of poultry, 11,000 lbs of fresh fish, 50,000 lbs of potatoes, 33,000 lbs of fresh vegetables, 70,000 eggs, 22,000 lbs of flour, 11,000 lbs of sugar, 14,500 gallons of milk, 2,000 lbs of cheese, 1,110 boxes of assorted fruit, 3,000 quarts of ice cream, 3 tons of butter (THAT is a lot of butter!) among other things. Additionally, 20,000 bottles of beer (not including the 6,000 gallons of draft beer!), 15,000 bottles of wine and 5,000 bottles of various liquors! Accompanying this staggering amount of food were 16,000 pieces of silver combining with 200,000 pieces of china and glass! Passengers no doubt felt full after a meal and returning to their cabins for a nap or an evening's rest would lay themselves down covered by one of 30,000 sheets, their heads resting on pillows draped in one of 31,000 pillow cases. Queen Mary featured 6 miles of carpeting and the blankets used for deck chairs and cabins came from 16 tons of wool (taken from more than 6,000 sheep!).
First-Class (Cabin) Passengers traveling in a suite were treated to opulently decorated surroundings. A suite usually consisted of four rooms and a large closet. There were two bedrooms, one a Master and the other a smaller bedroom for children or servants. There was also a sitting room and a bathroom. The sitting room often doubled as a private dining area for those well-to-do passengers who wished to indulge in room service for the purpose of entertaining friends or business associates. First Class passengers also had in their cabins one of more than 600 telephones aboard Queen Mary. With instant communication to anywhere on the globe now possible, the ship had several operators on duty at all times, and they were kept busy by people taking advantage of the fact that being in the middle of the Atlantic no longer meant being out of touch!
As the 1930's drew to a close, Cunard's hope and dreams all seemed to be coming to fruition. RMS Queen Mary had met and exceeded all of their expectations. People flocked to sail on her, bookings were exceeding her capacity and she was often sold out months in advance! She was large, she was fast (having taken the Blue Riband in August of 1936) and best of all, she was actually turning a profit for the company. This was unheard of as the larger liners usually operated at a loss due their cost of upkeep. But in 1939, the world would turn the page of history and find a new dark chapter being written as the ominous clouds of war once again rolled into the skies over Europe. In September of that year, Adolph Hitler's nazi forces invaded Poland. For month's, Hitler's demands for territory and resources had made the outbreak of full-scale war likely. On August 30th Queen Mary sailed from Southampton on what would be her last peace time crossing for several years. On September 2nd, her captain received word from the Admiralty that war had been declared and that she was to assume "Full War Alert" and to be on the lookout for enemy submarines and aircraft. Queen Mary immediately began zigzagging and made full steam for New York. Already filled to capacity with people looking to flee before hostilities broke out, she made New York Harbor on September 4th, 1939. Across the Atlantic, the first marine casualty of World War II, the British liner Athenia, was sank off the coast of Scotland by the German sub U-30 with the loss of 112 passengers, including 28 Americans. In New York, Queen Mary was safely maneuvered into her berth at Pier 90 alongside the French liner Normandie. Britain was now at war, and soon it's radiant Queen would have to answer the call of duty, as had so many liners before her...
Once safely in New York, Queen Mary's uncertain future loomed largely in the minds of her owners. While one member of Parliament suggested she was of no use as a military vessel and should be sold to the neutral Americans, it was decided she was too large and too fast to not use as a troopship. Yet no official word had been handed down. Nonetheless she was painted over in gray and made ready for war use, to the extent that she could in a merchant port. Out of fear of nazi saboteurs, she was heavily guarded and spotlights installed on her decks to watch the docks at night. For the time being, she stayed at her pier alongside the French liner Normandie. Six months later, after a very secret maiden voyage, the duo was joined by Mary's new sister ship, Queen Elizabeth. Also painted gray, Queen Elizabeth had hardly been completed when war broke out and her secret trip across the Atlantic had been a deliberate maneuver to get her into a neutral port for conversion to troopship duty.
On March 1st, 1940 the Admiralty officially requisitioned Queen Mary for war duty. After having lost so many vessels in World War I, most notably their beloved Lusitania, Cunard's directors must have cringed at the thought of sending their lovely Mary to war. Dutifully they complied and on March 21st, without warning and with no official announcement, Queen Mary quietly departed her Hudson pier. Clearing New York harbor, she steamed south to South America and then across the Atlantic to South Africa. Without warning, she appeared off the harbor at Cape Town where she refueled and took on supplies and departed just as quickly. This was to become her MO; steaming in without notice, only to vanish into the night just as quickly. Obviously a necessary way of operating in wartime, this is what earned her the monikerThe Gray Ghost. From Cape Town she steamed at an average speed of 28 knots across the Indian Ocean to Sydney, Australia. There she was handed over to the Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Company where she was converted completely over to a military vessel.
Over the next two weeks, a flurry of activity surrounded Mary, the likes of which had not been seen since her construction. All of her precious fittings were removed; furniture, fine linens, china, silver, carpets, paintings, etc. It was all cataloged, packed up and sent to Northern Australia for storage. Meanwhile, extra bunks, sinks, toilets, showers and kitchen facilities were added. When all was said and done, her passenger capacity had been increased to 5,500. One can only imagine the pace of work required to turn a luxurious ship like that into a spartan trooper in just two weeks! On May 5th, she sailed from Sydney on orders to return to England. She carried over 5,000 Australian troops and at Fremantle she joined a convoy of her Atlantic sisters; Aquitania, Empress of Britain, Empress of Japan, Empress of Canada, Andes, and Mauretania (II). The liners were escorted by the cruisers Australia, Canberra (not the liner to my knowledge) and Leander. Steaming to Cape Town again, the convoy then traveled up the coast of Africa and made it safely to British waters.
On June 16, 1940 Queen Mary was once again anchored off Gourock. Though many thought she would never return to the Clyde again, here she was, however this time it was not a social call. Together with the rest of the convoy, more than 14,000 troops were landed safely. For thirteen days Mary anchored off Gourock and then was given orders to sail for the Far East. Once again she sailed in secrecy, her departure time and destination unknown to all but a few. Sailing from Scotland on June 29th, she reached Singapore on August 5th and was immediately placed in the naval dry-dock. Her bow and stern hanging over the ends of the facility, her hull was scraped and repainted. During the course of her refit, which last 41 days, her engines, boilers and steering mechanisms were overhauled. A new minesweeping device was installed as well. Called a paravane, it consisted of two torpedo-shaped devices that were towed from the bow. They spread out on either side of the ship while she steamed, slicing the anchor lines of any mines they came across. The mines would then surface where they could be destroyed by the deck guns that were also being installed. The deck guns were World War I vintage Lewis and Vickers machine guns. A six-inch gun was attached to her stern. After her refit in Singapore Mary sailed for Sydney where she picked up more troops and delivered them to the Middle East. For the next year she ferried troops from Australia to the Middle East, where the troops were transferred to smaller vessels. The Eastern Indian Ocean was deemed too dangerous for the valuable Queen Mary and it wasn't until December 1942 that she was sent back to the Atlantic. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Admiralty ordered Mary to New York for another refit at the Boston Naval Yards.
The Gray Ghost arrived in New York on January 12th, 1942 and was docked there for twelve days before being moved to the Naval Yard. There she underwent yet another refit. Over the course of 13 days, she was bulked up considerably. Her troop carrying capacity was increased to 8,500. Here the Queen also got some teeth. Fore and Aft, ten 40-mm cannons were installed in five double mounts, 24 single-barrel 20-mm cannons were added to the upper superstructure, six 3-in. high flow angle guns (two on the forward well-deck four on the fantail) and four 2-in. antiaircraft rocket launchers were installed near the aft funnel. Under cover of darkness in the early morning hours of February 17th, 1942 Queen Mary was loaded with 8,398 troops and made steam for Australia via Key West, Rio, Cape Town and Fremantle to her final call at Sydney. Although her steaming range averaged about 4,000 miles (6,000 in an emergency) she was also far in excess of her intended capacity and the need to refuel and take on fresh supplies (particularly fresh water) was paramount. Now at this time Adolph Hitler was alleged to have offered a $250,000 bounty for any of his sea captains who could sink Queen Mary. Whether or not this is true is really irrelevant. The nazis would have loved to sink the Cunarder regardless of any reward. Because of this, Mary's orders were often changed while she was at sea. In one instance she anchored 23 miles off the coast of Florida (although she was in only 60 ft of water, she could drop anchor in much deeper seas as her anchor chains were some 900 feet long!). While Navy destroyers circled her, two 6,000 ton tankers delivered her much-need fuel and supplies.
The Axis powers had spies everywhere. Those spies did their best to obtain information about Mary's whereabouts. But it was not easy to track the Gray Ghost. Once, while refueling in Rio de Janeiro, Axis agents on a hill overlooking the harbor used a hidden radio to inform submarine commanders of Mary's departure time and course. When those agents were captured and Mary's captain warned, she quickly finished refueling and left port several hours early. However, an unlucky tanker departing at the time Mary had been scheduled to leave was quickly torpedoed and sunk as soon as it entered the open sea. The submarine commander, obviously an idiot when it came to identifying ships, informed his superiors that he had sunk Queen Mary. When word reached Japan, a radio broadcast proudly announced the Cunarder's demise. Aboard Queen Mary, the captain was informed of the radio message and told his officers, "Keep it under your hat. Don't let the troops know we've been sunk. It might worry them" Although this was certainly an amusing moment, a far darker day was to come for the Gray Ghost as the war dragged on.
That dark day came on October 2nd, 1942. Queen Mary had been reassigned to her familiar route along the North Atlantic, ferrying troops from America to the European front. As she approached the coast of Scotland, she was met by her Naval escort which included several destroyers and the 4,290-ton antiaircraft cruiser HMS Curacoa (Ker-a-sow). Now, as many may already be aware, it was standard practice for ships, particularly large merchant vessels, to zigzag in order to keep submarine commanders from obtaining a bearing on them. With vessels like Queen Mary, zigzagging when under escort meant that her escort vessels, far slower than she, would have to travel a straight course in order to keep up with her. On this day, as the Curacoa maintained course, Queen Mary engaged zigzag "Number 8". This particular zigzag involved four minutes steaming on a straight course, then a 25 degree turn to starboard for eight minutes, a 50 degree turn for eight minutes and then a 25 degree turn to starboard that brought her back to a straight heading. Steaming full ahead at 28.5 knots and carrying more than 15,000 troops (her capacity had been nearly doubled!) Queen Mary crisscrossed the sea while the Curacoa steamed ahead. The liner passed very close to the cruiser several times until finally, in what has been called a lack of judgment on the part of both crews, the inevitable happened. The two ships collided. At full steam, Mary's massive bow sliced through the Curacoa's hull 150 feet forward of the cruiser's stern. The 450-foot long Curacoa was sliced in half, spinning the ship like a child's top. The stern section sank quickly, followed in less than 5 minutes by the bow. Of the 432 crewmen aboard the Curacoa, only 101 survived. The worst part was, despite the horrific nature of this tragedy, the liner could not stop. In spite of the survivors thrashing about in the water and in spite of the sever damage to Mary's bow, the risk of attack by German U-boats was too great. Even with enough lifeboats for all 15,000 aboard, if Queen Mary were to take a torpedo (or two) and sink, the loss of life would be devastating. There was simply no way of evacuating that many people quickly and safely. Her bow plates crumpled and a gaping hole exposing her innards to the sea, Queen Mary steamed on at half-speed while other vessels quickly moved in to rescue the Curacoa survivors. Inspection of the damaged bow found that Mary was taking on water, but that the collision bulkhead had held and she would not sink. Temporary repairs, in the form of cement poured into the hole, were quickly made at Gourock. Then she was off again, the Gray Ghost vanishing into the mist, headed for America and the Naval Ship Yard at Boston where her hull plates could be replaced. In no time she was back in action.
When the war ended, Queen Mary maintained her troopship status, but as a means of joyfully returning American and Canadian troops back to their homelands. She also transported, over the course of 13 postwar crossings, some 22,000 war brides and their children. Four new American and Canadian citizens were born on these crossings. Mary was also used briefly as a hospital ship and her salons & lounges converted to operating rooms and intensive care units. Over the course of the war, Queen Mary had transported more than 800,000 troops over a distance of more than 600,000 miles. In all her years of dedicated service she never once sighted an enemy vessel or aircraft and her guns were never fired. The Curacoa incident aside, Queen Mary had come through the war unscathed. Filthy perhaps, but no worse for the wear. On September 27th, 1946 she returned to Southampton and upon docking was officially released from war service and returned to her grateful owners at Cunard. The task now was to clean off six years of grime, dirt and blood from those nearly 1 million people. Cunard was determined to see that Mary's best years lay ahead, not behind her...
Now it was time to transform Queen Mary back into the luxury liner she had been born as. Her artwork, furniture and other accouterments were gathered up from their various storage warehouses and shipped to Southampton where they were carefully put back where they belong. The years of grime were scrubbed away and slowly but surely the liner she had once been began to resurface. The splendor of her art deco interiors once again shown with the luster they had known before the terrible war. In a new age of peace and prosperity, Cunard hoped that business would be better than ever. On July 31st, 1947 Queen Mary left Southampton on her second "maiden voyage". It was the first time she had sailed as a merchant vessel in nearly eight years. She carried 2,000 passengers and was bound for New York, where her sister Queen Elizabeth was departing for the eastward journey. So it became the routine, week in and week out; the two sisters dominated the Atlantic, one leaving New York while the other left Southampton. When possible, the ships passed within a thousand feet of each other in mid-ocean. No matter what time of day it was, passengers lined the rails on either vessel to wave and cheer as the two Queens gracefully rocketed past each other at a combined speed of more than 60 knots! The late 40's and early 50's were kind to Cunard, as the two Queens held the lion's share of Atlantic passenger traffic. Even though Mary lost the Blue Riband to S.S. United States in 1952, Cunard was reaping huge profits and was spending just as recklessly, overstaffing shore-based offices.
Now as the postwar years saw prosperous years for Queen Mary, a problem first noticed when she was still new to the sea began to gain considerable attention. Mary, it seemed, was a roller. Despite the model tests that showed she would be a very stable ship, Queen Mary rolled so much that, in the words of some, she could "...roll the milk out of a cup of tea..." and Cunard's confidence in her stability had led to the shortsighted absence of storm rails in her corridors. Many passenger and crew injuries resulted from falls during heavy seas. Not many people know this, but one passenger; Paul Gallico, was aboard Queen Mary during a particularly rough crossing. So influenced by the rolling Mary was Gallico, he later wrote a novel about an ocean liner that rolled heavily and was capsized by a tidal wave, unfolding a tale of drama and adventure for the few passengers and crew that survived (the novel was eventually made into a movie, in which a model of Mary was used for the vessel and scenes were even filmed aboard the stately Cunarder! The novel/movie was called, The Poseidon Adventure). In 1957 Cunard installed, at a cost of £1.5 million, Denny-Brown stabilizers that helped bring Mary's happy rolling to an end in all but the roughest of seas or at top speeds. A roll of 10 degrees or less could be neutralized in a matter of seconds. This certainly helped bring passengers back to Queen Mary but even a rock solid stance among the waves couldn't prolong her career at this point.
By the late 50's and early 60's, another problem confronted not only Mary, but every Atlantic liner. This threat came not from the sea, but from the air. Jet travel, along with an ever-increasing reliability (ie - fewer crashes) began to steal business away. Once "the Only Way to Cross", ocean liners were fast becoming antiquated. You could now leave New York and be in London a mere 7 hours later! In 1958 the number of passengers traveling by jet had skyrocketed, matching the number of people traveling by Cunard liner (1 million: 1 million). Only a few years later, in 1964, air traffic had quadrupled while bookings for Cunard were nearly halved. Cunard's complacency, born out of the enormous profit margins enjoyed in the postwar era, had led to a failure to foresee the threat that jet travel would pose for their lucrative trade. Even as jet travel began to outpace bookings for the Line, they were blind to the inevitable. In 1961, for example, Queen Mary made a winter crossing with only 470 passengers aboard. Despite the low bookings, Cunard still staffed the ship with over 1,000 crew! My, what service those few passengers must have received, with nearly 2 crew at the disposal of every fare! In an attempt to reduce costs, Cunard first nixed Mary's summer dry-docking. This allowed them to add another summer cruise. When winter crossings fell below acceptable limits, Cunard attempted to use her as a cruise ship, but Mary was an Atlantic liner! She was ill-equipped to steam the tropics. Her draft and width kept her from anchoring in many tropical ports as well as denying her access to the Suez and Panama Canals, cutting her off from many popular destinations. Her lack of adequate air-conditioning was also a problem. She simply had not been designed for the torrid heat of equatorial waters.
On May 8th, 1967, Queen Mary's captain, William Laws, received a sealed envelope from the newly appointed Cunard chairman, Sir Basil Smallpiece. The letter read as follows;
"It is a matter of great regret to the Company and to me personally, as it will be to friends throughout the world, that these two fine ships, the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, must shortly come to the end of their working lives. They hold a unique position in the history of the sea, and in the affections of seafaring people everywhere. But we cannot allow our affections or our sense of history to divert us from our aim of making Cunard a thriving company and no other decision will make commercial sense."
Cunard did not wish to see Mary go to the breakers, nor did they wish to see her fly another house's colors. But in the end, both she and her sister were put up for sale. After many offers, including one very strange suggestion that the two sisters be welded together to form the world's largest (and most ridiculous) catamaran, the city of Long Beach, California forked over a cool $3.5 million and took over ownership of her majestyRMS Queen Mary. In what was billed as "The Last Great Cruise", Queen Mary sailed from Southampton on October 31st, 1967. Tears and well-wishes mixed with sirens, horns and a din best-described as melancholy of the masses saw the fair lady off for the last time. Never again would she see her native land, never again would her orange funnels bless the Southampton skyline. She sailed for Long Beach via the longest voyage she had ever taken in peacetime; 14,559 miles from England to Portugal and Spain, past the Canary Islands to South American ports like Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Valparaiso in Chile, Acapulco in Mexico to her final destination just a few miles south of Los Angeles. There she would call home a city she was never intended to see; Long Beach. There her new home awaited. She was to be converted to a floating hotel, museum and convention center. Unlike so many before her, this lady escaped the evil hands of the ship breakers, those merciless torch-wielding scrappers who unceremoniously turn beautiful works of art into smoldering piles of metal...Queen Mary found longevity, albeit in the snipping of her sea legs, but longevity nonetheless. To crown her shining career, 500 miles from Long Beach a DC-9 jet flew over Queen Mary and dropped white carnations, reminiscent of her first crossing to New York. Ironically, the jet was what had put her out of business, or rather the jet's speed to be specific. Because of this speed, most of the carnations missed the ship, but it's the thought that counts right?
RMS Queen Mary arrived at her new home at 11:30AM on Saturday December 9th, 1967 much the way she had entered the world; to the cheers of more than 1 million people. 33 years, 19 days and five hours later, on December 28th, 2000, I
Queen Elizabeth
1940 - 1973
he closing years of the 1920s and the following first of the 1930s were to become the time in which some of the greatest passenger vessels ever built came to life. The years following the First World War had not seen much development in naval design - at least not in the matters of size and speed. The first shipping company who sought out to change this was the White Star Line, which had ordered their third Oceanic by
The giant Queen Elizabeth, growing on the stocks.
Harland & Wolff. That ship was intended to be the first ever to exceed a thousand feet in length, but the company's already strained financial situation was worsened when The Great Crash struck. The order of the Oceanic was cancelled, and the unfinished hull was broken up and turned into the 26,000-ton Britannic who was introduced in 1930.
The French Line, which was planning their new champion - the Normandie - was not immediately affected by the crash, and could continue with the construction. Launched in 1932, the Normandie set out on her maiden voyage in 1935 and proved to be the very latest in ship technology.
The Cunard Line had not been resting to deal with this competition. The keel of their own supership had been laid in December 1930, but the construction was brought to a halt a year later due to the poor economic situation. Unlike the White Star's Oceanic however, the uncompleted ship was not broken up. Cunard had hopes of continuing the work soon, but it was not until the merger with White Star Line in 1934 that money could be raised for the job. Then finally, after two years and nine months of uncertainty, hull no. 534 was launched and named Queen Mary.
In May 1936, the Queen Mary embarked on her maiden voyage. By now, the Normandie had been in service for a year and had already captured the Blue Riband for France. But on her sixth round trip voyage, the Mary took it from her, putting the prestigious award in British hands for the first time in seven years. This was the beginning of a fierce battle between the two Leviathans. In 1937, the Normandie bettered the Queen Mary's record and regained the Blue Riband, but by August 1938 the grand Cunarder had again taken it back from her.
Still, the rivalry continued. But by now, it was only a matter of time before the Queen Mary was given something that the Normandie never had - a running mate of equal size and speed. Cunard was now close to make reality of their old dream, a two-ship weekly express service across the North Atlantic.
The second Queen was, like her older sister, built by John Brown and Co. Ltd. In this new ship, one would find what the Queen Mary lacked. Since the Normandie had broken new grounds with her very decorative interior and exterior design, the Cunard Line had been criticised for making the Queen Mary a ship of the 'old breed'. Her design was clearly similar
The world's largest ship, in preparation for her secret maiden voyage.
to those of the Aquitania and the first Mauretania, and the interiors was not near as daring as those on the Normandie. With this in mind, Cunard decided that the new ship would be somewhat more modern. She would have two funnels instead of three, and the old-fashioned well deck found on the Queen Mary would not be present on her sister. The bow was angled forward to give her a speedier look, not to mention a greater length. Her projected tonnage close to 84,000 tons meant that she would become the largest passenger vessel ever built, a title that she would keep for another 57 years!
As the new ship grew in size on the stocks of her slipway, the political situation in Europe became tenser by the day. As Adolf Hitler and his German Reich became more aggressive, another great conflict was becoming a serious threat to the world. As Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth arrived at the John Brown shipyards to launch the new Queen Elizabeth on September 27th 1938, a great war seemed inevitable. But before smashing the bottle against the bows and sending the new vessel into the water, the queen chose to speak of peace instead of war:
'We proclaim our belief, that by the grace of God, and by Man's patience and good will, order may yet be brought out of confusion, and peace out of turmoil. With that hopeful cry in our heart, we send forth upon her mission this noble ship.'
The launch was a success, and soon afterwards the Queen Elizabeth was towed to her fitting-out wharf in the River Clyde. But with the war coming closer every day, work had to be suspended as many of the nation's navy vessels needed refurbishment.
Then, on September 1st 1939, the first day of war came. Hitler marched into Poland, and thereby made enemies of Great Britain and her allies. As the conflict grew, the Queen Elizabeth lay unfinished and waited for a decision to be made about her future. Many suggestions were made, and one of those quickly dismissed was that she would be sold for scrap. Some proposed to sell her to the United States or convert her into an aircraft carrier, but in the end it was decided that she would be put to best use as a troopship.
But any action had to be taken fast. Being the great ship that she was, the Queen Elizabeth was a prime target for German Luftwaffe-pilots. To have this great ship sunk would have been a serious blow to the allied forces.
However, conversion into a troopship could not be done in the UK, because of the threat of German bombers and saboteurs. The engines of the great liner was installed, and in February 1940, she left her wharf and headed out to open waters. But with what destination? False rumours had been spread
A beautiful aerial view of the Queen Elizabeth steaming down the Hudson.
that Queen Elizabeth would go to Southampton to be fitted out as a trooper, and only the crew of the ship knew that it was not so. Some guessed that she would head for Halifax, but at this stage very few knew of her destination. Once out at sea, Captain John Townley opened his sealed orders that told him to head for New York, which he did at full speed with a crew of only 400. Later that day, a squadron of Nazi bombers were spotted over the Solent, where the Queen Elizabeth would have been travelling if she was going to Southampton. The deception of the enemy had worked.
After a four-day combined maiden voyage and sea trials, the grey-painted Queen Elizabeth arrived in New York harbour, and was moored alongside her sister and the Normandie. For two weeks they lay together, the three largest vessels in the world. But on March 21st, the Queen Mary left New York bound for Sydney, Australia. There she would be transformed into a trooper, capable of carrying 5,000 soldiers.
In the meantime, the Queen Elizabeth remained in New York to be fitted out with some basic equipment such as electric wiring and light fittings. The launch gear that had still been attached to her hull during the dramatic maiden voyage was removed and the bottom of the ship was refurbished as it had been in water for two whole years. After this, she too left for Sydney harbour.
In February 1941, the Queen Elizabeth arrived in Sydney. The conversion into a trooper was soon underway, and when finished the Queen Elizabeth joined the Queen Mary in transporting troops between Sydney and Suez. Unfortunately, this route was in much warmer climate than the two ships were constructed for. With no air-conditioning and very little ventilation, the two Queens were not very comfortable means for the soldiers to be shipped. In these harsh conditions, it was not uncommon that fights broke out among the troops. But by the end of 1941, an event occurred that would put the Queens back on the North Atlantic where they belonged.
On December 7th 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. As the United States entered the war, great carrying capacity was needed to transport their forces. What could be better suited for this than the two mighty Cunarders? The two Queens were sent to America, where their carrying capacity was greatly increased from 5,000 to 15,000 people. The Americans was permitted the two vessels as they thought best, with Great Britain paying the bill. In return, Great Britain was sent aid in the form of American troops.
Throughout the duration of the conflict, the Queens contributed to the war
The Queen Elizabeth's interiors were done in a late Art Deco fashion. This photo shows the First Class Main Foyer.
effort by transporting massive amounts of troops. Each ship usually carried a whole division, with the record set by the Queen Mary on July 25th, 1943 with 16,683 souls on board. During these voyages, the ships were carrying lifeboat accommodations for only 8,000 people. This was a serious matter, but it was also one that had to be overlooked - it was a true case of total war. In November 1942, the Nazis announced in radio that the German U-boat U-704 had torpedoed the Queen Elizabeth and sunk her. Naturally, this was all a propaganda ploy, but on many of these trooping voyages, rumours were circulating that one of the Queens had been sunk. But every time, this was proved to be false when the mighty vessels arrived at their destinations in their grey wartime livery. Soon, they were both nicknamed 'The Grey Ghost'.
Finally, the day of victory came. On May 7th 1945, peace reigned in Europe, and four months later, on September 2nd, the Japanese forces surrendered. By now the merchant vessels of the world had transported a vast amount of people across the globe. The Queens alone had ferried more than two million to the war zone. During 1946, while the Queen Mary was busy shipping war brides and soldiers back to their homes, the Queen Elizabeth was put into dry dock at Southampton. There, 30 tons of paint was used to dress her in the Cunard livery which she had never worn before; Black hull, white superstructure and orange funnels with black tops. Her wartime interiors were ripped out to be replaced with what she was intended for - comfortable and luxurious passenger amenities. On October 16th 1946, the Queen Elizabeth finally set out from Southampton on her maiden voyage as a passenger liner. The crossing was booked solid, and several famous names could be found in the passenger list, for example Russia's foreign ministers Molotov and Vishinsky, travelling to the first session of the new United Nations. Commanding the ship was Commodore James Bisset, who 34 years earlier had been second officer on the Carpathia when she raced to rescue the survivors of the Titanic.
By now Queen Mary was finished with her warbride crossings, and had been put into dry dock to be transformed into the great passenger liner she was supposed to be. The world that emerged after the war was a different one, and the two Queens had been modified to meet it according to the company's new slogan 'Getting there is half the fun'. Ballrooms had been turned into cinematic theatres and new artwork had been incorporated in the interiors. Every space of the ships, it seemed, had been meticulously
A fantastic colour photograph, showing the majesty of Queen Elizabeth.
refurbished and on the Queen Mary, even the officer's quarters were completely renovated. On board the younger Queen, one could find art by many renowned artists such as Bainbridge Copnall, Dennis Dunlop and George Ramon to mention a few. It is also worth noting that artist Norman Wilkinson, who almost 40 years earlier had provided the two paintings 'Approach of the New World' and 'Plymouth Harbour' for the White Star liners Olympic and Titanic, had painted the two works 'Elsinore' and 'Dover Harbour' for the Queen Elizabeth's Promenade Deck smoking room.
During the high season, on July 31st 1947, the Queen Mary left Southampton on her first peacetime commercial crossing. The following day Queen Elizabeth departed from New York harbour and thereby Cunard's old dream of a two-ship weekly transatlantic express service had at last become a reality. Now was a golden time for the old Cunard Line, since they were operating the two greatest ships on the route. The only worthy rival, the Normandie, had been destroyed by a fire in February 1942, and so the two Queens ruled the Atlantic waves alone. Not every arrival was an easy one though, since at times the tugboat were on strike, and docking had to be done without their assistance. Normally, a tug-assisted docking took about 35 minutes, but with no such help, it could take over two hours. Only once did a mishap occur, when the Queen Elizabeth was turning into the slip between piers 90 and 92 in New Your harbour when suddenly a strong wind caught hold of her and pushed her bow against the dockside bending a catwalk beyond recognition.
As the 1940s came to its end and before entering the 1950s, Cunard managed to erase their old rival's name from the company as Cunard White Star ceased to exist on December 31st 1949, and emerged as Cunard Steam Ship Co. Ltd. And so the only traces left of the once proud White Star Line were the Britannic and the Georgic, both in Cunard service, but still in White Star livery.
The new decade continued to be a profitable one for the Cunard Line and their two Queens, and at first it seemed as if the next decade would be equally successful. But in 1952, the brand new United States, which took the Blue Riband from the Mary on her maiden voyage, gave them healthy competition. But that was equal competition. By the end of the 1950s, the technology in air travel completely changed the situation. In 1954, one million people had crossed the Atlantic by sea and some 600,000 by air. When asked if this was worrying, a director of the Cunard Line responded 'Flying is but a fad. There will always be passengers to fill ships like the Queens'. But only three years later, the two ways of travel had one million passengers each and by 1961 the tables had turned completely with 750,000 going by ship and two million by plane. The world had evolved swiftly after the war, and with the demand of speed and economy, the airlines
The former Cunard Queen, now repainted white and renamed Seawise University. (Photo by and courtesy of Stephen Berry)
offered a crossing in a few hours that by sea took between three of five days, thereby making airway the way to travel. As the situation worsened, the words of the confident Cunard director was proven wrong when on one crossing the Queen Elizabeth carried only 200 passengers and 1,200 crew. An intolerable situation indeed.
In 1965, the Cunard Line decided to build a new ship to replace the now thirty year-old Queen Mary. The new ship was at first planned to be one of traditional design and divided into three classes, but as this would have been financial suicide, Cunard decided to build a ship with almost no class distinction that would serve on the North Atlantic during the summer months and spend the off-season cruising in warmer waters. She would be the QE2. The Queen Elizabeth was dry docked and given a major refit. She was given a new lido deck and an outdoor swimming pool on the stern - all to make her capable of cruising arrangements. She was also fitted with complete air conditioning for the same reason. After the refit she began serving in her new role, as a combined transatlantic liner and cruise ship. But even in this guise she could not make profits. And in addition, the now ageing Queen Elizabeth was not suitable as a running mate to the new QE2. Therefore, Cunard Line revised their plans for the two old Queens. The Queen Mary would be retired in 1967, and her younger sister would stay in service for another year, while the new Queen Elizabeth 2 was being built.
On October 31st 1967, Queen Mary left Southampton on her 516th and last voyage. Sold to the city of Long Beach, California for $3,400,000, she would be turned into a dockside hotel. She arrived at her final port of call on December 9th, and was officially removed from the British registry and handed over to her new owners two days later. A year later, in October 1968, the time had come for the Queen Elizabeth to leave the Cunard fleet, when she left New York harbour dressed in flags. She had been sold for $7,750,000 for use as a floating hotel and museum in the Port Everglades, Florida. But as such she would never be used.
As her new owners ran into financial difficulties, the Queen Elizabeth was not given enough attendance and started to suffer from the harsh climate. Two years later, when her owners could see no other way out, she was auctioned off to the highest bidder, namely the Taiwanese shipping tycoon C. Y. Tung. He wanted to turn her into a floating university that would tour the world but before he could do so, the ship had to be laid up in Florida to have her engines repaired, as they had been damaged when water had entered the deteriorating hull. Finally, she left Florida bound for Hong Kong, but during the voyage she had much problems with her machinery.
Once in Hong Kong, work started on turning her into a floating university. Renamed Seawise University, the old Queen Elizabeth was stripped down and then built back up. She was given new equipment in order to bring her up to modern safety standards, and her interior was given a new, more oriental look. Soon, she would set out on her maiden voyage in this new
The tragic demise of the Queen Elizabeth. Note the collapsed bridge. (Stephen Berry collection)
guise.
But on January 9th 1972, five mysterious fires broke out through the ship. The fire protection system was still not complete, and there was not much the workers could do to fight the raging blaze. The great superstructure eventually melted in the extreme heat and finally caved in on itself. Fireboats arrived at the scene and started pumping water onto the burning hulk, but as the water filled the vessel, she began leaning over on her starboard side. As with the Normandie thirty years earlier, the sheer weight of the water had now spelled doom on the ship.
As night fell over the now dying vessel, she was listing at a greater angle. By the next morning, she had rolled over and was now lying on her side on the bottom of the harbour. To salvage the devastated vessel would not be much use, and it was decided that she would be sold for scrap. But before that she would stand in the spotlights one last time. In 1974, Queen Elizabeth briefly appeared in the James Bond-movie 'The Man with the Golden Gun', where she served as the secret Hong Kong headquarters of the MI6. Filmed in 1973, the Queen Elizabeth had already been removed from Hong Kong harbour by a Japanese scrapping firm at the time of the film's premiere in late 1974.
So ended the glorious days of the Queen Elizabeth, the largest passenger vessel for 57 years, not surpassed until the arrival of the Carnival cruise ship Destiny at 101,000 tons in 1997.
Queen Elizabeth - Specifications:
Length: 1,031 feet (314.9 m)
Beam: 118 feet (36 m)
Deep draught: 39 feet (11.9 m)
Tonnage: 83,673 gross tons
Engines: Steam turbines turning four propellers.
Service speed: 28.5 knots
Passengers: 2,283 people
The Industrial Revolution had progressed far enough by the 1830's to make the idea of transatlantic communication by means of a fleet of steamships plausible. The desire for dependable delivery of the mails on which imperial communication and commerce depended prompted the government of Her Majesty Queen Victoria to invite interested parties to bid for a contract to provide this service. Samuel Cunard of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the successful contender. His contract to deliver the mail across the Atlantic from Great Britain to North America was signed on May 4, 1839, and originally involved a commitment to provide three steamships of 800 tons and 300 horsepower. Samuel Cunard was a highly successful and enterprising Canadian businessman and one of a group of 12 individuals who directed the affairs of Nova Scotia. Cunard had the reputation for being not only a very astute
businessman but also an individual with exceptional diplomatic ability.
In order to successfully carry out his contract, Cunard solicited the assistance of Robert Napier, an engineering genius who was responsible for creating the engines of some of the best new ships of his day. Cunard also need financial backing and received it from three accomplished businessmen: James Donaldson, George Burns and David Maclver. These five men founded the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, later known as "Cunard Line".
Sir Samuel died April 28th, 1865. In 1981, Sir Samuel Cunard was inducted in ASTA's Travel Hall of Fame in honor of his contribution to developing transatlantic travel
History
Cunard had its beginnings in 1838 when shipping magnate Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, Canada, along with engineer Robert Napier and businessmen James Donaldson, Sir George Burns and David MacIver formed the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. The company successfully bid for the rights to a transatlantic mail shipping contract between England and America - winning this entitled it to use the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) prefix to its vessels' names. The company later changed its name to Cunard Steamships Ltd.
A captain waves aboard a Cunard Line vessel in 1901.In May 1840 the 648 gross ton coastal paddle steamer SS Unicorn, the company's first steamship, made the company's first transatlantic trip. Under the direction of Captain Douglas, she carried 24 passengers, including Edward Cunard (Samuel's son), on a trip lasting 14 days, at an average speed of 8 knots.[1], thereby meeting the contract requirement of a crossing in a fortnight. Regular passenger and cargo service by steamship was inaugurated by the paddle steamer Britannia, the first ship commissioned by the company. On July 4, 1840 she sailed from Liverpool to Halifax, then to Boston, a voyage of 14 days 8 hours.
Cunard faced many competitors from Britain, the United States and Germany, but survived them all. This was mainly due to a great focus on safety. Cunard ships were usually not the largest or the fastest but they earned a reputation for being the most reliable and the safest. The prosperous company eventually absorbed Canadian Northern Steamships Ltd and Cunard's principal competitor, the White Star Line, owners of the ill-fated RMS Titanic and the HMHS Britannic
Between 1914 and 1918 Cunard Line built its european headquarters in Liverpool. The grand Neo-Classical Cunard Building was to be the second of Liverpools' 'Three Graces'. The headquarters were used by Cunard until the 1960s.
For more than a century and a half, Cunard dominated the Atlantic passenger trade and was one of the world's most important companies, with the majority of their liners being built at John Brown's Shipyard, Clydebank, Scotland. Its ships played important roles in the development of the world economy, and also participated in all of Britain's major wars from Crimea to the Falklands War, where Cunard's container ship Atlantic Conveyor was sunk by an Exocet missile.
The line began to decline in the 1950s as speedy air travel began to replace ships as the main transporters of passengers and mail across the Atlantic. Cunard tried to address this by forming BOAC-Cunard Ltd in 1962 with the British Overseas Airways Corporation to operate scheduled air services to North America, the Caribbean and South America. It was dissolved in 1966. In 1983 Cunard took over the luxury cruise line Norwegian American Line, and in 1994 another luxury cruise company, Royal Viking Line.
For much of the late 20th century and the first few years of the 21st the line's only vessel making transatlantic crossings was the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2. From 2004 the "QE2's" service was limited to cruising (mostly from the UK) including and annual world cruise, while the transatlantic route was taken over by the new RMS Queen Mary 2, the first ocean liner to be built in 30 years and the largest passenger ship of any type. In 2006 she lost the size record to the cruise ship Freedom of the Seas, but QM2 remains the largest ocean liner ever built
In 1998, Cunard became one of a number of lines owned by Carnival Corporation, now Carnival Corporation & plc. On January 1, 2005 the business, assets and liabilities of Cunard Line Ltd were transferred to Carnival plc, ending the Cunard name as a business entity - the name still appears on the side of Queen Mary 2 and sails under the Cunard brand, but it is controlled by Princess Cruises in California.
[edit] Ships
The company operated some of the world's most famous liners and cruise ships, including:
RMS Alaunia - launched 9 June 1913, sunk by mine 19 October 1916
RMS Albania - bought 1911, sold 1912
RMS Albania - launched 17 April 1920, sold 1930
RMS Antonia - launched 1921, sold to the Admiralty 1942
RMS Aquitania - launched 1913, scrapped 1950. The only ocean liner to serve in both World Wars.
RMS Ascania - bought 1911, sunk 1918
RMS Ascania - launched 1923, maiden voyage 1925, sold for scrap 1956
RMS Aurania - entered service 1924, sold to the Admiralty 1942
RMS Berengaria - originally SS Imperator of HAPAG, entered service for Cunard 1922, sold for scrap 1938
RMS Britannia - first transatlantic passenger service in 1840
RMS Campania - launched 1892, won Blue Riband, sold 1914
RMS Carinthia - launched 1925, sunk by U-boat in 1940
RMS Carinthia - launched 1955, sold in 1968
RMS Carmania - launched 1905, sold for scrap 1932
RMS Caronia - the "Green Goddess" entered service 1949, sold in 1968
RMS Carpathia - entered service 1903, rescued Titanic survivors in 1912
MS Cunard Countess - entered service 1975, sold 1996
MS Cunard Princess - entered service 1976, sold 1995
RMS Etruria - built 1884, sold for scrap 1910
RMS Franconia
RMS Laconia - entered service 1912, sunk by U-boat in 1917
RMS Laconia - entered service 1922, sunk by U-boat in 1942
RMS Lancastria - entered service 1922 as the Tyrrhenia, sunk by bombing in 1940
RMS Lucania
RMS Lusitania - entered service 1907, sunk by U-boat in 1915
RMS Majestic - entered service 1922
RMS Mauretania - entered service 1907
RMS Mauretania - entered service 1939
RMS Olympic - entered service for Cunard 1934, withdrawn 1935
RMS Parthia
RMS Queen Elizabeth - entered service 1940, retired 1968
RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 - entered service 1969
RMS Queen Mary - entered service 1936, retired 1967
RMS Queen Mary 2 - entered service 2004
MS Queen Victoria - expected to enter service 2007. The ship will not carry the prefix RMS since it will not transport mail.
MS Royal Viking Sun - entered service for Cunard 1994, transferred to Seabourn Cruise Line 1999
MS Sagafjord - entered service for Cunard 1983, sold 1997
RMS Samaria
RMS Saxonia
RMS Scythia
SS Servia
RMS Umbria - launched 1884, Liverpool to New York service
SS Unicorn
MS Vistafjord - entered service for Cunard 1983, renamed MS Caronia 1997, sold 2004
