RMS Queen Elizabeth was a British ocean liner operated by the Cunard Line. Along with her sister , she provided a weekly transatlantic service between Southampton in the United Kingdom and New York City in the United States, via Cherbourg in France.

Built by John Brown and Company at Clydebank, Scotland, as Hull 552, she was launched on 27 September 1938 and named in honour of Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King George VI. Her design was an improvement of that of Queen Mary, resulting in a vessel longer and several thousand tons greater GRT, making her the largest passenger liner ever built for a record 56 years. She entered service in March 1940 as a troopship in the Second World War, and did not make her first commercial voyage as an ocean liner until October 1946.

With the decline in popularity of the transatlantic route, both ships were replaced by the smaller, more economical Queen Elizabeth 2, which made her maiden voyage in 1969. Queen Mary was retired from service on 9 December 1967, and sold to the city of Long Beach, California. Queen Elizabeth was retired after her final crossing to New York, on 8 December 1968. She was moved to Port Everglades, Florida, and converted to a tourist attraction, which opened in February 1969. The business was unsuccessful, and closed in August 1970. Finally, the ship was sold to Hong Kong businessman Tung Chao-yung, who intended to convert her into a floating university cruise ship, Seawise University. In 1972, while she was undergoing refurbishment in Hong Kong harbour, a fire broke out aboard under unexplained circumstances, and the vessel was capsized by the water used to fight the fire. The following year, the wreck was deemed an obstruction to shipping in the area, and in 1974 and 1975 was partially scrapped on site. The remains of her hull were subsequently buried under reclaimed land used to build the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals.

Design and construction

thumb|left|Queen Elizabeth under construction at Clydebank

On 27 May 1936, the day RMS Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage, Cunard's chairman, Sir Percy Bates, informed his ship designers, headed by George Paterson, that it was time to start designing the planned second ship. The official contract between Cunard and government financiers was signed on 6 October 1936.

The new ship improved upon the design of Queen Mary with sufficient changes, including a reduction in the number of boilers to twelve instead of Queen Mary twenty-four, the designers discarded one funnel to increase deck, cargo and passenger space. The two remaining funnels were self-supporting and braced internally to give a cleaner appearance. With the forward well deck omitted, a more refined hull shape was achieved, and a sharper, raked bow was added for a third bow-anchor point. The interiors were designed by a team of artists headed by the architect George Grey Wornum. The staircases, foyers and entrances were constructed by H.H. Martyn & Co. Cunard's plan was for the ship to be launched in September 1938, with fitting-out intended to be completed for her to enter service in the spring of 1940. The liner was then docked for fitting out. ordering the ship to leave Clydeside as soon as possible and "to keep away from the British Isles as long as the order was in force".

Second World War

At the start of the Second World War, it was decided that the Queen Elizabeth was so vital to the war effort that she must not have her movements tracked by German spies in the Clydebank area. An elaborate ruse suggested to any German observers that she would sail to Southampton to complete her fitting-out. Parts were shipped to Southampton, and preparations were made to move the ship into the King George V Graving Dock when she arrived. In mid-March, carrying 8,000 American soldiers, Queen Elizabeth began a voyage from San Francisco to Sydney, Australia. She then carried Australian troops to theatres of operation in Asia and Africa. After 1942, the two Queens were relocated to the North Atlantic for the transportation of American troops to Europe. The commander, Horst Wilhelm Kessler, heard a detonation In reality, one of the torpedoes detonated prematurely and the ship was unharmed.

During her war service, Queen Elizabeth carried more than 750,000 troops, and sailed some . Queen Elizabeths engines were capable of driving her to speeds of over 32 knots. Despite specifications similar to those of Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth never held the Blue Riband, for Cunard White Star chairman Sir Percy Bates asked that the two ships not to compete against each other. On 29 July 1959, she was in a collision with the American freighter American Hunter in foggy conditions in New York Harbor and was holed above the waterline.

thumb|left|In [[New York Harbor approaching Manhattan, 1965]]

thumb|RMS Queen Elizabeth at [[Southampton in 1967]]

Together with Queen Mary and in competition with the American liners and , Queen Elizabeth dominated the transatlantic passenger trade until their fortunes began to decline with the advent of the faster and more economical jet airliner in the late 1950s. However, the strategy did not prove successful, owing to the ship's deep draught, which prevented her from entering various island ports, and high fuel costs. She was also too wide for transiting the Panama Canal, limiting travel to the Pacific.

Cunard retired Queen Mary in 1967 and Queen Elizabeth upon her final Atlantic crossing to New York on 5 November 1968. The vessel was sold at auction in 1970 to Hong Kong tycoon Tung Chao Yung. The fact that Tung had acquired the vessel for $3.5 million, and had insured it for $8 million, led some to speculate that the inferno was part of a fraud to collect on the insurance claim. Others speculated that the fires were the result of a conflict between Tung, a Chinese Nationalist, and Communist-dominated ship construction unions.

The ship rolled on its side from the water sprayed on her by fireboats, then settled on the bottom of Victoria Harbour. The vessel was finally declared a shipping hazard and dismantled for scrap between December 1974 Portions of the hull that were not salvaged, as well as the keel, boilers and engines, remained at the bottom of the harbour, and the area was marked as "Foul" on local sea charts, warning ships not to try to anchor there. It is estimated that around 40–50% of the wreck was still on the seabed. In the late 1990s, the last remains of the wreck were buried during land reclamation for the construction of Container Terminal 9. The position of the wreck is .

After the fire, Tung had one of the liner's anchors and the metal letters "Q" and "E" from the name on the bow placed in front of the office building at Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, California, which had been intended as the headquarters of the Seawise University venture; they later went on display with commemorative plaques in the lobby of Wall Street Plaza (88 Pine Street), New York City. Two of the ship's fire warning system brass plaques were recovered by a dredger, and were displayed at The Aberdeen Boat Club in Hong Kong in an exhibit about the ship. The charred remnants of her last ensign were cut from the flagpole and framed in 1972, and still adorn the wall of the officers' mess of marine police HQ in Hong Kong. Parker Pen Company produced a special edition of 5,000 pens made from material recovered from the wreck, each in a presentation box; today these are highly collectible.

Following the demise of Queen Elizabeth, the largest passenger ship in active service became the 66,343 GRT , which was longer but with less tonnage than the Cunard liner. Queen Elizabeth held the record of largest passenger ship ever built until the 101,353 GT Carnival Destiny (later Carnival Sunshine) was launched in 1996. To date, Queen Elizabeth still holds the record as the largest passenger ship for the longest period of time: 56 years.

<gallery widths=200 heights=160>

File:RMS Queen Elizabeth Southampton.jpg|RMS Queen Elizabeth at Southampton in 1968

File:RMS Queen Elizabeth at Southampton 1967 (4).jpg|Queen Elizabeth docked at Southampton in 1967

File:Postcard Stevens with RMS Queen Elizabeth.jpg|Queen Elizabeth leaving New York during her last voyage, 1968

File:Queen Elizabeth on fire as Seawise University.gif|Seawise University on fire

File:Seawise University wreck.jpg|1972: The wreck of Seawise University, ex-Queen Elizabeth, in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong

File:Seawise University (Queen Elizabeth)-jan1972-gc01.jpg|The wreck of Seawise University after the fire

</gallery>

In fiction

In 1959, the ship made an appearance in the British satirical comedy film The Mouse That Roared, starring Peter Sellers and Jean Seberg. While a troupe of invading men from "Grand Fenwick", a fictional European micro-nation, cross the Atlantic to 'war' with the United States, they meet and pass the far larger Queen Elizabeth, and learn that the port of New York is closed due to an air raid drill.

Ian Fleming set the climax to his 1956 James Bond novel Diamonds Are Forever on Queen Elizabeth. The 1971 film version starring Connery used the P&O liner for the sequence.

The wreck was featured in the 1974 James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun, as a covert headquarters for MI6.

References

Further reading

  • The Great Ocean Liners: Queen Elizabeth
  • RMS Queen Elizabeth story and picture
  • Pathe newsreel of Queen Elizabeth being built

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