RMS Queen Elizabeth

(Copyright: Ships Monthly)

As my newest 'book' comes out - World of Ships, Queen Elizabeth - I reflect on the life of this great liner.

As I say in the World of Ships Publication, when I started to write about the QE, I thought I'd have nothing to say, but actually she is a fascinating ship with a turbulent history. I grew to love her!

The idea of two monster ships was conceived in 1926, and came to fruition in the 1930s, when the keel of the Queen Mary was laid at John Browns, Clydebank, Scotland. Soon after, work began on the Queen Elizabeth, but her fitting out was stopped with the onset of World War 2. She had to be moved from Clydebank, and the 'Unruffled Elizabethans' took her out to New York where she joined her sister, Queen Mary, and her rival, the utterly jaw-droopingly gorgeous Normandie.

(J&C McCutcheon collection)

From there, she was refitted for carrying more troops and did the Australia/Middle East run, then onto the transatlantic run.

(J&C McCutcheon collection

After the war, she finally became a transatlantic liner. The jets and strikes made liners like the Mary and Elizabeth unviable. The Elizabeth was sold in the late 1960s. She then lived a nomadic existence, settling in Miami for a time, then onto Hong Kong, to become the floating Seawise University. After a fire in 1972, she lay on her side, a burnt-out hulk. She was in James Bonds 'The Man with the Golden Gun'.

For a copy and more in-depth reading, contact Ships Monthly or your local newsagent.

Queen Elizabeth
World of Ships
ISBN: 9 772399 912004 02
£6.95