THE SCOTTISH ADVENTURES OF A CRUISE SHIP ADDICT

(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 transatlanti...

When Samuel Cunard's little 1,100 ton steamship Britannia chugged her way out of Liverpool towards the new world in 1840, it was amazing to think that she sparked a competition which is still around today. The race had started to build the biggest and fastest ships across the atlantic. These ocean greyhounds would attract the creme of society who would want the kudos of travelling on the newest and biggest ships. Immigrants were also attracted by the size and speed because this meant they could start their new lives faster and it was thought that the largest ships were also the safest! In fact, travellers in the early days of steamships were very influenced by funnel size - the more funnels a ship had the more safer and sophisticated it was! A few ships even had 'dummy' funnels in order to attract more passengers. Question: can you name all 13 four-funnelled ships? In 1840, the passenger ship was 1,100 tons (Britannia), by 1911, it was 45,000 tons (Olympic), by 1937, 79,200...