On September 26, 2024 90 years ago, the mighty oceanliner QUEEN MARY - built to the order of the Cunard Line - was launched in Clydebank, Scotland, at the John Brown Shipyard.
We commemorate the anniversary with a tableau presenting the history of the ship in our exhibition "Oceanliners".
During the period between the two world wars, most nations were at a shortage of the great ocean liners. On the one hand, an extremely large number of ships were lost in the unrestricted submartine warfare, and on the other hand, due to the post-war shortage of raw materials and capital, as well as poor working conditions in shipyards, their replacement progressed much more slowly than in that pre-war period, which had promised uninterrupted development of the transatlantic traffic. In 1914, the world's 16 largest shipping nations had a total of 8,445 ships larger than 1,600 tons (suitable for ocean crossings) and 14,282 ships smaller than 1,600 tons - that is, a total of 22,727 ships - in operation, with a total of 42,416,000 tons. Of the 16 countries, 9 participated as belligerents, and only 7 remained neutral in the First World War, in which 375 German submarines sank a total of 7,671 ships with a displacement of 15,716,651 tons. This is about a 40% (37%) loss. The situation slowly began to change only in the second half of the 1920s:
1926-1928.: Sir Percy Bates, chairman of the British Cunard Line, raises the idea of building 2 new larger and faster ships to replace the company’s 3 obsolete ocean liners - MAURETANIA, AQUITANIA and BERENGERIA.
During this period, rival shipping companies will also enter with new ships into the North Atlantic rivalry. ROMA (1926) and AUGUSTUS (1928) are built in Italy. The pair of modern turbine steamers of Germany, the BREMEN and the EUROPA (1928) enters in service - BREMEN also breaks MAURETANIA's 20-year speed record, immediately on her first voyage. In France, the ILE de FRANCE (1926) is completed and the design of NORMANDIE (1928) is started. The British competitor White Star Line is laying the keel of OCEANIC III. (1928), which was planned to be the first ocean liner to exceed 300 m in length. In light of this international development, the design of the two new Cunarders capable of maintaining a weekly express service in the North Atlantic begins.
Size and speed are in the focus of the development (size increases comfort, as the larger the ship, the less it is affected by the elements, while the speed shortens the voyage). Switching to oil burning will reduce staying in ports to 18 hours (due to the shorter refuelling periode). Thus, by reducing the crossing time to 5 days, the work of the previous 3 ships can now be performed by 2. Cunard prescribed 112 hours of crossing time for new vessels (which required an average speed of 27.61-28.94 knots on different lengths of route used according to the season) and 11 months of continuous operation without repair and boiler cleaning, which required exceptional reliability.
Fig. 1: The process of designing the QUEEN MARY: above, the first preliminary design of the then-unnamed ship - for the time being called "super AQUITANIA" - after the latest ocean liner of the Cunard company, from 1928. In the middle is the second preliminary design from 1930 (compared to the first, with a larger superstructure, cruiser stern, and glass-enclosed promenades). And below is the final design (with funnels of decreasing height towards the stern and on the "B" deck without the promenade still visible from the third funnel towards the stern in the previous designs).
1930.05.28.: Ordering the first ship, the QUEEN MARY. Signalling to the Southern Railway Co. that construction of a new dry dock is necessary in Southampton (1,075 feet long, 124 feet wide and 40 feet deep) until 1933, for repair works of the two new vessels. According to the railway company, it is impossible to start construction of this size for another 8-10 years, and the construction of the planned dry dock will take 4-5 years. Sir Percy Bates replied, "No dry dock, no ship."
1931.01.01.: Agreement with the French and US authorities on the reception of new vessels. The French are offering Cherbourg, which has deeper waters and a larger port area, instead of Le Havre (this means a journey of 70 km and 30 minutes longer for passengers departing from Paris). Cunard leases a 1,000-foot-long pier from the New York Harbor Authority for £ 48,000 a year.
1931.12.11.: During the Great Depression, Cunard made a loss for the first time in many years. Construction of QUEEN MARY is suspended. The UK government is offering a loan to Cunard on the condition that it merges with the White Star Line, as the government says it is not desirable if two major UK shipping companies challenging each other in the North Atlantic trade, while there is a growing international competition.
1933.07.26.: Opening of the KING GEORGE V dry dock in Southampton. Final dimensions of the dock: 1,200-foot-long, 135-foot-wide, 48-foot-deep . 180,000 tons of water from the dock can be drained in 4 hours.
1934.03.07.: Cunard and White Star Line will sell vessels of their Atlantic fleets to the new Cunard-White Star Line shipping company. In return for the merger, the UK government will provide £ 3 million to complete QUEEN MARY and £ 5 million to build QUEEN ELIZABETH, in addition to providing an additional £ 1.5 million in working capital to the new company.
1934.09.26.: Launch of the R.M.S. QUEEN MARY.
Fig. 2.: The QUEEN MARY tableau of our traveling exhibition "Oceanliners". (archive images: Péter Könczöl, text and graphic design by Dr. Tamás Balogh).
The future of the ocean liner has become uncertain several times since her withdrawal from active service. In 1970, with the involvement of the French marine explorer Jacques Ives Cousteau, they originally tried to create a spectacular museum presenting the wildlife of the deep sea on the site in her former boiler rooms from which all the boilers were dismantled, but the idea failed within two years due to the mass death of the fish introduced in the aquariums (however, it caused irreparable damage to the ship's power plant). Between 2006 and 2009, the condition of the underwater parts of the hull caused concern. And most recently - between 2016 and 2023 - the general neglect of the ship, which suffered from many changes of operators and a lack of sufficiently thought business concept, put the giant - which represents cultural heritage with outstanding universal value for the mankind - in danger. In 2016, the cost of the most necessary interventions to prevent the occurrence of an irreversibly declining state was estimated at 300 million dollars. Until 2018, 23 million dollars were spent primarily on fire protection works. In 2022, among the ship's 22 lifeboats (15 original and 7 from other ships), 11 lifeboats (4 original and 7 from other ships) deemed to be in the worst and most dangerous condition were destroyed due to non-governmental organizations planned to be involved in the preservation of the heritage could not fulfill the strict artefact management conditions prescribed by the owner municipality. At the same time, almost another 4 million dollars were spent on the renovation of the ship's plumbing and railing system, the repair of the original interior floor coverings (linoleum and carpets), and the improvement of the comfort equipment of the passenger spaces (WiFi, etc.). The ship, which reopened on April 1, 2023, has since generated a net profit of $3.5 million, which will hopefully be reinvested into the continued preservation of the ship, thus avoiding the sad end waiting for the s.s. UNITED STATES, which is the last Mohican of transatlantic passenger traffic.
We are confident that the QUEEN MARY will continue to satisfy the curiosity of those interested in the golden age of transoceanic passenger transport in a dignified condition for a long time to come and will continue to present visitors on board with unique experiences.
Fig. 3.: Profile of the RMS QUEEN MARY (drawing: Dr. Tamás Balogh).This profile is part of next book of Dr. Tamás Balogh, the "Liners - great pictorial encyclopedia of giant steamships" featuring the history of ocean-going passenger steamers from 1838 to 2003. More info - synopsis, some sample pages, an interview and a report - here.
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