RMS Queen Mary at Long Beach, California
RMS Queen Mary is a retired ocean liner that sailed primarily in the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line (known as Cunard-White Star when the vessel entered service). Built by John Brown & Company inClydebank, Scotland, Queen Mary along with her running mate, the RMSQueen Elizabeth, were built as part of Cunard's planned two-ship weekly express service between Southampton, Cherbourg, and New York City. The two ships were a British response to the superliners built by German and French companies in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Queen Mary was the flagship of the Cunard Line from May 1936 until October 1946 when she was replaced by Queen Elizabeth. The vessel also held the Blue Riband from 1936 to 1937 and then from 1938 to 1952 when she was beaten by the new SSUnited States.
Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on 27 May 1936 and captured theBlue Riband in August of that year; she lost the title to the SS Normandie in 1937 and recaptured it in 1938. With the outbreak of World War II, she was converted into a troopship and ferried Allied soldiers for the duration of the war. Following the war, Queen Mary was refitted for passenger service and along with Queen Elizabeth commenced the two-ship transatlantic passenger service that the two ships were initially built for. The two ships dominated the transatlantic passenger transportation market until the dawn of the jet age in the late 1950s. By the mid-1960s the ship was ageing and though still among the most popular transatlantic liners, was operating at a loss.
After several years of decreased profits for Cunard Line, Queen Mary was officially retired from service in 1967. The ship left Southampton for the last time on 31 October 1967 and sailed to the port of Long Beach, California, United States, where she remains permanently moored. Much of the machinery including two of the four engines, three of the four propellers, and all of the boilers were removed, and the ship now serves as a tourist attraction featuring restaurants, a museum, and hotel. The ship is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Construction and naming
With Germany launching Bremen and Europa into service, Britain did not want to be left behind in the shipbuilding race. White Star Line began construction on their 60,000 ton Oceanic in 1928, while Cunard planned a 75,000 ton unnamed ship of their own.
Construction on the ship, then known only as "Hull Number 534",[2] began in December 1930 on theRiver Clyde by the John Brown & Company Shipbuilding and Engineering shipyard at Clydebank in Scotland. Work was halted in December 1931 due to the Great Depression and Cunard applied to the British Government for a loan to complete 534. The loan was granted, with enough money to complete Queen Mary and to build a running mate, Hull No. 552 which became Queen Elizabeth. One condition of the loan was that Cunard would merge with the White Star Line, which was Cunard's chief British rival at the time and which had already been forced by the depression to cancel construction on its Oceanic. Both lines agreed and the merger was completed on 10 May 1934. Work on Queen Mary resumed immediately and she was launched on 26 September 1934. Completion ultimately took 3½ years and cost 3½ million pounds sterling.[3] Much of the ship's interior was designed and constructed by the Bromsgrove Guild.[4]
The ship was named after Queen Mary, the consort of King George V. Until her launch the name she was to be given was kept a closely guarded secret. Legend has it that Cunard intended to name the ship Victoria, in keeping with company tradition of giving its ships names ending in "ia", but when company representatives asked the king's permission to name the ocean liner after Britain's "greatest queen", he said his wife, Queen Mary, would be delighted.[5] And so, the legend goes, the delegation had of course no other choice but to report that No. 534 would be called RMS Queen Mary.[5] This story was denied by company officials, and traditionally the names of sovereigns have only been used for capital ships of the Royal Navy. Some support for the story was provided by Washington Posteditor Felix Morley, who sailed as a guest of the Cunard Line on the 1936 maiden voyage of Queen Mary. In his 1979 autobiography, For the Record, Morley wrote that he was placed at table with SirPercy Bates, chairman of the Cunard Line. Bates told him the story of the naming of the ship "on condition you won't print it during my lifetime." The name Queen Mary could also have been decided upon as a compromise between Cunard and the White Star Line, as both lines had tradition of using names either ending in "ic" with White Star and "ia" with Cunard.[5]
Queen Mary sailed with a shock proof compass that was one of the largest magnetic compasses in the world.
History (1934–1939)
Queen Mary 1936
There was already a Clyde turbine steamer named Queen Mary, so Cunard White Star reached agreement with the owners that the existing steamer would be renamed TS Queen Mary II, and in 1934 the new liner was launched by Queen Mary as RMS Queen Mary. On her way down the slipway, Queen Mary was slowed by eighteen drag chains, which checked the liner's progress into the Clyde, a portion of which had been widened to accommodate the launch.[7]
When she sailed on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England on 27 May 1936, she was commanded by Sir Edgar T. Britten, who had been the master designate for Cunard White Star whilst the ship was under construction at the John Brown shipyard. Queen Mary had a gross tonnage (GT) of 80,774 tons;[8] her rival, Normandie, which originally grossed 79,280 tonnes, had been modified the preceding winter to increase her size to 83,243 GT (an enclosed tourist lounge was built on the aft boat deck on the area where the game court was), and therefore kept the title of the largest ocean liner.[9] Queen Mary sailed at high speeds for most of her maiden voyage to New York until heavy fog forced a reduction of speed on the final day of the crossing.
Queen Mary's design was criticised for being too traditional, especially when theNormandie's hull was revolutionary with a clipper shaped, streamlined bow. Except for her cruiser stern, she seemed to be an enlarged version of her Cunard predecessors from the preWorld War I era. Her interior design, while mostly Art Deco, seemed restrained and conservative when compared to the ultramodern French liner. However, Queen Mary proved to be the more popular vessel than its larger rival, in terms of passengers carried.[10][11]
In August 1936, Queen Mary captured the Blue Riband from Normandie, with average speeds of 30.14 knots (55.82 km/h) westbound and 30.63 knots (56.73 km/h) eastbound. Normandiewas refitted with a new set of propellers in 1937 and reclaimed the honour, but in 1938Queen Mary took back the Blue Riband in both directions with average speeds of 30.99 knots (57.39 km/h) westbound and 31.69 knots (58.69 km/h) eastbound, records which stood until lost to SS United States in 1952.
Interior
This room could actually accomodate all of the ship's passengers at once. Among facilities available on board Queen Mary, the liner featured two indoor swimming pools, beauty salons, libraries, and children's nurseries for all three classes, a music studio and lecture hall, telephone connectivity to anywhere in the world, outdoor paddle tennis courts, and dog kennels. This room is the main dining room (grand salon), which spanned three stories in height and was anchored by wide columns. The cabin class swimming pool facility also spanned over two decks in height. She was also the first ocean liner to be equipped with its own Jewish prayer room — part of a policy to show that British shipping lines avoided the racism evident at that time in Nazi Germany.[12]
The main dining room featured a large map of the transatlantic crossing, with twin tracks symbolising the winter/spring route (further south to avoid icebergs) and the summer/autumn route. During each crossing, a motorised model of Queen Mary would indicate the vessel's progress en route.
The main dining room, aka "the Grand Salon" mural on Queen Mary, on which a crystal model tracked the ship's progress.
As an alternative to the main dining room, the Queen Mary featured a separate first-class only Verandah Grill on the Sun Deck at the upper aft of the ship. The Verandah Grill was an exclusive à la carte restaurant with a capacity of approximately eighty passengers, and was converted to the Starlight Club at night. Irish writer and broadcaster Brian Cleeve spent several months as a commis waiter on the ship in 1938, after he ran away from school.[13]Also on board was the Observation Bar, an Art Deco styled lounge, with wide ocean views.
Woods from different regions of the British Empire were used in her public rooms and staterooms. Accommodation ranged from fully equipped, luxurious first class staterooms to modest and cramped third class cabins. Artists commissioned by Cunard in 1933 for works of art in the interior include Edward Wadsworth and A. Duncan Carse.
main dining room on Queen Mary, now known as the "Grand Salon."
World War II
Arriving in New York Harbor, 20 June 1945, with thousands of U.S. troops — note the prominent degaussing coil running around the outer hull
In late August 1939, Queen Mary was on a return run from New York to Southampton. The international situation led to her being escorted by the battlecruiser HMS Hood. She arrived safely, and set out again for New York on 1 September. By the time she arrived, the Second World War had started and she was ordered to remain in port until further notice alongsideNormandie. In 1940 Queen Mary and Normandie were joined in New York by Queen Mary's new running mate Queen Elizabeth, fresh from her secret dash from Clydebank. The three largest liners in the world sat idle for some time until the Allied commanders decided that all three ships could be used as troopships (Normandie was destroyed by fire during her troopship conversion). Queen Mary left New York for Sydney, where she, along with several other liners, was converted into a troopship to carry Australian and New Zealand soldiers to the United Kingdom.
The forward superstructure on theQueen Mary, shown here in Long Beach, shares both Cunard and White Star design lineage. The curved façade resembles Cunard's Lusitania and Mauretania, while the enclosed bridge wing cabs evoke White Star's Olympic and Titanic. The Sun Deck windows were enlarged, and an anti-aircraft gun placed on display astride the foremast, in Long Beach.
In the conversion, her hull, superstructure and funnels were painted navy grey. As a result of her new colour and in combination with her great speed, she became known as the "Grey Ghost." To protect against magnetic mines, adegaussing coil was fitted around the outside of the hull. Inside, stateroom furniture and decoration were removed and replaced with triple-tiered wooden bunks (which were later replaced by standee bunks). Six miles of carpet, 220 cases of china, crystal and silver service, tapestries and paintings were removed and stored in warehouses for the duration of the war. The woodwork in the staterooms, the first-class dining room and other public areas was covered with leather. Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were the largest and fastest troopships involved in the war, often carrying as many as 15,000 men in a single voyage, and often travelling out of convoy and without escort. Their high speed made it difficult for U boatsto catch them.
On 2 October 1942, Queen Mary accidentally sank one of her escort ships, slicing through the light cruiser HMS Curacoa off the Irish coast with a loss of 239 lives. Queen Mary was carrying thousands of American troops of the 29th Infantry Division[15] to join the Allied forces in Europe.[16] Due to the risk of U-boat attacks, Queen Mary was under orders not to stop under any circumstances and steamed onward with a fractured stem. Some sources claim that hours later, the convoy's lead escort returned to rescue 99 survivors from Curacoa's crew of 338, including her captain John W. Boutwood.[17][18][19] This claim is, however contradicted by the liner's then Staff Captain (and later Cunard Commodore) Harry Grattidge, who records that Queen Mary's Captain immediately ordered the accompanying destroyers to look for survivors within moments of theCuracoa's sinking.[20]
In December 1942, Queen Mary was carrying 16,082 American troops from New York to Great Britain, a standing record for the most passengers ever transported on one vessel.[21] While 700 miles (1,100 km) from Scotland during a gale, she was suddenly hit broadside by a rogue wave that may have reached a height of 28 metres (92 ft). An account of this crossing can be found in Walter Ford Carter's book, No Greater Sacrifice, No Greater Love. Carter's father, Dr. Norval Carter, part of the 110th Station Hospital on board at the time, wrote that at one point Queen Mary "damned near capsized... One moment the top deck was at its usual height and then, swoom! Down, over, and forward she would pitch." It was calculated later that the ship tilted 52 degrees, and would have capsized had she rolled another 3 degrees.[22] The incident inspired Paul Gallico to write his story, The Poseidon Adventure, which was later made into a film by the same name, in which Queen Mary depicted SS Poseidon.
During the war, Queen Mary carried British Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic for meetings with fellow Allied forces officials on several occasions. He would be listed on the passenger manifest as "Colonel Warden",[23] and he insisted that the lifeboat assigned to him be fitted with a .303 machine gun so that he could "resist capture at all costs".
After World War II
Queen Mary in open seas during the 1950s
From September 1946 to July 1947, Queen Mary was refitted for passenger service, adding air conditioning and upgrading her berth configuration to 711 first class, 707 cabin class and 577 tourist class passengers.[24] Following refit, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabethdominated the transatlantic passenger trade as Cunard White Star's two-ship weekly express service through the latter half of the 1940s and well into the 1950s. They proved highly profitable for Cunard, but in 1958 the first transatlantic flight by a jet began a completely new era of competition for the Cunard Queens. On some voyages, winters especially, Queen Mary sailed into harbour with more crew than passengers, though both she and her running mate Queen Elizabeth still averaged over 1000 passengers per crossing into the middle 1960s.[25]
By 1965, the entire Cunard fleet was operating at a loss. Hoping to continue financing their still under construction Queen Elizabeth 2, Cunard mortgaged the majority of the fleet. Finally, under a combination of age, lack of public interest, inefficiency in a new market, and the damaging after effects of the national seamen's strike, Cunard announced that both Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth would be retired from service and were to be sold off. Many offers were submitted, and Long Beach, California beat the Japanese scrap merchants. Queen Mary was retired from service in 1967, while running mate Queen Elizabeth was withdrawn in 1968. RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 took over the transatlantic route in 1969.
Queen Mary in Long Beach
Queen Mary from the Northern side of Long Beach harbour
After her retirement in 1967, she steamed to Long Beach, California, where she is permanently moored as a tourist attraction, hotel, museum, and event facility. From 1983 to 1993, Queen Mary was accompanied by Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose, which was located in a large dome nearby (the dome is now used by Carnival Cruise Lines as a ship terminal, and formerly as a soundstage).[26]
The Clint Eastwood movie Blood Work was filmed opposite the ship, which can be seen in the background in one scene.
Since drilling had started for oil in Long Beach Harbor, some of the revenue had been set aside in the "Tidelands Oil Fund." Some of this money was allocated in 1958 for the future purchase of a maritime museum for Long Beach.[27]
Conversion
Queen Mary from the stern
When Queen Mary was bought by Long Beach, the new owners decided not to preserve her as an ocean liner. It had been decided to clear almost every area of the ship below "C" deck (called "R" deck after 1950, in order to lessen passenger confusion, as the restaurants were located on "R" deck) to make way for the museum. This would increase museum space to 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2). It required removal of all the boiler rooms, the forward engine room, both turbo generator rooms, the ship stabilisers and the water softening plant. The ship's now empty fuel tanks were then filled with local mud which would keep the ship's centre of gravity and draft at the correct levels, as these critical factors had been affected by the removal of all various components and structure. Only the aft engine room and "shaft alley", at the stern of the ship, would be spared. Remaining space would be used for storage or office space. One problem that arose during the conversion was a dispute between land-based and maritime unions over conversion jobs. The United States Coast Guard had final say; Queen Mary was deemed a building, since most of her propellers had been removed and her machinery gutted. The ship was also repainted with its red water level paint at a slightly higher level than previously. During the conversion, the funnels were removed as it was the only practical way to lift out the scrap materials from the engine and boiler rooms. It was subsequently found that the funnels were held together with 101 coats of paint, and they had to be replaced with replicas.
With all of the lower decks nearly gutted from R deck and down, Diners Club, the initial lessee of the ship, was to convert the remainder of the vessel into a hotel. Diners Club Queen Mary dissolved and vacated the ship in 1970 after their parent company, Diners Club International, was sold, and a change in corporate direction was mandated amidst the conversion process. Specialty Restaurants, a Los Angeles-based company that focused on theme based restaurants, took over as master lessee the following year.
During this conversion, the plan was to convert most of her first and second class cabins on A and B decks only into hotel rooms, and convert the main lounges and dining rooms into banquet spaces. On Promenade Deck, the starboard promenade deck would be enclosed to feature an upscale restaurant and cafe called Lord Nelson's and Lady Hamilton's themed like early 19th century sailing ships. The famed and elegant Observation Bar was redecorated as a western themed bar.
The smaller first class public rooms, such as the Drawing Room, Library, Lecture Room and the Music studio, would be stripped of most of their fittings and converted to commercial use, heavily expanding the retail presence on the ship. Two more shopping malls were built on the Sun Deck in separate spaces previously used for first class cabins and engineers' quarters.
A post war feature of the ship, the first class cinema, was removed for kitchen space for the new Promenade deck dining venues. The first class lounge and smoking room were reconfigured and converted into banquet space, while the second class smoking room was subdivided into a wedding chapel and office space. On Sun Deck, the elegant Verandah Grill would be gutted and converted into a fast food eatery, while a new upscale dining venue was created directly above it on Sports Deck in space once used for crew quarters. The second class lounges were expanded to the sides of the ship and used for banqueting. On R deck, the first class dining room was reconfigured and subdivided into two banquet venues, the Royal Salon and the Windsor Room. The second class dining room was subdivided into kitchen storage and a crew mess hall, while the third class dining room was initially used as storage and crew space. Also on R deck, the first class Turkish bath complex, the 1930s equivalent to a spa, was removed. The second class pool was removed and its space initially used for office space, while the first class swimming pool was used for hotel guests. Combined with modern safety codes and the structural soundness of the area directly below, the swimming pool is no longer in use. No crew cabins remain intact aboard the ship today.
Queen Mary as a tourist attraction
Hotel Queen Mary with permanent boarding gangways
On 8 May 1971, Queen Mary opened its doors to tourists. Initially, only portions of the ship were open to the public as Specialty Restaurants had yet to open its dining venues or the hotel. As a result, the ship was only open on weekends. In December 1971, Jacques Cousteau's Museum of the Sea opened, with only a quarter of the planned exhibits built. Within the decade, Cousteau's museum closed due to low ticket sales and the deaths of many of the fish that were housed in the museum. In November 1972, the hotel opened its initial 150 guest rooms. Hyatt operated the hotel from 1974 to 1980, when the Jack Wrather Corporation signed a 66-year lease with the city of Long Beach to operate the entire property. Wrather was taken over by the Walt Disney Company in 1988. Wrather owned theDisneyland Hotel, which Disney had been trying to buy for 30 years; Queen Mary was thus an afterthought and was never marketed as a Disney property.
Through the late eighties and early nineties,Queen Mary continued to struggle financially. During the Disney years, Disney planned to develop a theme park on the remaining land. This theme park eventually opened a decade later in Japan as DisneySea, with a recreated ocean liner resembling Queen Mary as its centrepiece. Hotel Queen Mary closed in 1992 when Disney gave up the lease on the ship to focus on what would become Disney California Adventure Park. The tourist attraction remained open for another two months, but by the end of 1992, Queen Mary completely closed its doors to tourists and visitors.
In February 1993, under the direction of President and C.E.O. Joseph F. Prevratil, RMS Foundation, Inc began a five-year lease with the city of Long Beach to act as the operators of the property. Later that month, the tourist attraction reopened completely, while the hotel reopened in March. In 1995, RMS's lease was extended to twenty years while the extent of the lease was reduced to simply operation of the ship itself. A new company, Queen's Seaport Development, Inc. (QSDI), came into existence in 1995 controlling the real estate adjacent to the vessel. In 1998, the City of Long Beach extended the QSDI lease to 66 years.
In 2005, QSDI sought Chapter 11 protection due to a rent credit dispute with the City. In 2006, the bankruptcy court requested bids from parties interested in taking over the lease from QSDI. The minimum required opening bid was $41M. The operation of the ship, by RMS, remained independent of the bankruptcy. In Summer 2007, Queen Mary's lease was sold to a group named "Save the Queen" managed by Hostmark Hospitality Group, who planned to develop the land adjacent to Queen Mary, and upgrade, renovate, and restore the ship. During the time of their management, staterooms were updated with iPod docking stations and flatscreen TVs and the ship's three funnels as well as the waterline area were repainted their original Cunard Red color. The portside Promenade Deck's planking was restored and refinished. Many lifeboats were repaired and patched, and the ship's kitchens were renovated with new equipment.
In 2004, Queen Mary and Stargazer Productions added Tibbies Great American Cabaret to the space previously occupied by the ship's bank and wireless telegraph room. Stargazer Productions and Queen Mary transformed the space into a working dinner theatre complete with stage, lights, sound, and scullery.[28]
In late September 2009, management of Queen Mary was taken over by Delaware North Companies, who plan to continue restoration, and renovation of the ship and its property, and work to revitalise and enhance the ship.[29]
In April 2011, The City Of Long Beach was informed that Delaware North was no longer managing the Queen Mary. Garrison Investment Group[30] (the current owner of the Queen Mary) said this decision was purely business. Delaware North still manages the Scorpion, a Soviet submarine that has been a separate attraction next to the Queen Mary for the last decade.[31]
Evolution Hospitality, LLC. assumed operational control of the Queen Mary on 23 September 2011, with Garrison Investments leasing the Queen Mary.
Meeting of the Queens
On 23 February 2006, RMS Queen Mary 2 saluted her predecessor as she made her port of call in Los Angeles Harbor, while on a cruise to Mexico.
Ship's horn
The salute was carried out with Queen Mary replying with her one working air horn in response to Queen Mary 2 sounding her combination of two brand new horns and an original 1934 Queen Mary horn (on loan from the City of Long Beach).[36] Queen Maryoriginally had three whistles tuned to 55 Hz, a frequency chosen because it was low enough that the extremely loud sound of it would not be painful to human ears.[37] Modern IMO regulations specify ships' horn frequencies to be in the range 70–200 Hz for vessels that are over 200 metres (660 ft) in length.[38] Traditionally, the lower the frequency, the larger the ship. Queen Mary 2, being 345 metres (1,132 ft) long, was given the lowest possible frequency (70 Hz) for her regulation whistles, in addition to the refurbished 55 Hz whistle on permanent loan. 55 Hz is the lower bass "A" note found an octave up from the lowest note of a piano keyboard. The air-driven Tyfonwhistle can be heard at least ten miles (16 km) away.
W6RO
Queen Mary's wireless radio room
Queen Mary's original, professionally manned wireless radio room was removed once the ship arrived in Long Beach. In its place, an amateur radio room was created one deck above the original radio reception room with some of the discarded original radio equipment used for display purposes. The amateur radio station with the call sign W6RO ("Whiskey Six Romeo Oscar") relies on volunteers from a local amateur radio club. They are present most of the time the ship is open to the public, and the radios can also be used by other licensed amateur radio operators.[40][41][42]
In honour of his over forty years of dedication to W6RO and Queen Mary, in November 2007 the Queen Mary Wireless Room was renamed The Nate Brightman Radio Room. This was announced on 28 October 2007, at Mr. Brightman's 90th birthday party by Joseph Prevratil, Former President and CEO of the Queen Mary.
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