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Queen Mary - Cunard White Star Line

Queen Mary History

The British shipping industry had always been part of the absolute top in the world. Ever since the dawn of modern time had the British merchant ships - and the warships - been a pattern for the rest of the world to follow.

Considered by many the apogee of British passenger shipbuilding, Cunard-White Star Line's Queen Mary was laid down just as the Great Depression began to take hold in Europe, a circumstance that held up her construction between 1931 and 1934. She was the second 1,000-foot ship to enter service, following the French Line's sleek TSS Normandie.

Queen Mary Legend

The legend surrounding her name is well known. Cunard ships' names customarily ended in -ia, and it was widely reported that Cunard sought King George V's permission to name its greatest ship after "England's greatest Queen"—meaning, presumably, Queen Victoria. The King, the story continues, replied that his wife would be greatly honored, and so hull "534" became the Queen Mary.

Queen Mary Construction

The Queen Mary was a modern ship, but not as ultra-modern as the TSS Normandie. If the Normandie had entered service after the Queen Mary, the Queen would possibly have been talked about as the most beautiful liner ever built - inside and out. Every critic compared the ship with the Normandie. The British combination of traditionalism and modernity was considered too sterile by the some critics of the 1930s. But whatever said, the Queen Mary was a beautiful ship - inside and out. Her interiors had over fifty different woods, collected from all over the British Empire.

Queen Mary entered service between Southampton, Cherbourg, and New York in 1936, and quickly wrested the coveted Blue Riband (awarded for the fastest North Atlantic crossing) from Normandie. Queen Mary's speed made her one of the most popular ships afloat, and she earned handsome profits for her owners until the outbreak of World War II. Faster than any warship afloat, the Queen Mary ocean liner was known as "the Gray Ghost". She ferried troops between Australia and Suez until the United States entered the war, when she began braving the North Atlantic with only her speed to protect her from German submarines.

In 1967, she was withdrawn from service after more than 1,000 transatlantic crossings.

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Cruise Ship Model QUEEN MARY 32" mso_cs_qm32List Price: $320.00Your Price $199.00