The Cunard Line's attempt to create and maintain a two-ship transatlantic service is what created the Queen Elizabeth. The first liner was the Queen Mary, and based on her success, and her actually showing a profit for Cunard, unlike the superliners of other lines, the line decided to build a running mate. The reason the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary were running mates and not sister ships is because the two liners were quite different from each other. While the Queen Mary had a traditional design, the Normandie was a large influence in designing the Queen Elizabeth. In order to see what made the Normandie as it was, Cunard sent one of their people on a trip in the Normandie, disguised as a grocery clerk. His findings resulted in a different design for the Queen Elizabeth than her running mate. Queen Elizabeth had two funnels, compared to Queen Mary's three, and the Queen Elizabeth's decks were clear of much of the apparatus that was on the decks of the Queen Mary. Construction of the Queen Elizabeth was given
priority over everything else. Work went around the clock, aided by
giant floodlights at night. On September 27, 1938, the Queen
Elizabeth As the political situation in Europe worsened, the Queen Elizabeth lost her priority status at the shipyard. The crews who previously worked on completing the Queen Elizabeth were reassigned to military jobs. As a result, her interiors were incomplete, in vast shell-like conditions. Only essential plumbing and electrical work was completed, and this was only through special orders from London. Due to the political situation, some people thought that the Queen Elizabeth should be sold to the United States in her unfinished state, while others believed that she was only good as a target for enemy bombers, and that her usefulness could only be ensured in peacetime. On February 6, 1940, with her intended commercial voyage two and a half months away (April 24), Winston Churchill ordered the Queen Elizabeth to leave Britain. However, this order was top-secret when it was made. The "official" plan was that the Queen Elizabeth was going to be heading to Southampton to be dry-docked for final outfitting. The plan to mislead the Luftwaffe worked, because on the day that the Queen Elizabeth was expected to arrive at Southampton, enemy planes were found in the vicinity, waiting to strike. However, things were greatly different according to the
real plan. The Queen Elizabeth was painted all gray, and her
captain was ordered to take her out to sea, and once there, was given
sealed The Queen Elizabeth's first assignment was to
the Indian Ocean, where she carried troops between Sydney, Suez,
Fremantle, and Trincomalee, with a capacity of 5,600. By the early
summer of 1942, the Eighth Army needed reinforcement, and so both Queens
were ordered back to the Atlantic, and returned to New York. Here,
they were refitted to carry 15,000 troops. For this service, in
order to have the highest capacity possible, nearly every In order to maintain security on board, the Queen Elizabeth, as well as the Queen Mary, was tightly guarded. The crew members were hand-selected to serve on her, and 750 guards maintained watch over her in New York. However, beer-bottle caps still were found in fire hoses, and holes discovered in several lifeboats. In April 1943, two bombs were found on board. They were promptly thrown overboard.
However, by the 1960's, the Queen Elizabeth,
along with the Queen Mary, began to become unprofitable.
Cunard was thinking along the lines of a new large liner to replace the Queen
Mary, and sent the Queen Elizabeth into dry dock in the winter
of 1965-1966 to undergo refitting, which, at Cunard's estimation, would
keep her in service through at least 1975. She was given a huge
stern lido deck However, she still continued to show great losses, despite doing more cruising, which was supposed to be more lucrative. In 1967, the decision was made to retire both Queens. The Queen Mary was withdrawn in September 1967, and then a year later, in October 1968, the Queen Elizabeth was withdrawn. As with the Queen Mary in Long Beach, the Queen Elizabeth went to America to be a floating hotel, convention center, and museum in Port Everglades, Florida. Her buyers (note that Cunard still had an 85% interest in her) proposed that she could be the Atlantic end of the "matching pair", with the Mary in California, and the Elizabeth in Florida. While it was thought that she would become quite a tourist bonanza, the venture became a disaster. After two years, the financial situation was grim, and the Queen Elizabeth was deteriorating. She was rusting, sun-scorched, and all in all neglected. As a result, she was placed on auction, and sold to the highest bidder. The lucky buyer was the Taiwanese shipping giant C.Y. Tung. He had big plans for the Queen Elizabeth...
Tung's big plan for the Queen Elizabeth was to rebuild her as a floating university that sailed around the world. The first step towards this goal, though, was giving the Queen Elizabeth a new name. She was renamed Seawise University ("Seawise" was a play on the owner's initials), and was registered under the Bahamian flag.
Once on Hong Kong, workers descended on her to convert
her from luxury liner to an institute of higher education. She was
essentially On January 9, 1972, as she was nearing completion, and
would soon sail to Japan to be dry-docked and begin her maiden voyage, an
arsonist was able to gain access to the ship, and set her on fire.
The fire spread rapidly on that fateful day, and with her fire-suppression
systems still incomplete, there was nothing to stop the fire from
consuming the luxurious wooden interiors, and causing her superstructure
to melt and cave in on itself. Fireboats did their best to try to
put the fire out, but with the same careless miscalculation that put the Normandie
on her side on the bottom of New York Harbor, so was the Seawise
University in Hong Kong Harbor. As more water was poured on her
to try to extinguish the In her capsized state, she was considered a total loss. Talk of salvage and rebuilding were based on optimism more than feasibility. The only thing left to do was scrapping on the spot. However, before the Seawise University was scrapped, she had one more chance in the spotlights. She was featured in the James Bond movie "The Man with the Golden Gun" as the secret Hong Kong headquarters of the MI6. While this was filmed in 1973, by the time of the movie's premiere in 1974, the Japanese scrappers had already removed her from Hong Kong Harbor.
Queen Elizabeth Vital Statistics: Gross tonnage: 83,673 (1940), 82,998 (1965) Length: 1,031 feet Width: 118 feet Draft: 38 feet Machinery: Steam turbines geared to quadruple screw Speed: 28.5 knots Capacity: 823 First, 662 Cabin, 798 Tourist Built: John Brown & Company Limited, Clydebank, Scotland, 1940 Demise: Burned and capsized in Hong Kong, January 9-10, 1972; scrapped on the spot in 1974 Author's note: Though the Queen Elizabeth, renamed Seawise University, never made it to the high seas again, the Semester at Sea program that she was intended for still went on. Currently, the Universe Explorer serves this purpose. She was originally the Moore-McCormack Line's Brasil. You can read more about the Semester at Sea program on the "Related Links" page. The Classic Liners of Long Ago © 2000-2007 Nick Works, Inc. |
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was launched, with the honors done by Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth, now the Queen Mother. Before she had even begun her
speech, the Queen Elizabeth started to make her way to the
water. Fortunately, the queen was quick to smash the bottle of
champagne across the bow, and name the ship.
orders which instructed him to go to New York. On March 7,
the Queen Elizabeth reached New York, and docked across Pier 90
from the Queen Mary. Once
in New York, work continued towards her completion as a "passenger
ship", because the United States was still neutral, and thus
preparation of the Queen Elizabeth, or any ship for that matter,
for the war was strictly prohibited. For eight months, she sat in
New York at her pier, and then was finally ordered to Singapore for final
fitting out as a trooper.
possible space
was used to accommodate troops. Only two dining rooms and two
saloons were remained open spaces. Some even slept on
mats on the floor. One way to increase her capacity was through
"standee" bunks. These looked like stretchers, and they
were really not much more than canvas slung between poles. They were
arranged as much as six high. 8,000 people could sleep at a time,
and a second "sleep shift" could accommodate the remainder.
In
the end, the Queen Elizabeth survived, and on June 16, 1946, she
returned to Southampton to be refitted for commercial service. Her
military equipment was removed, she was repainted in Cunard colors, and
all of her furniture and other fittings were brought out of storage, in
order for her to become her magnificent commercial self. On October
16, 1946, she finally left on her commercial maiden voyage. During
the following summer, the Queen Mary joined her on the North
Atlantic, and went on to become the most profitable liners ever
built. In fact, the Cunard Line had been said to carry a third of
ALL transatlantic passengers. For a time during 1958, Cunard had
twelve ships in service.
with
a swimming pool, she was given complete air conditioning, and was given
much more private plumbing to her passenger cabins.
She
only made one voyage as the Seawise University. With the
large letters that read "Queen Elizabeth" removed, and smaller
letters reading "Seawise University" installed on her bow, she
made for Hong Kong. However, the voyage was not without its
problems, with her breaking down on several occasions. One of these
breakdowns left the Seawise University anchored off of Aruba for
two months while repairs were made. The picture
at left shows the Seawise University off of Cape Town, South
Africa, en route to Hong Kong.
stripped
down and built back up. She was fitted with new equipment in order
to bring her up to code, and her interiors were rebuilt with a very
oriental look to them.
blaze,
she started to list to starboard, and then the next morning, she was on
her side in Hong Kong Harbor.
