The new grand ship of the Cunard line was 80,774 tons with a very good speed at runing at 29 knots! driven by a Quadruple screw with Single reduction steam turbines. The builder was John Brown & Co Ltd, Glasgow she had 3 funnels as of the age they didnt need so many in them days or they wont warry about looks as much. The keel of the Queen mary was laid down in 31 January 1931. The building proceeded well and the launch was scheduled for May 1932. On 11 December 1931 the Cunard Board announced that work on the Queen Mary was to be suspended. The world economic depression had hit the shipbuilding industry and Cunard were forced to pay all outstanding bills and lay off the Clydeside workforce indefinitely. In 1931 Cunard Line had started negotiations to buy out its main rival, the White Star Line. Although these early attempts failed Cunard entered negotiations with the Government in 1933. They where allways trying to compeate but over all i think Cunard won it but with the Olympic class ships did get Cunard alot. In 1933 December the two lines merged make the name Cunard White Star Ltd. To build Queen Mary and her sister the Government would lend the company £9.5 million. In April 1934 work began again on the Queen Mary right where they left of from 1931. The work was completed by August and the ship was launched on 26 September by Queen Mary. Then it was taken to its fitting out berth.

In March 1936 the Queen Mary was completed and it sailed out of the Clyde as far as Arran for sea trials. She then went off to Southampton to be painted then hand over to the Cunard White Star LTD on 11 May 1936. The ship new speed was 160,000 SHP and gave it a speed of over 30 knots.It made an inaugural cruise from Southampton on 14 May and then made its maiden voyage, on the Southampton Cherbourg New York route, on 27 May. Despite expectations that the ship would try to break speed records on its first voyage a thick fog destroyed any hope of this. The Queen Mary spent a short time in drydock during July whilst adjustments were made to the propellers and turbines. When the Queen Mary returned to service, in August, it made a record voyage from Bishop's Rock to Ambrose light and took the Blue Riband from the Normandie.

The ship went into drydock in December and alterations were made to the bulkheads. In may 1937 she had complete one year of good serveice and crayed a total of 56,895 passengers. In Augest 1938 it regained the Blue Riband form the Normandie and set new records for both the eastbound and westbound crossings. She had to make her last commercial voyage because of the war her role In the war would be carying trrops, because she was such a big ship.

On the 7 March they had just about completed Queen Elizabeth so she came to join Queen Mary, Mauretania and Normandie at New York. On 21 March the Queen Mary left New York under orders to sail for Cape Town and Sydney, On arrival work began converting the ship into a troopship. The luxury furnishings were removed and tiers of bunks and hammocks were fitted. Small calibre guns were fitted on the Queen Mary main protection was to be its speed.On 4 May the ship left for the Clyde with 5,000 troops of the Australian Imperial Force on board. It arrived there on 16 June and then sailed for Singapore carrying troops to bolster the defence in view of Japan's increasing threat. After an overhaul there it returned to Sydney and then made trooping voyages between there and India for the rest of the year. But again she had to be Dryed Dock in February 1941 and then sailed between Australian ports and Singapore and Suez until November. As the Indian Ocean was becoming increasingly dangerous, with war looking imminent in the Far East and Pacific, the Queen Mary sailed to Boston. Here its trooping capacity was increased to 8,500 and it was fitted with heavier calibre guns and anti-aircraft cannons.

The Queen Mary's future role was to be on the North Atlantic, however one urgent trip carrying US troops to Sydney was the priority. By late July 1942 it had returned to New York. In the following months it sailed to the Clyde and Suez and then returned to the USA with a complement of German POW's. On 2 August 1942 Queen Mary began making fast eastbound voyages carrying between 10,000-15,000 US troops at a time. On one of these voyages the ship had a VERY bad collision of her career. The Queen Mary was approaching the Clyde required an anti-aircraft escort, amongst these was the cruiser HMS Curacoa. On 2 October the escort ships were sighted. The Queen Mary was steaming at 28 knots in zig zag pattern the Curacoa whose best speed was 26-25 knots, kept as close as possible. The Queen Mary overtook its escort and then the zig-zag pattern of the two ships converged and it collided with the Curacoa close to its stern and sliced straight through the ship damgedning it priity badly. Out of 430 crew members on the cruiser only 101 survived. Although there was damage beneath the waterline the Queen Mary was able to continue. With over 11,000 troops on board the Queen Mary could not stop to assist and it sailed straight to the Clyde. A long legal battle between the Admiralty and Cunard eventually laid the blame equally on both vessels. On 23 December Queen Mary left for Cape Town befor that it was up for repaired.

Suez and Sydney carrying British troops to the Middle East and Australian troops back home. Queen Mary returned on April 1943 and then berthed in New York in May. After this it began a takeing service for US troops which was to be its role for the remainder of the war which had been done before. The Queen Mary's role in this is the one for which it is best remembered. The end of the war in Europe in May 1945 meant that there was an need to redeploy thousands of US combat troops to the conflict in the Pacific and Far East. The Queen Mary sailed to New York to be refitted and then began the long process of repatriation. In January 1946 it began transporting GI brides to their homes. By 3 May it transferred to Halifax to repatriate the wives and children of Canadian service, which continued until September.

Finel she retuned home On 27 September she caryed allmost near 800,000 people and done allmost 600,000 miles A ten month off was then in upon at Southampton. Being refurnished for the commercial service a new stem was fitted.

The passenger accommodation was also up to house 711 1st class, 707 cabin class and 577 tourist class passengers. It made its first sailing after this on 31 July 1947, from Southampton to New York. Before the end of 1947, however, industrial troubles started to affect the service. Air travel was becoming increasingly popular and once the ship had ran aground at Cherbourg on 1 January 1949 many of the passengers chose to fly to the US instead. Although the ship was still capable of making fast crossings it was unable to compete with the new American liner United States, and in July 1952 the American ship took the Blue Riband with an speed of 35 knots. In march 1958 the Queen Mary was geting old and was already speculation about the Queen Mary future.

In December 1963 she made its first cruise, to the Canaries. By 1965 this had become a larger part of the Queen Mary`s role. A seamen's strike in May 1966 cost Cunard £4 million and spelt the end for the Queen Mary. She was now loseing lots and lots of money/pounds a day for the coal etc. It made its last transatlantic crossing on 16 September 1967. There was speculation regarding what the future use of the Queen Mary would be but this ended in July when Cunard agreed to sell the liner to the town of Long Beach for £1,230,000. The Queen Mary's journey to Long Beach was was turned into a cruise to recoup some of the costs of the voyage. She left on 31 October and called at Lisbon, Las Palmas, Rio de Janiero, Valparaiso, Callao, Balboa, Acapulco and finally at Long Beach. She arrived at Long Beach on 9 December to begin its new role as a museum, hotel and conference centre. The Queen Mary still remains there today as a testament to the supreme achievement of the Atlantic. The Queen Mary had a great fairwell when she arrvied in Long Beach she was surrond by lots of ships small big huge.

The R.M.S Queen Mary would have to be one of my favert ships of all time shes one huge ship she looks so great inside. One great ship.

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