![]() | |
History | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Name |
|
Namesake | Queen Elizabeth |
Owner |
|
Port of registry | |
Route | Transatlantic |
Ordered | 6 October 1936 |
Builder |
|
Yard number | 552 |
Way number | 4 |
Laid down | 4 December 1936[1] |
Launched | 27 September 1938 |
Christened | 27 September 1938 |
Completed | 2 March 1940 |
Maiden voyage | 16 October 1946[2][3] |
In service | 1946–1972 |
Out of service | 9 January 1972 |
Identification |
|
Fate | Caught fire and capsized, wreck partially dismantled between 1974–75, rest buried under land reclamation |
General characteristics | |
Type | Ocean liner |
Tonnage | 83,673 GRT |
Displacement | 83,000+ tons (84331+ metric tons) |
Length | 1,031 ft (314.2 m) |
Beam | 118 ft (36.0 m) |
Height | 233 ft (71.0 m) |
Draught | 38 ft 9 in (11.8 m) |
Decks | 13 |
Installed power | 12 × Yarrow boilers |
Propulsion | |
Speed | 28.5 kn (52.8 km/h; 32.8 mph) (service) |
Capacity | 2,283 passengers |
Crew | 1,000+ |
RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by Cunard Line. Along with the Queen Mary, she provided a weekly luxury liner service between Southampton in the United Kingdom and New York City in the United States, via Cherbourg in France.
Built by John Brown and Company at Clydebank, Scotland, as Hull 552,[5] she was launched on 27 September 1938 and named in honour of Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King George VI. Her design was an improvement of that of Queen Mary, resulting in a vessel 12 feet longer and several thousand tons greater GRT, making her the largest passenger liner ever built for a record 56 years. She entered service in March 1940 as a troopship in the Second World War, and did not make her first commercial voyage as an ocean liner until October 1946.
With the decline in popularity of the transatlantic route, both ships were replaced by the smaller, more economical Queen Elizabeth 2, which made her maiden voyage in 1969. Queen Mary was retired from service on 9 December 1967, and sold to the city of Long Beach, California. Queen Elizabeth was retired after her final crossing to New York, on 8 December 1968.[6] She was moved to Port Everglades, Florida, and converted to a tourist attraction, which opened in February 1969. The business was unsuccessful, and closed in August 1970. Finally, the ship was sold to Hong Kong businessman Tung Chao-yung, who intended to convert her into a floating university cruise ship called Seawise University. In 1972, whilst she was undergoing refurbishment in Hong Kong harbour, a fire broke out aboard under unexplained circumstances, and the vessel was capsized by the water used to fight the fire. The following year the wreck was deemed an obstruction to shipping in the area, and in 1974 and 1975 was partially scrapped on site.[7]