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Queen Elizabeth was the largest
ship in the world at that time. Although
larger oil tankers began entering service
in the 1960s, Queen
Elizabeth held the title of the
world’s largest passenger ship
until the 101,353-ton cruise ship
Carnival Destiny entered service
in 1996. The French Line’s
Normandie had a great influence on
Queen Elizabeth’s
design, this making the two Cunard queens
different in appearance.
Queen Elizabeth was
undergoing fitting out when World War Two
broke out in September 1939. In order to
avoid becoming a target of the German Air
Force, the uncompleted Queen
Elizabeth set out on her maiden
voyage from Clydebank - New York March
3rd 1940. Four days later, painted gray
and unannounced, the largest ship in the
world made a spectacular arrival at New
York. After eight months idle in New
York, Queen Elizabeth steamed to
Singapore for conversion to a troopship.
Her first deployments as a troopship
capable of carrying 5,600 servicemen were
to carry Australian troops to Asia and
Africa. Both Cunard queens were relocated
to the North Atlantic in 1942 for the
transportation of American troops to
Europe. Before that new role began, both
ships underwent a conversion at New York
to give them the capacity to carry over
15,000 troops at a time. Queen
Elizabeth was returned to Cunard
after completing her final troop
repatriation voyage in October 1945.
After being fitted out as a passenger
liner at Southampton, she finally set out
on her commercial maiden voyage from
Southampton - New York October 16th 1946.
Queen Mary’s return to the
Atlantic run the following summer finally
gave Cunard the two large ship service
they had intended. It is believed the two
queens were the most profitable liners
ever. With these ships often passing in
mid Atlantic, this became an event
anticipated and celebrated by the
passengers and crew. The captains helped
make these occasions memorable by passing
as close as possible. In late
1965/early1966, Queen Elizabeth
was fitted with a huge lido deck,
swimming pool and air conditioning.
Cunard hoped the work to make their flag
ship more suitable for cruising would
help keep her in service until at least
1975. However, in 1968, Queen
Elizabeth was taken out of service as
she had become unprofitable.
After being sold to the highest
bidder, she was berthed at Port
Everglades/Florida to serve as a floating
hotel, museum and conference center. Poor
attendances in the first year of the new
venture led to her being sold to the Hong
Kong shipping tycoon Mr. C. Y. Tung in
1970. The new owner intended her to be
converted to a floating university named
Seawise University. As the
conversion was nearing completion in Hong
Kong Harbor, an unexplained fire engulfed
the ship January 9th 1972. The excessive
amounts of water used to control the fire
led to the world’s largest
passenger ship capsizing. After
Seawise University had lain on her
side half submerged for months, breakers
began the demolition process in the
harbor.
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