VALUABLE TESTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 206, 1 September 1936, Page 7

VALUABLE TESTS.

GIANT SHIP'S SPEED:

Data for Use in Building of

Sister-Ship.

POWER STILL IN RESERVE. British Official Wireless. (Received 2 p.m.) RUGBY, August 31. The liner Queen Mary had a tumultuous welcome from vast crowds afloat and ashore when she reached Southampton at the end of her double record-breaking voyage across the Atlantic.

The vessel, which had a crowded escort of pleasure steamers, private yachts and speed boats up Southampton Water, docked at 12.40 to the noise of hundreds of sirens, which broke through the drone of many aeroplanes circling overhead. The reception recalled the enthusiasm last March when the mighty ship first came to her home port.

Referring to the recapture for Britain of v the blue riband of the Atlantic, Sir Edgar Britten, and the chief engineer, Mr. Llewellyn Roberts, both stressed the reserves of power which the ship still possessed. At a ceremony in Liverpool, Sir Percy Bates, chairman of the Cunard-White Star Line, explained that the fast run had been made at this stage in the liner's career, principally to obtain technical data for the design of the sister-sliip, No. 552, the keel of which will be laid in the Clydeside yard of John Brown and Company, where the Queen Mary was built, in a few months' time.

From this point of view he said the record-breaking voyage had yielded important aud valuable information.

By breaking the Normandie's record the Queen Mary regained the blue rjband of the Atlantic for Britain after seven years. At that time it had been held by the Mauretania for 21 years. The final sprint was made in a slight fog, which robbed holiday makers on the land of a view of the vessel as she passed Bishop's Rock with a safe margin of 3 hours 31 minutes.