Reminder of liner’s past glory

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33514, 20 April 1974, Page 12

Reminder of liner’s past glory

'By

KENNETH ANTHONY)

Sad news for ship-lovers was the announcement that the once-proud liner Queen Elizabeth is being broken up for scrap where she lies, a burned-out wreck, in Hong Kong harbour. It is pleasanter to remember the Queen Elizabeth in happier times, as she is shown on this 4d stamp issued by the Bahamas in 1965. Of more than 83,000 gross tons — just, slightly larger than her consort, the Queen Mary — the Queen Elizabeth was the pride of Britain’s mercantile marine.

The ship was the largest passenger liner ever built and the oceans are unlikely ever to see her like again. After a long and distinguished career in war and peace, she was withdrawn from service in 1968. The Bahamian stamp is a reminder of the Queen Elizabeth’s later years. Towards the end. with the decline of the North Atlantic passenger business in the face of competition from air travel, she was for a time used for cruising, and in this capacity she visited West Indian waters. Following her withdrawal

there were plans for the: ship to become a tourist attraction in Florida. But then the liner was acquired by a Chinese millionaire who announced a scheme for converting her into a floating university.! Under her new name of Seawise University, the: ship was taken to Hong Kong for conversion. On the way. her machinery broke down while she was in the Caribbean and the great ship suffered the indignity of being towed to Aruba, a Dutch island off the South American coast, for repairs. When Hong Kong was at: last reached, the work of! converting the ship for her new role went ahead. It: was nearly complete — and the Queen Elizabeth appeared to have a further span of useful life — when the ship was devastated by: fire in January, 1972. And there she has remained ever since. Stamp collectors. no! doubt, will prefer to find in. this Bahamas' stamp a per-! manent record of the Queen Elizabeth in her davs ofi glory. ." |