QUEEN MARY'S PROPELLER

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 35, 11 February 1936, Page 4

QUEEN MARY'S PROPELLER

The first of the - four huge spare propellers which: are to be kept at Southampton for the -liner Queen Mary reached its destination .after an adventurous journey by road from the foundry at Millwall. • 'Thirty-five tons 'in weight and 20ft wide, the propeller, which was loaded on an eight-wheeled, tractor, of 80 horse-power, began its journey to the Cunard depot on a Monday. All went well until the following afternoon. Then the tractor reached a stretch of gravel,road' near Bitterne, a mile or so outside Southampton. The road surface had been softened by the heavy rain, and the tractor wheels churned up the gravel, but refused to grip. There was a hold-up of about an hour while the tractor crew worked frantically. A new move was made, but half a mile .-. further along the Bursledon-Botley road they came to Lance's' Hill, with a gradient of one in nine. As the tractor slowly began to mount the rise the road subsided and the wheels sank inches deep. For three hours the crow, assisted by mobile police and motorists, struggled with the monster. The road is a busy one, and the tractor and its load blocked the hill completely. Eventually two steam-wagons hauled the tractor over the; steep hill-top, whence it' made its own way to Bitterne village. Here it halted until after midnight to free the road for other traffic. ,Theri the last mile of the journey to the docks began.