QUEEN ELIZABETH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23620, 2 April 1940, Page 4

QUEEN ELIZABETH

NEW GIANT LINER ARRIVAL AT NEW YORK ENSIGN PROUDLY FLYING 'J, ' /' " 1 [from our own correspondent] NEW YORK, March 12 With the /red ensign proudly flying at her mast,- Britain's new £6,000,000 liner Queen Elizabeth—the largest and fastest ship afloat —arrived within the safety of New York Harbour waters at the end of 'her bold dash 3000 miles across the Atlantic. The bluish-grey coat of the vessel, unrelieved by a single note of colour, blended into the haze over the harbour. . She looked like a ghost ship as she reached quarantine and dropped anchor. Having missed the morning slack tide, the ship remained at quarantine until about 3 p.m., to await a tide permitting her to tie up at Pier 90 at the foot of Fiftieth Street. First Welcoming Salutes Unidentified escort vessels, seen with her farther out, were dropped some—wliere in the lower bay, and the queen of the seas moved up the harbour alone —in solitary majesty. The first/ welcoming salutes came from a salvage and a press tug. The Queen Elizabeth responded with a throaty roar from her whistle and ran lip the yellow quarantine flag. Her lifeboats, of which she did not carry a complete complement, were uncovered. Members of the crow and a number of stewards, their white jackets emphasised against the dull background, waved from the rails. As she reached quarantine several aeroplanes soared overhead and numerous harbour craft circled around tho vessel, which rode high in the water, Sighted From Air Aeroplanes, flying out of New York first sighted the Queen Elizabeth off Fire Island, cutting up a mile-long wake as her giant engines turned up apparently close to hcjr top speed of more than 32 knots. Only a few figures were seen on the decks, and from the aeroplanes there was no indication that the ; world's largest ship even had a name painted on her grey-smudged prows. / - Not until an aeroplane made a second circle over the Queen Elizabeth did the ship even make her nationality known. On the second circle the crew broke out the Union Jack and some of the crew Waved. Smoke Billows Out ' Black smoke belched from the Queen Elizabeth's two slanted funnels as she suddenly straightened out from her previous zig-zag course, and cut a direct line for New York Harbour —sure, now, that she was in safe waters. Below the waterline the ship showed dark red, and along the waterline there were patche's of black under the grey paint, indicating her war paint had been applied for the audacious voyage to the United States. ■ Poor visibility that hampered the observations of passengers in the welcoming aeroplanes improved as the Queen'.Elizabeth neared the harbour, and brilliant sunshine poured through the broken clouds, speckling the waters and the churning wake with gold and tilver.

SECRET WELL KEPT MAMMOTH LINER'S VOYAGE t ' CAPTAIN'S PROUD WIFE [from our own correspondent] LONDON, March 17 With messages oi ! congratulation pouring into her home, Mrs. Townley, the woman who can keep the perfect secret, cabled greetings to her* husband, Captain J. C. Townley, commander of the 85,000-ton liner Queen Elizabeth, now safe at New York. "I told him how glad I was, but that I knew he would do it," Mrs. Townley said last night. "I don't mind admitting that the past week was a time of anxiety for ;me, but I soon forgdt all that when 'I heard that the Queen Elizabeth had got across. "I have been flooded to-day with messages of congratulation, and of course I am very proud. Not that I'm surprised in the least that my husband has succeeded in something he has undertaken. He always does." Captain Townley comes from Keswick and, had he not gone to sea, he would liave been a farmer. One of his uncles helped to lay the first cable to South America. That is the family's only other connection with "the sea. Captain Townley first went to sea in Gail, and joined the Cunard Company in 1904, going to the Saxonia as fourth officer. He has commanded the old Mauretania, the Aurania, Georgic and Lancastria, and has taken over the Queen Mary and Aquitania on relief duty. • , In 1P33 he left a sick bed at 24 hours' notice to take the veteran Mauretania across the Atlantic through continuous gales and high seas which delayed every other west-bound ship. The old Cunarder berthed an hour ahead of scheduled time —a great feat of seamanship!