The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY, MAY 29, 1936. THE QUEEN MARY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 126, 29 May 1936, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle FRIDAY, MAY 29, 1936. THE QUEEN MARY

maritime effort to regain the Blue Riband of the Atlantic was advanced a stage further by the departure of the Queen Mary on her maiden voyage. There is something' noble in witnessing a great ship leave port and take to the sea. There is an atmosphere of challenge in the incident. The bows ol the ship sheer the water, the vessel gathers speed, gently at first, but gradually she creeps forward, her engines throbbing and increasingly feeling their own strength. The bells tinkle from bridge to engine room, messages seem to be speeding to all parts of the floating community, but gradually there is a settling down and the ship takes on a personality of its own. It is itself the guardian of the lives of those who are on board, it is its own capacity to “make time” which has been settled in the dockyards and the engineer’s draughting office. Seamanship must be there, but before the seaman and the engineer of the watch has come to control the leviathan many matters have been settled, irrevocably"settled. The character of the ship, its movement in the water, its capacity for speed, have all been, as it were, predestined, for there are features of every ship which arc peculiar to itself. Those people who watched the Queen Mary move away on her maiden voyage must, have felt the impress of all of these thoughts, even though they could not all analyse them. The fest of application to actual practice was then about to be made, and before long it will soon be known whether all the anticipations and hopes and aims of those responsible for the' building of the Queen Mary will be realised. It will soon also be revealed whether some forgotten factor in this vast enterprise has gone undetected; for, despite all the care and cross checking that is bestowed upon such a mighty and complicated piece of work, it is always possible that some oversight has occurred. It is because of this possibility on the negative side, and because of the possibility on the positive side, that the ship will accomplish more in travel comfqrt or in speed than was expected, that a maiden voyage has such a spice of adventure about it as compared with subsequent voyages. The Queen Mary appears to be the biggest ship afloat; that of itself is an achievement, and it is now being determined whether she is the speediest, From the descriptions of the appointments of the vessel it would appear that she is, to borrow a phrase from Kipling, “like a Grand Hotel.” Gone, seemingly, are the days of roughing it at sea. It would appear that seagoing for even the moderately wealthy is becoming more and more a matter of extreme luxury. Between the various countries of the world there is always a class of people who aie either anxious, or at least able, io travel in super comfort, but it may be questioned whether this tendency is as much in demand as would appear. Put in another way, there, must be many people who would prefer to travel much more modestly, and in this much-advertised age of luxury-travel it is possible that-these modest travellers will be overlooked on such runs as the North Atlantic. There seems to be some doubt as well concerning the pros pert of these super-liners ever being a payable proposition. If this fear is well founded the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary seems to open up yet another pathetic tragedy in futility. All of the pride in recapturing the Blue Riband of the Atlantic seems to be but a siren song luring the mariner to destructiondestruction in the economic sense, if these speedy palatial vessels cannot be run at a business profit. Profit is something to be proud of: it registers the worth of an enterprise, and is a compliment to those who produce it. or who take part in doing so There is nothing wrong with profits, for they are exiclencc o justification of activity revealing that a human want is icing supplied. What does not merit, pride is receiving of doles and assistances and bonuses to keep going a utility for which the public will not pay the cost of running it, maintaining i , and recompensing those who supply it. Tn watching, in imagination, the Queen Mary sink over her first horizon, let it be hoped that she will reveal no forgotten faults, that she will accomplish all and more than her designers planned for. that she will regain the Blue Riband of the At antic for the United Kingdom, and that she will prove to be a 'Ciy profitable venture for her owners. , To the Queen Mary then, Bon Voyage, and a safe docking.