Queens of the BLUE RIBAND

Cue (NZERS), Issue 33, 15 October 1945, Page 1

Queens of the BLUE RIBAND

FAMOUS names have been appearing in the news again, names that never failed to capture the imagination in the years before 1939 but which, in the way of things in times of war, were kept largely hidden behind a cloak of security while the struggle raged. Who could deny a thrill of interest, for instance, on reading that Britain’s newest luxury liner, the Mauretania, had completed a record' run from Fremantle to Durban, or that the French lie de France and the German (or exGerman, since she is to become American property as a prize of war) Europa are carrying troops homeward across the Atlantic? Or that CunardWhite Star, becoming restive about the prospects for the trans-Atlantic service are anxious to have their two great liners, the Queen Alary and the Queen Elizabeth, withdrawn from troop service as soon as possible and refitted for normal passenger traffic? Mention in the same breath of the names of such a galaxy of ocean queens inevitably calls to mind the pre-war international rivalry in the trans-Atlantic service, a rivalry that gave rise to the contest for the Blue Riband of the Atlantic. Soon, very soon according to the signs, the service will be in operation again and the mammoth liners which have figured with varying degrees of fortune in the

fighting of a global war will once more be competing for mastery on the world’s most important scalane. Some there were that failed to survive' the recent upheaval (the Italian Rex, lying on her side not far from Trieste, the German Bremen and the British Empress of Britain are cases in point) ; others, such as the French Normandie, have not escaped misfortune, but are capable of restoration to their former utility and magnificence. If some of the giants of the Atlantic have fallen by the way, there will be others to take their place, though possibly it will be a long time before either Germany or Italy again enters the field. Britain and France, and doubtless America if she intends to retain the Europa, will dominate the scene in the meantime, and it is no secret that Cunard-White Star have in mind the building of another ’’Queen” — Queen Victoria — to swell their' fleet /of proud luxury liners. Whether the Queen Victoria is intended to be larger than the Queen Elizabeth, the biggest ship in the world today, is not clear at present, but it may safely be assumed that she will not, be smaller than the other two ships which, as war transports, have

carried a million troops during their long period of war service, each of them accommodating about 15,000 men per voyage. One authoritative estimate has it that the maximum number of troops which could be carried aboard either ship without baggage is 23,000, despite the fact that the Queen Mary's normal full passenger complement is only 2,119. The Queen Elizabeth, which was launched in 1938, was moved from her fitting-cut berth on the Clydeside to make room for the launch of the new battleship Duke of York in 1940. She was taken to sea and run up to her normal sea speed of 28} to 29 knots, and then crossed the Atlantic to join the Queen Mary at New York. Since the spring of 1940 the two ships have steamed a million miles as transports. There was, after the 1914-18 war, a sharp reaction against the large ship doing fantastic speeds, and there may be a similar reaction this time, in spite of the fact that the world in the past decade or two has become luxury liner-conscious. The close of the second world war, however, is accompanied by a new factor in the threat of serious competition from transAtlantic air services. The recent route

test flight from the United States to Britain by a Pan-American World Airways clipper presaged the early inauguration of high-speed land clipper services over the North Atlantic, in which both American and British commercial airways organisations will participate. In the face of this new and powerful competition, which may be expected to grow steadily in the post-war years, the shipping companies will not be able to remain inactive and will be compelled to strive continuously for faster and more attractive services. The new Cunarder, Queen Victoria, is probably the first answer to the challenge from the air. The doubts cast at times on the advisability of constructing mammoth Atlantic passenger liners have been largely dispelled, at least in the case of the British and French, by the facts. It cost five millions to build the Queen Mary and eight millions for the 'Normandie, and both justified themselves financially in the peace years, the former handsomely. The fight for supremacy in speed on the Atlantic must, of necessity, force up the size of the ships employed. Disregarding for the moment a possible revolution in marine engines, a ship of ten thousand tons displacement, carrying fuel for the trip, cannot exceed 20 to 21 knots. To gain increased speed it is necessary to increase the size of the vessels, for it is a surprising fact that the larger the ship the lighter it becomes to propel yer ton. At the same time, it stands to reason that the greater the speed at which a ship is propelled forward the greater will be the strain on the fabric, and consequently the hull must be correspondingly strengthened and thus made heavier. It has been calculated that, in the case of large ships, one-half of the displacement weight must be allowed for the hull, and it follows that in a 27-knot ship with a displacement of 43,000 tons the hu would account for 21,000 tons. A 1 * machinery and requisite fuel an

water taking another 19,000 tons there remains only 4,000 tons for passengers and their accommodation and an insignificant amount of cargo. If the speed of the ship were to be increased beyond 27 knots the remaining space would diminish rapidly, and at somewhere between 28 and 29 knots there would be none at all. The struggle for supremacy reached its peak in the pre-war years with the building of the Normandie and the Queen Mary, which had to be built 30,000 tens greater than any other ship then afloat to increase the speed record by two knots. Although regular trans-Atlantic services have been in operation for more than a hundred years, the chief interest in the contest for the Blue Riband centres in the period since the turn of the century era which produced the mammoth liner. British lines, led by Gunard, had maintained a definite superiority for sixty years, starting off with 210 ft. paddle-boats and always spending enormous amounts of money in their bid for supremacy in speed, and, although the Germans held the ascendancy for a decade from 1897 onwards, it was Ounard who again took up the challenge. Negotiations with the Admiralty resulted in the company’s undertaking to build two ships calculated to do 24| knots; they were to be 750 ft. long, and not only the fastest ships in the world but also the largest that had ever been built. The first of the two sister-ships, called the Mauretania, was launched in 1905 and was followed soon afterwards by the Lusitania, which was to meet a tragic fate in 1915. The Mauretania at once showed her extraordinary power by reaching 27.36 knots and averaging 26 knots on a 48-hour trial trip—a foretaste of a record which was to make her the most famous ship in the history of the Blue Riband. She captured it in 1908 and retained it for 22 years. Even in 1929, when she

was 23 , years old and still had her original engines, after they had driven the ship more than two million miles, she averaged only a tenth of a knot below 27 in a gallant losing battle with the new German entrant, the Bremen. With ships of several nations participating in the Blue Riband contest there have been, of necessity, many starting points, although for ships sailing from the Channel ports the time is judged from Bishop Rock, off Land’s End, Cornwall, to the Ambrose Lightship, outside New York, which has been universally accepted as the finishing point on the American side. As the purpose of the race is to establish which is the fastest trans-Atlan-tic liner, this is done by dividing the distance the ship has travelled between Europe and America, as shown in the log, by the time occupied on the passage, thus giving the vessel’s average speed for the journey. The ship which, according to this method of calculation, reaches the highest average speed is the holder of the Blue Riband.

schedule and will doubtless assure Britain of domination of the Atlantic

service for at least several years. Whether it will be practical or economical to continue increasing the size and speeds of the world’s luxury liners —the two must go together, for expert opinion has shown that, while 80,000 tons approximates to 30 knots, it would require 100.00) tons to give a speed of about 32 knotsonly events can prove, and in the meantime the possible effects of competition from the air have to be taken into account. It may not be worth while to spend the tic men does additional sums necessary to raise the liner’s speed beyond the present level, but, with such ships as the ’’Queens” and their rivals offering, this will not mean any great sacrifice. The giant Cunarders and their kind represent the finest achievements of man in their own field.

The Mauretania was the fastest ship on the Atlantic for over 20 years—until Norddeutscher-Lloydlaunched, in 1928, the Europa and the Bremen, two super—ships of 52,000 tons that gained the admiration of the world. On her maiden voyage' the Bremen captured the Blue Riband from the gallant old Mauretania and reached a speed of 27.91 knots on the return trip. In the meantime the French had produced, in 1927, the He de France, n vessel of 43,000 tons, but, designed for a speed of 23 knots, she was not intended to take part in the race for records, and the main immediate reaction to the German effort was the building by the Italians of the Rex and the Conte di Savoia, fine ships of 51,000 and 48,500 . tons respectively. The Rex wrested the westbound record from the Bremen in 1934 by crossing from Gibraltar to the Ambrose Lightship at an average speed of 28.92 knots, giving Italy-the Blue Riband for the first time. The Rex was built at Sestri Ponente, in the Gulf of . Genoa, and she proved herself capable of considerably more than her designed speed of 274 knots. /'Neither France nor Britain could long remain idle in view of the Ger-man-Italian spurt, and their respective

answers were the Normandie, which entered .the service in 1935, and the Queen Mary, completed in the following year—the former with a gross tonnage of 83,423 and a length of 962 ft. and the latter with a gross tonnage of 81,235 and a length of 975.2 ft. The sensational turbo-electric-driven Normandie crossed to New York on her maiden voyage in 1935 at a mean speed of . 29.53 knots to gain the Blue Riband by a generous margin, only to lose it in the following year to- the Queen Mary. Supremacy swung from one to the other until in August, 1938, the British vessel achieved a record average speed of 31.69 knots on a trip from Ambrose Light to Bishop Rock. With the contest suspended owing to the war the Blue Riband has remained in the possession of the Queen Mary, although the Queen Elizabeth, which has maintained a speed under service conditions of about 281 knots, is believed to be the faster ship. With a length overall of 1031 ft. and a . gross tonnage of 84,000, the Queen Elizabeth is bigger than either her ,sister-ship or the Normandie. / . The construction of the Queen Victoria will enable Cunard-White Star to maintain a regular round-trip