GIANT LINER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 March 1940, Page 5

GIANT LINER

QUEEN ELIZABETH TAKEN TO NEW YORK SECRET MAIDEN VOYAGE. DEPARTURE FROM THE CLYDE. Surprise has been caused in London by a report that the world’s largest liner, the Cunard-White Star Queen Elizabeth, of 85,000 tons (the biggest ship in the world), has crossed the Atlantic, a Daventry broadcast states. She is expected to dock in New York in a few hours. The report of this secret journey without passengers—the strangest maiden voyage in history—came on Tuesday night a few hours after it was revealed that the Queen Elizabeth had left her fitting-out basin on Clydebank. She had been there since she was launched 18 months ago. and her 15mile journey down the Clyde on February 26 took just over four hours. For 50 minutes the Queen Elizabeth was in difficulties where the Queen Mary touched the bank on her voyage down stream. The Queen Elizabeth was making good progress when the incoming tide turned her bows. Tugs struggled, and the liner- had to be pulled astern for about her own length. .After that there were no further incidents. At New York the Queen Elizabeth will join the Queen Mary and the Normandie, which have been laid up since the beginning of the war. UNEVENTFUL PASSAGE. A Press Association message states that the liner’s journey across the Atlantic was uneventful, not a single alarm being sounded throughout the voyage, which was accomplished in the average time taken by the Queen Mary. The liner did not carry passengers, but her tanks were packed full of fuel in case news of U-boats necessitated deviations in her course. Officials decline to reveal the Queen Elizabeth’s whereabouts. However, 150 police were ordered to parade at pier 8 of the Cunard-White Star Line at 8 a.m. (New York time) yesterday. The liner’s exploit is popularly hailed as the ; most spectacular and most dangerous maiden voyage in history. It was known here for some time that workmen were rushing the vessel to completion as she offered an easy target on the Clyde, and, moreover, crowded the narrow river, making it difficult to move warships. In addition, the insurance costs in England are tremendous. Since the CunardWhite Star Line leases the pier in New York it will save considerably by laying her up here. The Queen Elizabeth. Queen Mary, and Normandie, the world’s largest and fastest liners, representing 115,000,000 dollars, will lie at adjoining piers. There has been a constant police guard and a police boat on the river has been playing a searchlight on the sterns of the Queen Mary and Normandie throughout Wednesday night. GREAT INTEREST SHOWN NEW YORKERS FASCINATED. MANY KEEP ALL-NIGHT VIGIL. (Received This Day, 9.35 a.m.) NEW YORK, March 7. Fascinated by the adventure of the great ship, the namesake of the Queen who captivated their hearts during the Royal visit last year, thousands of New Yorkers kept an all-night radio vigil, as the staffs of broadcasting studios remained on duty, issuing bulletins of the liner's progress on her maiden voyage from her fitting out basin on the Clyde. Before daybreak, planes carrying newspaper men, radio men and photographers, flew out to sea. In Battery Park, at the tip of Manhattan, and in the streets near the Cunard piers, crowds had gathered since dawn. Hundreds more congregated in top skyscraper apartments and were ready with a fitting salute to the grey-painted Queen Elizabeth. Some 250 policemen watched the crowds and a sabotage squad was stationed on the pier.