THE QUEEN MARY

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19897, 28 May 1936, Page 8

THE QUEEN MARY

The departure of the Queen Mary on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic has created a surprising amount of interest. British people are confident that the great liner will break all existing records and bring back to the Mother Country the blue ribend. The struggle for supremacy on the North Atlantic run has been going on for nearly a. century. It was in 1840 that the British authorities awarded a contract to carry mails by steamer from England to Halifax and Boston and M 1: Samuel Cunard was the head of the company that controlled the line‘ The first voyage lasted over fourteen days and the average speed of the vessel was eight and n-half knots. The company’s steamers were little wooden paddle boats about 210 feet in length, with a gross tonnage of 1154 and accommodation for 115 passengers. ’ Since that time the competition has been on international lines and in 1869 the record stood at eight days. Then, with the steady progress of marine engineering, the blue riband began to change hands more frequently. In 1890 the Cunarder Lucania registered 22 knots and seven years later the record was lowered by the German liner Deutschland. Ten years later the famous Mauretanin made her first trip and established a record of five days two hours, and for twenty-two years this record stood. Then the Germans were again successful only to be beaten by the Italian liner Rex which crossed from Gibraltar to New York in about four days fourteen hours. Last year the French achieved success with the Normandie and the record now stands at four days, three hours five minutes. This is the time that the Queen Mary must break. It will necessitate a speed of about thirty knots an hour for the Normandie did 29.68 knots.

Those responsible for the construction of the Queen Mary do not place the greatest importance on the creation of a. new transAtlantic record. The huge vessel, they say, has been designed to pay its way. It represents the carefully considered views of experts with regard to size, and speed that should be capable of maintaining a paying service on the run. The vessel will not cater for the first-class traffic, but for cabin, tourist and third class, and the heads of the Cunard Line expect that the Queen Mary will prove to be a sound financial investment. But British people will expect a new record, if only because that would be a, sign of supremacy on the North Atlantic.