Queen Mary ship model

Facts

• The model was made for an exhibition in New York. It was built in Northampton using one log of white mahogany.

• Facts about the real Queen Mary. The ship ‐ 81,235 tons; 1,018 feet long; 118 feet wide; 4 propellers. She could carry 2139 passengers (776 first class, 784 tourist class, 579 third class) plus 1101 officers and crew.

• The Queen Mary, variously described as the Queen of the Seas or the Wonder Ship, was one of the most luxurious ships of her day. The art deco interiors were among the most striking of the day. Many of the public rooms were decorated with original works of art specially commissioned by Cunard. The food on board was the “the best food in the world without a doubt”. The crew were well known for providing top class personal service and some of the regular passengers always insisted on having particular stewards and stewardesses on each voyage.

• During the Second World War the Queen Mary (QM) she was painted a drab grey and converted into a troop ship ferrying soldiers from Australia to the Middle East and Africa and returning with prisoners of war, the wounded and evacuees. In 1943, along with the Queen Elizabeth, the QM switched to the Atlantic troop shuttle carrying 15,000 troops from New York to Britain each week. The fast speed of the QM meant that she was able to sail the Atlantic without the convoys, and zigzagged to avoid the U‐boats. At the end of the war she carried the G.I. Brides (British women who had married US and Canadian servicemen) to America until she returned to normal service in 1946.

• The Queen Mary had always been held in high esteem, not just by the passengers and crew who sailed on her but by most Southampton people. A quote from a local resident highlights this affection for the ship:
  
  “She was the kind of ship that was individual. She was like no other. Neither of the Queen Elizabeth were ever a comparison with the Mary. Everybody talked of her, it was a sort of love affair. You’d hear her come up. You’d hear her hooter way off down by the Isle of Wight … and you knew she was coming up. The next thing, you’d see her funnels almost standing in the High Street. It was an impressive sight.”