Queen Mary
Reviewed by Jim Sweeney
The ocean liner Queen Mary was an "Art Deco masterpiece," according to James Steele, and he amply documents that in his book Queen Mary (Phaidon Press, $55.00 hardcover). The Queen Mary, which entered service in 1936, was designed to be the largest, fastest and finest liner ever built.
The Queen Mary is one of the few remaining large ocean liners. Steele points out the irony that, in 1998, the Queen Mary will have spent as much time docked in Long Beach, Calif., as it did crossing the Atlantic.
Period photos in the book document the ship's construction. They also show the ship's lavish interior, which often resembled a set for a Hollywood musical, probably with Fred and Ginger. Steele concludes that "No British ship before or since has represented such a dedicated and singular commitment to an aesthetic philosophy, identifying it so clearly with the era in which it was built."
For the hardcore liner fan, architectural historian Steele also provides photos of its construction and a deck-by-deck diagram. The book is a lavish coffee table book, with a size and weight that will remind you of the Queen Mary.
No detail was overlooked in the attempt to make the Queen Mary a stylish ship. Concerns such as stability and speed dictated much of the design of the ship's exterior, but even here attention was paid to aesthetics. The first of the ship's three funnels is raised higher than the others, "to create a rakish triangular line from stem to stern."
The Queen Mary was a big deal when it was built. The book reproduces ads that illustrate that any connection to the ship was worth a mention in an ad, whether it was the lubricant supplier or the flooring company.
The ship's interior was designed to be "the equivalent of the lobby of a grand hotel," Steele says. The lounges, restaurants and public spaces often resemble a huge hotel with a nautical theme. The first-class restaurant seated 800. At 118 by 160 feet, it was the largest public space ever built on a ship.
Cabin (first) class bathrooms featured Formica paneling, the book notes, because in the 1930s Formica was "a new and fashionable material." While the interior was fashionable and lavish, especially in cabin class, other factors were considered, Steele points out. Lightweight materials were chosen throughout the ship to cut weight. And designs served several purposes: "As much as possible, the surfaces on all furniture were flush, to reduce wear and breakage, and to convey the desired effect of modernity felt to be of primary importance by the designers."
The emphasis on speed in transatlantic liners was not just a matter of pride or marketing hype, Steele says. Most passengers didn't care what liner they traveled on, they just wanted the shortest trip. The Queen Mary set many speed records. For years, the record for the shortest transatlantic crossing alternated between the Queen Mary and its rival the Normandie.
Steele compares the Queen Mary and the Normandie in several aspects, and summarizes the design differences as stateliness versus elegance. Obviously more fond of the Queen Mary, he notes that the Normandie never made money, while the Queen Mary was profitable through most of its career.
Steele also devotes a chapter to a lesser-known aspect of the Queen Mary's history: its years as a troop ship during World War II. Its refitting included guns, but the Queen Mary's greatest defense was its speed. With a top speed of more than 34 miles per hour, it could outrun any naval warship, and even the slow torpedoes used at the beginning of the war. Its speed earned the repainted ship the nickname "Grey Ghost."
Destroying the world's fastest liner would have been a propaganda coup for the Germans, and Hitler placed a quarter-million-dollar bounty on the Queen Mary, Steele says. Despite that, the ship was never attacked and never fired its guns in combat. The liner logged several hundred thousand miles in five years transporting nearly a million troops. During this period it also set a still-standing record for maximum number of passengers on one ship: 16,683. This was when troops were crammed into every available space. The Queen Mary normally carried about 2,000 passengers and a crew of slightly less than that.
At the end of its liner career, the Queen Mary had made 1,001 Atlantic voyages, logging 3,795,000 miles with 2,115,000 passengers. Steele ends his account when the ship docks in Long Beach, where it continues to be used as a hotel.
This article originally appeared in Trans-Lux volume 13, number 4, January 1997.
Where to Find the Book
You can find Queen Mary in local bookstores or purchase it on-line at a discount from Amazon.com Books.
ADSW offers this book in association with Amazon.com Books and receives a small commission on sales referred to them.
Comments
Created Sunday, October 25, 1998; Modified Thursday, September 18, 2003.
