Queen Elizabeth
1946
(Classic Ship Collection CSC-013VR)
- Type: Passenger
- Displacement: 83,673 tons
- Dimensions: 1,030 x 118 x 39 ft.
- Machinery: Parsons geared turbines, quadruple screws, 160,000 shp = 29 knots
- Passengers: 2,283 (823 1st class, 662 cabin class, 798 tourist class)
- Builder: John Brown & Co, Ltd, Clydebank, Scotland, 1936-40
- Service: Queen Elizabeth was the largest liner ever built up to 1994. Laid down Dec 1936; launched 27 Sep 1938 by HM Queen Elizabeth. Completed after WW2 began, she sailed 2 Mar 1940 in secret from the Clyde to New York for lay up. Sailed via Singapore to Sydney in Nov for conversion to a troop transport, serving until 1946. She carried over 800,000 troops during her wartime career, steaming nearly 500,000 miles. Refitted at her builders, she began her first true commercial voyage 16 Oct 1946 from Southampton to New York. Fitted with stabilizers 1955. Retired by Cunard, 1968, and sold to become a floating museum-hotel-convention center at Port Everglades, Florida; project never realized. Sold, 1970, to C.Y.Tung, Taiwanese shipping tycoon, who renamed her Seawise University and planned to convert her into a floating university-cruise ship. Never sailed as such; burned and sank in Hong Kong harbor, 9 Jan 1972. Capsized and was scrapped on the spot.
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