Building and Design
On the day RMS Queen Mary set sail on her maiden voyage, Cunard's chairman, Sir Percy Bates, informed his ship designers that it was time to start designing the planned second ship known as Hull 552. The official contract between Cunard and government financiers was signed on 6 October 1936.
The new ship improved upon the design of Queen Mary with sufficient changes, including a reduction in the number of boilers to twelve instead of Mary's twenty-four, that the designers could discard one funnel and increase deck, cargo and passenger space. The two funnels were braced internally to give a cleaner looking appearance while the forward well deck was omitted, a more refined hull shape was achieved and a sharper, raked bow was added for a third bow-anchor point, so that she was ten feet longer than the older ship.
Queen Elizabeth was built on slipway four at John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. During her construction she was more commonly known by her shipyard number, Hull 552. The interiors were designed by a team of artists headed by the architect George Grey Wornum. Cunard's plan was for the ship to be launched in September 1938, with fitting out intended to be complete for the ship to enter service in the spring of 1940. The Queen herself performed the launching ceremony on 27 September 1938 and the ship was sent for fitting out. It was announced that on 23 August 1939 the King and Queen were to visit the ship and tour the engine room and 24 April 1940 was to be the proposed date of her maiden voyage. Due to the outbreak of World War II, these two dates were postponed.
Queen Elizabeth sat at the fitting-out dock at the shipyard in her Cunard colours until 2 November 1939, when the Ministry of Shipping issued special licences to declare her seaworthy. On 29 December her engines were tested for the first time, running from 0900 to 1600 with the propellers disconnected to monitor her oil and steam operating temperatures and pressures. Two months later Cunard received a letter from Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, ordering the ship to leave Clydeside as soon as possible and "to keep away from the British Isles as long as the order was in force".
Read more about this topic: RMS Queen Elizabeth
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