MAY 1967, and the Q4, as it was still known, continues to take shape at John Brown’s yard at Clydebank.
Photographs such as this one conveyed the towering scale of the 58,000-ton Cunard liner: this one shows the rudder being manoeuvred into position. Sir Basil Smallpeice, chairman of Cunard, said he was looking forward to the launch in September but disclosed that, although it was a matter for deep regret, the liner Queen Mary would be withdrawn in October, at the end of the summer season, and her Clydebuilt sister, the Queen Elizabeth, would follow suit about a year later, once the Q4 came into service.
Both ships were losing some £750,000 a year in the face of competition from transatlantic jets. Cunard had spent £1.5 million two years previously to refit the Queen Elizabeth so that it could combine transatlantic trips with luxury winter cruises, but the plan had not paid off. One proposal for the Queen Mary, this paper added, was for it to become a floating hotel off Gibraltar or Los Angeles. (At year’s end the old ship berthed at Long Beach, California, its new, permanent home).
It would only be on September 20 that year that the official name of the Q4 would be revealed, courtesy of the Queen, who launched it amidst much fanfare; the Queen Elizabeth II, QE2. Bookies had been taking bets as to the name: the most popular choices had been ‘Sir Winston Churchill’, ‘Princess Margaret’ and ‘Princess Anne’.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here