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It was launched at the John Brown & Company Shipbuilding and Engineering shipyard at Clydebank, Scotland, on September 27, 1938, and retired from service in 1968. Queen Elizabeth was the largest passenger steamship ever constructed and held the record for the largest passenger ship of any kind until being surpassed in 1996 by the Carnival Destiny. The ship was named for Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon|Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King George VI of the United Kingdom and queen consort at the time it was built. Having been launched only a year before the outbreak of World War II, the ship was still being fitted out at the start of the war. Because of her vulnerability to being bombed while still on the River Clyde|Clyde, it was decided that the ship should be moved. It was announced that she would sail for Southampton to complete fitting out. On March 3 1940, the Queen Elizabeth sailed - however, on opening his sealed orders, the ship's Master, Captain Townley, found he was to take the Queen Elizabeth to New York City|New York. At the time she was due in Southampton, the city was bombed by the Luftwaffe. On arrival in New York, the Queen Elizabeth found herself moored alongside her running mate RMS Queen Mary|Queen Mary and the SS Normandie|Normandie, the only time all three of the world's biggest liners would be pictured together. Refitted for naval use in Singapore and Sydney, the Queen Elizabeth and its running mate, the RMS Queen Mary|R.M.S. Queen Mary, were used as troop transports during the war. Their high speeds allowed them to outrun hazards, foremostly German U-boats, allowing them to travel without a convoy. During its naval career, Queen Elizabeth carried more than 750,000 troops and sailed some 500,000 miles. Following the end of the war, the Queen Elizabeth was able to be put to the use for which she was built; as part of Cunard's two ship, twice weekly service to New York. Together with the Queen Mary, and in competition with the SS United States|SS United States they dominated the transatlantic passenger trade until their fortunes began to decline with the advent of the faster and more economical jet airliner in the mid 1950s. For a short time, the Queen Elizabeth served a dual role; when not plying its usual transatlantic route, it operated as a cruise ship travelling between New York and Nassau, Bahamas|Nassau. Cunard retired both ships by 1969 and replaced them with a single, smaller ship, the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2|RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (the QE2). The QE2 was named after the Queen Elizabeth, being the second ship to bear the name. In 1968, the Queen Elizabeth was sold to a group of Philadelphia businessmen who intended to operate the ship as a hotel and tourist attraction (similar to the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California) in Port Everglades, Florida. Losing money and forced to close after being declared a fire hazard, it was sold in 1970 to Hong Kong tycoon Tung Chao Yung, who intended to transform it into a mobile, floating university. Renamed the Seawise University, it was destroyed by fire on January 9, 1972, in Hong Kong harbour. The hulk is briefly shown and commented on in the 1974 James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, when James Bond, traveling from Macao to Hong Kong by hydrofoil, passes nearby. James is later taken to a secret MI6 headquarters located within the wreck. The Queen Elizabeth was scrapped where it lay in 1975.
Category:Ocean liners|Queen Elizabeth Category:Passenger ships of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth Category:Steamships|Queen Elizabeth Category:Shipwrecks|Queen Elizabeth category:Hong Kong category:History of Hong Kong da:RMS Queen Elizabeth de:RMS Queen Elizabeth fi:RMS Queen Elizabeth This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "RMS Queen Elizabeth".
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