A Victorious Homecoming

On this day in 1936 from British Pathe:

QUEEN MARY GAINS BLUE RIBAND

Mini Mary

On this day in 1935 from British Pathe:

CAUGHT BY THE CAMERA (NO. 49)

Still A Record Breaker

From British Pathe on this day in 1966:

ALL AT SEA - QUEEN MARY DOCK AT SOUTHAMPTON

Félicitations

From the Ottawa Citizen on this day in 1936:

Normandie Owners Pleased Queen Mary Has New Record

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French Line Officials Are Please That Britain's Super Liner Has Been Able To Establish Atlantic Crossing Records for Both Directions.

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Associated Press Despatch.

SOUTHAMPTON, Aug. 31 - French Line officials today extended congratulations to the Cunard line on the achievement of the liner Queen Mary in setting a new transatlantic record for bothwestward and eastward crossings.

"As friends and competitors we are glad that your great liner has accomplished what was expected of her," the resident director of the French Line told the press.

"I am sending the heartiest congratulations of our line to the Cunard-White Star Company at Liverpool, because we are genuinely pleased that the Queen Mary has created a new record," he added.

French Line officials refused to make any statement as to whether the Normandie would attempt to regain her speed laurels.

Under jubilant headlines, London newspapers contrasted the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, who required 70 days to reach the West Indies, with the latest achievements of the Queen Mary in returning the coveted blue ribbon to Great Britain.

VIP Arrival

From The Lewiston Daily Sun in 1937:

WELLES IN FRANCE; TO REST IN VENICE

Cherbourg, France. Aug. 3o - AP - Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles of the United States and Mrs. Welles arrived today on the liner Queen Mary en route for a vacation in Venice. The Undersecretary made no comment on the Far Eastern crisis which was reported to have brought him to Europe.

Crowded

From The Southeast Missourian on this day in 1939:

With thousands of American tourists clamoring to be given passage the on boats returning to United States, steamship companies may have to install dormitories in the salons like the Queen Mary did...on one voyage at the time of the Munich crisis.

Ouch

From The Glasgow Herald on this day in 1951:

"QUEEN" LINER IN STORM

One man was injured and 11 passengers suffered bruises and cuts aboard the Queen Mary in mid-Atlantic two days ago, when she ran into heavy weather. When the liner arrived at Southampton last night an ambulance was waiting for a tourist-class liftman, William Brown (36), who suffered a broken arm and injuries to his ribs, an ankle, and a thumb when he was thrown across the deck. Passengers said that they were unable to sleep. Despite the bad weather the liner arrived on time, averaging for the crossing a speed of 27 1/2 knots.

So There!

From the Ottawa Citizen on this day in 1953:

Liner Queen Mary Sails, Leaving Cargo On N.Y. Pier

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK - The Queen Mary left behind Wednesday 114 tons of general cargo and 11 automobiles because of a longshoremen's work stoppage on Pier 90.

The vessel sailed two minutes early at 11:58 a.m. (E.D.T.) with 1,434 passengers, most of whom had to carry their own luggage aboard.

One union source said the longshoremen stopped work because another Cunard liner, the Mauretania, was scheduled to dock at Pier 92 instead of Pier 90 Friday, which meant they would not get the job of unloading her.

A Real Plum

From The Deseret News on this day in 1935:

Orry-Kelly, the Warner stylist, draws a real plum. He'll stage the fashion show on the Quen Mary, when the giant new British liner makes her maiden voyage to New York.

England Through A Porthole

From The Milwaukee Journal on this day in 1953:

Stowaway Back; Only Got Look at English Channel

New York, N. Y. - (UP) - A stowaway who hoped to swim the English Channel--but had to settle for a view of it through a porthole--returned Tuesday aboard the Queen Mary.

Wallace Warren Smith, 24, from Portage, Wis., said he had a pretty good trip nonetheless and even won a prize, a bottle of champagne, in a tourist class dance.

He said he walked New York docks for two weeks trying to get a job that would take him aboard and finally stowed away on the Queen Mary on her last trip here. He said he wouldn't reveal how because he wanted "to protect the Cunard line."

He was discovered when the ship was 18 hours out, and was allowed to move about in the tourist section of the ship. He was not allowed to land in England and came back on the return trip.

A Madhouse

Beatrice Lillie

From "A New Yorker At Large" by Jack Stinnet in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune on this day in 1937:

Under the elevated highway that runs along the waterfront in the West Fifties, traffic is a shambles. Those able to beat through it with bones unbroken, find the great pier shed a madhouse...for the Queen Mary is out for Southampton with nearly 2,000 passengers and a dozen or so friends and relatives to see each of them off.

As we move up the gangplank, we see that the autograph army is already aboard the lugger and the ship is theirs. Deploying in platoons they maneuver in quick time across the decks, through the great salons into the passageways, executing attacks from both flanks on the cabins of Madeleine Carroll, Beatrice Lillie an Sonja Henie.

Honey-haired Sonja, smiling over a huge spray of orchids, keeps her romance with Tyrone Power alive by tossing coyly noncommittal answers to direct questions of the press. We are a bit weary of the romance and think it is about time Sonja's press department thinks up something else...and we say so...which widens the smile of the lady-of-the-skates into a grin and draws a mischievous wink. If Sonja pronounced her name as most people mispronounce it, we would make a couplet of the fact you can't be a meany with Sonja Henie.

Bea Lillie steals a march on the autograph army by encamping temporarily in the cabin of a friend, who despite his millions from Fifth avenue merchandising, is not worth a cent to the signature grafters. There was some complaint that that was no way for a Lady Peel to act, but being hard to find never has made anyone less desirable to the autograph hunters yet. Miss Lillie told us she is only off to London to see her son and tend a little legal business and will be back in a few weeks. There's Hollywood business to be attended to before long.

Miss Carroll had come aboard with the dawn and husband Capt. Philip Asteley, who was doing a job of holding the door of their cabin full worthy of comparison with Horatius's business at the bridge.

Miss Carroll and her husband are off for a holiday of boating on the French canals and the least we could do was wish them a much happier voyage than we saw them off to last year when civil war prevented their even visiting their castle in Spain.

Bemax & Horlick's Malted Milk

For breakfast on this day in 1958:

A Colorful Group

From The Virgin Islands Daily News on this day in 1945:

It Says Here

SOMEWHERE ON THE ATLANTIC

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By Bob Hope

We met the commander of our ship, the Queen Mary, this morning-- Commodore Sir James Bisset. The commodore's 63 years old but for the past five years he's been constantly on duty getting troops and equipment safely past subs, mines and dive bombers without a single mishap. But frankly I was a little disappointed when I met Sir James. He didn't look anything like Charles Laughton. Everything on this ship from Sir James down is very British. When they want to stop they don't drop an anchor--the [sic] just release a loaded tea bag. And they don't call those round windows portholes. They refer to them as starboard and port monocles.

What a colorful group of passengers we have this trip. Besides our little group of tourists, they include several hundred American officers, a couple of battalions of Japanese-American GIs on their way to Europe as replacements, some Polish and Russian officers, a bunch of RAF cadets who have been trainning [sic] in Texas and Arizona, a detachment of WACs (our secret weapons), some English WRENs (same thing with "right oh's") some German prisoners of war being taken back to help pile up the rubble, some English citizens repatriated from Manila prison camps and a handful of America [sic] civilians on government business.

The ship is sort of a League of Nations with a purser. But they are really crowded aboard on these trips back. Men sleep and eat in shifts of 2,250. Seven shifts a day. They only serve two meals a day to the soldiers but the food is really marvelous. They have butter and some delicious stuff that's really tasty and chewy. They call it "meat". It's really a shame they can't leave some of that nutrition when they pause in England. Meat's as strange to an Englishman as it is to Sinatra and I understand they've cut the ration over there again which will make it plenty rough. Those English have been living and fighting for over five years on rations.

It won't be long before we sight land. The Queen is about the fastest liner afloat now and they don't take any chances on her slowing down. They have huge steam turbines in the hold, auxiliary engines in the stern and two ensigns standing by up front with canoe paddles.

(Copyright 1945, King Features Syndicate, Inc.)

Hello, 60th Division

From The Daily Times on this day in 1945:

Queen Mary Brings More Troops Home

NEW YORK Aug. 21 (UP) - The Queen Mary and three other transports, carrying 16,658 troops, dock here today.

Many members of the 60th Division arrive aboard the Queen Mary which carried 14,809 soldiers who will go to Camp Kilmer, N. J., for processing.

Other ships arriving were the Hawaiian Shipper, with 1,819 troops diverted from the Pacific; Occidental Victory, 29 troops, and the Sarah J. Hale with two aboard.