It's April 1936 and just off the isle of Arran Scotland a
huge ocean liner is being put through its paces
these are the ship's sea trials and on board are representatives from both the shipbuilder
john brown and company and the future owners the Cunard line on the bridge is the vessel's captain
sir Edgar Britton he had started as a young man at sea aboard a thousand tonne sailing ship
now he commands an 80 000 ton behemoth as the liners engines are worked up to full power her
name gleams in the sunlight Queen Mary this was a triumphal moment for all involved but just a
few short years earlier the great ship's hull had sat empty and rusting on the slipway unfinished
thanks to the great depression this is the story of how the master shipbuilding company john brown
turned that hulk into one of the greatest ocean liners of all time the mighty rms Queen Mary
the last time we visited the Queen Mary’s story we looked at the events that led up to the stock
market crash that paused the ship's construction for two years and four months but after some
clever political manoeuvring the ship's completion was secured and you can learn about how that
happened in part one of this series but finally in April of 1934 john brown workers swarmed back on
board the unfinished ship and began work again by scraping away 130 tons of rust and bird droppings
john brown was a legendary shipbuilding company and they had built some of the world's largest and
most famous ships from ocean liners like Lusitania and aquitania to the warships HMS Hood and Renown
they were situated in Scotland at Clyde bank which is a little over nine kilometres or five
miles from Glasgow on the Clyde river here's an overhead view of the shipyard in 1934. you can
see that Queen Mary is being constructed here in the spring of 1934 you could have stood over
here across from the fitting out wharf and watched the mighty hull of the Queen Mary taking shape for
over two years now the ship had loomed over the town like a giant now it was up to john brown's
workers to finish the vessel and sent her on her way to understand the magnitude of the task ahead
we first need to get some understanding of what state the Queen Mary was in by that April of 1934
at the time they had put down tools way back in 1931 Queen Mary’s hull had only just taken on its
fundamental form as with all ships the workers had started with the keel in 1930. this was the ship's
backbone and it comprised a steel girder running the majority of the ship's 1019 foot length
and it was riveted atop three layers of keel plate which was about three and a half inches thick
flanking either side of the keel was seven longitudinal girders and then a web of floors
were riveted to these and plating installed on top of the structure and underneath this formed
the ship's double bottom which was cellular and largely watertight from here the huge transverse
frames could be attached these steel beasts gave Queen Mary’s hull its shape and they were
spaced apart 36 inches of midships narrowing to only 24 inches at the extreme bow and stern
long support structures called stringers were riveted to the frames and all this
steel would form a basis for a ship that was both immensely strong and very flexible in heavy seas
then came the hull plates huge flat pieces of steel riveted together to form the ship's skin
both inside and out they originated at the kill plate and individual hull plates were
lined in vast rows called strikes the one either side of the keel was known as the garbage strike
and then each strake from there received its own letter designation in alphabetical order as they
work their way up the hull the plates were riveted together with dozens of rivets each
often in two or three rows and all of these rivet holes had to be individually punched
out of the steel by specialist machine with pinpoint accuracy then the riveters would
get to work pounding red hot iron rivets into the holes and therefore fastening the steel together
this work continued down the length of the ship and as the plating continued wood logs were put
in place to shore up the ship and make sure that it couldn't move on the slipway scaffolding then
slowly began to rise stories into the air so that workers could continue to rivet the hull together
meanwhile at the extreme ends of the ship two monumental pieces of engineering achievement
were fitted these were the stem castings and they formed the very tip of the ship's bow and
stern they were actually the biggest yet made and the fords that produced them Darlington
had to make some considerable investment in their works to even complete the order
this was a master stroke of engineering and pure craftsmanship the castings that arrived
by rail in sections at john brown were immense the bow stem casting itself being 130 feet long
and rising to about the height of a 10 story building once assembled
in between the frames holes were cut into the shell plating for the thousands of portholes
which would provide light into the ship's hull for state rooms and public spaces even at this stage
of construction millions of rivets had been used and eventually a total of some 12 million rivets
weighing a combined estimated total of 4 000 tonnes would be needed to hold the vas shipped
together the rivets alone weighed almost as much as the total displacement of two
fletcher class destroyers this work laying the keel assembling the frames and plating the hull
went on and was about 80 complete when the shipyard was forced to shut down
thanks to the great depression in December of 1931. when john brown and company's workers
finally returned those two years four months later they picked up from where they left off
and the ship's hull was complete and finally ready for launch by September of 1934
even though the hull was empty and carried none of the immense boilers and machinery that would power
it through the water she already weighed as much as 36 000 tons getting this enormous mass safely
into the water for the first time would be no easy feat and it took a significant amount of planning
and preparation in itself the Queen Mary was being built on the slipway here but at 1019 feet long
there was a real danger that she would run aground on the opposite side of the Clyde river after
launching to remedy this two things had to happen first five acres of the Clyde and cart banks had
to be dredged to widen and deepen them enough so that the Queen Mary wouldn't become stuck
and secondly thousands of tons of dead weight would need to be fixed to the ship's hull
so that it was tethered to the slipway and would stop dead in its tracks as soon as it was afloat
2 350 tons of drag chains would therefore be used to keep the ship from running aground
careful calculations were poured over by the john brown team with an empty hull weighing some 36 000
tons they estimated that she would travel 1194 feet and this had to even be tested with a model
then after launch the ship would be guided by tugs here to the fitting out basin so that all of her
heavy machinery could be installed as well as her lavish interiors on September 26th 1934 the big
day finally came and a huge crowd of some 200 000 people flocked to see the event even though it was
raining to convey the ship's sheer scale john brown employed an old tactic painting the hull
of brilliant white so that she would stand out more against the drab city background in black
and white photographs king George v and his wife Queen Mary of tech ascended the launching platform
until then the ship's name had been a secret and it had only been referred to as hull number 534
then Queen Mary of Tek cut the ribbon announcing the ship was named after her instead
the name having been picked as a break from tradition and a step in a fresh new direction
there was a loud cheer as a bottle of Australian sparkling wine smashed on the ship's bow
and then a dull rumble as the ship's huge hull began to slide down the slipway
which had been coated in tallow to make the task easier this was a critical moment the
hull was about to undergo huge stresses more than it ever would in its entire career at sea
the builders held their breath as Queen Mary hit the critical point with half of her hull afloat
in the river and the other half still up on the slipway this caused her hull to bend up by almost
eight inches and then eventually sag down by two a weaker ship could have probably broken in half but
Queen Mary’s builders had stiffened the hull with girders and they had also delayed cutting openings
like windows and doors into the superstructure on top of the hull to provide additional support
in about a hundred seconds the vast white hull of the Queen Mary was afloat for the first time and
cheers filled the air her bulk sent up a two-foot wave which flooded out the spectator stands on the
opposite side of the river and in the end the launching model had proved incredibly accurate
her builders had predicted that she would travel 1194 feet before coming to a rest
and in reality she only exceeded this distance by two feet
with Queen Mary moored at the fitting out wharf workers could finally swarm
aboard to begin outfitting the ship's machinery and what machinery it was
everything about the Queen Mary was of immense scale and incredible accuracy
her rudder was the largest yet built and weighed 150 tons by itself
the four manganese bronze propellers each weighed around 35 tons and stretched 20 feet across
the slightest error in their casting would have cost the shipbuilders more than 330 000 us dollars
in today's money five 60-ton gear wheels for the turbine engines had their teeth ground in
to a thousandth of an inch of accuracy over the course of two months each the anchors were the
largest built for a liner and weighed 16 tons each and to lessen the effect of wind resistance
a cut-out was made so they could sit recessed into the hull huge cranes lifted the immense boilers up
and down into the ship's bowels 24 Yarrow boilers went in as well as the four parsons turbine sets
steam from the boilers would be superheated to 700 degrees Fahrenheit and course through the
lines at 400 pounds per square inch this steam would send the turbine's rotors which themselves
weighed 40 tons spinning at 3 000 revolutions per minute and the engines could output 50 000
horsepower each down into the ship's bowels went the four weir condensers massive units with 41 000
square feet of cooling surface designed to turn exhaust steam back into water and recirculate
it then there were four turbo generators by British Thompson Houston which would power Queen
Mary’s lights and there were even installed two emergency kerosene generators that on
their own could provide power for all the ship's services for 36 hours in the case of an emergency
all of these huge pieces of machinery each of them extremely expensive and specialized
was lifted with care into the Queen Mary and fixed into place then work could commence on
the superstructure and the interiors public rooms had their walls or bulkheads riveted into place
corridors and vast interior rooms suddenly appeared as walls were installed a network
of ventilation trunking provided fresh air to the ships inside and these would be connected to
enormous intakes and fans on the boat deck which could suck in immense amounts of air to adequately
ventilate the Mary's 80 000 ton interior space this work at the fitting out wharf went on for
20 months and slowly but surely the hulk was turned into a ship then three funnels each
of them wide enough to drive three locomotives through abreast were lifted and riveted into place
all three of the funnels were actually of different heights and they got shorter
sequentially but the forward-most funnel was the height of a seven-story building they were fitted
with steam-powered typhon whistles whose deep rumble could be heard more than 10 miles away
they were tuned down to the absurdly low pitch of base a so as not to disturb passengers on
deck and to convey Queen Mary’s huge size each of the three whistles weighed a ton
by themselves while all this work was going on outside the ship work was intensifying inside as
well hundreds and hundreds of passenger staterooms bathrooms and public spaces had to be constructed
to the highest possible standard and no expense was spared the ship's interiors would be decorated
with dozens of species of timber including ebony jacaranda zebra mahogany violet wood
sycamore elm birch about 56 species in total then there was the art vast oils carved gesso panels
etched glass and bronze reliefs murals by painters and cartoonists the first class veranda grill for
example featured a mural by Doris Zinkeisen that was one thousand feet square down on d-deck was
installed the two-story palatial tiled swimming pool completed with balconies and a simulated
mother-of-pearl ceiling and in the cabin class restaurant a monumental map depicted the north
Atlantic with a miniature crystal replica of the ship indicating its exact position on the route
the interior decor was for want of a better word a bit weird Cunard erred on the side of tradition
as always but they did not want to put Queen Mary to sea with the kinds of stately Edwardian
interiors you'd expect from the aquitania the result was a mix match of deco and modernism
and traditional Britishness said one critic at the time the pictures and sculpture are varied in kind
and quality and not all of them fit happily into their setting the general effect is one of mild
but expensive vulgarity at the time this gave sir Percy bates Cunard’s chairman cause for concern
but in the end the strange combination proved endearing and passengers found Queen Mary to be
comfortable and homely the exterior architecture of the ship was also a curious balance of
old and new her three funnels echoed the design of her running mate Berengaria but
they were proportionally squatter she didn't have Aquitania or Mauretania's massive goofy cowl vents
but in their place she had massive rectangular units instead
her bridge front also echoed Mauretania and Lusitania with its elegant sweeping
curve and instead of an Edwardian clipper stern she sported a modern cruiser type stone instead
with the ship nearing completion 20 lifeboats each the size of a motor yacht
powered by diesel engines and with capacity for 145 people were installed on modern
electric gravity debits which could be lowered quickly and safely two additional boats with
reduced capacity could carry their own wireless sets and two more lifeboats were kept readied for
emergencies such as a man overboard a single lifeboat from the Queen Mary could carry all
of the passengers of the Cunard line's first steamship the Britannia constructing the Queen
Mary was a monumental achievement one that was almost never finished but finally in April 1936
the ship was guided down the Clyde by tugs for her sea trials before departing on her maiden voyage
her engines roaring at full power captain sir Edgar Britton’s eyes must have smarted against
the chill Scottish spring air as Queen Mary glided through the waves at speed she was a
shipbuilding triumph a win for Britain as a whole and undoubtedly the pride of Scotland she would go
on to have a career that can only be described as legendary the next time we visit the Queen
Mary’s story we'll take a look at that brief but exciting time before the second world war when the
Queen Mary was run up against her international rivals and proved to be the best of the best
ladies and gentlemen it's your friend mike brady from ocean liner designs
thank you so much for watching this video please think about liking and subscribing to the channel
every little bit helps and I aim to make a video like this once every week so you'd hate to miss
out or you could support my channel on Patreon you'll find the link down in the description
until then stay safe stay happy and i'll see you again next time