Nighttime view of the Queen Mary at her Long Beach dock (photo by Chris Perley)
The RMS Queen Mary was the pride of the British ocean liner company Cunard White Star from 1936 until 1967. She is a niece to the infamous RMS Titanic, which sank only eighteen years before the Mary’s construction began. The Mary was designed to be one of the largest and fastest passenger liners in existence. She was the first to be built exceeding 1,000 linear feet, and she twice held the coveted Blue Riband prize for fastest trans-Atlantic crossing. The ship sailed between Southampton, England, and New York Harbor, with a stop at Cherbourg, France.This is a crossing she made 1,001 times. She played host to dignitaries, heads of state, captains of industry, and Hollywood celebrities. And during World War II, she ferried troops around the world for military service.