Anthony Angel Collection/Library of Congress
It’s July 1959, and spectators gather to see the RMS Queen Elizabeth in New York, where she’s docked alongside the Carol Moran tugboat. When this photo was taken, she was the largest operating passenger ship in the world and had been providing weekly transatlantic service between Southampton and New York for 13 years with the Cunard Line. Prior to her maiden commercial voyage in 1946, she played a pivotal role as a British troopship during World War II.
Laid down on December 4, 1936, at John Brown and Company in Clydebank, Scotland, Queen Elizabeth was the second of two liners the Cunard Line commissioned for weekly transatlantic service. Measuring 1,031 feet overall with a 118-foot beam, it was the largest passenger liner ever built, a title she held for 56 years. She could carry 2,283 passengers and more than 1,000 crew.
Queen Elizabeth’s transatlantic service would ultimately be put on hold. As the ship neared completion in 1938, World War II engulfed Europe. Preparations were made to convert this vessel and Queen Mary into troopships.
During the war, both ships transported troops and supplies wherever they were needed. They usually ran alone and were fast enough to outrun threats. Queen Elizabeth transported more than 750,000 troops and covered 500,000 miles.
After the war, she entered commercial service and enjoyed more than two decades at sea. Together with Queen Mary, she dominated the transatlantic passenger trade, competing with the American liners SS United States and SS America. In her later years, she was overhauled to provide transatlantic and cruise ship service, though her deep draft and wide beam prevented her from entering the Panama Canal.
Ultimately, fuel cost volatility and competition from jet planes cut her career short. After her final crossing to New York in 1968, she was retired from commercial service. An American businessman bought her to use as a hotel and casino in Fort Lauderdale. She was then sold to Hong Kong to become a floating university. During her refit there, she caught fire and was destroyed. The wreck was dismantled and scrapped, and the remaining hull was left at the bottom of the harbor.
January 2026
