The Unofficial British Royal Family Pages

Monday 20 September 2004

Reigning at Sea: Beyond Ruling the Waves

I recently fulfilled a long-held desire to see the RMS Queen Mary, which has been permanently docked at the Port of Long Beach in California since 1967. As much as the glittering new Queen Mary 2 was hyped late last year, it just doesn’t hold the same appeal to me as the art deco wonders of the grand old ship. Of course, it also doesn’t hurt that the Queen Mary is up to her funnels with royal connections, or that she’s one of the last real remnants of a dying breed – that of “royal ships.”  

Once, these royal ships – everything from ferries to warships to ocean liners – numbered too many to count. Their monikers varied from generic references of titles like Infante, Prince of Wales, Kaiser, etc., to specific names like the German SMS Prinzregent Luitpold (c. 1913) and the Spanish Reina Maria Luisa (c. 1791). Ships were sometimes christened with names that may sound generic today, but were significant at the time. The British merchant vessel Princess of Denmark (c. 1687), for instance, was probably named in honor of the marriage of Princess Anne of Britain to Prince George of Denmark in 1683.  

Frequently, multiple ships shared the same name or, even more commonly, when an original ship was decommissioned, lost, or damaged beyond repair, the original name was conferred on the replacement ship. This not only explains why certain royals often had several ships named after them (the plethora of Georgian princesses are among the most frequently repeated names), but also why, in modern times, we have the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 and the RMS Queen Mary 2. In fact, it’s a common misconception that the QE2 was named for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, but it was actually named after the first ship of that name, the RMS Queen Elizabeth, which was launched in 1938 and named for King George VI’s Queen Consort, Queen Elizabeth. 

The original Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mary were sister ships of the Cunard Line and, like sisters, shared a great many experiences. The first “born,” the Queen Mary, was named after another Queen Consort, King George V’s wife, who christened her in 1934. If you read my August 2^nd column on royal eponyms, you know that there is a highly amusing story of how Cunard planned to name the ship the Queen Victoria, but thanks to a royal misunderstanding between the Line’s representative and George V, the ship was named not for the King’s grandmother, but for his wife. 

While the Queen Mary started her life as a luxurious transatlantic ocean liner, breaking speed records along the way, work began on the future Queen Elizabeth, which was destined to hold the record as the largest passenger ship ever built until 1996. But her maiden voyage in the Spring of 1940 was under far less glamorous circumstances than her sister ship as she made her way to safety in New York under the cloud of World War II. With the war raging, the Queens – like all other resources in Britain – were needed for the war effort, and both ships were converted and put to work as troop transports, shuttling men and supplies from all over the world. Fortunately, the ships’ speed kept them (and millions of troops, wounded soldiers and prisoners of war) safe from the German U-boats throughout the conflict. 

After the war, both ships were refitted and returned to luxurious civilian service, playing gracious host to everybody who was somebody – from European royalty to Hollywood stars. One of my favorite nuances of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth is the idea of the royals as passengers on “their” ships. Not that Queen Elizabeth’s voyage on the Queen Mary would have garnered anything more than an ironic chuckle, but the Duchess of Windsor likely had to swallow hard when she stepped foot on the ship named after the mother-in-law who scarcely acknowledged her. Sailing on the Queen Elizabeth must have been even more difficult for the Duchess given the animosity between the two women, although I somehow think that Wallis managed to ease any personal discomfort by applying her biting sarcasm to the situation at the Queen’s expense. In any case, the Duchess’ fear of flying kept her at sea and, mostly, on the Queens, right up into the 1950s. 

By the 1960s, the rising popularity and availability of affordable air travel meant that transatlantic ship voyages were becoming less popular, and in 1969 the Cunard Line replaced both the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth with the sleeker, faster, and more modern Queen Elizabeth 2. The Queen Mary was purchased by the City of Long Beach, California and converted into a museum and hotel in the early 1970s. Once again, the Queen Elizabeth was less fortunate. In 1970, she was purchased by a Hong Kong shipping magnate who moved the ship to Hong Kong Harbor for conversion to a university. Before the conversion was complete, however, the ship caught fire and attempts to extinguish the fire only served to capsize her. Under the cloud of suspected arson, the Queen Elizabeth was finally scrapped in 1975. 

Today, the relative handful of “royal ships” is perhaps reflective not only of our need for fast and efficient travel, but also of our increasingly egalitarian society. Fortunately, the legacy of these ships is still there – sometimes in spirit, as in the case of the second generation of Cunard Queens, and sometimes in more tangible form, often as historic attractions. And, like the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, many of these ships have a history rivalling those of their namesakes.  

Some have experienced more than just eventful existences. Like the ship once known as the Queen Anna Maria, they’ve survived any number of incarnations. Originally christened the Empress of Britain and launched by Queen Elizabeth II in 1955, the ocean liner was the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company’s first following the war. Luxurious as she was, however, she became yet another victim to air travel. Barely ten years after her first christening, the Empress of Britain was sold to the Greek Line to be refitted for New York-to-Mediterranean pleasure cruises. This second incarnation was solemnized when the ship was re-christened the Queen Anna Maria and re-launched by her namesake, Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, in 1965.  

At the time of the ship’s re-christening, the 18-year-old Queen Anne-Marie, a Danish princess by birth, had been Queen of the Hellenes for barely six months; her husband, Constantine II, had been King of the Hellenes for just a year. By 1975, both the King and Queen of the Hellenes and the Greek Line ship Queen Anna Maria would be driven out of Greece – the monarchs by political upheaval and the Queen Anna Maria by financial troubles. While the King and Queen of the Hellenes went to live in exile, the Queen Anna Maria became the Carnivale in the Carnival Cruise Line fleet in 1976. She changed hands again in 1993, briefly becoming the Fiesta Marina until she was returned to Greek hands in 1995 and renamed the Olympic. Finally, she was reincarnated once again, this time into her present form as the charter ship The Topaz. I guess it just goes to show that – ship or human – “once a queen” does not mean “always a queen.” 

On the other hand, the significance of a name often transcends a title. This is certainly the case with what is perhaps one of the most compelling of the early royal ships – the Mary Rose. Commissioned by England’s Henry VIII in 1509, the ship was named for his beloved sister, Princess Mary, who – as an unwilling pawn in Henry’s game of international politics – carried several titles during her life, including Queen of France. Her namesake was used in much the same way, engaging in most of the King’s international sea battles. Both were also lauded – Mary for her beauty and grace, the Mary Rose because as one of the first warships equipped to fire broadside, she was a marvel of her time.  

But while Mary died, as the Duchess of Suffolk, quietly in her bed, the fate of the Mary Rose was far from peaceful. Despite an overhaul in 1536, by 1545 she was virtually obsolete and was literally blown over by a strong wind during an altercation with the French fleet, sinking quickly in the Solent Channel near Portsmouth. Initial attempts to raise the Mary Rose failed and her location was eventually lost, only to be rediscovered in 1836, and then lost once again. Finally, in 1971, the Mary Rose was definitively located and the process of recovery and restoration began in earnest, culminating in the raising of the ship 1982. Today, the Mary Rose – along with a great many archaeological finds – is restored and open to visitors in Portsmouth, England. 

Like the royals who inspired them, there are simply too many historical royal ships to cover in one column, so this is where I must end. But whether you’re a ship enthusiast, royal watcher or both, the legacy of the royal ships will always reign at sea.

Until next week, 

- Tori Van Orden Martínez