|
The Queens at War The subject of Commander Nicoll's talk was The Queens at War, in this case the ships Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. Samuel Cunard was running a shipping company in Canada in 1839 when the British Government put out to tender for a ship to be built to carry mail and passengers between America and England. He formed a consortium with a well known English civil engineer Robert Napier and Scottish shipping owner George Burns and they won the contract. They called their first ship the Britannia, this was a steam ship but it still had sails. This proved to be a very lucrative business and soon other countries like France and Germany were building ships to obtain their share of the trade. In 1935 the Queen Mary was launched from Southampton with great publicity by Queen Mary, the wife of George V. Work stopped on the Queen Elizabeth in the Clydeside dockyard due to the depression in the 30's and government aid was needed for the work to be completed. After the war had commenced in 1939, the Queen Elizabeth was stealthily sailed to America to be fitted out with no publicity as she would have been a prime target for U boats. Both ships were used as troop ships during the second world war at first carrying 5,000 servicemen at a time, however before the build up to D Day the numbers increased and at times carried as many as 15,000. Care was taken to ensure the weather forecasts were good when so many men were carried, as the ship would have been unstable in adverse conditions. The men were packed like sardines in hammocks and half the men slept whilst the other half were awake, luckily the trip took only four days. One can only imagine the tremendous task of catering for such large numbers on a ship. The Queens were very fast, and although German U boats tried hard to sink them, they managed to outsail them and outwit them. They had escort boats and sadly the Queen Mary collided with and sank one of the cruisers protecting her with the loss of many lives. The Queen Mary was sold and went to long Beach, California where she is used as an hotel and conference centre. Unfortunately, the Queen Elizabeth's fate was not such a happy one, she was sold and changed hands a number of times, finally ending up in Hong Kong harbour where an arsonist set fire to her and she was burnt beyond repair. The QE2 was built at a time when many people were beginning to travel by air. She was refitted and used in 1982 to take servicemen out to the Falklands, however she was not allowed to sail in the war zone as it was felt the enemy would target her and the men were transferred to the Canberra for the final lap of their journey. The Queen Mary 2 is in the process of being built which will be a luxury liner catering for people going on cruises. Highland Road Cemetery Highland Road Cemetery may seem an unusual theme for a talk but, as we found out from Mrs King, some interesting people are buried there. The ground, about 19 acres, was bought by Portsmouth Council in the early 19th century at a very reasonable price and two chapels were built on it, one for the Church of England and one for Roman Catholics. When Mrs King discovered there were a number of holders of the Victoria Cross buried there she with some friends decided to try to locate the graves, a virtually impossible task as there are thousands of people buried there. One day they came across a ranger who looked after the cemetery and he offered to give them all the assistance he could. One of the holders of the VC earned his medal fighting in New Zealand, another during the Indian Mutiny, one in the Boer War and another during the Charge of the Light Brigade. One lady, although she could not be awarded the VC, as this was only for men, was given a full military funeral for tending the sick and wounded in India. Several lady friends of Charles Dickens are buried here. When he was a young man in London he fell in love with a banker's daughter, but as his father had been in prison and Dickens had worked in a blacking factory her parents would not allow her to marry him, and she made what they considered a far more suitable match. He is supposed to have based Dora in David Copperfield on her. Many years later they met up again. Unfortunately she had become a stout garrulous woman who liked her drink and he based another character in his books on her as she was then. There are guided tours of the cemetery during the summer months and it has proved so popular there are now a number of guides to show people around. Margaret Deal |
|
page last updated 1 MAY 2001 |
