![]() May 22nd is National Maritime Day - the day we honor the American Merchant Marine. The day was established by Congress in 1933. The 22nd was picked as it was the day the U.S. merchant ship "Savannah" sailed from the U.S. to England. This was the first time a steamship crossed the Atlantic Ocean. (By the way, the first nuclear powered cargo-passenger merchant ship was also named the "Savannah".) In 1994 the Maritime Administration introduced this flag to honor the sailors who have defended the United States since the founding of our country.
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So...what about the Queen Mary 2? Is that ship named after Queen Mary II (of William & Mary, 1689-1694)? No. The current QM2 is named after the RMS Queen Mary - the original ship. The hint here is the Cunard liner is the "Queen Mary 2" -not- the "Queen Mary II". So that leads us to the QE2. Who (or what) was that named after? That ship is named after the original RMS Queen Elizabeth (1938-1969) that sailed alongside the original RMS Queen Mary. And that ship was named after Queen Elizabeth, not the sovereign but the (future) Queen Mother! The QE2 replaced both the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary in 1969. To really confuse things, the current Cunard ship Queen Elizabeth is just the QE - even though she is the third Cunarder to have that name. Why not QE3? It probably just sounds better! Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II (the reigning queens) has not yet had a ship named after them. Oh...but what about the Queen Victoria? Yes, they kept that simple. Its named after the human Queen Victoria! Confused? Yes, no? Don't worry, there is still time to have ships named after Queen Mary I, Queen Mary II, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth II, and Queen Anne. Just one more thing - in 2016 the Royal Navy will launch the HMS Queen Elizabeth a new aircraft carrier. That ship is named after Queen Elizabeth I....
Last week I visited the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA. I'm going to post some pictures here. Its a great ship to explore and I highly recommend you visit it if you are in the Los Angeles area. She was built in 1934 and sailed until 1967 for the Cunard Line (at that time it was still the Cunard-White Star line after the merger). During WWII she served as a troop transport ship and known as "The Grey Ghost". There is a lot of great information here so I don't want to just repeat what is already out there on the internet. One of the most interesting stories about the ship however is its name. I always thought the RMS Queen Mary was named after Queen Mary I of England. But, this is not true. The ship is actually named after Queen Mary, the wife of King George V (the monarch at the time of the ship's launching). The story goes (never confirmed) that the Cunard-White Star wanted to name the ship Queen Victoria. They asked the king if they could name the ship after Britain's "greatest queen" and the king stated that his wife would be very happy. Oops! As it was probably not wise to upset the king and explain that they meant Queen Victoria, they just went along with it. Now I'm not sure if this was true or not but there are several sources that verify the story. Plus, Cunard tradition has been to name their ships with an "-ia" ending (Aquitania...Mauretania...Lusitania) so "Victoria" does make sense. Either way, it is an interesting story! |
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