In a recently published biography of Roger Casement (A Rebel and a Traitor, by Rory Carroll), I read of a British battlecruiser, HMS Queen Mary, which sank German shipping in the Battle of Heligoland Bight at the end of August 1914. This was when Casement was sending guns to Ireland, fund-raising in the United States and about to make direct contact with Germany.
The mention of the Queen Mary intrigued me, having not heard of this great battleship, which was only at sea for less than three years before being sunk at the Battle of Jutland with the loss of all but 20 of its crew of almost 1,300.
It was the second Queen Mary with which I had a connection, an ocean liner built for Cunard which sailed for over 30 years from 1936 and served as a troopship during World War II. I was a passenger on the ship's last transatlantic crossing in September 1967, when my wife and I were returning from our honeymoon. Hundreds of streamers were draped from the decks as we sailed down the Hudson river in New York, and again as the ship arrived in Southampton for the last time.
Two memories of the voyage: we - a small group including Walter Lord, author of A Night to Remember, on the sinking of the Titanic - won the last auction on the ship's run (the number of nautical miles travelled during a 24-hour period). When the Queen Mary docked at Southampton, knowing that it was destined for California as a tourist attraction, I removed one of the porthole's brass screws from our cabin. Nearly sixty years on, it still stands on my desk as a paperweight.
Queen Mary 2 has been crossing the Atlantic since 2004 and taking passengers on world cruises. 'My' stately Queen Mary is in retirement at Long Beach, California, doing service as a hotel and museum. I don't think I want to see it there.
