Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Saturday 21 January 2017

Four Queen Elizabeths



A holiday in Southsea with my family in 1960, meant a visit to the Southampton Docks. Here are my mum, brother and me gazing in awe and wonder at RMS Queen Elizabeth, which was based there. The largest passenger liner ever built at the time, and for 56 years after, she had been launched in September  1938 and named in honour of Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother. She came to a sad end in a mysterious fire in 1972 - the liner, not the Queen Mother, who lived to the ripe old age of 101 in March 2002.

Dad and I perch, as so many doubtless did before us, with the bow of the ship in the background.

At the time of the ship’s launch, Queen Elizabeth was the Queen Consort, a rôle she did not expect to play when she married the Duke of York in 1923, as Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. The abdication of the duke’s brother in 1936 led to his younger brother’s coronation. The first picture below shows her in 1927, as the Duchess of York.


























The second image shows her in later life, as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.


And here is the current Queen Elizabeth, snapped by me on December 9th 2016 when she docked in Arrecife,  Lanzarote’s capital.


There is a BBC news report on You Tube, which shows her launch in 2010 and gives some interesting history of her predecessors, with clips from newsreels of the original ship’s launch.



This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt images shows a lady in her youth and old age. Why not climb aboard and enjoy the journey.

7 comments:

  1. Fun, interesting post. And thanks for the video of the launch of the newest Queen Elizabeth liner. The one thing I noticed most about the new ship is how classy it looks. No garish wild colors and lights - although perhaps those might be in other parts of the ship? We didn't get to see the whole ship. But what we did see had class 'written' all over it. So nice!

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  2. Dunno if it is just me but I don't like modern liners. They look like floating package holiday hotels. Which I suppose they are. Or else I am just a traditionalist. When I was little I went to Australia on the P & O steamer Stratheden and that seems to have imprinted me with the way an ocean liner ought to be.

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  3. Ah, the Queen Mum looking so good even in very old age. I agree that the new huge liners look horrible especially in ports. Not so bad at sea, but in places like Venice and Montenegro they are eyesores.

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  4. Oh I enjoyed this. Initially I expected 4 different Elizabeths, and then I thought 2 at 2 stages. Then when I saw the ship, I thought 4 ships. The mix is such a fun surprise. You're so clever.

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  5. A lovely, original "take" on the "down the ages" theme.

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  6. Grand dames all! Did her Majesty ever take a cruise on her namesake?

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  7. Oh I definitely prefer the look of the original ship. These new ones always look top heavy and you figure there simply aren't enough life boats or access to them for all the people aboard.

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