Currently reading the autobiography of the Captain of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, and had to share this short passage for grins: There had been much speculation as to her name, and only a few of us in Cunard knew what it was to be when the Directors finally settled it and asked old Lord Roydon, Cunards Chairman, if he could obtain the royal sanction. Not only was he a personal friend of King George V, but he was attending a shooting party at Balmoral that very week...The King asked I say, Roydon, hows that ship of yours coming along? Lord Roydon replied that he wanted permission to name his great ship after the most illustrious and remarkable woman who had ever been Queen of England. That is the greatest compliment, Roydon, that has ever been paid to me and my wife. Ill ask her permission when I get home. So 534 became the Queen Mary, suspending a long-standing Cunard tradition of choosing names ending in -ia. Only Cunard officials knew that Lord Roydon had gone to Balmoral for permission to name the ship Victoria.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 16:33:17 +0000
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