These "Queens" were the British response to the express superliners built by German, Italian, and French companies in the late s and early s. Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on 27 May and won the Blue Riband that August; [ 5 ] she lost the title to SS Normandie in and recaptured it in , holding it until , when the new SS United States claimed it. With the outbreak of World War II , she was converted into a troopship and ferried Allied soldiers during the conflict.
On one voyage in , she carried over 16, people, still the record for the most people on one vessel at the same time. Following the war, Queen Mary returned to passenger service and, along with Queen Elizabeth, commenced the two-ship transatlantic passenger service for which the two ships were initially built. The pair dominated the transatlantic passenger transportation market until the dawn of the jet age in the late s. By the mids, Queen Mary was ageing and operating at a loss. After several years of decreased profits, Cunard officially retired the Queen Mary from service in She left Southampton for the last time on 31 October and sailed to Long Beach, California , United States, where she was permanently moored.
The City of Long Beach bought the ship to serve as a tourist attraction featuring restaurants, a museum , and a hotel. The city contracted out management of the ship to various third-party firms over the years, until it took back operational control in With Weimar Germany launching Bremen and Europa into service, the United Kingdom and its shipping companies did not want to be left behind in the shipbuilding race.
White Star Line , Cunard's chief British rival, began construction on the 80,ton Oceanic in , while Cunard planned a 75,ton unnamed ship. Work halted in December due to the Great Depression and Cunard applied to the British Government for a loan to complete The Government granted the loan, providing enough money to complete the unfinished ship, and also to build a running mate to provide a two ship weekly service to New York.
One condition of the loan was that Cunard merge its operations with the White Star Line, [ 9 ] which was also struggling due to the depression and had canceled construction of its Oceanic. Both lines agreed to the merger, and, on 10 May , the companies created a third company, Cunard-White Star Line , to manage their newly combined fleet.
