Queen of Bermuda

Queen of Bermuda

The Queen of Bermuda

Ship data flag  United Kingdom Ship type Combined passenger and cargo ship Owner Furness, Withy Shipyard Vickers , Barrow-in-Furness Launch September 1, 1932 Whereabouts Demolished in Faslane in 1966

Ship dimensions and crew length 176.6 m ( Lüa ) width 23.3 m Draft Max. 8.25 m measurement 22,575 GRT   crew 422

Machine system machine turbo-electric Top speed 19.0 kn (35 km / h) propeller 4 × fixed propellers

Transport capacities Permitted number of passengers 1st class: 731 2nd class: 31

The combined passenger and cargo ship Queen of Bermuda was operated by the Furness Bermuda Line from 1933 to 1966 .

history

At the end of the 1920s, the British shipping company Furness, Withy ordered two luxury passenger ships from Vickers for three-week pleasure voyages on the Furness Bermuda Line between New York and Bermuda. The first ship, the Monarch of Bermuda , was built by Vickers at the temporarily closed Armstrong shipyard in High Walker on the Tyne. The Queen of Bermuda was then built at the Vickers shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness.

The Queen of Bermuda , in Bermuda in the early 1950s

The first of the ships, the Monarch of Bermuda was put into service in 1931, the sister ship Queen of Bermuda followed in February 1933. Both ships enjoyed an excellent reputation on this route, which is the nickname "the millionaires ships" (engl. Ships).

When the Second World War broke out, both ships were drafted by the British Admiralty for military service. In September 1939, the Queen of Bermuda arrived at Harland & Wolff for renovation, and the rear chimney, which had no function, was removed. She was initially used as an armed trade cruiser in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean and from April 1943 as a troop transport.

In 1949 the now restored ship was returned to its original service. From 1951 a newly built Ocean Monarch also drove in this service and on cruises to the Caribbean. In 1961/62 the almost 30-year-old Queen of Bermuda was renovated again and the exterior design was adapted to the successful newer ship. After the renovation, only one chimney remained. Another five years later, the Queen of Bermuda finally arrived in Faslane for demolition .

Web links

• About the Ships at furnessbermudaline.com (English)
• HMS Queen of Bermuda by Brian Armstrong
• HMS Queen of Bermuda (F 73)

literature

• Roger Jordan: The World's Merchant Fleets 1939 , US Naval Institute Press, Annapolis (2006), pp. 135f.