Resting regally on the coast of Southern California in Long Beach is an extraordinary Scottish work of art and masterpiece of engineering. It is by far the largest work of skilled craftsmanship in the United States that hails from Glasgow – a brilliant floating statue in America forged from the hardened hands and creative minds of industrious Scots.
It is more than a moored ship in a harbour, it is a beautiful expression of what Scottish innovation, engineering, and construction has produced. It is a crowning jewel of achievement for Glasgow, it is the regal RMS Queen Mary.
90 years ago this month an estimated crowd of 250,000 people came out in the rain to celebrate the launch of the RMS Queen Mary. The project had employed thousands and touched countless families, including my own.
As early as 1926, designs and testing of a massive ship started in secret. Some of the finest ship architects and engineers had gathered at Clydebank. And while all the leading yards in the UK pitched for the work, it seemed destined it would stay on the Clyde. And so it did. Construction on the magnificent Cunard liner was started in 1930 at the venerable John Brown & Company.........