RMS Queen Mary - A Narrated Tour in 4k

hello and welcome i am alex the historian your guide to this virtual tour through time here on the rms queen mary this video was originally filmed and published in january of 2020 as a vlog however for this video it will be re-edited as a virtual tour so i apologize in advance if there are some spaces on the ship i don't touch upon in this video but in future videos i'll continue to cover more now be sure your shoelaces are tied you have your personal belongings subscribe to the channel and let's begin the rms queen mary is a retired ocean liner built in scotland starting in the year 1930 due to the great depression her launch date was delayed until 1934 but she held her maiden voyage in may of 1936. she was purchased by the city of long beach california and brought here in december of 1967. here we can see the outside of her hull her steel hole plates are held together with over 1 million rivets many of which were hammered by machine but a great deal had to be done by manpower [Music] the ship is connected to city utilities through a system of hoses and cables you can also see the large steel bumper that prevents the ship from scraping the dock this ship really is floating in the water and she will rise and fall with the tide during world war ii the queen mary was used as an armed troop transport ferrying over 340 000 servicemen from countries around the world she still holds the record for most people carried on a single vessel 16 683 souls [Music] at the entryway we can see photographs of the late british prime minister sir winston churchill sir churchill not only preferred taking the queen mary across the ocean but during world war ii he and several war officials planned the storming of normandy right here in one of the ship's bathtubs he even credited the queen mary by saying she helped shorten the war by a year the queen mary was purchased by the city it was with the intention to operate her as a working hotel and museum [Music] this is where we entered the ship this is the original first class entry on a deck [Music] and here is the first class midship stairwell it is paneled in white english ash wood and still features its original brass [Music] handrails you can even see an indented area where ropes would have been tied so passengers could walk around while the ship rolled in rough seas around the corner you get a glimpse of one of the beautiful stateroom hallways and on the back wall here are portraits of queen elizabeth ii and prince philip [Music] in many of her hallways you can still see her original wood paneling this corridor in particular has light english sycamore above and dark australian walnut below those handrails were added soon after the maiden voyage in 1936 and are made of authentic bakelite this hallway also shows the beautiful upwards curve in the ship's design called shear the ship's shear also means that her doorways have a unique slant [Music] here we are in the third class staircase which originally descended five decks downward from the main deck the queen mary was built in a time when western classism was beginning to die out people in third class were starting to travel for leisure so the queen mary's attention to detail in the third class areas made her more popular than other ships of the time [Music] third class had just one staircase but second class had two and first class had three and speaking of third class you might notice the decorative wood paneling in this area the queen mary's third class accommodations were far superior than most ocean liners at the time [Music] this hallway and adjoining rooms may look rather industrial but this exhibit space along with the nearby cunard story exhibit was once all part of the nicely appointed third class smoking room today it is an exhibit space that showcases some of the queen mary's old fire safety systems [Music] and this is one of the ship's compasses [Music] now we are in the room across the hall this is the cunard story exhibit once again this was all part of the third class smoking room [Music] [Music] now we exit the third class smoking room out into the forward well deck the well deck is a recessed deck in between the foxel and the superstructure this is rather interesting because in the 1930s during the time when the queen mary was under construction well decks on ships were falling out of style a ship with a well deck was seen as old-fashioned but it's old designs like these that lend to the queen mary's beauty this is the first class mid staircase on main deck opposite the staircase in the center of the room is the former travel bureau where passengers could book transit and lodging for anywhere in the western world even while at sea [Music] now we have gone up one level to the promenade deck where you can see the top of the grand staircase in the center is a marble medallion of the ship's namesake this is her majesty queen mary consort of britain's king george v the rms queen mary was the first british ocean liner to be named after a living royal as the camera pans away from the staircase we can see the ship's main area which is actually called piccadilly circus named after london's famous road junction queen mary's piccadilly circus originally had a number of socialization spots and even shops [Music] on the right was a flower shop a drawing room and behind that was the first class children's playroom at the center was a small shop and on the left was a corner cigar shop the library and behind that was a lecture room if you continued past the shops going forward you would get to the observation bar but we'll get back to that later the pastel colored walls might look like they are covered with vintage wallpaper but actually they are made of leather they were installed over the original chestnut wood paneling in 1947 when cunard decided this room needed a brighter color scheme to match the mid-century aesthetics of the time normally wooden wall panels would be torn out for the sake of modernization but even in those times the designers couldn't stand to tear out all that beautiful wall paneling the queen mary herself is nicknamed the ship of beautiful woods that's because the ship's bulkheads and fittings are covered in 56 different types of rare and exotic woods this decorative panel shows only 37 of those different woods and it just so happens to be covering up the unused starboard elevators we are now in the ship model room which was installed on the starboard promenade this is a model of the queen mary showing her four screw propellers and the look of the ship as she appeared in her glory days she is 1019 feet long and 118 feet wide and has 12 decks despite her massive scale she held the title of fastest ocean liner in the world for 14 years between 1938 and 1952 we are now entering the observation bar this room certainly embodies the heart of the art deco style with its layout of geometric shapes ornate stainless steel railings red and gold banded vos lanterns and hanging bowl-shaped light fixtures [Music] this room has been used in several film and tv productions whenever a scene calls for an art deco atmosphere [Music] the walls are adorned with several woods namely maple but as we turn around you can see that the bar is fitted with a dark makassar ebony the painting above the bar was done in 1935 it is called the royal jubilee week by alfred thompson this area by the windows used to be part of the indoor promenade but they expanded the observation bar into it after the ship was retired [Music] here we go to the promenade this indoor walkway was designed as a continuous loop that stretched the length of the superstructure it is said that just one lap around is equal to a quarter of a mile promenade decks allowed passengers to take long walks while still being shielded from the sometimes bitter cold and harsh weather of the atlantic when the weather was fair they would take a walk on the sundeck but we'll get to that later [Music] this is one room i only wish i could have seen myself but i decided to include images of it simply because it is one you cannot pass up this is the first class main lounge it has three electric fireplaces to help heat the room and the ornate stone lanterns at the base of the pillars were all carved from the same block of onix to ensure each vas appeared the same [Music] this room stretches two and a half decks high and sits right over the first class main restaurant which we will see later [Music] as we enter the first class smoking room it stretches the height of two decks and all around you can see the rich tiger oak panels that adorn the walls decorating the room are two separate paintings done by edward wadsworth [Music] beneath the forward painting is the only fireplace on the ship that isn't electric and on either side of the fireplace are carved limewood panels by james woodford [Music] beneath this painting is a refreshment counter where stewards could access drinks for the passengers originally this room was for men only but by the 1950s women were allowed access you'll notice along the pillars and walls at the same waist high level are white buttons made of bakelite these made it easier for passengers to request a steward [Music] [Music] these are the beautifully framed elevators of the second class forward staircase their chromed steel doors still glisten just as they used to [Music] the brass handrails accentuate the quilted maple walls if you follow the staircase down you can see the etched glass panels depicting vessels of transportation in classic art deco style [Music] hmm [Music] as you can see we are still on the promenade deck however this area served as the second class promenade and only half of it was covered the other half was out here in the open [Music] the deck below would have also been part of the second class area this is where they could get some fresh air and sun themselves that raised platform hanging over the edge of the ship is called the docking bridge it was used by officers to help guide the stern of the ship as they moored it to the dock and now we head below decks to the isolation ward this is a space on b deck reserved for passengers with ailments or other reasons for being isolated such as in the case of stowaways or lice infestation [Music] it also served as a type of hospital to treat those in need of being isolated [Music] the area was separated by sex with women and female nurses being housed on the starboard side and the men and male nurses on the port side this small cabin was shared by two female nurses we are now walking to the men's area on the port side this would have been identical to the other side but was left empty as part of the museum exhibit [Music] this area holds the aft capstan gear and rope storage this is the very stern of the ship called the poop deck it would have had a lot more capstans and mooring gear in the olden days but now it is used for small events [Music] [Music] we are still near the stern of the ship this time on the sun deck a first-class area this is the entrance of the veranda grill another amazing restaurant aboard the ship with a distinct art deco atmosphere it was very exclusive and hard to book reservations at the design of the entire room and all its wall paintings were done by artist doris zinkesen much like the promenade this sundeck allowed passengers to walk in a continuous loop around the superstructure of the ship and enjoy the fair weather outside the planking is made of teak a very expensive commodity but it can last a long time with proper care two lifeboats would have sat here but were removed by disney for restoration in the 1990s and both were subsequently lost as we continue forward on the sun deck you can see the port side row of queen mary's 24 motorized lifeboats each boat had a capacity of 145 passengers and could be lowered down from the ship thanks to her electrically powered [Music] davits we are now on the sports deck going forward to look out onto the ship's bow and foxel deck [Music] below you might see what looks like large orange pipes connected to the forward mast those aren't pipes but rather they are boom cranes there are seven booms and they were designed for various duties but mainly to load cargo into the lower holds each boom would be connected to ropes and hoisted by the electric winches sitting on the deck high up on the mast is what's called the crow's nest where men would be stationed as lookouts for oncoming dangers ships today don't need crow's nests because they construct the navigation bridge so close to the bow the forward end of the sports deck is also the location of the officer's quarters [Music] this apartment is the captain's quarters last occupied by captain john jones you can see he even has space for entertaining guests the little room next to the captains belonged to the first officer and next to that is the staff captain's quarters staff captains assisted with the captain's duties in order to help bear the workload nearby is a bathroom which the chief officers would have shared the captain however had his own private bathroom the four faucets you see on the shower offered not only hot and cold fresh water but also hot and cold clean salt water we have now gone up to the next level this is the bridge the highest deck on the ship it would have only been accessible to the captain and the navigation officers extending out from the ship are the bridge wings these were used to better see over the sides when docking [Music] and now one of the highlights of our tour the actual bridge of the ship this is where the ship was steered and where officers gave commands to the engine room those commands were usually sent with the use of these brass telegraphs there was a telegraph for each of the four engines and an extra telegraph which relayed steering instructions to the crew in the steering room in case the hydraulic rudder must be manually operated but manual steering was only a last case scenario the ship had two hydraulic helms for redundancy which allowed instantaneous steering the grey wheel to the right was an automatic helm nicknamed the iron mic it was mainly used to keep the ship on a steady course out at sea if there were commands too complicated to relay by telegraph the ship had these special sets of telephones called lauda phones specially designed to cancel out the loud noises of the boiler and engine rooms [Music] around the corner are the chart rooms for navigation and here is what remains of the stabilizer console which was installed in 1958 [Music] we are now looking up at replicas of the queen mary's three funnels when the queen mary was converted into a hotel in 1967 the original funnels were removed in order to access the boiler rooms far below the original funnels broke apart upon removal so these replicas were installed afterwards however the first funnel still has two of the queen mary's three original steam-powered horns the third horn is now being used on the queen mary 2. but these horns still sound a few times every day we'll listen to it in just a moment [Music] we now find ourselves on the foxel deck which is the forward most deck on the bow of the ship this would have been accessible to crew only and was used to operate cap stands for mooring lines and also to operate the ship's massive bow anchors in rough seas this would have been a dangerous place to be the queen mary's horns were originally steam powered but are operated from compressed air today they are tuned to 55 hertz which gives her a rather deep voice today the lowest ship's horn allowed by maritime laws is 75 hertz but since the queen's voice is so deep it's no wonder why she can be heard up to 10 miles away get ready because this is going to be very loud [Music] oh my god [Laughter] as we enter our deck you can see two of queen mary's chromed steel elevators the walls around it are paneled with bands of plain birch and mazer birch and the dark wood along the bottom is english elm burr that half circle entryway leads into the balcony of the first class swimming pool we'll get to see that in a second first let's admire the simple beauty of the bottom landing of the first class midship stairway these doors used to be phone booths yes even in the 1930s you could make a call to anywhere in the western world while in the middle of the atlantic [Music] the queen mary had 22 elevators but today only five of the originals are still in use the doorways to the right lead to the first class main restaurant which we will see in a moment [Music] and now let's try to take a look at the first class swimming pool the queen mary had two swimming pools both were located indoors to protect passengers from the unpredictable and frigid atlantic weather the first class pool room was larger and more ornate than the second class pool it spans the height of two decks and has a staircase that leads down to the pool below one of the most fascinating features of this room is its breathtaking mother-of-pearl ceiling which reflects the ambient light of the room with sparkly iridescent rainbows can you believe both first class and third class passengers would take turns using this pool this room is closed to the public today because in the past the room experienced issues with structural settling though the issues have been stabilized to prevent further damage it is still not ready for people to explore just yet we are still on our deck which used to be known as sea deck and we are entering the windsor room this is a smaller banquet space that used to be part of the much larger first class main restaurant but that dance floor you see in the middle of the room wasn't always there that used to be walled off because it was part of the funnel shaft exhausting smoke from the boilers far below [Music] this room is divided from the main restaurant with retractable walls but if we go to the other side we find ourselves in the massive dining hall of the first class main restaurant it is the single largest room on the entire ship it stretches 145 feet long and spans the entire 118 foot width of the hull and its ceiling stands three decks high the room was designed to seat all 800 first-class passengers and is adorned with both light and dark paroba wood as well as tiger maple the forward end of the room has a map of the north atlantic designed by artist mcdonald gill there are also crystal models of the rms queen mary and the rms queen elizabeth that used to move across the map to show passengers their true position on the voyage all around the room are 14 flat carvings done by artist bainbridge kopnl and they depict the art of shipbuilding through history [Music] at the far end of the room is a rendering of the english countryside done by artist philip conrad the doorway below is a fantastic work of bronze done by artist walter gilbert and his son donald as you can see the first class main restaurant is an elegant masterpiece and what makes it even more astonishing is how the luxury of the room relies on its beautiful woods and artwork it's a type of stately and subtle elegance it is now time for us to make our way to the engine and gear rooms which are all located at the lower stern of the ship [Music] when we enter we find ourselves in the massive lobby of the official museum and exhibit hall of the queen mary it starts off on d-deck and you have to descend into the lower bowels of the ship from here over in the corners it's an authentic lifeboat from the ss nomadic which was the small tender that ferried passengers to the titanic from the harbor of cherbourg france the ss nomadic also served the queen mary since she was too big to dock in the harbor [Music] [Music] we descend below into the engine room the queen mary had four propellers and each one had its own engine and the four engines were split into two rooms the forward and aft engine rooms during the queen mary's conversion into a hotel the forward engine room was removed to make way for museum space because designers couldn't imagine why tourists would ever want to visit the engine rooms to begin with as it turned out the museum they built would flop and the engine rooms would be among the most popular exhibits on the ship this engine room might not look it but it stands the height of five decks and houses two of the original four turbine engines of which we will get a closer look at in a moment steam was supplied to the engines by the 24 yaro boilers the ship had that steam was piped into this room and directed to the two engines a single engine had four turbines that operated on various steam pressures the first was a high pressure turbine which exhausted into an intermediate pressure turbine which exhausted into a second intermediate pressure turbine which then exhausted into a low pressure turbine this took advantage of the natural three-phase expansion of steam in order to get the most power output the steam was then cooled and condensed back into water which was taken back to the boilers to restart the steam cycle [Music] [Music] [Music] here is the control panel for this engine room the gauges read the various steam pressures coming in and out of the various machines and pipes and there are meters reading the speed of the propeller shaft in revolutions the queen mary's 20-foot diameter propellers turned at two revolutions per [Music] second [Music] these seven foot diameter steam turbines operate similar to a pinwheel there are several rows of blades on the inside and when steam is blown into the turbine it causes the blades to spin at an incredibly high speed that speed is then transferred into torque using these massive gearboxes and that turns the propeller shaft with an immense amount of power all four of queen mary's engines could produce a combined two hundred thousand shaft horsepower which drove the ship through the swells of the atlantic [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign we are now in what's called the starboard shaft alley it is a long room that houses the two starboard propeller shafts [Music] and here is the identical room on the port side for the other two propeller shafts [Music] [Music] in between the two shaft alleys is the remnants of a massive refrigeration unit designed to cool water for various guest amenities like air conditioning [Music] if we go up the escalator in the back it will take us to the steering room at the very back of the ship this room houses the massive equipment needed to turn the rudder the queen mary's 160-ton rudder was equal to the tonnage of the mayflower and was the largest constructed for any ship at the time this is the hydraulic pumping system that generates the pressure needed to move the four hydraulic rams that turn the rudder [Music] the rudder's hinge has a rod that runs up to this room these four hydraulic cylinders are connected to a turning assembly that allows it to push or pull the rudder in either direction generally only two of the cylinders were needed at any given time but if rough seas or a system failure were to happen they had the extra two cylinders to help out steering assemblies like these often exerted so much force onto the ship that this whole aft section would require being constructed separately with more robust decks and support [Music] [Music] structures [Music] [Music] this is the propeller cap and the nut that held the propeller onto the shaft here we enter the propeller room it was constructed and attached to the outside of the hull during the ship's conversion to a museum and it surrounds the outer port side propeller which is still attached to its original shaft and sits in a pool of fresh water which keeps it safe from the corrosion it would face in seawater the propeller is made of manganese bronze and is 20 feet in diameter and weighs 35 tons back on board the ship you can see the massive wrench that was used to fasten the propeller onto the shaft now let's go to the forward end of the ship to see the water softening plant whoa don't worry we're not sinking that water is actually part of a halloween set piece used to make the room appear as though it is flooding this room was once a water softening plant which took seawater and filtered it for use in the stateroom bathtubs and showers it could also desalinate the water to make drinking water on demand this room we are passing through was boiler room one which held three double-ended scotch boilers that produced steam for the two turbo generator power plants on board all the boiler rooms were kept slightly pressurized like an airplane cabin in order to force air into the boiler furnaces this made the boilers run more efficiently and it prevented the danger of smoke or soot from filling the room and suffocating the workers you couldn't just open a door to these rooms you had to pass through an airlock with each one to prevent decompression and this is main boiler room 2. just like the other three main boiler rooms this one had six of the ship's 24 yaro boilers the yarrow boilers produced steam which powered the main engines operated the horns and they created steam for the ship's various heat radiators on board the white painted areas represent everything below the waterline of the ship [Music] we are now in the forward turbo generator room looking up where the power controls would have sat directly above us sits the first class swimming pool as we walk back the way we came it's hard to imagine these vast spaces filled with massive towering machinery roaring to life like the beating heart of the ship [Music] we find ourselves at the foxel nearing the end of our tour on the ship it's been 85 years since the queen mary set sail on her maiden voyage it's amazing to think that she's still here after all these years part of the reason for her longevity is that she was over engineered and constructed with a really solid design this was on purpose because in the days of ocean liners the british government would help fund the construction of ships like this with the intention to use them for war should the situation arise they had strict engineering standards their frame and hull would need to be almost twice as strong as was necessary for a typical passenger voyage this was so they could carry whatever the military would need them to transport the decks would need to be strong enough to be lined with tanks or artillery modern cruise ships are not designed with that kind of strength in mind they are only built strong enough to fulfill their cruising purpose i doubt any cruise ship would have lasted as long as the queen mary given her current neglect and that's why it should come as no surprise that despite her age and wear a marine survey determined that her frame and support structure were in good condition and deemed to be within normal stress ranges it's no coincidence that the ship is as hard as a rock she was built for war so now we make our way back to the exit gangway passing the former first class library which today sells souvenirs and t-shirts as you saw on our tour the ship may be retired but the queen mary is still very much alive and i encourage anyone who is interested to visit the ship and just take a walk around you might fall in love with what you see on this journey we have only seen a fraction of the interior spaces available but i intend to bring you along in the future for any new virtual tours i do of the queen mary there is so much more to see and experience so much history to learn we have only just scraped the surface of all that this ship has to offer [Music] i would like to thank all of you for joining me my channel will continue to cover the amazing history of this ship and also do more virtual tours in the future stay safe and take care you

Channel: Alex the Historian

Views: 118,177

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Id: caQz6AYWSck

Length: 46min 56sec (2816 seconds)

Published: Wed May 12 2021