The Queen Elizabeth Part 3: Passenger Ship...After the war Queen Elizabeth and her sister Mary would become icons of the Atlantic.

RMS Queen Elizabeth the worlds largest ship in Southampton with the SS United States the worlds fastest liner.

The Queen Elizabeth Part 2: War... Her Secret maiden voyage on March, 3 1940, was clouded in mystery to avoid Nazi subs and reach New York to be converted into a troop ship.

Queen Elizabeth ready for troop service 

Elizabeth arrives in New York in March 1940

The only time the 3 largest ocean liners would be together...(L-R) Normandie, Mary and Elizabeth.

After the war the Queen Elizabeth on the left has been transformed for passenger service, her sister Mary on the right is still in wartime colors.

British Movietone News: RMS Queen Elizabeth: Original footage launch and career.

RMS Queen Elizabeth Part 1: Construction and Launch...She began life as hull 552 and was laid down on December, 4 1936 she was to be bigger and more glamorous than her sister RMS Queen Mary. Launched on September, 27 1938 and named RMS Queen Elizabeth she was the largest liner ever built a record she would hold for many years.

Launch Booklet

Queen Elizabeth and daughters Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret 

RMS Mauretania II (1938) was launched on July,28 1938 and her maiden voyage to New York on June,17 1939. Her career as passenger liner was brief with the outbreak of WW2, she would serve as a troop ship for 6 years. After the war she would serve as relief ship for Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, The second Mauretania was broken up at Ward's shipbreaking yard in Inverkeithing, Scotland in 1965.

SS Nieuw Amsterdam was launched on April 10, 1937 the largest liner to be launched by Holland America Line at the time.The Nieuw Amsterdam was the Netherlands' "ship of state" and was considered a statement like the Normandie was for France. During WW 2 she served as a troop ship and would return to transatlantic service on October 29, 1947. In the 1960's she became a cruise liner in the caribbean for a while, the SS Nieuw Amsterdam was scrapped in 1974.

The Wilhelm Gustloff..Nazi Cruise Liner/ Death Ship.... The Wilhelm Gustloff was built to present a more respectable image of the Third Reich. In WW2 she served as a hospital ship for a time and then as an evacuation ship. On January 30, 1945 she left Gotenhafen with 6,050 or possibly up to 10,582 passengers and crew, she was torpedoed by a Russian sub and sank with the greatest loss of life in maritime history. The Wilhelm Gustloff lives in the shadows of her creators and the nationality of her passengers a different voyage of the damned.

The Nazi Swastika is is visible on the funnel