534: The Launch of S.S. Queen Mary

Summary

A sophisticated home movie of the launching of RMS Queen Mary shot by W.H. Williams and his son Noel Bond-Williams under the name of Austy Productions (AP).

Year:

1934

Duration:

0:07:13

Film type:

Black & White / Silent

Genre:

Home Movie

Company:

Master format:

16mm

Description

The film begins with general shots of the John Brown and Company shipyards on Clydebank in Scotland. Features derricks, an LMS steam loco pushing freight wagons as well as the hull of the Queen Mary. There are many shots of the hull in the dry dock including a Union Jack flag flying from the bow. An intertitle precedes shots of huge piles of drag chains (used to slow the ship as it enters the water). We then see a large crowd of people alongside the hull, megaphone-stlye speakers (Marconiphone) as well as a film crew on a platform some way up a derrick tower. We then see, from a distance, King George V and Queen Mary on a platform acknowledging the crowd. From under the hull we see the bottom of the hull sliding down the launch platfrom and then the drag chains move as the ship hits the water. The crowds are then seen leaving in the rain (umbrellas are up) and in the background, behind some derricks and smoke from tugs' funnels, is the Queen Mary.


Credits

No credits specified


Notes

534 was the yard number of the Queen Mary before it was officially named. The Queen Mary was the flagship of the Cunard Line from May 1936 (its maiden voyage was on 27 May of that year) until October 1946.