Merchant Navy Memories - R.M.S Queen Mary's Last Great Voyage.
by Published on 11th April 2021 12:22 PM
In December 1967 I was the radio officer on board the Greek flagged MV Eugenie S Embiricos, loading cargo in Long Beach CA. I was following the local radio station’s daily reports on the final voyage of the RMS Queen Mary as she progressed up the west coast from Acapulco. On the 9th of December, the Queen Mary sailed into Long Beach just as we were leaving. I’ll never forget the sight of the stately passenger liner, dressed overall, appearing out of the early morning mist. We passed each other portside to portside no more than a couple of hundred metres apart. The ship was escorted by US Coast Guard ships and a US warship - USS Long Beach - Helicopters flew overhead, I think they showered the liner with roses (Not sure about that, maybe it was the Douglas DC9 that showered her with red, white, and blue carnations earlier.)
Following in her wake were hundreds of small craft, then, to my amazement, a flotilla of literally hundreds of small boats swarmed out of Long Beach to meet and accompany the old liner into port. It was a spectacular sight. They reckon around 5000 boats followed her into Long Beach. At the time I wished I had a camera to record the scene.
Anyway, throughout the morning, many ships around the Eastern Pacific were calling up the QM (Call letters GBTT) on the marine bands giving their voyage reports and wishing her well. The radio officers on the Queen Mary were replying with thanks and bon voyage, etc. I thought I’ll send my best wishes to the ship. The frequency I used was not the international calling and distress frequency of 500Kc/s but a medium wave frequency WT. I used the usual short-hand and Q-codes. GBTT de SVRK TR QRD Long Beach to Yokohama, goodbye and good luck. Immediately after, the QM sent back SVRK de GBTT thanks for your greetings, bon voyage. He then transmitted ‘CQ de GBTT AS SP’ requesting silence for the WT silence period. Then, three minutes later, I guess at around the same time that Captain John Treasure Jones rang the telegraph; ‘Finish with Engines’ the radio officer transmitted CQ CQ CQ de GBTT GBTT GBTT this is the Queen Mary closing down for the last time, goodbye and good luck (or something along those lines) and that was that. I was the last radio officer to exchange voyage reports with the RMS Queen Mary.
A couple of years ago while searching YouTube. I found a US radio ham who had recorded these final messages. I couldn’t believe how fast we ROs transmitted Morse code, my old brain can’t keep up with it nowadays. Are there any former Cunard radio officers out there who were on the Queen Mary as she closed down in Long Beach?
I visited Long Beach a few months later before the liner was berthed at the permanent site. There were pleasure boat trips advertising ‘Go touch the Queen Mary’ taking tourists across the harbour to touch the side of the liner. Also helicopter trips overhead. I swear the helicopter pilot was a beautiful young blonde woman wearing a tight T-shirt and sky blue hot-pants! (Only in America).
PC R710198