Queen Mary
On 26th September 1934, the giant 73,000 ton Cunarder No 534 was launched at John Brown’s shipyard, Clydebank and named Queen Mary by her namesake. At that time, costing £6 million she was the largest and fastest ocean liner the world had ever known, winning the Blue Riband of the Mercantile Marine for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic. She was one of the most luxurious liners of the 1930s but during World War II was used as a troop ship crossing and re-crossing the Atlantic. Prior to the war many Avoch men served on the cruiser “Curacao” which escorted the Queen Mary on her war service.