three famous liners in New York, 1940

From left to right: Normandie, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth in New York in 1940.

The Normandie was a trans-Atlantic liner of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, built by Chantiers de Saint-Nazaire Penhoët. Often cited as the most beautiful ocean liner ever built, she was also biggest at her launch from the builder in 1932. She entered service in 1935 as the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat.  But WW2 began four years later and subsequently she was requisitioned by the United States Navy to be converted into a troopship with a capacity of over 10,000 soldiers. During work in the port of New York, a fire broke out on the ship in 1942 and the ship capsized under the weight of water pumped by firefighters. Bailed out, the wreck was scrapped in 1946. Normandie will be remembered as a part of the golden age of luxury liners when most people crossed the Atlantic by sea.

Queen Mary sailed the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line (then Cunard-White Star when the vessel entered service). Built by John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland, she was designed to be the first of Cunard's planned two-ship weekly express service from Southampton to Cherbourg to New York, in answer to the mainland European superliners of the late 1920s and early 1930s.

After their release from WW2 troop transport duties, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth commenced this two-ship service and continued it for two decades until Queen Mary's retirement in 1967. The ship is permanently berthed in Long Beach, California serving as a museum ship and hotel and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. She was the flagship of the Cunard Line from May 1936 until October, 1946 when she was replaced in this role by Queen Elizabeth.

RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by the Cunard Line and was contracted to carry Royal Mail as the second half of a two-ship weekly express service between Southampton and New York City via Cherbourg.

At the time of construction in the mid-1930s by John Brown and Company in Clydebank, Scotland, she was known as Hull 552, but she was later named in honour of Queen Elizabeth, Queen Consort at the time of her launch on 27 September 1938, and from 1952 the Queen Mother. Queen Elizabeth was a slightly larger ship with an improved design over her running mate, Queen Mary, making her the largest passenger liner ever built at that time, a record not exceeded for 56 years.

She first entered service in February 1940 as a troopship in WW2, and it was not until October 1946 that she served in her intended role as an ocean liner. Together with Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth maintained a two ship weekly trans-Atlantic service from Southampton to New York for over 20 years. With the decline in the popularity of sea travel, both ships were replaced by RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1969.

She was retired from service in November 1968, and was sold to a succession of buyers, most of whom had adventurous and unsuccessful plans for her. Finally she was sold to a Hong Kong businessmen who intended to convert her into a floating university cruise ship. In 1972 while undergoing renovations in Hong Kong harbour, she caught fire and capsized. In 1973 her  wreck was deemed an obstruction, and she was partially scrapped where she lay.