Mrs. Gunn's Diary: Jan. 18, 1942

They see the 'Queen Mary' and 'Normandie' ships, ready for war duty

Mrs. Gunn and her girlfriends took a taxi to Pier 88 in New York harbor and saw "the ‘Normandie’ French luxury liner and ‘Queen Mary’ British liner. They had both been painted blue-grey and are to be used as airplane carrier (Normandie) and transport ship (Queen Mary),” she wrote.

The fates of the Normandie, which had been confiscated from the French government after its surrender to Germany, and the Queen Mary would be quite different from what Mrs. Gunn wrote. Paid subscribers can read on two of the largest ocean liners in the world.

The picture postcard above, which includes the Queen Elizabeth, which had previously been moored beside the other two liners, is from the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, accessed via Wikipedia.