Celebrating The Queen’s Maritime History

To mark the occasion of the Platinum Jubilee, we celebrate the remarkable reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her close relationship with one of our cruise partners – Cunard. A huge thank you to the web and social media teams at Cunard for sharing these great stories and photos.

The Royal family has long been an intrinsic part of our heritage, and since assuming the throne in 1952 Queen Elizabeth II has visited and traveled on many Cunard ships.

In the 70 years since Her Majesty became Queen, her association with Cunard has become a great source of pride, and we delight in toasting this special relationship.

Her Majesty’s long association with Cunard dates back to September 1938. She has been our honored guest at many special events over the decades, and no fewer than three Cunard ships have borne her name.

1938: Launch of Queen Elizabeth

On September 27, 1938 Princess Elizabeth, aged 12, and her sister Margaret, accompanied Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth to Clydebank to watch their mother launch the biggest ship in the world – Queen Elizabeth.

1946: Queen Elizabeth sea trials

The Queen and her daughters embarked Queen Elizabeth for the first time on October 8, 1946, during her reconversion after her war service. The Princesses were each given a stopwatch to time Queen Elizabeth’s speed over the measured mile along the Clyde.

1967: Launch of QE2

The second Queen Elizabeth was launched by The Queen on September 20, 1967. She cut the ribbon using the same gold scissors that her mother had used to launch Queen Elizabeth in 1938 and her grandmother to launch Queen Mary in 1934.

2010: Launch of Queen Elizabeth

On October 11, 2010, 72 years after attending her first Cunard event, The Queen traveled to Southampton to name Queen Elizabeth and thus become the only person to have attended the launches of all three Cunard ‘Elizabeths’.