Colossus into Clyde

This week the greatest mass ever moved by man from land to water will go down the ways into the River Clyde near Glasgow. On hand for the most elaborate launching of an ocean liner, known to the world only as No. 534, will be King, Queen, peers, knights, tycoons, workmen and thousands upon thousands of plain British subjects, all fairly bursting with pride at this achievement of empire.

Start. Conceived by the Cunard Line as the world's biggest ship, the keel of No. 534 was laid in February 1931, at the shipyard of John Brown & Co. Ltd., Clydebank. Her tonnage was 73,000, her cost $30,000,000. Eleven months after her keel was laid, work was suspended for lack of funds. For two years and four months No. 534 was an empty, half-finished hull. Then the Cunard and White Star Lines merged. The Government came to No. 534's rescue with a three-million-pound loan. Some 3,800 workmen went back to their jobs. Last week, her hull completed, No. 534 was ready for her great day.

Scene. Never in the Empire's history have Their Majesties been present at the launching of a merchant vessel. For this week's historic occasion they will not only be present, but Queen Mary herself will break a magnum of champagne across the monster's bow at the christening. Longer (1,018 ft.) than the Clyde is wide (see map), No. 534 will slide stern-first into the river, with tons of drag-chains coiled about her sides to check her momentum. The splash when she hits the water was expected to send eight-foot waves surging over an orchard on the opposite bank. To accommodate her stern, the River Cart, a tributary of the Clyde, has been dredged and widened at a cost of $400,000.

Once safely launched, tugs would warp the liner into her fitting basin where work on the superstructure should be completed by 1936. In the spring of that year she will take her place upon the sea as the greatest ship ever to fly the British flag.

To see the launching this week, 100,000 people from all over the United Kingdom were headed for Clydebank. Grandstands seating 16,000 have been erected in a wheatfield opposite the shipyard. More than 1,000 invited guests will view the ceremony from the Anchor liner Tuscania, berthed at an adjacent dock. The Clyde steamers Queen Mary and King George will hold another 1,000. Microphones will carry the ceremony to every country in the world. What name No. 534 will bear the world will not know for sure until Her Majesty raises her voice to cry: "I christen thee--------!"*

Name. Old as the Cunard Line is the tradition that its ships must bear names ending in ia. No. 534 may become Britannia, because it was the name of the first Cunarder. Another possibility was Victoria, and a third was Columbia. Princess Elizabeth, often suggested, was losing ground as launching day drew near. Last-minute rumor said the name would be Queen Mary, in honor of England's Queen. Because Cunard with its ia and White Star with its ic have been merged, such a name, it was argued, would favor neither of the old companies.

Statistics. Bitter blow to all good Britons was the announcement fortnight ago that France's superliner Normandie, launched two years ago (TIME, Nov. 7. 1932), will be bigger than No. 534 (TIME, Aug. 27). The French Line ship is eleven feet longer, one and one-half feet wider and some 7,000 tons heavier than No. 534.

In the face of this, good Britons last week had much comfort. No. 534 will carry 4,000 passengers, the Normandie only 2,170. At launching No. 534 weighs 34,000 tons; the Normandie weighed 32,000. Most important of all, No. 534 will probably be faster, with an estimated top-speed of 30 knots compared to Normandie's 28 plus. Where Normandie's turbo-electric power-plant will develop 160,000 h. p., No. 534's single-reduction geared turbines will develop 200,000 h. p.--twice as much as the record-breaking Bremen.

Not the world's biggest ship but the most powerful afloat,* No. 534 is a monster of incredible proportions. She will contain 10,000,000 rivets, 2,000 portholes, 50 miles of plumbing, ten miles of carpets, 4,000 beds, 60,000 cu. ft. of refrigerating, space, 21 electric "lifts," four miles of anchor cables, ropes, hawsers. She will carry 200,000 pieces of crockery, 100,000 pieces of cutlery. Her wiring is longer than a transatlantic cable, and her electric lighting system (30,000 lamps) could service a city the size of Trenton or Albany.

To keep her steady in rough seas she will contain a $1,000,000 gyrostabilizer weighing 300 tons. She will have decorations worth $2,500,000. She will be insured for seven million pounds. And when she sails into New York harbor a year and a half hence, the upraised hand of the Statue of Liberty will reach just above her masts.

Ship. John Brown & Co. Ltd. built the Aquitania and Lusitania (the faster Mauretania was built by Swan, Hunter, Wigham, Richardson). Largest shipyard in the world, John Brown & Co. got its start more than a century ago as a tiny slipway on the Clyde where two brothers, James and George Thomson, built sailing ships. In 1886 Sir Thomas Bell joined the Thomson brothers, and soon afterward the firm was acquired by John Brown Co. of Sheffield and Clydebank, founded by a Sheffield slater's son named John Brown. A cutler's apprentice at 14, John Brown became an inventor, produced the first rolled armor-plating for warships, built a 30-acre steel works employing 4,000 men, retired in 1864, was knighted three years later, died in 1896. Sir Thomas Bell, the company's present managing director, is a tall (6 ft. 3 in.), thin, distinguished-looking Scotsman with iron-grey curly hair. Fond of golf and gardening, he plans to retire, after the launching of No. 534, to his home at Auchentoshan, Dalmuir, Dumbartonshire. All Britain expects his King to honor him.

* Shipwrights employed on No. 534, sharing the world's curiosity regarding her name-to-be, amused themselves in recent months by scrawling on her hull in huge chalk letters the names of female acquaintances--Agatha, Annabelle, Arabella, Mary Jane, Rosie, etc. These last week had been discreetly removers.

* Nearly as powerful are the U. S. aircraft carriers Lexington and Saratoga, driven by eight electric motors of 22,500 h. p. each.

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