The QE2

Tom McKendrick and Robert Dickie worked in the Clyde shipyards as apprentices, then as qualified tradesmen. They worked in the shipyards at a time when the future of the shipyards began to look less certain and individual yards were merging to stay in business. So these men are useful sources - contemporary, eyewitness accounts of what it was like to work in Scottish shipyards from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Interior of the QE2 featuring a spiral staircase

Tom McKendrick, artist, worked on QE2. Tom was an apprentice loftsman and made templates from which the ship was built.

"The ship which was mainly my ship, which is a kind of peculiar thing but people think of their ship as the one they spent their apprenticeship on, was the QE2. That was quite an interesting job in that there was all kind of interesting things to build like the spiral stair cases and curved stair ways and lay out all kinds of fancy funnels and masts."

Robert Dickie Joiner John Brown's

“No one knew the name of what it was going to be called. QE2. When it was initially ordered and the keel laid it was called the Q4. The reason was the Queen Mary was the first Q. The Queen Elizabeth was the Second Queen and there was going to be another Queen built in Tyneside (but it never came to fruition for some reason or other) When Cunard decided to build another passenger liner it was called the Q4. It was only when it was launched by the Queen it was called the QE2.”

The Queen's speech at the launch of the QE2.

Photograph of the launch of the QE2

I name this ship Queen Elizabeth II. (applause) May God bless her and all who sail in her.

Every great enterprise has an element of risk and uncertainty about it and I'm sure that no one can predict the future career of the new Cunarder. However I'm equally certain that in the experienced and capable hands of the Cunard company she will stand the very best chance of a happy and profitable lifetime.

We have all read with a touch of nostalgia, that the name of John Brown is to disappear from the list of great shipbuilders. However, this does not mean that the very special skill and spirit of this shipyard will be lost to Clydeside or to British shipbuilding. In wishing the Queen Elizabeth II a long life and good fortune on all her voyages, I add my very best wishes for success and prosperity to the new consortium of Clydeside ship builders. (applause)