January 9: On This Day in World History … briefly
The ship was completely destroyed by the fire, and the water sprayed on her by fireboats caused the burnt wreck to capsize and sink in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour.
1972: Mystery fire sinks ‘grand lady of luxury travel’
The Queen Elizabeth – once the greatest of the trans-Atlantic liners – was destroyed by a mysterious fire in Hong Kong harbour, where she had been berthed for some time as a floating university. There were no reports of deaths in the fire that scuttled the former pride of the Cunard fleet, but police investigated allegations that the fire was started deliberately to recoup insurance cash from the flagging university project.
The Queen Elizabeth was launched in 1938 and, with her sister ship the ‘Queen Mary’, operated as a troop ship during World War II. She returned to commercial service in 1946. Jet travel killed the trans-Atlantic sea voyage and in 1969, the ship was sold to American investors who planned to use her as a tourist attraction – the same fate as that of the Queen Mary.
Then Hong Kong shipping magnate CY Tung bought her and she became the ‘Seawise (CY’s) University’. In 1972, while undergoing refurbishment in Hong Kong harbour, fire broke out aboard under unexplained circumstances and the ship was capsized by the water used to fight the fire. In 1973, the wreck was deemed an obstruction to shipping in the area, and so was partially scrapped where she lay.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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