Evening star., 1940-03-08
A GolIont Exploit

A GolIont Exploit
One Of the truly great epics Of the
European war. destined for all-time
fame in maritime annals. is written
by the gallant exploit of the great
new British luxury liner Queen Eliza
beth. Today she rests serenely in her
berth at New York, after running
the German submarine, bomb and
mine blockade in the most spectacu-
lar and dangerous maiden voyage in
shipping history.
. The Queen Elizabeth, launched and
built on Scotland's Clyde, is the big
gest ship afloat. She displaces a
fabulous eighty-flve thousand tons,
four thousand more than the Queen
Mary and two thousand more than
the French giantess Normandie, both
of which have lain at anchor in New
York since the outbreak of the war.
Representing cost of $28, ,750, 900,
the Queen Elizabeth is streamlined
for speed and her capacity to do
thirty-one or thirty-two knots in an
emergency doubtless had much to do
with her swift and dramatic crossing,
which began at Greenock, off the
mouth of the Clyde only last Satur-
day. The new empress of the seas
negotiated the Atlantic under un-
precedentedly perilous conditions in
something more than four days.
From several angles the great
White Star -Cunarders feat is slgnifi-
cant. Preponderantly, it supplies
dramatic evidence that, recent Ger
man bombast to the contrary not
withStanding, British supremacy at
sea has not been broken. It demon
strates that German naval intelli-
gence is not omniscient, for it has
been suspected for some time, even
despite the Graf Specs fate, that
one or two of the Nazis' other COM
rce-raiding pocket battleships,
the Deutschland and the Admiral
Scheer, are at large on thisss of
the ocean. -.-et
One Of the proudest British boasts
Is that 1t is now proved that thou
sands of Britons in the know of a
tremendous wartime secret can keep
their mouths shut patriotically.
The whole population Of the Clyde
side, as well as the Scottish and Eng
lish press, was aware that the new
ship left the place of her construc-
tion on February 26 for her fitting
out basin at Greenock, and yet there
was no leak. Perhaps most amazing
Of all is the fact that as long ago as
June 20, 1899, it was officially an
nounced that the Queen Elizabeth
would move toward the Atlantic on
February 26, 1910. She kept the date.
It could hardly have been imagined,
when that announcement was made
last summer that March, 1910. would
find Britain at war again. But the
Queen Elizabeth, it was feared, might
be subjected to German air raids on
the Clydebank. Obviously, it was
with view to averting major
disaster and an irreparable blow to
British maritime prestige that the
admiralty decided to risk a secret
dash across the Atlantic in the teeth
of vast hazard. The Queen Eliza
beth'S safe arrival in American
waters adds new and imperishable
laurels to the gallantry and skill of
the British Navy.
It is, of course, not to be forgotten
that an almost parallel achievement
was that Of the German liner Bre-
men, which turned up safe in
German port on December IL, after
having led the British fleet long
and fruitless chase as she zig-zagged
her way from New York to Muir
mansk. Courage and resourcefulness
are the monopoly of no one sea-
faring nation. The Bremen's voyage
was epic, too, but it detracts no whit
from the inspiring accomplishment
Of the Queen Elizabeth, of her skip
per, Captain Townley, of his brave
crew or Of the intrepid, vigilant
sailormen Of the convoy fleet which
escorted the liner safely to her Amer
lean destination. The spirit of Drake
and Nelson still lives in the British
fleet.