While researching transatlantic liners for her new murder mystery, Louise Hare discovered the “perfect ship” already existed: the glamorous, luxurious RMS Queen Mary, launched at the perfect time: the turbulent late 1930s. She tells Historia about what was once the greatest cruise ship of all.
When I originally set out to write Miss Aldridge Regrets, I intended to create my own fictional ocean liner. The novel evolved organically out of a short story I’d written set in 1950: a Soho jazz singer witnesses a murder at the club she works at and her get out of jail free card is a ticket on a transatlantic ocean liner.
When I began researching, I realised that not only was the perfect ship already in existence – the RMS Queen Mary – but that she had been born into a period of brilliant turbulence, the late 1930s.
I began writing the novel back in 2019, as we were beginning to deal with the reality of Brexit, and it looked as though Trump might get a second term. The rise of populism has disturbing parallels with the years running up to the Second World War and, although this is a murder mystery, I couldn’t resist the temptation to include some commentary in the form of dinner table conversations that my character, Lena, is party to in the incredible Cabin Class (First Class) dining room.
Even by today’s standards, life on the Queen Mary offered everything you had at home and more. As far as Cunard were concerned, they were determined not to be left behind in the shipbuilding race and they even merged with White Star Line to secure the loan they needed in order to build her.
Cabin Class cabins and suites had private bathrooms attached, as did a large proportion of cabins in Tourist (Second) Class. If you had money and didn’t want to eat in the main dining room, as grand as it was, you could go up to the Verandah Grill which was more boutique and exclusive. After hours it turned into the Starlight Club for dancing and cocktails.
There was a music studio to accommodate the famous musicians that Cunard hoped to attract, and the first ever floating synagogue. This last room was known as the ‘Scroll Room’, perhaps in a bid to avoid being seen as controversial at a time when Hitler was on the rise. There’s some debate as to whether Cunard added the room in order to show support in the face of a growing number of refugees crossing the Atlantic from Germany, or whether it was just a business decision made to attract wealthy members of the American and British Jewish communities.
If you wanted to read a book you could head to WH Smith up in the shopping arcade on the Promenade deck, or buy a new dinner shirt from Austin Reed. Anything you needed was on hand.
Lena Aldridge is a working-class woman from Bethnal Green, but her occupation as singer and sometimes actress has given her opportunities to hob nob with the upper classes. She doesn’t feel as out of her depth as she otherwise might and besides, someone else is paying.
A basic Cabin Class return fare was £110, pretty close to what many would be earning as an annual salary. People paid to travel on the Queen Mary because she was the new thing, the fastest, the most luxurious. There was also the chance to mingle with the rich and famous. Hollywood stars sailed on her, as did European nobility, business tycoons like my fictional character Francis Parker and anyone with pots of money.
According to CWR Winter, a crew member during the first years of her sailing and whose book Queen Mary: her early years recalled was a brilliant source of research, celebrities would often be more than willing to entertain their fellow passengers. Opera singer Lily Pons sang to distract during a particularly bad storm, saved from falling from the stage by a rope that had been rigged up in front of her.
Winter also talks about the two types of professionals that could be found on the Atlantic liners at the time, and with her reputation, the Queen Mary was a huge draw.
The first category was the courtesans. Often these women would travel Cabin Class. They made good money and had the wardrobe to fit in. The usual routine was to undertake a few voyages on the same ship, then move on to the next. Often the stewards would be asked to act as middleman for a gentleman who needed a recommendation, but these women knew their business and could just as easily manage alone.
A more male occupation was as a conman, usually involving gambling. The Cabin Class Smoking Room would host high stakes card games and what easier way to liberate the super wealthy of their spare change?
I loved writing about the glamour of Cabin Class, but I have a huge soft spot for the crew ‘pub’, the Pig and Whistle. When the ship was in port, it was a baggage handling area, but once she was at sea, the otherwise useless space became a place of recreation. It was pretty rudimentary with just a small space to serve as a bar and mismatched tables and chairs, but it served a purpose.
It wasn’t uncommon for ship’s passengers to make their way down there, as Lena does in the novel. Celebrities were known to entertain down there; Joan Crawford once ventured down to present two barrels of beer to the crew.
The RMS Queen Mary has lived several different lives over the years, becoming a troop ship during the Second World War before returning to service as a passenger ship and then, since 1967 becoming a tourist attraction and hotel located in her permanent berth at Long Beach, California.
For more information, and to explore the ship deck by deck, Julian Hill’s website is a great place to start.
Miss Aldridge Regrets by Louise Hare is published on 28 April, 2022.
Read more about this book.
Louise is a writer based in London and was one of the Observer‘s top ten debut novelists in 2020. Her first novel, This Lovely City, was longlisted for the HWA Debut Crown in 2020 and was named one of the Evening Standard‘s best books of 2020.
If you’d like to read more features about the 1930s, have a look at:
Review: Art Deco by the Sea by Lucy Santos
Imagining Olga Gray, a beautiful spy by Rachel Hore
The Minister for Illusion: Goebbels and the German film industry b Catherine Hokin
Down the rabbit hole – to kill Hitler by Eric Lee
Historia Interviews: Juliet West and Vanessa Lafaye
And if maritime history interests you, see:
Was King Alfred really the father of the English navy? by Chris Bishop
England’s First Great Naval Victory by Catherine Hanley
All at sea in Tudor England by JD Davies
(Re)writing the Spanish Armada by JD Davies
Reassessing Francis Drake: what research for my novel revealed about his role in the slave trade by Nikki Marmery
Did the American Civil War End in Liverpool? by Hilary Green
A surprising gap in Second World War fiction by Liz Macrae Shaw, about the Merchant Navy
Images:
- RMS Queen Mary at Long Beach from Carol M. Highsmith’s America: Library of Congress collection via rawpixel (public domain)
- Decorative map from the Cabin Class dining room: Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)
- Postcard of the Cunard White Star RMS Queen Mary, c1936: Wikimedia (public domain)
- Bar in the observation lounge: Colin Rose for Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)
- RMS Queen Mary at New York City, 1961: Wikimedia (public domain)
