The Blue Riband, at first a mythical trophy, is the prize awarded to the ship which makes the fastest crossing of the North Atlantic. to gain this coveted trophy a liner had to beat both previous Eastward and Westward records, on the same voyage. The two points on either side of the Atlantic between which the race is run are Bishop Rock lightship off the Scillie Isles and the Ambrose light off New York harbour.

Until the thirties the winner was the ship which averaged the highest rate of knots on the voyage and many titles were hotly disputed, which led to the two-way rule and the introduction of an actual award, the Hales Trophy. Although there is no evidence for an actual "Blue Riband" flag or pennant existing, I believe some Lines created a Blue Riband pennant for themselves, to be proudly flown by the title holder.

The benefits to be gained by a record holder are questionable. Of course, the prestige value to the company was enormous and passenger bookings increased enormously among the high flyers who wanted to be first across the pond. Prestige was also sought by governments and record breaking ships were heavily subsidised, a good example being the four ships of the North German Lloyd Company which rules the Atlantic for ten years around the turn of the century. All named after the crowned heads of German aristocracy, they were a visible warning of German power and achievement shortly before the First World War. In fact the SS United States was virtually owned by the United States government and intended for use as a fast government personnel carrier, the seaborne equivalent of Air Force One.

Of all these great ships, undoubtedly the one most loved by its home country was the Queen Mary. Laid down on the Clyde in 1930 she was due to sail three years later but, due to the financial crisis engulfing the economies of the US and Britain, she lay unfinished while the depression bit hard, unemployment soared and ships lay idle on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1934, as a result of a £9m government loan work was restarted and, in 1936, the QM was launched. She undoubtedly meant security once more for the British people for, as Nazi Germany was deriding Great Britain as a decadent nation, here was the largest, fastest ship in the world, built right here on the Clyde. She was so symbolic that a round trip of the British Isles was undertaken, with the great liner sailing as close inshore as her draught allowed, as if to show the people they had nothing to fear.

So the advantages of being a record holder were great, but there were disadvantages too. The main problem was the enormous cost of running these huge ships. The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, holder in 1897, burned one ton of coal per hour for every knot of speed - at a service speed of 22 knots the fuel supply that had to be carried and consumed was enormous. Later advances in oil burning boilers helped, but they were still not enough to make a fast ship profitable, for example, In one day of an eastward voyage the Queen Elizabeth burned 1039 tonnes of fuel oil which, multiplied by a four day journey, must have kept a whole oil well busy.

Another disadvantage of running a Blue Riband holder was the tremendous strain on the engines and structure of the ship, and not many holders lasted long after losing their title. After the Kronprinz Wilhelm made a dramatic dash at 25 knots into Hampton Roads to escape British warships, her engines were found to be hopelessly beyond repair and she ended her life as scrap.

Another problem which had to be faced when running a giant was that of accommodation at the ports which she was to serve. Frequently the entrances to these harbours had to be dredged and widened before they could take the new ships. Both New York and Cherbourg had to build especially long piers before the Queens Mary and Elizabeth could call there.

All these facts eventually led to the disappearance of the giant liner purely as a means of getting from the US to Europe and vice versa, no company, or government, could afford to continue running such loss making ships. Today, of course, there is no need to make these dashes across the Atlantic, people who travel by sea are no longer in a hurry, if they were they would be flying.

So, the benefits to be obtained by a record breaker were questionable and of course, since jet travel became commonplace, the benefits are no longer there. Perhaps the best thing about the Blue Riband was that it gave us a chance to read about and imagine, or perhaps travel aboard, these ocean greyhounds, steaming into the teeth of a frightening Atlantic gale, smoke pouring from their huge funnels, straining to be the first across with thousands of people as their precious cargo.

The Hales Trophy manufactured by James Dixon & Sons of Sheffield.
For a large view click the picture.

Below: Charles Holliday, silversmith, who actually crafted the trophy.
I am grateful to Pauline C Bell who contacted me with the kind offer of the use of these photographs.

Thanks also to Nick Heath who told me that Harold Keates Hales was born in Manchester, became MP for Hanley in the Potteries, and also ran a small shipping company.

Nick's grandfather, Robert Goodill, was part of the team at Henry Pidduck & Sons in Hanley, who actually designed the Trophy.