Editing RMS Queen Mary (section)

==After World War II==
[[File:QueenMary1956.jpg|thumb|''Queen Mary'' at [[Southampton]], 1960]]
[[File:RMS Queen Mary 1 westward bound on the North Sea - 1959.png|thumb|''Queen Mary'' on the [[North Sea]], 1959]]
[[File:Queen Mary New York.jpg|thumb|''Queen Mary'' at [[New York City|New York]],  1961]]
After delivering war brides to Canada, ''Queen Mary'' made her fastest ever crossing, returning in early 1946 to Southampton in only three days, 22 hours and 42 minutes at an average speed of 31.9 knots.<ref>Maddocks, p. 155.</ref> From September 1946 to July 1947, ''Queen Mary'' was refitted for passenger service, adding air conditioning and upgrading her berth configuration to 711 first class (formerly called cabin class), 707 cabin class (formerly tourist class) and 577 tourist class (formerly third class) passengers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ocean-liners.com/ships/qm.asp |title=RMS Queen Mary |publisher=Ocean-liners.com |access-date=10 September 2012 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120901202639/http://www.ocean-liners.com/ships/qm.asp |archive-date=1 September 2012 }}</ref> Doris Zinkeisen retouched the mural in the Verandah Grill, which had been damaged by gunnery officers tacking charts to the poster board that covered it.<ref name="spt">{{Cite news |date=18 January 2009 |title=The 'Queen Mary' is now a luxurious, historic hotel |url=http://www.tampabay.com/features/travel/article967265.ece |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606161830/http://www.tampabay.com/features/travel/article967265.ece |archive-date=6 June 2011 |accessdate=26 April 2010 |publisher=St. Petersburg Times}}</ref> She reportedly painted a mouse so there would always be a mouse on the ''Queen Mary'', a joke reference to [[Cunard Line|Cunard]]'s claim to proudly have no rodents on their ships.<ref name="spt" />

Following their refit, ''Queen Mary'' and ''Queen Elizabeth'' dominated the transatlantic passenger trade as Cunard White Star's two-ship weekly express service through the latter half of the 1940s and well into the 1950s. They proved highly profitable for Cunard (as the company was renamed on 31 December 1949).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Casey |date=1 February 2012 |title=History of the White Star Line |url=https://mollybrown.org/history-of-the-white-star-line/ |access-date=6 December 2023 |website=Molly Brown House Museum |language=en-US}}</ref>

On 1 January 1949, ''Queen Mary'' ran aground off [[Cherbourg Harbour|Cherbourg]], France. She was refloated the next day<ref name=Times030149>{{Cite news|newspaper=[[The Times]] |title=The Queen Mary Back In Port |date=3 January 1949 |page=4 |issue=51269 }}</ref> and returned to service.

In 1952, ''Queen Mary'' lost the [[Blue Riband]] she held for 14 years to the ''[[SS United States]]'' during her maiden voyage.

On 29 January 1955, she took aboard two injured crew members from the Panamanian [[Liberty ship]] {{SS|Liberator|1943|2}}.<ref name=Times310155>{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Injured Men Taken On Board Liner |date=31 January 1955 |page=3 |issue=53153 |column=C }}</ref> In 1958, the [[Transatlantic flight#Maturation|first commercial transatlantic flights]] by [[Jet aircraft|jet]] began a completely new era of competition for passenger liners. With a London–New York travel time reduced to just 7–8 hours, demand for multi-day ocean crossing dropped precipitously. On some voyages, winters especially, ''Queen Mary'' sailed into harbour with more crew than passengers, though both she and ''Queen Elizabeth'' still averaged over 1,000 passengers per crossing into the middle 1960s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harvey |first=Clive |title=R.M.S. Queen Elizabeth – The Ultimate Ship |publisher=[[Carmania Press]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-9543666-8-1}}</ref> By 1965, the entire Cunard fleet was operating at a loss.

Hoping to continue financing ''[[Queen Elizabeth 2]]'', which was under construction at [[John Brown & Company|Brown's shipyard]], Cunard mortgaged the majority of the fleet. Due to a combination of age, lack of public interest, inefficiency in a new market, and the damaging after-effects of the national seamen's strike, Cunard announced that both Queens would be retired from service and sold off. Many offers for ''Queen Mary'' were submitted, and the bid of $3.45m/£1.2m from [[Long Beach, California]] surpassed the Japanese scrap merchants.<ref name="The History Press">{{cite book|title=Tramp to Queen: The Autobiography of Captain John Treasure Jones|publisher=[[The History Press]]|year=2008|isbn=978-0-7524-4625-7}}</ref> ''Queen Mary'' was featured in the film ''[[Assault on a Queen]]'' (1966) starring [[Frank Sinatra]]. That August, ''Queen Mary'' made her fastest eastbound passage since August 1938, crossing in 4 days, 10 hours and 6 minutes at an average speed of 29.46 knots (54.56&nbsp;km/h).

''Queen Mary'' was retired from service in 1967.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2UwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA26 |title=Out to Sea and into History |date=6 October 1967 |magazine=Life |volume=63 |issue=14 |pages=26–31 |access-date=3 July 2017}}</ref> On 27 September 1967, ''Queen Mary'' completed her 1,001st<ref>''RMS Queen Mary Transatlantic Masterpiece'', Janette  McCutcheon,  2000, Temple Publishing Limited, {{ISBN|0-7524-1716-9}}, p. 91</ref> and last crossing of the North Atlantic, having carried 2,112,000 passengers over {{convert|3792227|mi}}. Under the command of Captain [[Capt. John Treasure Jones|John Treasure Jones]], who had been her captain since 1965, she sailed from Southampton for the last time on 31 October with 1,093 passengers and 806 crew. After a voyage around [[Cape Horn]], she arrived in Long Beach on 9 December.<ref name="The History Press"/> 
''Queen Elizabeth'' was withdrawn in 1968 and ''Queen Elizabeth 2'' took over the transatlantic route in 1969.