% ILL Rowlands was in
@, for the short back and
P sides at. Bob’s barber

‘The barber got to talking and hap-
ned to mention how another, one of
hi English customers worked aboard
the RA{S Queen Mary for a spell.
Recalls Rowlands, 76, “So I said,
Well I was on the Queen Mary, Next
minute he (Jeff Tilbury) knocks on
door: ‘God,' he said, ‘You
* on the Queen Mary!”
“Said Tilbury, 66, who lives
just minutes away from
lands in Lynn Valley, “It's
preatest thing ever, Mmect-
ing him.”
- Rowlands, Tilbury and
about 500 others from around
the world made the pilgrimage

ourist legacy recalled

_ steer this ruddy thing? It didn’ fizz

on me when I was 22 years of age,”
he said,

Rowlands came to the Qucen
Mary by way ofa sinking. He was on
the troop ship Laconia when she was
sunk by German U-boats in the South
Atlantic in 1942.

_- He was taken prisoner of war in
North Africa by the Vichy French.

Said Rowlands, “I was released,
sent to New York and from New York
I got back to Scotland. I had one
month’s survivor’s leave and then. I
was thrown back into the fray.”

The ship brought troops from
New York to the European war front.

QUEEN MARY FAST FACTS:

@ gross tonnage: 81,237 (8,123,700 cubic
square feet);

@ length: 1,019.5 ft.;

@ 12 decks;

@ 1,957 passengers;

BG 1,174 crew;

NEWS photos Mike Wakefield

JEFF Tilbury (left) displays a menu from the Queen Mary, a cruise vessel
and troop ship that was the subject of a 60th anniversary celebration

recently. Tilbury was a waiter aboard ship. Bill Rowlands (above) became
the quartermaster of the vessel during the war at the ripe old age of 22.

Ireland.

“They fired a torpedo and it fin-
ished at the end of its run and explod-
ed right off the beam.”

But the worst experience
Rowlands had occurred in 1944.

The starboard cabin at the wing of
the bridge is 90 feet from the water-
line. It overhangs the ship's side by
11 feet. Recalled Rowlands, “I was at
the wheel when she pur the starboard
cab under water. She was coming u
on the crests and falling away into the
trough. This time she fell away quick.
It was a bobby dazzler I tell you.”

The Amencan troops aboard were
never supposed to sleep on the deck,

especially in the mait
ways. Bur they did.

“When she went over, the
American troops that were"
sleeping on deck just slid
over.”

Winston Churchill was
along for the ride three titnes
during Rowlands’ years on the
ship. “Thad Mrs, Charchill

Board
af Trade
669 ft.

Momenent ;
555 f/

standing at the wheel beside
me. She wanted to steer the
ship so | stood along, side of
her and told her what to do.
She was kind of all over the

B 24 liteboats, all with motors;

@ rudder : 140 tons; ,

@ more than 2,000 portholes,

more than 10,000,000 rivets;

@ normal speed 29 knots (33 mph);

Bi four manganese bronze propellers weighing
35 tons each; ‘
four steam turbine engines of 40,000 horse

power each;

earlier this year to Long, Beach

California to celebrate the
B 60th anniversary of the Queen

Mary.

"The two had very different
erences aboard the great

~ as it like steering
such a massive craft?

Memories of their seafaring
“When she was going

sare equally golden and

remain as clear as the deep
waters of the North Atlantic.
= Atage 22 Rowlands, origi-
nally from Wallasey, served as
B the ship’s youngest quarter-
master, | 3)
“The Queen Mary was a
W troop ship: during the war
ars. Rowlands steered her
f) rom March 1943 to Dee. 19,
\ 1946; when sh went for refit
ting to resume passenger ser-
views, :
“Tr didn’t even fizz, on me steering
Queen Mary, but when I went
down to Long Beach California and I
od in the port wing of the bridge,
Llooked fore aid I looked aft and I
‘Good God, did I used to.

&@ fuel consumption (crude oil). 13 feet to the
gallon;

@ fuel capacity : 3,000,000 gallons;
BM height from keel to top of the forward funnel
180 feet (greater than Niagra Falls at 165 feet);
@ Adolf Hitler made a standing offer of
$250,000 to any U-boat crew that could sink
her;

G first voyage May 1936;

@ last voyage December 1967,

“She was everything. When the Battle
of the Bulge was on she was a hospital
ship, bringing American wounded
back,” said Rowlands.

The Queen Mary came under
attack once when he was at the wheel
near Tory Island off the coast of

through an Adantic gale poing,
at the speed she did, four turns
of helm on the Queen Mary
was hard over either way.
Sometimes she'd carry two
turns and you'd steer on the
other two, Ifyou let those two
go olf, she'd ran away with
you.”

Tilbury, originally from
Hampshire, was aboard the
ship for seven years, from
1946 to 1953. He began his stint as a
bellboy ar age 16 and eventually

“worked his way up to become a waiter

in the first-class salon.

The peace-time route was
Southampton, Cherbourg,
Manhattan. The ship eventually made

wesevrvervres

1,001 of the round-trips.

‘Tilbury clocked quite a few of
them,

Some of the posh people Tilbury
looked after during his years included
Churchill, the Duke and Duchess of
Windsor, Lou Costello and his nine
children.

He also served Andrei Gromyko,
the foreign minister of Russia, “He
had three other people with him. He
had specials for lunch, specials for
breakfast, specials for dinner and at
the end of five days he gave me five
dollars for four people. If T'd had

were were eves eveeee

spoke Russian Pd have told him whar
10 do with it,” said ‘Tilbury. ‘

One time ‘Tilbury was down in the’
radio roam with a friend, “He had a
pile of ridiograms. He said, ‘Do you
think you could help me? Well take
this one. It's for a film star”

“Twente, knocked on the door.
Who opened the door, but Betty
Harton. She turned arotind and said,
“Hang on, I'll give you a tip’ She
opened it up (the message) and it was
her first million dollar contract,

“She threw her arms around me
and gave me a big kiss,”. Tilbury said.

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