The RMS Queen Elizabeth was a Cunard Line ocean liner, launched on the River Clyde in Scotland in 1938 and named after the wife of King George VI. At the time, she was the largest passenger ship ever built, a title she held for decades. Due to the outbreak of the Second World War, she was secretly commissioned and initially used as a troopship rather than a passenger vessel, carrying Allied soldiers across the Atlantic throughout the war. After extensive refitting, she finally entered commercial transatlantic service in 1946, operating alongside her running mate, the RMS Queen Mary, on the prestigious Southampton–New York route for Cunard. Together, the two ships dominated luxury ocean travel for over two decades. As jet air travel grew popular, demand declined, and she was retired from service in 1968. She was later sold and eventually caught fire and sank in Hong Kong Harbour in 1972 while being converted into a floating university.
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