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QUEEN MARY at speed

Uploaded by Donald E. Meek , Apr 30 2010 04:01 PM

QUEEN MARY at speed

This pencil and finger sketch was produced while I was waiting for the MV 'Claymore' of blessed memory to cross from Mull to Tiree in the teeth of a westerly in 1974 or so.  The 'Claymore' was battling it out, and had turned stern to wind on at least two occasions, and headed for the shelter of Tobermory.  She did the same while I was sketching this.  Eventually she went up the 'back of Coll' to Barra, and came south the next morning, much to our amazement.  Every picture tells a story...or perhaps two.  This one is meant to show the 'Queen Mary' taking the Blue Riband...Well, I showed it later to one of the engineers who had been on that historic voyage, and he said, 'Far too much smoke!'  So that was me 'telt'.  He was quite right, of course, but I wanted to show the great ship belting along, while my 'Claymore' was not exactly 'belting' (apart from the fender round her hull!).  I think I had my eye in 'Shipping Wonders of the World' when I did this.




    Guest
    May 01 2010 11:53 PM
    BRILLIANT Donald !!!  Speed drawing ?  I am pleased to tell you it could be one of your best Donald...everything is right about it....another brilliant piece of Art !!!  O0 O0 O0

    Donald E. Meek
    May 03 2010 12:37 PM
    Thanks SO much for these kind comments, Debra.  You are really too kind, I think!  I see so many glitches and 'errors' in my own work.  I have to confess that the 'Queen Mary' is my favourite ocean liner, alongside her great rival, the 'Normandie'.  There are times when I think I prefer the 'Normandie', because she was so 'modern', whereas the 'Mary' was that bit old-fashioned in her rather 'straight-lined' design.  The 'Mary' nodded back to earlier days, while the 'Normandie' nodded towards the future (and the magnificent 'France', built in the early 1960s, and scrapped only recently at Alang).  However, I was on board the 'Mary' at Long Beach in December 2000, and spent a whole day walking her decks, in and out of the various cabins, and, of course, on the bridge!  The bridge was superb - I will never forget it.  I loved ever second of the experience, with the brass telegraphs etc., and the officers' hats and coats still hanging on pegs.  Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.....I could have stayed for weeks on that ship.  O0 O0 O0 ;D It was also excellent to have time to look at the 'Mary's' plating, and the absolute splendour of the riveting - the 'laps' as they are called, with huge rivets set in a pattern.  Oh....I still dream about it all. O0 O0 O0 O0  So I suppose what I am saying is that the first 'Mary' is still glorious to my eyes - and that the 'Queen Mary 2' (which I have also seen at very close quarters) will always be 'second' to her older sister, at least in my estimation.  Perhaps I will summon enough courage to paint an Atlantic liner or two....They were always my favourites after the MacBrayne ships!  I thought of them as the 'big sisters' of the little ships that served the Hebrides - there were so many similarities, quite apart from the colour-scheme.  It was mainly a difference of scale.    Perhaps that explains why this sketch has power in it - or at least I think it has - as well as the usual 'meek mistakes'.  It was produced 25 years before I visited the 'Mary' and saw her for myself - so the admiration was evident from a very early stage!  All the very best, Donald.