Queen's move
Sir: I am glad Mr Pendlebury (Letters. I Septem- ber) shares my views about the 'Queen Mary' and the 'Aquitania.' I didn't mention the 'Mauretania' mainly for reasons of space. I did, in fact, sail on the last regular voyage of the 'Mauretania' before she was painted white and sent off on a comparatively short career as a cruise ship. She was very satisfactory. But from my own point of view, as a passenger 'in tourist,' the 'Aquitania' was much superior. She had been designed for the great emigrant traffic before the First World War and had large public rooms which were then almost always empty. Thus I was able to do a lot of work. These rooms compared very favourably with the slum conditions of the tourist class of the 'Queen Mary' or, indeed, of the 'Queen Eliza- beth.' But I suspect my real reason for not men- tioning the 'Mauretania' is that she was not built on the Clyde, and it was she, not the 'Lusitania,' that should have been sunk, if either had to be.
Denis Brogan Hedgerlcy Close, Cambridge
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