SHE was bigger and more powerful than the Titanic – and when it performed a key role during war-time, Hitler offered a reward of $250,000 to any U-Boat captain who could sink her.

But her size and speed made the Clydebank-built liner Queen Mary unsinkable, says a BBC documentary being screened tonight.

At first the ship, stripped down to make her suitable for war-time service, transported British and Australian troops all over the world to front lines in North Africa and the Middle East.

Narrator Iain Glen, pictured, says tonight: “The newly-armed and camouflaged ship’s speed and ability to cross U-boat-infested oceans unseen earned her the nickname The Grey Ghost,” says the documentary’s narrator Iain Glen, picture.

After America joined the war, the Queen Mary acted as a troop transport for huge numbers of US servicemen – up to 15,000 at a time. Her reputation and troop-carrying potential were such that Hitler was desperate to sink her – but the liner would zigzag across the Atlantic to throw her U-boat pursuers off course.

But tragedy struck in October 1942 when the liner, laden with American servicemen, accidentally struck an ageing cruiser, HMS Curacao, which was helping to escort it towards Scotland.

The Curacao was too close to the 81,000-tonne Queen Mary, which, unable to stop in time, hit it amidships and cut it in half. The liner, under strict orders not to stop under any circumstances in such a dangerous area, had to carry on towards her destination. Nearly 340 men lost their lives on the cruiser that day. Another 101 were picked up by other ships.

The liner suffered severe damage in the collision. Its build quality, however, meant that it remained intact and afloat. If it had sunk, the resulting death toll would have been eight times greater than that suffered by the Titanic 30 years earlier, says the documentary.

In peacetime, film stars, politicians and royalty all crossed the Atlantic on the luxury Cunarder – and today, 80 years after her maiden voyage, she continues to win the hearts of millions of visitors at her base in the port city of Long Beach, California.

The documentary – The Queen Mary: Greatest Ocean Liner – makes it clear that the Queen Mary was a hit right from the start. Its first-ever sailing, from Southampton, was “one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the 20th century.”

Says Iain: “News cameras, journalists and almost a million people turned out to witness the biggest ship ever to be built set sail on her maiden voyage.”

One former crew member recalls the exotic places it visited on his very first trip, which over the course of three months took him to such places as Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Sydney, Fremantle, Colombo and Naples.

On board, passengers could browse in branches of some of the world’s best-known stores. There were three acres of recreational deck space, with two cinemas, two swimming pools, two gymnasiums, a squash court and a huge ballroom.

The hour-long documentary looks at the liner’s glory days in the 1950s, when such film stars as Errol Flynn and Judy Garland were among the passengers.
Singer Johnny Mathis remembers a rocky performance as the old Queen made her swansong journey to her final destination.

The documentary also features some of the many people whose lives the Queen Mary touched, including Eileen Gourlay, who was a four-year-old when the ship first sailed across the Clyde, and Heather Beagley, whose family travelled on the maiden voyage.

Also interviewed are Robert Tennenbaum and Ludwig Katzenstein, whose Jewish families fled the clutches of the Nazis to safety in America aboard the Queen Mary, before the advent of the Second World War. 

In Long Beach, the Queen Mary remains a major draw for visitors as a maritime museum and floating hotel. Each year more than 1.5 million visitors board her and are fascinated by what they see. Many are intrigued by the ship’s illustrious history and want to find out more.

The Queen Mary’s current Commodore, Everette Hoard, is shown in the ship’s largest room, the grand salon. It was originally, he says, “the first-class dining room when the Queen Mary roamed the North Atlantic. It is now our finest room, and we’re celebrating our champagne Sunday brunch, which we do every Sunday here in the Queen Mary.”

The camera then lingers over what Mr Hoard describes as “over 100 gustatory delights laid out for people to enjoy.”

As if to emphasise that this is no ordinary grand salon, Mr Hoard lists some of the celebrities who dined here over the decades – among them Winston Churchill, the Queen Mum, and Hollywood stars Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor and Cary Grant.

“They were all here,” he says, “and so, even today, if you just stop and allow yourself to wonder, you can almost hear them speak.”

l The Queen Mary: Greatest Ocean Liner, tonight, BBC2 Scotland, 9pm