Shot in 1970, this silent 16mm home movie shows a visit to Hong Kong and its harbor. At :55 seconds you will see the wreck of the RMS Queen Elizabeth, once a grand sovereign of the seas but by this time reduced to a charred and sunken wreck. The story on this derelict can be traced back to November of 1968, when the luxury liner crossed the Atlantic for the last time and was sold to a group of Philadelphia businessmen. Their plan was to turn the ship into a tourist attraction in Florida similar to the one created in Long Beach with RMS Queen Mary. However after only two years the ship was deemed a fire hazard. Hong Kong businessman Tung Chao Yung purchased the RMS Queen Elizabeth at auction in 1970 with plans to turn it into a floating university called the “Seawise University”.
The ship arrived in Hong Kong Harbor to be renovated, and its original interiors were removed. Shortly before it was to be completed however, a fire broke out and the ship was completely destroyed. (Tung Chao Yung had insured the ship for $8 million and had bought it for less than half of that, leading some to believe it was an insurance scam. But Yung was never charged with fraud.)
The wreck remained in Hong Kong Harbor for a number of years and became a tourist attraction, as can be seen in this film. It finally was cleared in the late 1990s, although the area where the wreck lies remains a hazard to navigation.
Ironically, the wreck of the QE featured as the MI6 Headquarters in the James Bond film, “The Man with the Golden Gun”. The wreck of the Queen Elizabeth was the largest passenger ship to sink up until the Costa Concordia disaster in 2012.
RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by the Cunard Line. With her sister ship Queen Mary she provided luxury liner service between Southampton in the United Kingdom and New York City in the United States, via Cherbourg in France. She was also contracted for over 20 years to carry the Royal Mail thus enabling her to carry the prestigious Royal Mail Ship (RMS) designation, as the second half of the two ships’ weekly express service.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
