| When Queen Mary launched the new
Cunard liner which bore her name in September 1934, it was like a tonic
for a nation emerging from the long years of the depression. The superb
vessel marked the latest chapter in a struggle to conquer the sea, a
story which had begun thousands of years earlier when primitive man
first crossed a river by floating on a log. It was these two extremes
which Churchmans chose for the first and last cards in their series
called The Story of Navigation issued in 1937, our set of the month for
April. Advancing via a Welsh coracle, a Viking ship and an Elizabethan
galleon, we come to Nelson’s flagship “Victory”, now
preserved at Portsmouth for all to admire, the magnificent clipper “Cutty
Sark” still a major attraction at Greenwich and the S.S. “Great
Britain”, on view in Bristol as a lasting tribute to her designer
Isambard Brunel. Finally we come to the great liners of the 20th
century such as the “Mauretania”, for more than 20 years the
speed queen of the North Atlantic, and, of course, the “Queen Mary”,
now ending her days as a rusting tourist attraction at Long Beach,
California. You can re-live these great moments of maritime history with
this finely produced colour series in top condition at a very attractive
price. |
