Dear Sir,

The Salute to the Queen exhibit at Masterworks does poor justice to the days when Furness Withy & Co dominated Bermuda tourism.

While the Queen of Bermuda was the most visible symbol of that era, the Furness involvement was much, much greater.

After the First World War, Sir Frederick Lewis (later Lord Essendon) of Furness Withy visited Bermuda, and his immense vision for the potential that Bermuda offered soon became reality. Furness purchased two ships for the Bermuda Trade and invested heavily in local hotels, building the first Bermudiana, Castle Harbour Hotel, Mid Ocean Club and renovating the St George Hotel.

As Bermuda tourism grew, Furness expanded their shipping capability, building first the ill-fated motor vessel Bermuda, followed by the revolutionary Monarch of Bermuda in 1931 — and followed by her near-sister Queen of Bermuda in 1933.

In the 1930s, Furness Bermuda Line, as it was known, brought thousands of wealthy visitors to Bermuda and the island prospered.

Unfortunately, the Second World War brought an abrupt halt to all of that in 1939.

The luxurious pair of liners were suddenly sent off to war and Bermuda suffered accordingly, although the building of the American bases, and other factors, partially offset the loss.

In 1947, the Monarch of Bermuda suffered a disastrous fire as she was being refitted for her return to Bermuda.

The British Government then released the Queen and her return in 1949 was greatly welcomed by Bermudians.

However, the newly built Kindley Field Airport had changed the Bermuda dynamic and Furness replaced the burnt-out Monarch of Bermuda with the smaller Ocean Monarch, which was designed for cruising as well as servicing the New York-to-Bermuda run.

The two ships prospered for several years to the extent that Furness refitted the ageing Queen with new boilers and air conditioning in 1962, and changed her famous three-funnelled profile to a more modern single funnel. In the meantime, an unrelated event brought significant changes to the Safety of Life at Sea regulations. The luxurious, polished-wood interiors of the Furness ships presented insuperable compliance problems and in 1966, Furness closed their Bermuda service, the Queen going to ship-breakers at Faslane in Scotland and the Ocean Monarch eventually being sold off to Bulgarian owners, who renamed her Varna. But that is another story.

The aforementioned is a much simplified version of the Furness Bermuda Line’s 46-year Bermuda connection and the glory days of Bermuda tourism. For further reading on the subject, I would recommend the book Queen of Bermuda and the Furness Bermuda Line by Piers Plowman and Stephen J. Card, published by the Bermuda Maritime Museum Press.

Allan Davidson, master mariner (former junior chief officer, TSS Ocean Monarch)