The RMS Queen Mary first set sail in 1936 and did what any
serious ocean liner of the time did: capture the Blue Riband for
fastest transatlantic crossing. She actually did it twice,
stealing the title back from the SS Normandie several years
later. Keeping up the similarities between our past featured
"Famous Ships That Did Not Sink," the Queen Mary prided herself
on her luxurious interiors (two indoor swimming pools! a mini-
synagogue! Art Deco details!) and First Class comfort...until
the outbreak of war. Unlike the Kronprinz Wilhelm and Kaiser
Wilhelm II, the Queen Mary wouldn't end up in enemy hands; she
became a UK troopship and lost the red funnels and black hull
for a more war-friendly monotone grey. "The Grey Ghost" would
end up transporting some 15,000 Aussie and NZ troops per voyage
to the UK, and Wikipedia even notes that she still holds the
record with a (frankly insane) total of 16,082 troops and crew,
on a ship built to originally hold only 3,240. Of course Winston
Churchill hitched a few rides