Show BRITISH LINER IS NEW SPEED CHAMP queen mary beats record of normandie new york establishing herself as the speed champion of the atlantic the C cunard white star liner queen mary set a new record with an elapsed time of four days seven hours and twelve minutes for the voyage from cherbourg Cher bourg the queen marys average speed was knots it was announced by the cunard white star offices thit this exceeded by 35 knot the previous mark of knots set by the french liner normandie the previous holder of the blue pennant that is the badge of atlantic speed supremacy the time was one hour twenty five minutes faster than the best previous westward crossin crossing g the previous elapsed tit time e m mark a rk was four days eight hours and thir ty seven minutes set by the queen mary in a voyage which ended last july 26 before her arrival the queen mary had radioed that she had passed nantucket lightship at p m with an average speed to that point of knots fog and unfavorable weather conditions reduced this average somewhat before the ship reached ambrose light which is the official terminus of the westbound voyage the start of this run is cherbourg Cher bourg breakwater after passing ambrose the queen mary continued on to quarantine where she dropped anchor to lay till morning passengers keenly interested in whether the huge british liner would establish a new speed mark were following the rises and falls in the average speed with as much interest as the officers purser charles johnson declared johnson said the weather had not been really good at any stage of the crossing at 8 p m a broadcast from the liner declared that a pea soup fog continued but that capt sir edgar britten was driving his ship forward with every confidence of surpassing the speed average of the normandie neither the cunard white star line nor the ships officers made any claim to the speed pennant at the end of the queen marys voyage of may 26 when she made the crossing in the shortest elapsed time instead they pointed out that the average speed of the queen mary was slightly lower than the figure set by the normandie the french liners average set in june of 1935 was over a longer route from southampton to ambrose light the normandie therefore continued as the holder of the blue pennant which had been won from the pre previous holder the italian liner rex before the rex the title holder had been the cunard white star liner whose mark of 2606 set in 1910 remained unbroken until the rex steamed at an average of 2802 2892 knots in a passage from gibraltar to ambrose in august 1933 |