Posted: 21/05/2025
To celebrate the bicentennial of the founding of heritage maritime law firm Thomas Cooper in 1825, lawyers from Penningtons Manches Cooper are, for each month of 2025, chronicling a different standout case conducted by the firm across its two centuries of English legal practice.
This fifth instalment focusses on the salvage of the Queen Elizabeth (1949) 82 Ll.L.Rep 803; the same year that Thomas Cooper relocated from 71 St Mary Axe back to Leadenhall Street, where the firm would occupy a rabbit warren of an office at no. 27 for the next 35 years.
At 1,031ft length and 83,673 grt, RMS Queen Elizabeth was the largest ship in the world; larger even than her sister Queen Mary. The vessel was named in honour of Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, who was Queen Consort from 1936 to 1952 as wife to King George VI, and thereafter known to many as 'the Queen Mother'.
Built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank and owned by Cunard White Star Line, the new Queen Elizabeth was ready to move by March 1940, but German spies were well aware. Preparations were made for the vessel to move to Southampton for fitting out. However, after proceeding out of river, the ship was unexpectedly met by a king's messenger, who presented the captain with sealed orders to instead transit non-stop to New York under strict radio silence. Southampton was bombed later that day, when the vessel had been due to arrive.
For six days, Queen Elizabeth zigzagged across the Atlantic, making an average of 26 knots. At New York, she was berthed alongside Queen Mary and the French SS Normandie; the only time the world's three largest ocean liners were together.
Later that year, the vessel proceeded to Singapore and British Columbia for a troopship conversion and the fitting of armaments, which completed in February 1942. Queen Elizabeth then carried American soldiers to Sydney before ferrying Australian troops to theatres of war in Asia and Africa. Subsequently, the two queens were engaged in transporting US infantry to Europe. Their high speeds allowed them to outrun U-boats, meaning they could travel alone, without the protection of an escorted convoy. By war's end, Queen Elizabeth had sailed 500,000 miles and delivered more than 750,000 soldiers.
In 1946, Queen Elizabeth underwent belated sea trials attended by her namesake and princesses Elizabeth and Mary. The two queens would then fulfil Cunard's weekly transatlantic express service. When Queen Elizabeth was in Southampton, Queen Mary was in New York, and vice versa; with the vessels passing midway in the Atlantic, like ships in the night.
At 6.37pm on 14 April 1947, the world's largest superliner ran aground on the Bramble Bank sandbar in the Solent during thick fog. Queen Elizabeth had been on a voyage from New York and had onboard a crew of 1,275 hands, along with 2,246 passengers, and a cargo of 380 tons, including hold baggage, 832 bags of mail 'and some specie in silver bars'.
It was an hour before high water, when the vessel would be aground from 100ft aft of her forward stem, where her keel began to rise, to amidships on both sides. The ground was mud and clay, but with a good deal of shingle. Queen Elizabeth had a draught of 36ft 11in fore and 37ft 7in aft, and soundings indicated the vessel had been forced out of that draught by about 6ft at her forward end. The vessel had been making seven – eight knots when she ran aground, and now lay about a mile off shore, going nowhere, with her bow pointing towards Southampton. Passengers strolling the decks could be seen waving to onlookers on the shore.
The Southampton & Isle of Wight Steam Packing Company tugs Neptune, Canute, Clausentum and Vulcan were routinely employed in providing towage services to the Cunard vessels, and were first to arrive, with further tugs joining the endeavour as the evening progressed. By 9.40pm, two hours after high water, the operation was halted. The combined power of the tugs and Queen Elizabeth's engines had failed to shift the stranded leviathan. Vulcan was ordered back to Southampton to collect a fuel barge in order to lighten the vessel.
Overnight, two powerful tugs owned by Metal Industries Salvage arrived from the Isle of Wight, along with six admiralty tugs.
A four hour-long refloating attempt spanned the 8am high tide, but was equally ineffective. Powerful wash from Queen Elizabeth's engines and thirteen tugs pulling at full power created disturbing conditions for Neptune and Vulcan as they sought to push against the massive hull.
At 10am, the operation was halted, and Neptune and Vulcan were called alongside to lighten baggage. Thereafter, Clausentum towed away a barge containing 850 tons of syphoned fuel oil, following which Neptune took away another barge with a similar quantity.
Saltwater was pumped out of the ship's tanks, and almost 1,000 passengers, mostly first-class, were disembarked. All in all, over 4,800 tons was lighted, effectively reducing the ship's draught by 2ft. Queen Elizabeth's freshwater stores were also redistributed to stern, raising her forward end by 6ft and aligning her trim parallel with the sandbank.
Meanwhile, according to the Southern Daily Echo, '[a]lthough the wind has been chilly, a good number of people have sat on the beach enjoying a picnic luncheon and watching the liner'.
At about 20.40, with sixteen tugs operating at maximum power, Queen Elizabeth came off the bank, accelerating into a run astern, immediately after she began using her engines. Two admiralty tugs were in danger of being girted or overrun, but one tow rope parted under the strain and another was let slip in time.
Only twelve tugs sought to claim salvage. The agreed value of ship and cargo was a staggering £6,208,000, equivalent to around £200 million today, leading Mr Justice Willmer to observe that 'so far as I know, no case has ever previously come before this Court involving a value even approximating to that with which we have to deal …'.
Cunard admitted that the services constituted salvage, except in the case of the Southampton tugs, which were represented by Thomas Cooper. Cunard alleged those services were undertaken pursuant to its existing contract, and relied on a letter dated 16 December 1925 to the Cunard Steamship Co, which provided:
'For any special services rendered at any time to any vessels of the Cunard or its Associated Companies it is understood that this company will not make any claim on a salvage basis, but the charge shall be at the following rates: …
"Special services" shall mean and include services, whether by way of towage or of attendance upon vessels of the Cunard or Associated Companies, which, by reason of stress of weather, breakdown or any defect of machinery or equipment may not be under complete control.'
As 'special services' was defined, the judge interpreted the restriction as extending only to the services described, which made no mention of assisting grounded vessels. The Southampton tugs were therefore free to claim salvage.
Mr Justice Willmer evaluated the merits of the salvage. He observed that Queen Elizabeth's engines had participated in the refloating and that 'energetic steps were taken to remove surplus weight from her', which meant the vessel 'had been brought very near to flotation point', whereas all the tugs' prior efforts to move the vessel had been futile. It was acknowledged that some tugs had taken on dangerous roles.
The value of the salved property was enormous but with only a remote risk of total loss, say, if the vessel had been allowed to languish for so long that the ongoing action of tides and waves caused serious damage. However, a company as prestigious as Cunard had a real interest in a timely refloating, which had saved inconveniencing its passengers.
The four Southampton tugs (combined engine power 5,200hp) were awarded £12,000; the two Metal Salvage tugs (combined engine power 5,475hp) £15,000; and the six admiralty tugs (combined engine power 8,800hp) £16,500.
The decision is oft-cited authority for the proposition that the value of the property salved is not the sole consideration when determining the amount of an English salvage award.
The two queens dominated the transatlantic passenger market until the advent of the jet age. Queen Elizabeth's passengers included the Beatles, Elizabeth Taylor, and Winston Churchill, who credited the Cunard queens with shortening the war by a year.
After being retired and sold in 1968, Queen Elizabeth was destroyed by fire at Hong Kong on 9 January 1972 during a refit intended to repurpose her as a floating university. The charred remnants of her last ensign still adorn the wall of the Hong Kong marine police officers' mess.
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