Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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[26] THE ASHBURIAN i Courtesy Cunard -White Star Line R.M.S. Queen Mary

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THE ASHBURIAN [25] A Glimpse of Conway (Cont ' d) Richard III started from the castle on the journey to London which ended with his imprisonment there. It was here also that the erratic Archbishop Wil- liams was born and later served for both the Roundheads and the Royalists. In 1646 it was the scene of General Myttons ' s seizure of the Irish defenders and the consequent action of throwing them into the river bound together in pairs, back to back. So much for its history. When the castle was built, the entrance was by way of a drawbridge over a deep moat, but today a small path takes its place although the remains of the drawbridge are still there. The walls are twelve to fifteen feet thick, and their present condition is marvellous when one considers the number of years of hard weather they have withstood. As we enter we find ourselves in one of the two courts into which the castle is divided. This court is bounded by what was once the beautiful apartments of the King and Queen, but they are now in a sad state of decay and our imagination is left to fill in the details as best we may. On one side of this same court are the remains of the huge banqueting hall. One hundred and thirty feet long, thirty feet wide and thirty-two feet high, it requires no mental effort to picture the lavish feasts that were once spread before the guests. In time past it was supported by nine arches of which only two re- main and these in their antiquity seem to resist the arm of Time with a boldness that does credit to the architect, Henry de Elreton. As we pass to the second court we see the ruins of a little chapel and the sub- terranean rooms in which huge supplies of food were kept. In the second court are the King ' s and Queen ' s towers, and here we are more fortunate for the building is in a much better state of preservation and we are able to gain some interesting if scanty knowledge of the type of architecture employed. Adjoining these towers are the ' priests rooms ' , as they were called, and passing these we come to a little terrace which affords an entrancing view of the town and the surrounding country. Carried away from the present we cannot help but think of the kings and queens who must have paraded without and within the castle ' s walls. Perhaps we stand on the post of some armoured sentry who scanned the countryside round about for some sign of an approaching army. Pictures of great balls, lavish feasts and entertainments flit before us, and as we are recalled to the present and see below the steady stream of automobiles we cannot help but think of the poet ' s cry ; No, Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change : Thy pyramids built up with newer might To me are nothing new, nothing strange ; They are but dressings of a former sight.

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THE ASHBURIAN [27] R.M.S. QUEEN MARY By W. A. GRANT RM.S. Queen Mary, pride of the British Mercantile Marine, completed her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on June 1st. This giant liner, the flagship of the Cunard-White Star line is undoubtedly the finest ship afloat even though she is not the largest. This great ship represents no wild departure from Britain ' s accepted shipbuilding standards in an effort to assert her supremacy on the high seas at a time of renewed competition ; the Queen Mary is not a freak, her design and construction is the answer to a demand, and her size is the result of a gradual increase in the size of vessels generally to meet an ever increasing tourist trade. Then too the Queen Mary has not been built, as have so many ships lately, with speed the main consideration, but rather with the idea that she might be, although a fast ship and a luxurious ship, above all a safe ship. Ten years were spent in drawing up blue prints for her design. Then came long and arduous experiments with perfect scale models in water-tanks to see how the ship would behave in water. Seventeen of these models were scrapped before the final design was decided upon. Full scale drawings were then made of the ship and the keel laid late in 1930. The company to whose care the building of the Queen Mary was entrusted was the veteran John Brown Company on the Clyde in Scotland. This company has long been famous for the long and distinguished list of great ships that have been constructed in its yards, a list including such names as the Empress of Britain and the magnificent but ill-fated Lusitania. Then came the crisis of 1931, when the national credit of Britain hung trembling in the balance, and work ceased on the ship. Thus she stood for two years, gaunt and rust stained, until national help was obtained in 1934 and Parliament voted a huge subsidy in order that the 534 might be completed. As the day of the launching approached, as preparations were made to receive the Royal visitors and the many distinguished guests, other men were engaged in the task of seeing that the ship would enter the water at the correct speed and be brought to a stop before her stern rammed the opposite bank. Actually, so accurate were the calculations that the ship stopped within a few feet of the estimated position. The ship, as is universally known, was launched by Queen Mary in the presence of the late King and the then Prince of Wales, the first time that a British ship has been launched by the consort of a reigning monarch. The date of the launching was Wednesday, the 26th of September. When she took the water the Queen Mary weighed 40,000 tons, over 30,000 less than the weight at which she now tips the scale having been completely fitted inside and out.