But of course the biggest shock came when I joined the Queen
Mary in 1936, having not at that time sailed on any ship for more
than ... that had actually gone to sea, a ship of more than 14,000
tons and with only funnel. You had to come down to Southampton or
down to the docks and to see this enormous ship, you know, with her
... she stood 60 feet from the ah waterline to the bow, and of
course she was more than a quarter of a mile long, and she stood
the height of a 20 storey block of flats, and ... an enormous thing
and she just towered over ... and I stood on the dockside after I
got out of the taxi before carrying my bags to the gangway and I
looked up at this and I said 'my goodness, Geoffrey how do you ever
learn to drive anything quite as big as this', you know.
