RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by Cunard Line. Along with the Queen Mary, she provided a weekly transatlantic service between Southampton in the United Kingdom and New York City in the United States, via Cherbourg in France.

Built by John Brown and Company at Clydebank, Scotland, as Hull 552, she was launched on 27 September 1938 and named in honour of Queen Elizabeth, the wife of King George VI. Her design was an improvement of that of Queen Mary, resulting in a vessel 12 feet longer and several thousand tons greater GRT, making her the largest passenger liner ever built for a record 56 years. She entered service in March 1940 as a troopship in the Second World War, and did not make her first commercial voyage as an ocean liner until October 1946.

With the decline in popularity of the transatlantic route, both ships were replaced by the smaller, more economical Queen Elizabeth 2, which made her maiden voyage in 1969. Queen Mary was retired from service on 9 December 1967, and sold to the city of Long Beach, California. Queen Elizabeth was retired after her final crossing to New York, on 8 December 1968. She was moved to Port Everglades, Florida, and converted to a tourist attraction, which opened in February 1969. The business was unsuccessful, and closed in August 1970. Finally, the ship was sold to Hong Kong businessman Tung Chao-yung, who intended to convert her into a floating university cruise ship called Seawise University. In 1972, while she was undergoing refurbishment in Hong Kong harbour, a fire broke out aboard under unexplained circumstances, and the vessel was capsized by the water used to fight the fire. The following year the wreck was deemed an obstruction to shipping in the area, and in 1974 and 1975 was partially scrapped on site.

On 27 May 1936, the day RMS Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage, Cunard's chairman, Sir Percy Bates, informed his ship designers, headed by George Paterson, that it was time to start designing the planned second ship. The official contract between Cunard and government financiers was signed on 6 October 1936.

The new ship improved upon the design of Queen Mary with sufficient changes, including a reduction in the number of boilers to twelve instead of Queen Mary's twenty-four, that the designers could discard one funnel and increase deck, cargo and passenger space. The two funnels were self-supporting and braced internally to give a cleaner-looking appearance. With the forward well deck omitted, a more refined hull shape was achieved, and a sharper, raked bow was added for a third bow-anchor point. She was to be twelve feet longer and 4,000 tons greater displacement than the Queen Mary.

Queen Elizabeth was built on slipway four at John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland, Great Britain. During her construction she was more commonly known by her shipyard number, Hull 552. The interiors were designed by a team of artists headed by the architect George Grey Wornum. The staircases, foyers and entrances were constructed by H.H. Martyn & Co. Cunard's plan was for the ship to be launched in September 1938, with fitting-out intended to be complete for her to enter service in the spring of 1940. Queen Elizabeth herself performed the launching ceremony on 27 September 1938. Supposedly, the liner started to slide into the water before the Queen could officially launch her, and acting sharply, she managed to smash a bottle of Australian red over the ship’s bow just before it slid out of reach. The liner was then docked for fitting out. It was announced that on 23 August 1939 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were to visit the ship and tour the engine room and that 24 April 1940 was to be the proposed date of her maiden voyage. Due to the outbreak of the Second World War, these two events were postponed and Cunard's plans were cancelled.

Queen Elizabeth sat at the fitting-out dock at the shipyard in her Cunard colours until 2 November 1939, when the Ministry of Shipping issued special licences to declare her seaworthy. On 29 December the engines were tested for the first time, running from 0900 to 1600 with the propellers disconnected to monitor her oil and steam operating temperatures and pressures. Two months later Cunard received a letter from Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, ordering the ship to leave Clydeside as soon as possible and "to keep away from the British Isles as long as the order was in force".^{[citation needed]}

At the start of the Second World War, it was decided that Queen Elizabeth was so vital to the war effort that she must not have her movements tracked by German spies operating in the Clydebank area. An elaborate ruse suggested to any German observers that she would sail to Southampton to complete her fitting-out. Another factor prompting the ship’s departure was the necessity to clear the fitting-out berth at the shipyard for the battleship HMS Duke of York, for final fitting-out, as only it could accommodate the King George V-class battleships.