In December 1930 the British Cunard Line, one of the world's most pre-eminent shipping companies, began the construction of the first of two express ocean liners to serve on the North Atlantic run. The keel of yard no. 534 was laid at the John Brown shipyard on the Clyde in Scotland. However, the economic depression that followed caused work on the new vessel to be halted. Work on the vessel only resumed following a Government-enforced merger of the Cunard Line and their arch-rival White Star Line and the injection of £4½ million. A loan of £5 million was available if a sister ship was built; the larger RMS Queen Elizabeth followed in 1940, also built at the John Brown shipyard. On 26th September 1934, the vessel was christened the Queen Mary and launched by her namesake H.M. Queen Mary. In the following eighteen months her boilers, machinery, fixtures and fittings were installed aboard the vessel.