The 'Queen Mary', then known as 'Hull Number 534', had been halted between 1931 and 1934 due to the Great Depression of the 1930s, but the merger of Cunard and White Star Line and a nine-and-a-half million pound government loan saved the vessel. Throughout Great Britian two hundred firms in sixty cities and towns had the tremendous task of fitting the 'Queen Mary' with all the necessary items to complete the ship on time, for the launch the same year in September 1934. Boiler drums, turbines and pumps been made at different foundaries and interior furniture to craftsmen in factories up and down the country.