The Queen Mary was the largest ship to cross the oceans when it was
launched in 1936. Through four decades and a World War she served until
she was retired as a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach,
California.
During the conversion into a hotel her three massive
smokestacks were taken off to be scraped down and repainted. But, on the
dock they crumbled. Nothing was left of the 3/4 inch steel plate from
which the stacks had been formed. All that remained were more than
thirty coats of paint that had been applied over the years. The steel
had rusted away.
Strong Steel or Painted Rust?
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