9th JANUARY 1972 RMS Queen Elizabeth caught fire and sank in Hong Kong harbour.

 

The RMS Queen Elizabeth, the liner that had been turned into a sailing university, caught fire and sank in Hong Kong harbour.
The RMS Queen Elizabeth was built in Scotland’s Clydebank shipyard by John Brown’s and was  largest passenger ship in the world for over thirty years when it was launched in 1938. The 83,000 ton vessel was used to transport troops during the Second World War, before then being turned to commercial use. After being sold to a Hong Kong businessman, it was sent to a Hong Kong harbour for refitting, but caught fire on the 9th January 1972. The entire Hong Kong firefighting force spent two days trying to put out the blaze, but the ship turned on it’s side.  Remarkably, no one was killed during the enormous fire.  RMS Queen Elizabeth was later used in a scene in James Bond film 'The Man With The Golden Gun' in 1974 when the wreck was partially dismantled, between then and 1975, the rest was buried under land reclamation.