In a refit lasting from 1957 to 1958, the Queen Mary was fitted with an innovative system of stabilizers to try to dampen her tendency to roll from side to side in rough weather. Storms could be very bad indeed on the North Atlantic, and it was not unheard of for waves to go down the funnels.
A Denny-Brown fin in its housing (extended) during the ship's last drydocking in 1968. The fins were removed at this time.
Sir William Denny devised a system of mechanical stabilizers which could be extended from the ship in rough weather. The fins could be turned against the motion of the ship, thereby automatically dampening it.
The mechanism cost half a million pounds, but it worked very well. A roll of ten degrees could be damped out in seconds. In very rough weather though, some passengers said they could see the fins coming out of the water. This must have been quite a storm as the fins were a long way below the waterline.
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