For those visitors to the Queen Mary in Long Beach who find the ship’s size overwhelming, they soon can see the ship on a more human scale: An intricate model of the former ocean liner will be displayed on board in the giant ship’s main exhibition hall starting Feb. 5.

The more than 22-foot-long model of the Queen Mary – built to a 1/45 scale by famed Northampton, England, toy and model company Bassett-Lowke – was crafted from a single 200-year-old white mahogany log prior to the ship itself being built in the early 1930s.

To mark the Queen Mary’s 80th anniversary this year, New York’s South Street Seaport Museum, which has owned the model since 1971, has agreed to loan it on a long-term basis to the Queen Mary. The model will be transported across the country starting this week.

The display will serve as the centerpiece of a planned 65,000-square-foot museum and science center on board the ship. Last year, the Queen Mary announced a fundraising campaign, with the goal of opening the museum and science center sometime next year.

After commissioning the Bassett-Lowke scale model, Cunard Line took four years to build the Queen Mary at a shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland. The 1,020-foot-long, 81,000-ton ship was launched in 1934 and took its maiden transatlantic voyage in 1936. During World War II, the ship transported more than 800,000 Allied soldiers. After being retired from passenger service in 1967, the ship permanently moored in Long Beach Harbor; in 1971, it opened as a floating hotel and tourist attraction.

– Howard Fine