The world's largest passenger ship, the 150,000-ton, French-built Cunard liner Queen Mary 2, is scheduled to be officially named in Southampton, England, on Jan. 8 — exactly 31 years, by uncanny coincidence, after the mysterious end of the vessel's aunt, the Queen Elizabeth.

In her time the Queen Elizabeth, at 83,000 tons, was also the largest passenger vessel afloat and the pride of the Cunard Line. Launched in 1938, she did wartime service before becoming empress of the Atlantic crossing. Her death in Hong Kong harbor in 1972 was no accident.

The ship, by then known as the Seawise University, caught fire in several places at once on Jan. 7, burned furiously and capsized and sank the following day. Who killed the queen? The murderers have never been...