A souvenir encapsulating a “romantic period “ in Bermuda’s history is currently being restored to its former glory before going on permanent display at Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC).The brass steering wheel of the former passenger liner Queen of Bermuda was presented to the RBYC last year by late club member and past Hamilton Princess Hotel general manager, Bodo von Alvensleben.Once the restoration process is completed, the relic will be put on display for future generations to observe and pay homage to a ship that provided job opportunities for many Bermudians and stimulated the local economy during the Great Depression.“The last captain of Queen of Bermuda, Magnus Musson, had a great relationship with general manager of Hamilton Princess Bodo von Alvensleben who died about a month ago,” explained RBYC archivists Paul Doughty. “He (Alvensleben) approached us two years ago saying he wanted to give the club a gift which turned out to be the wheel.“Magnus was presented the wheel before the ship was scrapped in 1966 and he gave it to Alvensleben. It took a while to get the wheel here because it was at his second daughter’s house in Colorado.”Hotelier extraordinaire Mr Alvensleben passed away in Geneva, Switzerland last month at age 84.Mr Doughty takes great pride in restoring some of the Bermuda’s past.“I guess I’ve spent close to 30 hours just getting the wheel back to normal,” he said. “It had been outside for four or five years which didn’t help.”The former 22,575 ton Queen of Bermuda was built by Vickers — Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness, England in 1933 and made her maiden voyage to Bermuda from New York the same year. The ship serviced the Island for 23 years between 1933 and 1966.Service was interrupted when Queen of Bermuda was converted into an armed Merchant Cruiser in 1939 and for the next decade she served her mother country (Britain), roaming the world’s oceans to ensure the safety of other ships and transporting victorious Allied Forces to various outposts. The ship suffered minor damage after being struck by a shell in Gibraltar in 1944.The Queen of Bermuda resumed service to Bermuda as a passenger liner in 1949 until she was retired in 1966 and scrapped.“It’s an amazing story,” added Mr Doughty. “That ship travelled thousands and thousands of miles.”The Queen of Bermuda, which was refitted in 1947 and 1954 and rebuilt in 1961, once serviced the New York to Bermuda route along with her sister, Monarch of Bermuda, which also provided jobs for Bermudians and kept the local economy afloat during tough economic times.“The Monarch of Bermuda and Queen of Bermuda, in the middle of world depression, were generating massive income into Bermuda and were employing Bermudians,” Mr Doughty said.Queen of Bermuda and her sister ship were commonly refered to as the ‘Millionaires’ Ships’ as their passenger list often included some of the world’s wealthiest people. One Queen of Bermuda passenger in particular that attracted huge interest among Bermudians in 1938 was Hollywood child star, Shirley Temple, who was at the height of her acting career at the time.“Those ships were called the ‘Millionaires’ Ships’ because they were high end passenger liners,” added Mr Doughty. “That was a very very romantic period in Bermuda’s history.“In the early part of the 20th century, which includes the 1930s, the kind of wealth that was coming to this Island was phenomenal. The Johnson family of Johnson & Johnson, the Sears family ... all of these super wealthy people were coming here along with the tourists. And the merchants were making good money off of that.”