Mr Churchill is heading for talks with the US president

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The British Prime Minister has set off on his trip to America after more than 24 hours of delays.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden are heading to America on the Queen Mary for talks with President Truman.

They boarded the boat in Southampton but the departure was delayed when an anchor became jammed.

It was released late last night by a team of men and the ship has now set sail for New York.

Talks between the two leaders are due to begin as soon as the British party arrive.

It is Mr Churchill's first trip since re-election last October and he is anxious to renew the so-called 'special relationship' with the US he first forged with President Franklin D Roosevelt during World War II.

Describing the objectives of the trip Mr Eden said: "I hope we shall be able to do a good job of work for Anglo-American relations and world understanding."

The delay comes at the end of a bad week for the Queen Mary.

A fast turnaround was called for to prepare the ship for its high profile guests after bad weather hampered its original crossing from New York to Southampton.

After arriving in Southampton more than 60 hours late the ships captain described it as his "worst Atlantic crossing for 40 years."

The informal talks are set to last for a week and in an attempt to play down the importance of the meeting Mr Churchill said: "I was hoping not so much to deal with specific points as to make sure that, as far as possible, on both sides of the Atlantic, we are looking from our different angles through the same eyes at the many problems that lie before us."

Mr Churchill has been given three state rooms on the main deck.

From here he will have phone lines to Downing Street and the British embassy in Washington.

Other members of the party are situated on the rest of the deck.     

Donald Campbell drove his boat Bluebird to speeds of 276.33mph (444.71km/h)

He reached an average speed of 276.33mph (444.71km/h) in his speedboat, Bluebird, this afternoon on Lake Dumbleyung in Perth, Western Australia.

The feat shatters his previous world record of 260.35mph (418.99km/h) at Lake Coniston, Cumbria, in 1959.

Mr Campbell has been trying to realise his record-breaking attempt for months at various locations in Australia.

Each time he has been frustrated. The weather at his first choice of location, Lake Bonney in South Australia, proved too unpredictable.

Then, he moved to Lake Dumbleyung, near Perth, on 16 December, only to be delayed by wild ducks which could not fly away because they weremoulting.

The weather was the next setback, as persistent easterly winds raised waves up to 2ft (61cm) high, making any attempt impossible.

With time running out for him to achieve his goal of breaking both speed records in the same year, he began considering a move to a third lake just south of Perth.

'Let's go, skipper!'

Then suddenly, on the last possible day, the winds eased and the lake became flat calm.

Conditions were rated 95% suitable, and the chief mechanic, Leo Villa, radioed to Mr Campbell, "I think it's worth a try - let's go, skipper!"

Several hundred people gathered on the shores of the lake to watch, among them Mr Campbell's wife, Tonia Bern.

When she heard that he had done it, she dived into the lake and swam out to embrace him as he brought Bluebird in.

As he stepped ashore, Mr Campbell told his supporters, "It's amazing that we clinched it. I never thought we had the chance of a snowball on the desert of cracking it today."

Mr Campbell broke the land speed record in July on Lake Eyre salt flat in central Australia, with a speed of 403.1mph (648.72km/h).

However, the record was short-lived: on 27 October an American, Art Arfon, drove his jet car across Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah at an average speed of 536.71mph (863.75km/h).

moult: cast off hair, skin, horn, or feathers（换毛；脱毛）