She deserves better than this

[paulsl]

Is it just me or is the poor old lady's story just getting sadder and sadder....

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-new ... 2pq5s.html

[dodger]

Hi Paul,

No it's not just you, when i think what has happened to the old Queen!

Ok i know there are a lot of other things that go on but we can spend millions on some Bloody old paintings hanging in galleries but the QE2 was a British icon like Concorde and should have been saved here in the UK, still it's to late now but it is still something that still makes me Mad!!

But i suppose we should be used to it in the UK, they sell most of our stuff Abroad anyway,

Roger.

[DaveB]

One does smell the proverbial rodent with this latest episode. Memorabilia and other items to be removed for storage while the ship goes to an undisclosed Chinese port for refit..

It's almost like saying 'the cheque's in the post'

ATB
DaveB

[Tomliner]

Almost like selling the crown jewels.Goodbye old girl.EricT

[Garry Russell]

She doesn't have to be an on going cost

Why can't the British turn her into luxury apartments...all the rage now and moor her in the Thames

[petermcleland]

The original Queen Mary seems to have been put to very good use in L.A. or wherever it is and is a very imposing sight...Perhaps the QE2 will be as lucky.

I was a First Officer on Vanguards when they built QE2 and on the often flown approach to Glasgow I used to look out on my side as we passed abeam her, in build, in the shipyard.

[Garry Russell]

She's in Lang Beach and came close to scrapping a few times

Shame they altered the QM a bit.

the funnels were scrapped and replaced with shorter Fibre glass replacements..."to look better" as if that wasn't the icon of the ship.

When Disney owned it, the funnels were repainted a nicer red...in their opinion, replacing the Cunard slightly orangey colour.

There are moves to save the USS United States which after years of being laid up is due for disposal.

[DaveB]

Yes indeed.. someones idea of 'making something look better' completely defeats the object doesn't it

It'd be nice if the United States (I take it you mean SS not USS) were to be saved.. not that I'll ever get to see it. She's very much a ship of her time and a handsome looking vessel at that

ATB
DaveB

[Garry Russell]

Hi mate ...well...she been Navy reserve since going out of commercial service, but whatever...yep that's the one

Funny how even thought the QE was the more modern and bigger...the QM refined to the extreme, the Americans never quite took to it the same as the QM which they almost viewed as their own in some way.

The QE was less cluttered and they did away with a lot of the rigging and the funnel guys, but maybe that lost it the character that was so popular with the Mary.

Never saw the Mary but did see the top half of the QE and the QE2 I did see close up a few times.

Even though when she was retired the QE2 was one of the oldest liners and had served a lot longer with it's original owner than most, I still thought of as as a modern ship.

In the old days there were liners and then cruise ships which were either converted liners or a lighter, redesigned built version of a liner type vessel.


Later came the definitive cruise ship and the liner died.

The QE was neither, or if you like both and was in a unique class of her own in that she was the last of the old school crossing into the new World (pun intended) and as such a very important part of British maritime history as well and an interesting and attractive object in it's own right.

Maritime history is something the British have a lot of and in a way the QE2 marked the end of the traditional British history in that particular field as things since have been more international.

So many reasons it should be moored up in the UK...but OK it needs money, but the main ingredient is the will to do it. If the will is there, the money would be found.

[Tomliner]

Garry wrote

She's in Lang Beach and came close to scrapping a few times

That'll be in Scotland then Garry. EricT