BOOK REVIEWS
The New Cunard Queens Review by E. C. Tupper
The New Cunard Queens Queen Mary 2, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth 2 Written by Nils Schwerdtner, published by Seaforth Publishing as a hardback, 2008, 192 pp. ISBN 978 1 84832 0109, £25.
“keel laying” ceremony for QM2 in 2002 was held on 4 July the date on which the RMS Britannia opened the North Atlantic liner service 162 years earlier. To mark the old custom of placing coins under each of a ship’s masts, a £5 and a 100 franc coin were placed in the double bottom. Te two currencies were to recognise that the ship was to sail under the British flag but was being built in France. The reader is made to feel at home
written three books and regularly lectures on passenger liners. Te book will be of interest to members
T
of RINA not least because it describes the role of our current President, Stephen Payne, as the designer of Queen Mary 2 the first true transatlantic liner for many years. It presents some interesting insights to the problems he faced, and the solutions he chose, in designing such an large (148,528gt, compared with QE2’s 65,863gt), important and innovative ship after such a long break in the building of ocean liners as opposed to cruiseships. The differences between liners and cruiseships, due to the different service required of them, are significant although the general public probably regard them as basically the same. The differences are well explained by the author. Te book begins with a general history
of the Cunard Line, outlining the various famous ships it operated (starting with RMS Britannia and including the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth), and then outlines the rather complex history of mergers and takeovers as economic changes occurred. It goes on to deal at more length with the Queen Elizabeth 2, Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria, which had their maiden voyages in May 1969, January 2004 and December 2007. Te ships were built by John Brown & Co, Chantiers de l’Atlantique and Fincantieri respectively.
84 In September 2005 QE2 became the
longest serving Cunarder of all time. Also she spent more hours at sea per year than any other Cunarder. Like her sisters Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth in WW2, she saw service as a troopship, in her case the Falklands campaign. One wonders if QM2 will take these records (not, hopefully, though, the honour of serving as a troopship) in due course as she has been designed for a 40-year life and has the advantage of technological developments since QE2 was designed. QE2 will now become one of the major attractions at the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, as Queen Mary has at Long Beach, California. The Cunard ships have always been
highly regarded, particularly on the North Atlantic run, and it has been important in designing and marketing the latest ships to ensure that links with the past are maintained. Anyone who has had the opportunity of travelling on one of the great Atlantic liners will agree that it is a memorable and unique experience. Apart from maintaining standards of safety and comfort, it is good to see that Carnival Corp, which took control of Cunard in 1998, has maintained other traditions such as trying to arrange important events in the new ships on dates that have significance in the history of Cunard. For instance, the
he author, who lives in Hamburg, has had a life long interest in passenger shipping. He has
with both QM2 and the Queen Victoria (designed as a cruiseship) by the author’s descriptions of a “walk through” of each ship, describing the main public spaces and how they are linked. There is also a description of a typical trans-Atlantic voyage in the QM2 starting with embarkation at Southampton and finishing in New York. These descriptions really bring the ship to life and will almost certainly encourage many to seek the experience of a voyage themselves. This bringing to life of the ship is aided by the many coloured photographs, including a number in which groups of “Queens” are to be seen together. Also of interest are some of the statistics quoted for QM2. Annual requirements include 1.35 million tea bags; 80,000 light bulbs; 1.728 million eggs; 346,000 gallons of fruit juice; enough toilet paper to circle the earth five times. And so on. The Queens have always been very
well received wherever they have gone, including the author’s home city of Hamburg. Besides describing the welcome received in Hamburg the author describes the arrangements which must be made for, and authorities involved in, a visit including IMO’s International Ship and Port Facility Security Code. Finally our appetites are whetted by
the promise of a new Queen Elizabeth to be delivered by Fincantieri in 2010. The book is full of interesting facts
and figures. It is very readable and can be recommended to all those with an interest in liners and the way of life they represent. NA
The Naval Architect February 2009
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