delusionofgrandeur

RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 will depart from Southampton on her final trans-Atlantic crossing which will be followed by her final round the world cruise. She will depart amid fireworks and fanfare this evening along with her replacement, MS Queen Victoria who will accompany her to New York.

For those interested, QE2 was laid down at the John Brown Shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland on July 5th 1965 and she was launched on September 20th 1967 by HM The Queen. In the 1980s she saw service as a troop ship during the Falklands conflict during which time she was painted grey for camouflage purposes. In her service life, she made in excess of 800 trans-Altlantic crossings.

After completion of her final voyage, she will be decommissioned and taken to Dubai where she will become a floating hotel, much of her 1960s decor being restored. Personally, I almost feel that I’d rather see her scuttled or broken up than be moored as a permanent reminder of Great British industry and engineering which no-longer exists. It’s worth noting that the new MS Queen Victoria is an Italian-built ship.

You can view the Bridge webcam of the QE2 during her final voyage.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 6th, 2008 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Automotive, Ramblings.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.