Queen Mary 2 returns to her spiritual home
Helen YoungThe Queen Mary 2, which is one of the world’s largest passenger vessels ever built arrived in Liverpool.
The Cunard ship, the 15th liner to dock at Liverpool’s cruise liner terminal this year, is on a UK tour to mark its fifth anniversary.
At 151,400 tonnes and constructed at a cost of £460million, the huge boat is the pride of Liverpool as the cruise company Cunard is amongst the greatest in the world.
The company was founded in Liverpool in 1839 by Canadian entrepreneur Samuel Cunard who pioneered ocean crossing to Canadian and American ports. The company held its head office in Liverpool for nearly 130 years.
Two special on-board performances by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra will allow passengers to celebrate the five anniversary of the vessel.
The Queen Mary 2, which is Cunard’s flagship vessel, is the most expensive ocean liner in history and will boost the city’s plans to become a cruise port in order to rival UK’s cruise capital, Southampton, the home port of the huge ship.
Its coming to Liverpool is a change from the initial transatlantic Cunard ship which departed from Liverpool back in 1840. Cunard began operations with links to the Canadian port of Halifax and quickly expended its service to include Montreal, Boston and the much desirable city of New York, literally connecting Liverpool with the Americas.
Commodore Ron Warwick, hailing from a seafaring family and QM2’s inaugural master, gave great importance to the return of the vessel.
He said that he was a big Liverpool fan and that he admires Samuel Cunard and his achievements.
The QM2 docked at about 11.30, but only plans to remain in the city for a day. It will depart after a fireworks display as a celebratory send off.
When she was built in 2003 at Les Chantiers de l’Atlantique, the Queen Mary 2 was the world’s longest, widest and tallest passenger vessel in history. With her gross tonnage (GT) of 148,528 tonnes, she was also the largest.
The pride of Cunard lost the gross tonnage top spot to Royal Caribbean International’s Freedom of the Seas in 2006, but Queen Mary 2 still is the largest ocean liner in the world (as opposed to cruise ship).The Queen Mary 2 remains the first large ocean liner constructed since 1969, when the Queen Elizabeth 2 was built..
The facilities on the Queen Mary 2 include 15 restaurants and bars, a casino, a planetarium, a ballroom, a theatre, kennels and five swimming pools.
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Filed under Travel News, UK News