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Queen Elizabeth II<\/p>\n
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Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em><\/strong>, often referred to simply as\u00a0QE2<\/em><\/strong>, is a retired British\u00a0ocean liner<\/a>\u00a0converted into a floating hotel. Originally built for the\u00a0Cunard Line<\/a>,\u00a0Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>\u00a0was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic liner and a cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. She was then laid up until converted and since 18 April 2018 has been operating as a floating hotel in\u00a0Dubai<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>\u00a0was designed for the transatlantic service from her home\u00a0port of Southampton<\/a>, UK to New York, United States <\/sup>and was named after the earlier Cunard liner\u00a0RMS\u00a0Queen Elizabeth<\/em><\/a>. She served as the flagship of the line from 1969 until succeeded by the\u00a0Queen Mary 2<\/a><\/em>\u00a0in 2004.\u00a0Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>\u00a0was designed in Cunard’s offices in Liverpool and Southampton and built in\u00a0Clydebank<\/a>, Scotland. She was considered the last of the transatlantic ocean liners until\u00a0Queen Mary 2<\/em>\u00a0entered service.<\/span><\/p>\n Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>\u00a0was also the last oil-fired passenger steamship to cross the Atlantic in scheduled liner service until she was refitted with a modern diesel powerplant in 1986\u201387. She undertook regular world cruises during almost 40 years of service, and later operated predominantly as a cruise ship, sailing out of\u00a0Southampton<\/a>, England.\u00a0Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>\u00a0had no running mate and never ran a year-round weekly transatlantic express service to New York. She did, however, continue the Cunard tradition of regular scheduled transatlantic crossings every year of her service life.<\/span><\/p>\n Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>\u00a0was retired from active Cunard service on 27 November 2008. She had been acquired by the private equity arm of\u00a0Dubai World<\/a>, which planned to begin conversion of the vessel to a 500-room floating hotel moored at the\u00a0Palm Jumeirah<\/a>, Dubai. The\u00a02008 financial crisis<\/a>\u00a0intervened, however, and the ship was laid up at Dubai Drydocks and later\u00a0Mina Rashid<\/a>. <\/sup>\u00a0Subsequent conversion plans were announced in 2012 <\/sup>and then again by the\u00a0Oceanic Group<\/em>\u00a0in 2013, but both plans stalled. In November 2015, Cruise Arabia & Africa quoted DP World chairman Ahmed Sultan Bin Sulayem as saying that QE2 would not be scrapped <\/sup>and a Dubai-based construction company announced in March 2017 that it had been contracted to refurbish the ship. The restored QE2 opened to visitors on 18 April 2018, with a soft opening. The grand opening was set for October 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n By 1957, it was obvious that transatlantic travel was becoming dominated by air travel due to its speed and low-cost relative to sea routes, with passenger numbers split 50:50 between sea and air transport. The increase in market share by air showed no signs of slowing down, especially once the\u00a0Boeing 707<\/a>\u00a0entered service in 1958. Conversely,\u00a0Queen Mary<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Queen Elizabeth<\/em>\u00a0were becoming increasingly expensive to operate, and both internally and externally were relics of the pre-war years and needed to be retired by the mid-1960s.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite falling passenger revenues, Cunard did not want to give up its traditional role as a provider of a North Atlantic passenger service, and so decided to replace the existing ageing\u00a0Queens<\/em>\u00a0with a new ocean liner designated “Q3”, as it would be the third Cunard Queen.<\/span><\/p>\n The Q3 was projected to measure 75,000\u00a0gross register tons<\/a>, have berths for 2,270 passengers, and cost an estimated \u00a330 million.<\/span><\/p>\n Work had proceeded as far as the preparation of submissions from six shipyards and applying for government financial assistance with the construction when misgivings among some executives and directors, coupled with a shareholder revolt, led to the benefits of the project being reappraised and ultimately cancelled on 19 October 1961.<\/span><\/p>\n Cunard decided to continue with a replacement “Queen” but with an altered operating regime and more flexible design. Realising the decline of transatlantic trade, it was visualised that she would be a three-class (First, Cabin and Tourist) dual-purpose ship operating for eight months of the year on the transatlantic route, and during the winter months would operate as a\u00a0cruise ship<\/a>\u00a0in warmer climates.<\/span><\/p>\n Compared with the older Queens, which had two engine rooms and four propellers, the newly designated\u00a0Q4<\/em>\u00a0would be smaller with one boiler room, one engine room and two propellers, which combined with automation would allow a smaller engineering complement.\u00a0Despite producing 110,000 hp, she was to have the same service speed of 28.5 knots (52.8\u00a0km\/h) as previous\u00a0Queens<\/em>\u00a0which needed 160,000 hp, while its fuel consumption would be halved to 520 tons, which was expected to save \u00a31 million a year in fuel bills. The\u00a0Q4<\/em>\u00a0would also be able to transit the\u00a0Panama Canal<\/a>\u00a0and Suez Canal and her\u00a0draught<\/a>\u00a0of 32 feet, which was seven feet less than her predecessors, would allow her to enter ports that the old\u00a0Queens<\/em>\u00a0could not, and so compete with the new generation of cruise ships.<\/span><\/p>\n Design<\/span><\/p>\n The interior and superstructure for the QE2 was designed by\u00a0James Gardner<\/a>. His design for the ocean liner was described by The Council of Industrial Design as that of a “very big yacht” and with a “look [that was] sleek, modern and purposeful”.<\/span><\/p>\n Characteristics<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n At the time of retirement, the ship had a\u00a0gross tonnage<\/a>\u00a0of 70,327 and was 963\u00a0ft (294\u00a0m) long.\u00a0QE2<\/em>\u00a0had a top speed of 32.5 knots (60.2\u00a0km\/h) with her original steam turbines; this was increased to 34 knots (63\u00a0km\/h) when the vessel was re-engined with a diesel-electric powerplant.<\/span><\/p>\n Hull<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The steel hull had a\u00a0bulbous bow<\/a>\u00a0and was welded which avoided the weight penalty of over ten million rivets and overlapped plates compared with the previous\u00a0Queens<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Superstructure<\/strong>[<\/span><\/p>\n Like both\u00a0Normandie<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0France<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0QE2<\/em>\u00a0had a flared stem and clean\u00a0forecastle<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n What was controversial at the time, was that Cunard decided not to paint the funnel with the line’s distinctive colour and pattern, something that had been done on all merchant vessels since the first Cunard ship, the\u00a0RMS\u00a0Britannia<\/em><\/a>, sailed in 1840. Instead, the funnel was painted white and black, with the Cunard orange-red appearing only on the inside of the wind scoop. This practice ended in 1983 when\u00a0QE2<\/em>\u00a0returned from service in the\u00a0Falklands War<\/a>, and the funnel has been repainted in Cunard traditional colours (orange and black), with black horizontal bands (known as “hands”) ever since.<\/span><\/p>\n The original pencil-like funnel was rebuilt in 1986 as a more robust one, using metal from the original, when the ship was converted from steam to\u00a0diesel<\/a>\u00a0power.<\/span><\/p>\n Large quantities of aluminium were used in the framing and cladding of\u00a0QE2<\/em>‘s superstructure. This decision was designed to save weight, reducing the draft of the ship and lowering the fuel consumption, but it also posed the possibility of corrosion problems that can occur with joining the dissimilar metals together, so a jointing compound was coated between the steel and aluminium surfaces to prevent this happening. The low melting point of aluminium caused concern when\u00a0QE2<\/em>\u00a0was serving as a troop ship during the\u00a0Falklands War<\/a>: some feared that if the ship were struck by a missile her upper decks would collapse quickly due to fire, thereby causing greater casualties.<\/span><\/p>\n In 1972, the first penthouse suites were added in an aluminium structure on Signal Deck and Sports Deck (now “Sun Deck”), behind the ship’s\u00a0bridge<\/a>, and in 1977 this structure was expanded to include more suites with balconies, making\u00a0QE2<\/em>\u00a0one of the first ships to offer private terraces to passengers since\u00a0Normandie<\/em>\u00a0in the 1930s.<\/span><\/p>\n QE2<\/em>‘s balcony accommodation was expanded for the final time during\u00a0QE2<\/em>‘s 1986\/87 refurbishment in\u00a0Bremerhaven<\/a>. During this refit, the ship was given a new wider funnel built using panels from the original. It retained the traditional Cunard colours.<\/span><\/p>\n QE2<\/em>‘s final structural changes included the reworking of the aft decks during the 1994 refit (following the removal of the magrodome), and the addition of an undercover area on Sun Deck during her 2005 refit, creating a space known as Funnel Bar.<\/span><\/p>\n Interiors<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>‘s interior configuration was laid out in a horizontal fashion, similar to\u00a0France<\/em>, where the spaces dedicated to the two classes were spread horizontally on specific decks, in contrast to the vertical class divisions of older liners. Where\u00a0QE2<\/em>\u00a0differed from\u00a0France<\/em>\u00a0was that the first-class deck (Quarter Deck) was below the deck dedicated to tourist class (Upper Deck). Originally there were to be main lounges serving three classes, layered one atop the other, but when Cunard decided to make the ship a two-class vessel, only two main lounges were needed.<\/span><\/p>\n Instead of completely reconfiguring the Boat Deck, the ship’s architects simply opened a well in the deck between what were to have been the second- and third-class lounges, creating a double height space known as the Double Room (now the Grand Lounge). This too was unconventional in that it designated a grander two-storey space for tourist class passengers, while first class passengers gathered in the standard height Queen’s Room. The configuration for segregated Atlantic crossings gave first class passengers the theatre balcony on Boat Deck, while tourist class used the orchestra level on Upper Deck.<\/span><\/p>\n Over the span of her thirty-nine-year seagoing career,\u00a0QE2<\/em>\u00a0received a number of interior refits and alterations.<\/span><\/p>\n The year she came into service, 1969, was also the year of the\u00a0Apollo 11<\/a>\u00a0mission, when the\u00a0Concorde<\/a>‘s prototype was unveiled, and the previous year\u00a0Stanley Kubrick<\/a>‘s film\u00a02001: A Space Odyssey<\/a><\/em>\u00a0premiered. In keeping with those times, originally Cunard broke from the traditional interiors of their previous liners for\u00a0QE2<\/em>, especially the\u00a0Art Deco<\/a>\u00a0style of the previous\u00a0Queens<\/em>. Instead modern materials like\u00a0plastic laminates<\/a>, aluminium and\u00a0Perspex<\/a>\u00a0were used. The public rooms featured glass, stainless steel, dark carpeting and sea green leather. Furniture was modular and\u00a0abstract art<\/a>\u00a0was used throughout public rooms and cabins.<\/span><\/p>\n Dennis Lennon<\/a>\u00a0was responsible for co-ordinating the interior design, and his team included\u00a0Jon Bannenberg<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Gaby Schreiber<\/a>, although Lennon’s original designs only remained intact for three years.<\/span><\/p>\n The Midships Lobby on Two Deck, where first class passengers boarded for transatlantic journeys and all passengers boarded for cruises, was a circular room with a sunken seating area in the centre with green leather clad banquettes, and surrounded by a chrome railing. As a kingpin to this was a flared, white, trumpet shaped, up lit column.<\/span><\/p>\n Another room, designed by\u00a0Michael Inchbald<\/a>, where\u00a0QE2<\/em>‘s advanced interior design was demonstrated was the first-class lounge, the Queen’s Room on Quarter Deck. This space, in colours of white and tan, featured a lowered ceiling with large indirectly lit slots, which, despite reducing the ceiling height, created an impression of airy openness above to deal with the otherwise oppressive dimensions of the single storey room (c. 30m x 30m x 2.4m). In addition, the structural columns were flared at the top to blend into the ceiling and to lose the visual indication of low ceiling height that straight columns would have given. (The Midships Lobby copied these features but without achieving the airiness.) Inchbald repeated the flaring of the columns in the bases of his tables and leather shell chairs. The indirect lighting from above could be switched from a cool hue for summer to a warm hue for winter.<\/span><\/p>\n The Theatre Bar on Upper Deck featured red chairs, red drapes, a red egg crate fibreglass screen, and even a red baby\u00a0grand piano<\/a>. Some more traditional materials like wood veneer were used as highlights throughout the ship, especially in passenger corridors and staterooms. There was also an Observation Bar on Quarter Deck, a successor to its namesake, located in a similar location, on both previous\u00a0Queens<\/em>, which offered views through large windows over the ship’s bow. This room was lost in\u00a0QE2<\/em>‘s 1972 refit, becoming galley space with the forward-facing windows plated over.<\/span><\/p>\n In the 1994 refit, almost all the remaining original decor was replaced, with Cunard opting to reverse the original design direction of\u00a0QE2<\/em>‘s designers and use the line’s traditional ocean liners as inspiration. The green velvet and leather Midships Bar became the\u00a0Art Deco<\/a>\u00a0inspired Chart Room, receiving an original, custom designed piano from\u00a0Queen Mary<\/em>. The (by now) blue dominated Theatre Bar was transformed into the Golden Lion Pub, which mimics a traditional\u00a0Edwardian<\/a>\u00a0pub.<\/span><\/p>\n Some original elements were retained including the flared columns in the Queens Room and Mid-Ships Lobby which were incorporated into the reworked designs. The Queen’s Room’s indirect lighting from above was replaced with uplighters which reversed the original light airy effect by illuminating the lowered ceiling and leaving shadows in the ceiling’s slot. The furniture and carpet which replaced Michael Inchbald’s designs were incongruous next to the flared columns and slotted ceiling.<\/span><\/p>\n By the time of her retirement, the Synagogue was the only room that had remained unaltered since 1969. However it was reported that during\u00a0QE2<\/em>‘s 22 October five night voyage, the Synagogue was carefully dismantled before being removed from the ship prior to her final sailing to Dubai.<\/span><\/p>\n Artwork and artefacts<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The designers included numerous pieces of artwork within the public rooms of the ship, as well as maritime artefacts drawn from Cunard’s long history of operating merchant vessels.<\/span><\/p>\n Althea Wynne<\/a>‘s sculpture of the\u00a0White Horses<\/em>\u00a0of the Atlantic Ocean was installed in the Mauretania Restaurant.\u00a0Two bronze busts were installed\u2014one of Sir\u00a0Samuel Cunard<\/a>\u00a0outside the Yacht Club, and one of Queen\u00a0Elizabeth II<\/a>\u00a0in the Queen’s Room. Four life-size statues of human forms\u2014created by sculptor Janine Janet in marine materials like shell and coral, representing the four elements\u2014were installed in the Princess Grill. A frieze designed by Brody Nevenshwander, depicting the words of\u00a0T. S. Eliot<\/a>, Sir\u00a0Francis Drake<\/a>, and\u00a0John Masefield<\/a>, was in the Chart Room. The Midships Lobby housed a solid silver model of\u00a0Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>\u00a0made by Asprey of Bond Street in 1975, which was lost until a photograph found in 1997 led to the discovery of the model itself. It was placed on\u00a0Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>\u00a0in 1999.<\/span><\/p>\n Three custom-designed tapestries were commissioned from\u00a0Helena Hernmarck<\/a>\u00a0for the ship’s launch, depicting the Queen as well as the launch of the ship. These tapestries were originally hung in the Quarter Deck “D” Stairway, outside the Columbia Restaurant. They were originally made with golden threads, but much of this was lost when they were incorrectly cleaned during the 1987 refit. They were subsequently hung in the “E” stairway, and later damaged in 2005.<\/span><\/p>\n There are numerous photographs, oils, and pastels of members of the\u00a0Royal Family<\/a>\u00a0throughout the vessel.<\/span><\/p>\n The ship also housed items from previous Cunard ships, including both a brass relief plaque with a fish motif from the first\u00a0RMS\u00a0Mauretania<\/em>\u00a0(1906)<\/a>\u00a0and an Art-Deco bas-relief titled\u00a0Winged Horse and Clouds<\/em>\u00a0by Norman Foster from\u00a0RMS Queen Elizabeth<\/a>. There was also a vast array of Cunard postcards, porcelain, flatware, boxes, linen, and\u00a0Lines Bros<\/a>\u00a0Tri-ang Minic model ships. One of the key pieces was a replica of the\u00a0figurehead<\/a>\u00a0from Cunard’s first ship\u00a0RMS Britannia<\/a>, carved from\u00a0Quebec<\/a>\u00a0yellow pine by\u00a0Cornish<\/a>\u00a0sculptor Charles Moore and presented to the ship by\u00a0Lloyd’s of London<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n On the Upper Deck sits the silver Boston Commemorative Cup, presented to\u00a0Britannia<\/em>\u00a0by the City of Boston in 1840. This cup was lost for decades until it was found in a pawn shop in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On “2” Deck was a bronze entitled\u00a0Spirit of the Atlantic<\/em>\u00a0that was designed by Barney Seale for the second\u00a0RMS\u00a0Mauretania<\/em>\u00a0(1938)<\/a>. A large wooden plaque was presented to\u00a0Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>\u00a0by\u00a0First Sea Lord<\/a>\u00a0Sir\u00a0John Fieldhouse<\/a>\u00a0to commemorate the ship’s service as a Hired Military Transport (HMT) in the\u00a0Falklands War<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n There was also an extensive collection of large-scale models of Cunard ships located throughout\u00a0Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Over the years the ship’s collection was added to. Among those items was a set of antique Japanese armour presented to\u00a0Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>\u00a0by the Governor of\u00a0Kagoshima<\/a>, Japan, during her 1979 world cruise, as was a\u00a0Wedgwood<\/a>\u00a0vase presented to the ship by Lord Wedgwood.<\/span><\/p>\n Throughout the public areas were also silver plaques commemorating the visits of every member of the Royal Family, as well as other dignitaries such as South African president\u00a0Nelson Mandela<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Istithmar bought most of these items from Cunard when it purchased\u00a0QE2<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Crew accommodation<\/strong>[<\/span><\/p>\n The majority of crew were accommodated in two- or four-berth cabins, with showers and toilets at the end of each alleyway.\u00a0These were located forward and aft on decks three to six.\u00a0At the time she entered service, the crew areas were a significant improvement over those aboard\u00a0RMS\u00a0Queen Mary<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0RMS\u00a0Queen Elizabeth<\/em><\/a>; however the ship’s age and the lack of renovation of the crew area during her 40 years of service, in contrast to passenger areas, which were updated periodically, meant that this accommodation was considered basic by the end of her career.\u00a0Officers<\/a>\u00a0were accommodated in single cabins with private en-suite bathrooms located on Sun Deck.<\/span><\/p>\n There were three crew bars, one named\u00a0The Pig & Whistle<\/em>.\u00a0(“The Pig” for short and a tradition aboard Cunard ships),\u00a0Castaways<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0Fo’c’s’le Club<\/em>. A fourth bar, dedicated for the officers, is located at the forward end of Boat Deck. Named\u00a0The Officers Wardroom<\/em>, this area enjoyed forward facing views and was often opened to passengers for cocktail parties hosted by the senior officers.\u00a0The crew mess was situated at the forward end of One Deck, adjacent to the crew services office.<\/span><\/p>\n Machinery<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Queen Elizabeth 2<\/em>\u00a0was originally fitted out with a\u00a0steam turbine<\/a>\u00a0propulsion system utilising three Foster Wheeler E.S.D II boilers, which provided steam for the two Brown-Pametrada<\/a>\u00a0turbines. The turbines were rated with a maximum power output figure of 110,000 shaft horsepower (normally operating at 94,000\u00a0hp) and coupled via double-reduction gearing to two six-bladed fixed-pitch\u00a0propellers<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The steam turbines were plagued with problems <\/sup>from the time the ship first entered service and, despite being technically advanced and fuel-efficient in 1968, her consumption of 600 tons of fuel oil every twenty four hours was more than expected for such a ship by the 1980s. After seventeen years of service the availability of spare parts was becoming difficult due to the outdated design of the boilers and turbines and the constant use of the machinery which was mainly due to the deletion of the originally planned 4th boiler as a cost saving measure whilst on the drawing board by Cunard.<\/span><\/p>\n The shipping company decided that the options were to either do nothing for the remainder of the ship’s life, re-configure the existing engines, or completely re-engine the vessel with a modern, more efficient and more reliable diesel-electric powerplant. Ultimately it was decided to replace the engines, as it was calculated that the savings in fuel costs and maintenance would pay for themselves over four years whilst giving the vessel a minimum of another twenty years of service, whereas the other options would only provide short-term relief. Her steam turbines had taken her to a record-breaking total of 2,622,858 miles in 18 years.<\/span><\/p>\n During the ship’s 1986 to 1987 refit, the steam turbines were removed and replaced with nine German\u00a0MAN<\/a>\u00a09L58\/64 nine-cylinder, medium-speed diesel engines, each weighing approximately 120 tons. Using a diesel-electric configuration, each engine drives a generator, each developing 10.5 MW of electrical power at 10,000 volts. This electrical plant, in addition to powering the ship’s auxiliary and hotel services through transformers, drives the two main propulsion motors, one on each propeller shaft. These motors produce 44 MW each and are of synchronised salient-pole construction, nine metres in diameter and weighing more than 400 tons each.<\/span><\/p>\n The ship’s service speed of 28.5 knots (52.8\u00a0km\/h) was now maintained using only seven of the diesel-electric sets. The maximum power output with the new engine configuration running increased to 130,000\u00a0hp, which was greater than the previous system’s 110,000\u00a0hp. Using the same IBF-380 (Bunker C<\/a>) fuel, the new configuration yielded a 35% fuel saving over the previous system. During the re-engining process, her funnel was replaced by a wider one to accommodate the exhaust pipes for the nine MAN diesel engines.<\/span><\/p>\n During the refit, the original fixed-pitch propellers were replaced with\u00a0variable-pitch propellers<\/a>. The old steam propulsion system required astern turbines to move the ship backwards or stop her moving forward. The pitch of the new variable pitch blades could simply be reversed, causing a reversal of propeller thrust while maintaining the same direction of propeller rotation, allowing the ship shorter stopping times and improved handling characteristics.<\/span><\/p>\n The new propellers were originally fitted with “Grim Wheels”, named after their inventor, Dr. Ing Otto Grim. These were free-spinning propeller blades fitted behind the main propellers, with long vanes protruding from the centre hub. The Grim Wheels were designed to recover lost propeller thrust and reduce fuel consumption by 2.5 to 3%. After the trial of these wheels, when the ship was drydocked, most of the vanes on each wheel were discovered to have broken off. The wheels were removed, and the project abandoned.<\/span><\/p>\n Other machinery includes nine heat recovery boilers, coupled with two oil-fired boilers to produce steam for heating fuel, domestic water, swimming pools, laundry equipment, and galleys. Four flash evaporators and a reverse-osmosis unit desalinate sea water to produce 1000 tons of fresh water daily. There is also a sanitation system and sewage disposal plant, air conditioning plant, and an electro-hydraulic steering system.<\/span><\/p>\n Construction<\/span><\/p>\n On 30 December 1964, Cunard placed an order for construction of the new ship with\u00a0John Brown and Company<\/a>, who would build it at their shipyard in\u00a0Clydebank<\/a>, Scotland. The agreed price was \u00a325,427,000 with provision for escalation of labour and materials increases, with an agreed delivery date of May 1968.\u00a0To assist with its construction the British government provided financial assistance to Cunard in the form of a \u00a317.6 million loan at 4.5% interest.<\/span><\/p>\n