Thomas'S Nautical Page

Today is 50 years since QE2's official maiden voyage started, a Westbound transatlantic from Southampton to New York. She would make 806 transatlantic crossings and undertake many cruises between 1969 and retirement to Dubai in November 2008, travelling further than any other ocean liner - 5.6 million nautical miles - over her 40 year life as a seagoing ship. QE2 opened as a static hotel/museum/venue in Dubai in April 2018.
I took this photo on a disposable film camera as a 6 year old after we had disembarked from QE2 at her usual berth in Manhattan at the end of our first voyage onboard in August 2003, also a Westbound transatlantic, and watched QE2 depart on a return crossing to Southampton (an Eastbound transatlantic).

My video of QM2's most recent Southampton departure:
https://youtu.be/eqLZhpfSaFQ

An excellent update to the late 1990s edition I remember reading as a young child in the early 2000s after my Dad introduced me to the ship but before our first voyage in 2003 - one of two books that made QE2 my favourite ship even before first stepping onboard! It’s great to recognise a number of names and to personally know some of the people who have contributed to this updated edition with their memories/experiences and/or photos!

A decade ago today QE2 arrived into Dubai at the end of her final voyage as a seagoing passenger ship. It was a bittersweet moment and an end of an era for many people that still makes me sad now despite realising the realities of and reasons for her retirement. It also happened to be 40 years to the day since she first went to sea back on 26th November 1968 on her first sea trials out of Greenock, an appropriate and maybe planned coincidence. The saying "the Queen is dead, l...ong live the Queen" sums up QE2 in Dubai for me given the change from seagoing ship to static entity and all the inevitable changes that come with that including with the "soul" of a ship. I hope she has a long life in Dubai that is successful but it's a distinctly different life compared to the old days, much like Queen Mary's life in Long Beach since her arrival back in 1967.
I have attached a video from the YouTube channel of "The QE2 Story", a wonderful forum primarily dedicated to QE2's seagoing days but that also covers her in Dubai, that they uploaded today showing her arrival into Dubai with raw, unseen, and unedited helicopter footage (in the time before the camera drones we have today!):
https://youtu.be/-k1rSLKviSo
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A decade ago today (almost to the minute) QE2 slipped her moorings and gangways for the final time in Southampton and the UK before sailing to Dubai. There wasn’t a dry eye in our house as we watched BBC South Today’s excellent live coverage and tribute to her. Captain Ian McNaught’s words in the attached video still make me emotional today given their finality and the realisation that they brought that she’d never be back home again in the country that built her and the port (Southampton) that was her home for 39 years. What’s more, Dubai have removed her connections with Southampton which is sad to say the least.
https://youtu.be/nerF06jqY0Y

One of my Dad’s videos from onboard QM2 on the final tandem transatlantic (Eastbound) with QE2 which was also QE2’s last transatlantic crossing. This was a decade ago now. I have a small cameo with QE2 in the background:
https://youtu.be/uTp3wICPRtM

Watching a couple of relatives depart Southampton onboard MV Queen Elizabeth on 01/10/2018 from the excellent vantage point that is Calshot. My photos taken on the Canon 750D DSLR and edited in Adobe Lightroom CC.
https://flickr.com/pho…/153915096@ N06/sets/72157674533513048

Watching MV Queen Elizabeth, MV Navigator of the Seas, and MV Aurora depart Southampton on 15/10/2018 with good friends Liam Fjellstedt, James Hawley, and Daniel Gosling. MV MSC Magnifica and MV AIDAsol departed later on. PS Waverley was stuck waiting for better weather in order to return home to the Clyde after having to cancel her remaining South coast season voyages. TSS T/T Calshot (who worked with the old Queens among many other famous and not so famous ships but now faces a grim future) and several of the Red Funnel ferries also appear in my photos taken on my Canon 750D DSLR and edited in Adobe Lightroom CC.
https://flickr.com/pho…/153915096@ N06/sets/72157699233689302

HMS Queen Elizabeth is due to enter New York harbour for the first time very soon. A proud moment being British!
One of the two best webcams in the harbour for viewing ships (also has a VHF channel for chat between the ships etc):
http://www.nyharborwebcam.com/

A decade ago today my parents, a few relatives, and I flew to New York and boarded QM2 for the final tandem crossing with QE2. It was also QE2's last transatlantic (Eastbound).
Here's my Dad's video of QE2's final departure from New York:
https://youtu.be/IifqqJ38uWo

Some of my photos of CMV’s Astoria (ex-Stockholm of Andrea Doria infamy) at Bournemouth Air Show yesterday (31/08/2018):

Ten years ago today my Dad and I visited QE2's bridge. This was my second visit having first visited with the Children's/Nursery club (a rare event apparently) almost exactly 3 years to the day before this second visit. QE2 was going at a relatively sedate pace on this second visit (around 22/23 knots, slow for QE2) compared to the 28.3/4 knots on the first visit. Both bridge visits took place in the Bay of Biscay (whilst heading back to Southampton) which was unusually calm,... sunny, and warm on both occasions! The wind/weather deflectors on the leading edge of the bridge wings worked on this second visit but not the first...inconsistent! The port bridge wing was the only bridge wing open to visitors on both bridge visits.
My Dad wrote a letter to Captain David Perkins asking about a bridge visit given it was our last voyage onboard and my Dad hadn't visited the bridge before. We got a reply back from the Captain's secretary to meet on Boat Deck at A Stairway at 15:00 hours. We were not supposed to tell anyone else about this visit (I had trouble keeping my lips sealed with the passengers we got on well with on a neighbouring table in the Caronia Restaurant) but a group of us had gathered on Boat Deck at A Stairway around 15:00 hours and we all knew we were visiting the bridge but daren't talk to each other about it - awkward silence ensued! Videos cameras were not allowed, meaning my Dad couldn't record any footage. My Mum was unable to visit with us due to no access to the bridge (up a long staircase, along corridors of different levels and decks, and finally up a winding vestibule type staircase) for her mobility scooter.
I have attached the Captain's secretary's invite letter (I recently scanned) and my photos from the bridge that day (with the photos my Dad took of me at the helm):
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On Monday 28th July we visited Gibraltar. I took several photos but my Dad recorded a lot of video. Gibraltar was our last port of call before returning to Southampton and the end of an era with QE2. I haven't been back to the Mediterranean either, since, but hope to someday! I have attached all my photos from this day.
Here a link to my Dad's video of this visit to Gibraltar (notice some of QE2's "living sounds" the galley vents in this case located in the kitchen box and st...arboard side just behind the bridge plus the auxiliary machinery along Boat Deck):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmrbqYxuA Ag
And here's a link to a video I recently edited and uploaded onto my channel, with my Dad's permission and guidance as he recorded the footage and therefore owns it!, using mostly previously unseen footage including what he purposely recorded of me for looking back on in the years after 2008 - something I am very grateful to have now! A large bit of the shore side footage in this video was also from Gibraltar hence including it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKGfSV6hH -Y&t=2s
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On Sunday 27th July 2008 we visited Barcelona. I only took a few photos that day (I needed to save space on the SD cards my Fujifilm camera used) and my Dad only recorded a bit of footage from the ship in Barcelona. I have attached my photos:

Ten years ago today we were in Monte Carlo/Monaco. This was QE2's last visit here but we only learnt this from a brief announcement from the bridge when we were hauling anchor and departing. The reason for this (that I only learnt relatively recently) was to not demoralize the crew as there were many final visits in her last few months of seagoing service. Also, during these final visits it was left up to the port to provide any send off for the same reason.
My Dad (James Hyp...her) filmed when we were ashore (I was his camera assistant as normal) and the anchor in use that day being hauled back onboard which included seeing practices/traditions rarely seen today as many passenger ships have their anchor windlasses beneath the foredeck these days. QE2's anchors are now welded in place but anchor chain is still present in the foredeck windlasses - this being done in the drydocking she had in Dubai earlier this year as part of her hotel conversion.
I have also attached the photos I took that day, and the one photo my Dad took of me. Silversea Cruise's lovely and very well maintained Silver Whisper was docked alongside in the harbour. The tender journey ashore in one of QE2's "Schat-Harding" catamaran tenders (added in the late 1994 "Project Lifestyle" refit along with new davits for them on Boat Deck) was rather choppy and I was lucky to get ashore when I did haha! The sea didn't look rough from onboard the ship or from land as is normally the case!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l93q9bkN j8 (Dad's video)
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A decade ago today we were in Civitavecchia (the port for Rome). These are all the photos I took that day - my Dad videoed the day too (he got his video camera for this last voyage and only took the photos of me at QE2's helm and in Monte Carlo/Monaco as a result compared to using his DSLR camera on previous voyages). With my Dad's permission and guidance I will get around to editing and uploading his footage from this day as it's mostly unseen.
The cruise ships in port that... day included "Bleu de France" (currently "Saga Sapphire" and originally built as the third "Europa" for Hapag-Lloyd), "Ocean Dream" (originally "Tropicale" Carnival Cruise Line's first ever newbuild back in 1982), "Brilliance of the Seas" (a GTS - Gas Turbine Ship), Ocean Village Two (of the now discontinued Carnival brand Ocean Village and now P&O Australia's "Pacific Jewel" but originally built for Sitmar Cruises which was then bought by P&O who put her in service with their brand Princess Cruises back in 1990 as "Crown Princess"), and visible in my Dad's shore-side footage on the day, "Island Escape" (recently scrapped at Alang as "Ocean Gala 1").
Ferry wise, the then "SNAV Lazio" (now called "GNV Atlas") was known as "Pride of Portsmouth" for P&O Ferries for some years before and was originally named "Olau Britannia") and the now scrapped "Clodia" were in port. I never did get round to sending the bow three quarter view of "SNAV Lazio" into Ship's Monthly for a chance to feature in their photo collage centre page in each issue!
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Further to my other post today - whilst in Propriano I spent the day taking photos onboard QE2, mostly on the outside decks. I remember walking back inside was like going from day to night in brightness and temperature and was a relief at times! I have included most of my photos from the day.
A decade ago tomorrow we would’ve been in Civitavecchia (the port that serves Rome), an ideal photo and video opportunity...

Ten years ago today (as I mentioned in yesterday’s post) QE2 made her only call at Propriano, an anchor port. My Dad (James Hypher) was the only one of us (my parents and I) to go ashore as Propriano didn’t have much to offer and the weather was warm, humid, and very sunny. He filmed QE2 from the tenders and shoreline:
https://youtu.be/nA9qiH3-8yw