STEPHEN PAYNE had yet to enter his teens when he saw a live television report
on the fire that sank the Queen Elizabeth in Hong Kong harbour. The Blue
Peter annual for that year, 1973, reviewed the story, declaring that
there would never be another Atlantic liner of comparable size and status.
Payne, then 12, disagreed. “I wrote to Blue Peter, saying that
one day somebody would build a ship to rival it. I got a letter back with a
blue badge. I think I deserved a gold one.”
The reason for his bullishness is that Payne proved Blue Peter wrong.
His early fascination with liners led him to become a naval architect and,
at 43, he is now head designer of the Queen Mary 2, the longest,
widest, tallest and biggest liner yet built.
When she leaves Southampton for her maiden voyage on January 12, the QM2
will be the first new liner to have taken to the high seas since her sister
ship, the QE2, set sail in 1969.
It is an extraordinarily ambitious project to return style to the ocean waves.
While cruising has surged in popularity, with 28 ships being launched this
year and next, most mariners believed the days of the big liners were gone.
Captain Ron Warwick, who will be at the helm of QM2 in her inaugural
year, said: “If you had asked me five years ago whether there would be
another liner, I’d have bet against it.”
It was back then, in 1998, that Cunard announced a feasibility study into the
project, which Payne has led from the start. For Carnival, Cunard’s parent
company, choosing to build a liner instead of another cruise ship was a
tough decision — not least because an all-steel liner costs 40 per cent more
than an average cruiser.
But a liner has many advantages: it is faster, with better stability and a
deeper draught than a cruise ship. A liner can also leave on schedule in any
weather, and doesn’t need to slow down in adverse weather.
Said Payne: “A liner has twice the power of a cruise ship. Not since the QE2
has there been a true ocean-going liner, one which can cross oceans in the
roughest conditions without having to slow down or alter course. Anyone who
crosses the Atlantic by ship has to go by the QE2. And, after 34
years, it is still the best way to cross the Atlantic.”
When I spoke to Payne at the Chantiers de L’Atlantique shipyard in St Nazaire,
the French yard where the QM2 has been built, he had clearly relished
the challenge.
The classic lines of the ship are stunning, the sweep of the bow and
superstructure a real throwback to the days of the classic ocean-going
liners. Payne acknowledges the inspiration of the Atlantic’s most elegant
liner, SS Normandie, which was built in the same shipyard 71 years
ago. At 150,000 tonnes, the QM2 is nearly twice as big.
There are five suites on the ship and four connecting penthouses (with
four-poster beds). A party could conceivably book the whole lot, for a cool
£176,000 for a six-day transatlantic crossing. Getting the high rollers on
board is half the plan — passengers often spend more on board than the cost
of the crossing itself.
Hence brand names such as Veuve Clicquot, Hermès, Dunhill and Gucci have
concessions on board, with casino and spa treatments all costing extra.
£15,000 for a cabin? Sorry, but there’s still a charge for a massage.
I walked with Captain Warwick around the new queen of the seas as work was
being completed. Up to 3,000 workers at a time were drilling, sanding,
planing and grinding as Barry White blasted out over the ship’s loudspeaker
system. The captain pointed out a whistle donated from the owners of the
original Queen Mary, now in Long Beach, California. The last time the
whistle was blown was in 1967. At sea, it can be heard for ten miles.
Technology has replaced many of the former functions of the Queen Mary.
On the bridge, the captain’s chair now has a roller-ball wheel built into
the arm, effectively replacing the ship’s wheel. “Actually, the ship is
quite capable of berthing itself,” said the captain in an aside.
She is a curious mix of new and old. From the bridge, we looked down on the
teak promenade deck, which can take four people abreast on a half-mile walk
around the ship, just as the promenaders did in the heyday of the liners.
But the patrons of the 1960s did not have exterior glass elevators.
Nor did it have a karoake pub selling draught lager and bangers and mash, kids
playroom and internet centre. “You have to have these facilities if you wish
to respond to the different way of life,” says Capt Warwick, whimsically.
There will also be only two formal wear dinners per crossing, compared with
four on the QE2. But to Payne, the new QM2 remains true to an
evoked spirit of another age.
When she ploughs across the Atlantic, the majestic new QM2 will
displace 75,000 tonnes of water. She has been built like Lego, with 100
blocks each weighing 600 tonnes bolted together, and she has been built to
last 40 years. But she won’t be quite as tall as Payne wanted: the height of
the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York means the new ship will have only a
10ft clearance below the bridge.
The pride of the French in building the liner is evidenced in St Nazaire, with
colourful banners, posters and road signage to the ship. “I just hope
Southampton does the same,” says Capt Warwick.
Whatever the turnout when the ship heads up Southampton Water for the first
time, it will cap a remarkable career for the old seadog. He spends seven
months of the year at sea and, like his father before him, Capt Warwick was
Master of the QE2.
As we walked the length of the QM2’s upper decks, looking down hundreds
of feet to the water, he turned to me and smiled.
“My days of small ships are over.”
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()Fit for a queen
- The QM2 could carry a fleet of 130 Britannias within her hold.
- The ship is made up of 300,000 parts. The first piece of the puzzle, the keel,
has two coins welded on to it for good fortune, a maritime tradition.
- There are 310 miles of pipes on the ship.
- There are 80,000 lights on board.
- The 12 decks are connected by 5,000 stairs.
- She is the first ship with a planetarium. There is also a library with 8,000
books.
- In her 40-year lifetime, QM2 will travel the equivalent of 12 times to the
moon and back.
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()Queen Mary 2
TWO-thirds of the ship’s entire 2004 sailing schedule is already sold out.
The QM2 is due to arrive in Southampton on Boxing Day and be officially
named by the Queen on January 8. The ship then starts a “showboat” tour
to the US and the Caribbean on January 12 before her first transatlantic
crossing from Southampton to New York on April 16. That crossing has
been sold out for two and a half years.
Her return to the UK is scheduled for April 25, when the QM2 and QE2
will sail in parallel across the Atlantic for the first and only time.
The QE2 then goes in for a refit before beginning a new career as
a Mediterranean cruise ship. It is estimated that the QE2 has
another ten years of service.
Cunard: 0845 0710300, www.cunard.co.uk. Six-day Atlantic
crossings from £999, rising to £15,289 for a grand duplex suite.
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()Queen Mary
THE original Queen Mary became a 365-room hotel moored off Long Beach,
California, when she went out of service in 1967.
It was not a successful conversion, with many original fittings ripped out to
make way for fast-food franchises and shops. Most of her furniture has
gone and the QM is a shadow of her former greatness.
The new Master of the QM2, Captain Ron Warwick, has visited the old Queen five
times, the last in January. “It was a shame to see some of the ship
conversions — but the fact is she is still there. You can still
appreciate the size of her, and go into the engine rooms, unlike the
Queen Elizabeth, which went to Hong Kong and sank.”
Stephen Payne, the QM2’s head designer, agreed. “It is sad, very sad — but at
least a bit of her essence is coming back. There was a period in the
1980s when it was very tatty, but now money is being spent on her.”
Rooms from £64. Further information: www.queenmary.com.
Former crew and passengers are invited to record their on-board
memories. See the “Preservation” link on the website.
