QE2

There are some unpleasant rumours doing the rounds this morning regarding the possible eventual fate of the QE2, currently lying idle in Dubai. The owners, Istithmar World, have had a clearout of their board, with new people coming in and, according to The QE2 Story website forum, and the Daily Echo in Southampton, speculation is rife in Dubai that they have contacted ship-brokers to arrange for the possible sale and scrapping of a '300 metre cruise ship' in the UAE. There is, as far as we know, only one ship in that area which fits that description.

If this happens to be true then it is not a great surprise, although still very sad indeed. The ship has lain idle since she got there, as plans for a conversion into a hotel were put on hold and then abandoned, because the recession came along at exactly the wrong time as far as the ship was concerned. New plans were announced a few months ago, to convert her into a hotel based at the cruise terminal in Dubai (thankfully without the drastic alteration of her appearance the original plans called for) but, with these rumours around, could this mean that the new plans themselves have been abandoned?

I have seen internet forums with posts blaming Cunard and the Dubai-based company for the situation - Cunard for selling her and Istithmar World for buying her (and, I suspect, reading some posts, for having the temerity to be Arabs) - but, realistically, the ship was old, she was worn out and it would have cost a fortune to bring her up to the standards required to keep her at sea. Along came Dubai with an offer Cunard couldn't refuse - $100 million apparently - and Cunard snatched their hands off, and who could blame them? It's as if someone offered me £2000 for an old car worth a couple of hundred at best. It is neither the fault of Cunard or Dubai that the recession, caused mainly by greedy bankers in another part of the world, came along right at - for the QE2 - the wrong time. If Cunard hadn't sold her then, she'd no doubt have been scrapped by now anyway.

Personally, I'd love to see her back in Southampton where she belongs but the city can't afford it by themselves (although they have an expensive art collection gathering dust they could offload) without the input of a lot more cash. That said, Southampton is in dire need of a makeover, certainly along the waterfront, and the QE2 could be the centrepiece of a nice rejuvenation as a hotel for people embarking on cruises...if there is room.
Or New York, the other city with a claim to her as she visited that port nearly as much as her home port of Southampton. They have an old aircraft carrier, the space shuttle Enterprise and one of the BA Concordes on display...the QE2 and Concorde are old friends, so why not add her to the collection?

She's not gone yet, though, and where there's life there is hope.

Here are some pictures of her, some of which are from my old website.

In the Solent, sometime in the late 1990s:

In Southampton, on various occasions:

In Southampton on her last day:

As she left us for the final time:

And, my last ever photo of her...