Odds and ends

A neighbour of a good friend of mine died recently and, as co-executor of his will, my friend, knowing of my interest in ships, asked me if I'd be interested in some books and other bits and pieces as the chap who passed away, John, had been hotel manager on the QE2 for a number of years (he also worked on many other Cunard ships, such as Franconia and Queen Mary) and had amassed a large collection of nautical books and ephemera.

Among the books were a number of copies of ones I had years ago and had sold over the years. As I regretted some of the departures I replaced those as well as found some that I had always wanted to read, but never got round to, such as the autobiographies of Captains Harry Grattidge (Captain of the Queens) and Geoffrey Marr (The Queens and I), as well as Captain Ron Warwick's book on QE2. Most of the books are Cunard-related but there were some others, covering ships such as the Norway and White Star's famous Olympic-class of 1911 (yes, including that unsinkable one that sank on her maiden voyage) plus John Maxtone-Graham's Crossing and Cruising and Liners to the Sun, which are in the same series as his classic The Only Way To Cross. I have The Only Way to Cross but have never read the other two, so that's something to look forward to.

Here are the other odds and ends:

A fridge magnet, destined to join the myriads of others covering the white goods in the kitchen. I don't think it's official Cunard tat, but it's nice all the same.

A badge, commemorating QE2's last voyage as a steam-driven ship

I don't wear ties, but these tie pins are nice

And a couple of bags. I can pretend I went on the 1993 world cruise...

...while the blue one opens out into a sizeable holdall.

I also ended up with copies of Ships Monthly and Sea Breezes from the 1980s, which took me right back. It was interesting going through those this morning and seeing how much things have changed, especially on the ferry and cruising front and not to mention how the size of ships has also grown, right across the board. Cruise ships, ferries and dry cargo ships have all grown much bigger over the past 30 years but tankers have actually grown a bit smaller, certainly in the Ultra-large class; you just don't see vast half-a-million DWT leviathans these days. Container ships have not only grown to huge proportions, they have also become ubiquitous as carriers of all sorts of dry cargo.

Famous names have since vanished, including the ferry operator Townsend Thoresen and the QE2 herself has also disappeared from our waters, although the latter still exists for now, languishing in Dubai. Unfortunately the magazines also brought back unwanted memories, as my teenage years were singularly unpleasant, thanks to a violent stepfather who made us kids' lives hell (he is, unfortunately, still alive while far better human beings have passed on at a younger age). Reading them took me right back to our home in Ryde which was not nice...I think I'll keep the interesting bits and photos of favourite ships (my beloved TT 'Spirits' feature quite a bit) and recycle the rest.

Hobbies keep people sane, I think and mine certainly did when I was a kid - that and rock music.

White-out

For the last few days, the forecasts promised snow but, as of last night, although it was snowing elsewhere, we had rain, meaning that my "inner child" was rather disappointed (what is it about snow that can turn a lot of adults into small kids?)!
However, when I let my dog out at 0630 there was a thin coverlet on the lawn and the white stuff was coming down thick and fast with the result that, by 0800, the world was white.

With one of my cats wondering what was going on! Actually both cats were fascinated, having never seen snow before.

Back to all things nautical, it looks as if the QE2 is going to have a change of scene. She has entered dry dock in Dubai with a view to being used as a floating hotel in the far East or South East Asia somewhere, operated by Oceanic Hotels who appear to be leasing the ship from Istithmar World, with an option to purchase her after 10 years, according to the QE2 Story Forum. It could be Hong Kong, it could be Singapore but, as usual, Dubai are saying nothing. Given their track record of saying things which then don't come to pass (i.e. Cape Town), I'll believe it when I see it. I read things about 'preserving' the ship but, to be honest, the work that would need to be done to convert a 44 year old worn-out liner into something approaching the level of luxury that people these days are prepared to pay good money to stay in, would surely have to involve gutting the ship, thereby removing all her identity apart from the outer shell (and how badly will they cock that up?). I hope she does well and I wish her the best of luck, but I can't help feeling sorry that the QE2 London bid seems to be dead in the water.

I've seen a photo on Dover Ferry Photos Forum (join to view but it is worth it if you are interested in the eastern Channel ferry scene) of Ostend Spirit, the former Pride of Calais, in her new TransEuropa Ferries colours, and she looks gorgeous. I can't wait to go and see her for myself in the spring. However, I still feel very sad about her sister, Pride of Dover, now a victim of the breakers' torches at Aliaga.
Edit: She arrived back in Ostend today and photos of her in her new finery are on Dover Ferry Photos website, under MV Ostend Spirit - Past and Present (you don't need to register to view the page). She looks great, although the lettering on the sides needs to be finished.

"Well. This sucks"

This is going to be a downbeat post. Sorry about that, it being Crimbo Day and all that, but there was some bad news about Pride of Dover this morning; someone posted on Dover Ferry Photo Forums that the destination of the tug towing her has been changed from Tuzla, where the shipyards are, to Aliaga, where ship-breakers lurk. While this is not unexpected it is nonetheless very sad news, particularly on Christmas morning and appears to dash the hopes of her fans and friends that she'd be repaired for further service.
Whether she was destined originally for possible repair and things were changed after some discussions - and she spent a day or two being dragged round in circles off Sicily for no apparent reason - we shall probably never know, but it is a sad and premature end for a wonderful ship and a few people's Christmas Days were slightly marred by that news, judging by comments on forums. Her twin, Ostend Spirit (ex. Pride of Calais) will be lonely...well, apart from the ancient Larkspur and Gardenia, whose own futures cannot be assured given their ages and the fact that Larkspur is knackered.

On the subject of sad ends and possible demises, the fate of the QE2 has come back into the public domain, with a report in the UK's Daily Mail that she'd been sold to the Chinese for scrap after Dubai flatly turned down a bid from a consortium in London who wanted to buy her for use as a hotel adjacent to the O2 Arena. This has not been confirmed and not reported elsewhere, apart from rehashes of the DM story, and, frankly, I'd take it with a pinch of salt - as any rumour - until it is reported in the shipping press, rather than a tabloid. As reported on the QE2 Story Forum, her crew had been changed, en masse, to a Chinese one which is where the latest batch of rumours began. There are rumours also of her being used as a hotel in the Far East or Singapore and also, more bizarrely, being cut down for use as a Chinese helicopter carrier or converted into a troop-ship.
Cunard issued the following statement on their Facebook page (probably because they got bombarded with comments from upset and angry QE2 fans):

"We have noted the messages of understandable concern with regards to the recent article in the Daily Mail with reference to QE2. We remain in close contact with Dubai and can reassure you that to the very best of our knowledge this story is pure speculation - one of a number of stories and rumours as we have seen over recent months. Our best advice would be to ignore the story.

Best regards,
Cunard Line."

I hope Cunard are right and not just saying it to get people off their case...! Time will tell.

As Christmases go, this has not been the best, Pride of Dover and QE2's fates aside, I have a neck injury (suspected slipped disc, with the attendant nerve problems) and a few other things have gone wrong, and I expect that SFC will cap it with a loss at Fulham tomorrow... Roll on January!

*Post title, from film 'Madagascar' when the penguins get less than they were expecting on landing in Antarctica. I am out of ideas for good post titles.

Blasts from the Past

Having a sort out at home, with the idea of possibly moving house, and I found some old photo albums containing my old pre-digital ship photos, so I decided to scan some of them.
They are fairly poor quality prints to begin with and the scans don't make them look any better, but here they are.

Costa Allegra is seen here in Funchal harbour, Madeira, in April 1993. She recently arrived at the scrap yard at Aliaga in Turkey after spending months laid up after a fire.

QE2 and Canberra meet in the Solent during a review in 1994 to mark the 50th anniversary of the D-day landings.

The QE2 and Geestport meet in the Solent, in May 1993

And, going back even further into the past, here is the Canberra returning from the Falklands conflict in 1982. These were my first ever ship photos, I was 12 years old at the time.

I have got hundreds of photos so I expect some more Blasts from the Past will appear on the blog in due course.

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...

Queen Mary 2 and the QE2 Mile

Took a little trip to Southampton today, for a change of scene as much as anything else. The Queen Mary 2 was in and I also thought it would be a good opportunity to photograph her with 'Southampton' on her stern as, by the time she is next here, it may well be changed to Hamilton (the change is scheduled to be done on December 1st).

Click for larger photos (pictures will open in a kind of slideshow, but there is an option to 'Show original' at the bottom left).

I went round to the Triangle car park to get the name and 'Southampton' on the stern...

Took a walk to the city centre to get a filter for my lens and passed an anchor which was originally from the QE2 and given to the city by Cunard and Dubai which is where the ship now sits idle. The anchor is on the High Street outside Holy Rood Church, which was bombed and destroyed in the Second World War and is now a memorial to merchant seamen. The road is part of the QE2 Mile, which stretches from Town Quay up to the Cenotaph.

With the anchor is a very nice plaque...both anchor and plaque are thankfully not (yet?) spray-painted by morons...

There was time for a coffee in Marks and Spencers before we headed back to the ferry. There wasn't a lot on the move and, besides, it was raining so we decided not to hang about and went back to Cowes on the 1345 Red Jet 4 sailing.

November 2008...

Almost two years ago QE2 left Southampton for the last time. She'd been sold to Dubai and sailed on her final cruise to the Middle Eastern country on 11th November 2008. I was there, on a special Red Funnel cruise aboard Red Eagle, to see her off and, of course, was very sad to see my all-time favourite ship leave forever.
As well as still photos, some of which you can see here (scroll down the page a bit), I also carried along a Minolta Dimage Z2 compact camera with a movie mode on it and took some poor quality videos. The camera's image quality is poor, the sound quality worse and the autofocus struggled to cope but I did manage to capture something of the event with it and that's always better than nothing.

Bridge crew leaning on the siren button:

Some of the fireworks:

This was the last vew of her as we slowed down and she continued on down the Solent and out of sight.

I don't think there was a dry eye in Southampton that evening.

I still miss my old friend. :(

Queen names the new Queen

The Queen named the new Queen Elizabeth in Southampton this afternoon and BBC Radio Solent covered the event - very well, it has to be said. After Cunard president Peter Shanks made a speech, the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, Bishop of Winchester did a small blessing then The Queen named the ship - the bottle smashed and the ship's siren was sounded.
The ship sails on her maiden voyage tomorrow, full of lucky people, and I am planning to be at Cowes or East Cowes to see her go past, so I hope the weather is as gloriously sunny as it's been today especially as the light will be going by the time she gets to the Solent.

One sad thing about today's events, with the naming of a new Cunard ship called Queen Elizabeth, is the sudden realisation that the old QE2 is now well and truly consigned to history and will never return.

Queen Elizabeth, a new cruising Queen

The new Cunard cruise ship Queen Elizabeth arrived in Southampton for the first time on 8th October 2010 so, as I can't resist a new ship - and a new Cunard one at that - I got up ridiculously early and caught the 0630 car ferry to Southampton to see her come in.The weather was very foggy and I doubt that any spectators on the island would have seen anything. The forecast was for murk and drizzle and, although the stars had been out at 0430 when I got up and let the dog out, it quickly clouded over again and, by the time I'd driven to East Cowes and parked the car it was very murky indeed and rather spooky in Columbine Road.

On arrival in Southampton, I could see that Ventura and Saga Pearl II (formerly Hammonia, Astor, Arkona, Astoria) were already in as was my friend from Tuesday, the woodchip carrier Anemona; indeed I'd seen SPII off Calshot as I was on the ferry still at East Cowes. I went straight round to Town Quay where, despite the still early hour and the poor forecast, people were gathering. The weather turned out not to be as bad as forecast, with the sun beginning to break through the fog and clouds. The people watching the ship arrive certainly didn't number in the 'thousands' as claimed in the media, although there were a few hundred in TQ and Mayflower plus around 100 at Hythe, according to my friend Patricia, of Liner Lovers. To be honest, I was glad about this as there is nothing I hate more than having to jostle for position among loads of casual onlookers (who Patsy calls 'fairweathers', which is not an entirely unfair term!). I don't know if there were any more watching from the island or Stokes Bay but I doubt it as it was very foggy in the Solent and still dark as she was passing the island.

The BBC were there and I got interviewed but thankfully(!) my mugshot did not appear on their website although my interview did, in a very shortened form.
As I was chatting to a fellow onlooker, an elderly chap who has always visited Southampton to see the passenger ships, Patsy texted me from Hythe to say the ship was visible from that side, as they have a better view down Southampton Water and at 0750 I could see Queen Elizabeth's funnel above Dock Head. The ship went past Town Quay (which still has that pain-in-the-neck fence at one end) and Mayflower Park to the Upper Swinging Ground where she'd turn and come back past before reversing into the Ocean Bus Shelter Cruise Terminal and coming alongside around 0930.

Queen Elizabeth (I am not tempted to put QE3, ok, just a little) was escorted by the tugs Svitzer Sussex and Svitzer Surrey both giving a watery salute, plus there was a Blue Funnel cruise vessel which my friend Chris Brooks of ShipFoto was on, a gin-palace type thing which was carrying members of the 'Sovereign Cruise Club' according to a banner on the side and two helicopters, one of which was filming for the BBC and pulling off some impressive moves.
Click on each photo for a larger size.

Sunrise over the Ocean Terminal

Queen Elizabeth appears around Dock Head

Passing Town Quay

Heading to the Upper Swinging Ground

Coming back down towards the Ocean Terminal from the Upper Swinging Ground

Passing Mayflower Park

Nearly back at Town Quay

Close up

About to turn and reverse into the Ocean Terminal

Red Funnel proving they've not lost their aptitude for getting in the way of the photo! Actually the Red Jet adds a dash of colour to a scene washed out by mist and shooting into the light

Backing into the Ocean Terminal

Patsy came over to the Southampton side and joined me on TQ to watch the ship come back down from the Upper Swinging Ground and go alongside. Once it was all over, we went to Mayflower Park for some shots of Saga Pearl II and, in my case, also the container ship APL Poland, which was leaving. We did notice that, on the side of the Holiday Inn was a huge banner proclaiming the world was awaiting the arrival of Queen Elizabeth. I don't know about that, as I'm sure most of the nearly 7 billion people in the world probably have more pressing concerns, but it was a nice slogan.

'The world awaits...'

Once we'd done and seen all we wanted to in Southampton, we went over to Hythe because Patsy needed an old broken chest freezer removed and her and her dad couldn't do it for health reasons, so I said I'd come over and give them a hand. I'd never been on the Hythe ferry before, on my couple of visits that side in the past, I'd driven round from Southampton so it was a new experience. We caught the quaint little (and ancient!) electric train down the pier and then the bus to Butts Ash. Once I'd moved the freezer and me, Patsy and Kevin had a natter over a cup of tea, I caught the bus back to Hythe Pier and the ferry back over to Southampton.
Despite the ferry being crowded as it was by then a nice afternoon and people were wanting a look at the new arrival, I managed to get some shots of Queen Elizabeth in her berth.

From the Hythe ferry

Queen Elizabeth shares the dock with a general cargo ship

Because the Hythe ferry was running more than five minutes late I missed the 1300 ferry back to the island, so I killed some time going to the maritime museum. However, now you have to pay to get in. I don't begrudge paying but I've seen it all before, many times, so didn't bother. I did look at their little shop, though, as they used to sell nice bits and pieces featuring famous liners of the past. I say 'used to' as it is unfortunately now all Titanic stuff. 'Tat-anic' I suppose you could say.
Mentioning older ships, I took the photo below last time I was in Southampton. It is a photo of a photo which is hanging in Town Quay and shows the first Queen Elizabeth in Southampton Docks in the 1950s. I have no idea who took the original, or I'd credit it. Needless to say it wasn't me but if it's yours, please don't send me any bills for its use, I'll just remove it!

But here's a bit of 'compare and contrast':

A photo of a photo - the original Queen Elizabeth

And there's the second Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth 2, or QE2:

QE2 in the Solent, sometime in 1999

None of the Queen Elizabeths are any better than the others, just different. Although I will state a bias for the old QE2, but she's gone (although very missed by everyone) and the new ship, I'm sure, will become just as well-loved as the previous Queen Elizabeths in time, despite what some may say.

The 1400 ferry was very busy, just like a summer crossing, and the fact that it was sunny and very warm added to the illusion of summer. We were late leaving, and whether the fact an ambulance left the terminal with its siren and blue flashing lights on was anything to do with that, I don't know. Most probably it was, but it did give me an opportunity to photograph Anemona leaving.

I'll put 'the best of the rest', APL Poland, etc, in a separate post.