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Author Topic: QE2 sold for scrapping?  (Read 5210 times)

Colin Bishop

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QE2 sold for scrapping?
« on: December 23, 2012, 09:56:14 pm »

Reports today suggest that the QE2 has been sold to Chinese shipbreakers for scrapping.
 

One report here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2252580/End-era-QE2-Iconic-cruise-liner-sold-scrap-Chinese-20m.html
 

Colin
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Peter Fitness

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2012, 10:22:37 pm »

That's a crying shame. Such an iconic vessel deserves a better fate than ignominiously being broken up in a Chinese (or any) scrap yard. If the report is true, I wonder what will happen to all the Cunard Line artefacts that were left on board when she was sold to Dubai. These items include the piano that was aboard the original Queen Mary, as well as a large collection of Cunard dinner ware, many paintings and models of former Cunard ships.


Peter.
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derekwarner

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2012, 10:34:54 pm »

....Peter asks ...."I wonder what will happen to all the Cunard Line artefacts that were left on board when she was sold to Dubai"
 
Best guess Peter .....would be scattererd in stately Palaces & Mosks or in those huge mega story tallest glass buildings in the world in Dubai.... >>:-( what a shame ....Derek
 
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Derek Warner

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Peter Fitness

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #3 on: December 24, 2012, 02:51:43 am »

When we were on the QE2 we asked why the piano from the old Queen Mary hadn't been put into an on-shore museum. We were told that is was considered by the British government department responsible for quarantine to be a pest infestation risk, as it's made mainly of wood.


Attached are some photos I took during our time on board back in 2008, on the homeward leg of her last world voyage. These are just some of the many hundreds of Cunard artefacts on the QE2 at the time.


Peter.
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sailorboy61

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #4 on: December 24, 2012, 09:53:38 am »

That's a crying shame. Such an iconic vessel deserves a better fate than ignominiously being broken up in a Chinese (or any) scrap yard. If the report is true, I wonder what will happen to all the Cunard Line artefacts that were left on board when she was sold to Dubai. These items include the piano that was aboard the original Queen Mary, as well as a large collection of Cunard dinner ware, many paintings and models of former Cunard ships.


Peter.

I think it's pretty safe to assume anything of value and interest will have been removed to the homes of the rich and famous. Probably not the best option, but at least relatively 'safe' I suppose.
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NFMike

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #5 on: December 24, 2012, 10:21:23 am »

I think we dwell a bit much on preservation. Most post war stuff is well remembered in books and film and we can't save everything, particularly at many thousands of tons and £650,000 a month. Rail preservation is daft in places - there are 18 class 50 diesels in various states of care; they only built 50 of them in total!

Rather like stars who die mid-career I think it is better to be remembered in your prime than as a hulk being passed ignominiously from carer to carer.

Mind you, I flunked history at school - never been big on it. We seem to be heavy on the remembering, light on the learning.

Circlip

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #6 on: December 24, 2012, 11:12:55 am »

Won't be long before we're buying it back in various forms.
 
  Regards  Ian.
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Colin Bishop

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #7 on: December 24, 2012, 03:37:28 pm »

Quote
Mind you, I flunked history at school - never been big on it. We seem to be heavy on the remembering, light on the learning.

There is a well known and very true saying to the effect that those who don't heed history are condemned to relive it!
 
Personally I love history as it gives you a sense of perspective. Otherwise the world is a bit like looking through a keyhole, you just see what is in your field of view with little idea of how it got to be that way. That doesn't mean I want to live in the past though!
 
With regard to the QE2, yes, it is is sad that she looks like being broken up but the ship you see now is greatly changed from her original appearance, especially as far as her interiors are concerned. Also runnng a retired ship as a hotel is much more expensive than running a conventional hotel as it is still a machine which has to have a lot of ongoing maintenance. For example, flush the toilet in a hotel and everything happens via gravity. On a ship the same process requires complex networks of pipes and vaccuum pumps which need regular attention. Hotels tend not to rust or corrode either, they just need external decoration.
 
Colin
 
 
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cos918

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #8 on: December 24, 2012, 05:00:21 pm »

I have read this before. First i take any think the daily wail say with a ton of salt.
Once thing that one knows exept people who need to know is what the T/C Cunard made when she was sold. These and only these will determin her fate.
QE2 is in good shape and has been very well look after. £650 K a mont some is have a laugh more like £65 a month.
She has been sold to China who love all thinks west/Uk (they have made villages over there that are the perfect engish village). I think they will make a go of her. She had to sail past Alang and banglerdesh to get to China that say a lot.
QE2 will need a tone of work to transform her to a hotel. All the cabins execpt queens grill will need to be ripped out. Whos wants to stay in a small room in a hotel ,ok at sea but not on land.
If she had come o the UK she would have failed. Look at the SS Rotherdam smaller ship lower operating costs high vistor number yet she doesent break even.
As for QE2 art only time will tell. Sold to Dubi for £55m then sold to China £20m ish some ones taken a hit or some has sold her with out the art work.

John
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Colin Bishop

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #9 on: December 24, 2012, 05:06:23 pm »

Apparently Cunard have now put out the following statement:
 
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.

 
However, I don't think it was just the Daily Mail running the story.
 
Colin
 
 
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Neil

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #10 on: December 24, 2012, 05:11:35 pm »

nah........you lot have got it all wrong,
CamerClegg has already decided to buy it back and turn it into a top class floating hotel prison for all the nice crims' to serve out their time on in luxury...send 'em all off on a world cruise every now and then and hope the bad boys don't commit any more lucrative hiests when the get home....
 
the crew will be all retired Bank execs!!! {-) {-) {-) {-) {-) {-) {-) {-) {-)
 
I know this for certs.....read it in the comic strip inside the Daily Star %% %% %% %%
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Netleyned

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #11 on: December 24, 2012, 05:19:23 pm »

Anyone reading the Daily Star should not be allowed to post on here

Ned
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Neil

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #12 on: December 24, 2012, 07:21:31 pm »

thatz wy mi speeeling iss soh baad Ned........ {-) {-) {-) {-) {-) {-) {-)
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NFMike

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #13 on: December 24, 2012, 09:03:19 pm »

There is a well known and very true saying to the effect that those who don't heed history are condemned to relive it!
So that'll be the human race then  :embarrassed:

Peter Fitness

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #14 on: December 24, 2012, 11:19:04 pm »

So that'll be the human race then  :embarrassed:


I'm not sure about the whole human race, but it's certainly true of many politicians.


I hope the story in the Daily Mail is a fabrication, and it probably is. Many papers don't allow the truth to stand in the way of a good story.


Peter.
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herrmill

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #15 on: December 25, 2012, 12:14:28 am »

If she is purchased by a Chinese buyer, I would not be surprised if she will finally be put to use as a hotel as part of a theme park & not scrapped.  There's certainly plenty of entrepreneurs here with the cash & egos to do it. 


Of course it could become more of a fate worse than death once you see what they did in Tianjin with Kiev.


http://www.gizmag.com/aircraft-carrier-hotel-opens/21617
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2103973,00.html
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Colin Bishop

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #16 on: December 26, 2012, 12:08:31 pm »

Apparently Stephen Payne (designer of the QM2) is saying that the QE2 is to go to Singapore as a hotel.
 
Colin
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Peter Fitness

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #17 on: December 26, 2012, 08:50:12 pm »

Apparently Stephen Payne (designer of the QM2) is saying that the QE2 is to go to Singapore as a hotel.


Interesting. I will await further developments.


Peter.
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deadwood

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Re: QE2 sold for scrapping?
« Reply #18 on: December 27, 2012, 12:21:22 am »

A belated Merry Xmas to Yee Mayhemers!

I too regret the fate of QE2.
But other beautiful classic liners such as FRANCE or HAMBURG that likewise would have deserved a more graceful fate couldn't escape the flame cutters either.

Maybe as a wee quantum of solace she will live on in photos, books, model ships and documents like the following.
From an article in Shipping World & Shipbuilder I reconstructed her hull lines in DELFTship only lately.
I posted the stuff here.


Regards,
Ralph

 
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