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