What's in a name?

As I am about to board one of my favourite ships - QE2 - this afternoon, I wanted to talk about her name. 

Originally the name of Cunard's ships ended in -ia, eg Britannia, Carpathia, Bothnia. But when Cunard and the White Star Line (owners of the Titanic) merged in 1934, this created a problem as all White Star Line ships had the suffix -ic, eg Olympic, Cedric, Britannic. 

The first Cunard White Star liner to be completed after this merger was Hull 534 at John Brown's Shipyard, in Clydebank, Scotland. What could they call her? Then someone had an idea. King George V was approached and officials asked if they could name the ship "after Britain's most illustrious Queen" - meaning Queen Victoria. The King replied, "of course you can name it after my wife". Thus the new liner ended up as Queen Mary.

Now the original Queen Elizabeth liner, didn't have such problems as it was named after the Queen at the time - Queen Elizabeth. 

The Queen Elizabeth 2 was a different story. The name was kept a secret until she was launched, again at John Browns at Clydebank. When the name "Queen Elizabeth II" was announced, silence fell over the Scottish crowd. Unfortunately, Queen Elizabeth II, was the Queen, but only the II was significant in England. In Scotland, she was the first Queen Elizabeth because the first Queen Elizabeth ruled before the Union of the Crowns. The name Queen Elizabeth II offended many Scots. So in the end she became known as Queen Elizabeth 2 - the second Queen Elizabeth liner. 

Some facts about QE2:
  • She is the longest serving Cunard liner - over 40 years. The next longest was the Queen Mary at 31 years
  • She has steamed over 5 million miles
  • She is an unofficial ambassador for Britain
  • She has kennels on board for animals in transit
  • Captain Bil Warwick was first Captain of the QE2, and his son, Commodore Ron Warwick, also served as Captain for many years
  • QE2 had an attack of squirrels. Not cute fluffy creatures, but the two legged variety which stole fixtures and fitments from the ship during the dead of night while she was being built.

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