Lecturing on the Elizabeth

Friday 7 November - Gibraltar/At Sea

Well, I finally managed to get into the Boardroom this morning for a few hours. I missed getting off the ship at Gibraltar because I had a lecture in the afternoon. As I haven't been lecturing much on ships this year, I needed the practice. It also didn't help that I hadn't performed the Queen Elizabeth lecture for a couple of years.

We all met in the Mauretania Restaurant for lunch. Nana, Agnes and Evie went shopping, Campbell went booze shopping. Half the crew ended up in Morrisons supermarket.

At 2pm QE2 slipped her moorings in Gibraltar and headed for the sea. 

At 3pm I started my lecture about the original Queen Elizabeth liner (1938-1968(out of service)/1972(destroyed by fire). Parts of the original Queen Elizabeth are on board QE2, such as a 20ft high painting of the Queen Mother, a painting of our present Queen and Duke of Edinburgh when they were young, and bas-reliefs which were (I think) in the Cabin smoking room.

The original Queen Elizabeth was launched just before World War 2. Her fitting out was stopped because of the war, and the Admiralty sent her across to New York to be fitted out as a troopship. She carried millions of soldiers from Australia to the Suez, from the US to Australia, and in transatlantic convoys into Greenock for D Day. Then she repatriated commonwealth troops and then became a GI Brides ship.

She made her proper 'maiden voyage' in 1946, but although she was the largest liner in the world, she never did have the same appeal as her sister, The Queen Mary. She was sold in 1968 to a consortium in Philadelphia who were planning a 7 wonders of the world theme park, with the Queen Elizabeth being the 8th. But no-one checked the depth of the Delaware River, and their plans were scuppered as she was to big! So she led a nomadic life for a few years and ended up being bought by CY Tung and brought to Hong Kong to be fitted out as the Seawise University. Unfortunately, arsonists set fire to her and she lay in Hong Kong harbour for a few years. James Bond stepped onto her in "The Man with the Golden Gun", as the British Secret Service Headquarters was supposed to have been built into her. She was eventually sold for scrap.

By the way, the lecture went very well. A quite a few passengers came up to tell me how much they had enjoyed it.