Oops!

Tuesday 11 November 2008 - Arriving into Southampton

Sometimes you don't realise you are in the middle of an historic event until it happens! It's just the way of the world, I guess, being in just the right place at the right, or even wrong time.

At 5.30am this morning I arrived on the Observation Deck of QE2 to watch her final arrival into Southampton. But nothing was happening! I could see the Fawley Oil Refinery to my left, but the ship was going nowhere.

I was confused. At this point, QE2 should be just about arriving at the berth next to the QEII Terminal. I spoke to Gerry, who, like me, is also a shipping enthusiast. His reply was "This Queen ain't going anywhere, she's run aground". Minutes later, Captain McNaught made an announcement that indeed QE2 had run aground. He added that it happened when the "QE2 was turning a very tight corner. The wind caught her stern and pushed her onto soft clay". But he also stressed that we were not to worry... his Officers had inspected the ship and she was fine. The tide was rising and the tugs would pull her off. At 5.50am, we heard a huge bang and the ship shuddered. We all grabbed the handrails. Suddenly, QE2 was free and slowly making her way to Southampton. Her older sister, the 1938 ocean liner Queen Elizabeth, had done exactly the same thing on 14 April 1947. Passengers, luggage, excess weight and fuel had to be taken off in order to re-float her as the tide was falling. She was on the sandbank for 26 hours. Call it divine intervention, but I had spoken about this incident a few days before in my lecture about the original Queen Elizabeth... perhaps it was QE2's way of telling us that she didn't want to leave!

The person I felt most sorry for was the Pilot, who is trained in navigating local waters. His job is to make sure that he brings the ships safely into harbour, not ending up on sandbanks. On the very day the world's media was watching the ship (I counted at least three film crews and a radio van at the dockside), his charge had run aground!

Nana told me later, when the tugs finally yanked QE2 off the clay, she just got up out of bed and was catapulted head-first across the room. Fortunately she wasn't injured. My daughter Evie, asleep in our cabin, slept right through the excitement!

BBC Breakfast News had somehow got hold of my phone number and arranged a telephone interview. First they wanted to know if there were any casualties? "Nope" I replied. Was anyone hurt? "Nope". Is QE2 still stuck on the sandbank? "Nope, she's heading into Southampton as we speak!" They asked how the passengers were. I replied "they are all quite happy". What I didn't add was that most of us would be disappointed that QE2 had not been stuck on the clay for longer because we would have liked to have spent more time on board the ship. On that voyage, many passengers were on board to say goodbye to QE2 before she sailed for Dubai. One couple had been travelling on her since mid-September. Therefore, unless passengers had onward travel arrangements, most would loved to have spent an extra 24 hours on her!

The Queen Elizabeth 2 was never going to leave her home port of Southampton quietly as she spent 41 years there. But no-one expected that she would ground herself in the vain hope that she could stay a bit longer!