THE SCOTTISH ADVENTURES OF A CRUISE SHIP ADDICT

(Copyright: Ships Monthly) As my newest 'book' comes out - World of Ships, Queen Elizabeth - I reflect on the life of this great liner. As I say in the World of Ships Publication, when I started to write about the QE, I thought I'd have nothing to say, but actually she is a fascinating ship with a turbulent history. I grew to love her! The idea of two monster ships was conceived in 1926, and came to fruition in the 1930s, when the keel of the Queen Mary was laid at John Browns, Clydebank, Scotland. Soon after, work began on the Queen Elizabeth, but her fitting out was stopped with the onset of World War 2. She had to be moved from Clydebank, and the 'Unruffled Elizabethans' took her out to New York where she joined her sister, Queen Mary, and her rival, the utterly jaw-droopingly gorgeous Normandie. (J&C McCutcheon collection) From there, she was refitted for carrying more troops and did the Australia/Middle East run, then onto the transatlanti...

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...