Tag Archives: Palm Jumeirah

QE2 situation in Dubai threatened by economic downturn

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The RMS Queen Elizabeth 2  sailed into her new home in Dubai facing significant restructuring and re-engineering to fit her out for a very different life there as a floating five-star hotel, permanently moored at the Palm Jumeirah. Since she arrived nothing at all has happened to her.

There are now widespread concerns for her future. The company who bought her and brought her there have let it be know that the major job planned is in limbo for the time being but that they are considering simply opening her to the public as she is, as a tourist attraction.

This, of course, means that her engines will not be removed – or not just yet. And if her engines stay in place, the hope remains that she could return to the UK. There are two groups with a special interest in this. One is at her birthplace on the Clyde in Scotland and one is at her home port of Southampton where there is a move to try to buy her back and install her permanently there.

Scott Becker, a former member of QE2′s staff and who has set up a tribute website that aims to become the fullest possible online record of the life of the ship, says: ‘The news of QE2 having an uncertain future in Dubai is a bit disconcerting. Especially when one considers the current global economic crisis, the costs of converting her to a permanent shore-side facility will be enormous.

‘I recently mentioned to someone that it will be interesting to see whether QE2 has the same hand of providence that RMS Queen Mary has had in Long Beach. Through so many dire situations, she has remained. Every attempt to remove her has failed. Sadly, what will put an end to QM is neglect. The corrosion in her superstructure is getting very serious now.

‘QE2 is a far more delicate creature. Extreme care will have to be made for her future existence. Especially where the aluminium superstructure and the steel hull meet. They cannot touch but must remain apart with separators. (Ed: This is because of the process of galvanic corrosion that would otherwise occur.)

‘I would be thrilled if she were to come back to the UK, her true home. Who knows, the very thing that seems so threatening (the economy) could actually save her from a life of obscurity.’

Tribute website collecting information and memories of the Clydebuilt QE2

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A new website has just been launched for the QE2, as the grand old Clydebuilt lady docks in Dubai for a new life. She’ll have spanned a wide spectrum of experience from having a highly functional refit to enable her to join the British fleet for the Falklands War to the full-on glamour refit that awaits her now as a high-end floating hotel at the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai.

The inspiration for the site has come from a former member of her staff, Scott Becker. He first sailed QE2 in 1981 from Cherbourg to New York. Eventually he was employed by Cunard as a member of the Cruise Director’s staff. Most recently he sailed her last transatlantic voyage. Of that experience he says: ‘The outpouring of sadness from everyone connected with the ship was overwhelming’

What the QE2 had unconsciously done was to create a community of those who had ever had anything to do with her – her owners, designers, builders, crew, captains, passengers, ports of call and, of course, her big three associations with Glasgow, Southampton and New York – joined now by Dubai. For Argyll reported on the massive naval and public tribute ceremony for her farewell to the Clyde.

Scott Becker, aware of this community by being a part of it, did not want to see it dispersed with its people and places losing contact both with each other and with the ship that had bound them together. He says: ‘it’s my hope to create a place online where they can meet, share memories, stay in touch and perhaps even
plan future voyages with Cunard’.

The site will include a Forum where people can meet and talk as they did on the ship. When Mr Becker spoke to Captain Ian McNaught about the planned site, they both felt that the heart of QE2 is the people she brings together.

So the website will be what its visitors make it, what they want it to be. You can submit articles, comments, photographs, snippets from memory – anything that links you to the ship. Ultimately the site is planned to be a place where the legend of QE2 is perpetuated and re-experienced.

Mr Becker has a number of others working with him on the site. Everette Hoard is a maritime historian who has worked aboard RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, California since 1981. He is acting as the QE2 site historian. Then there is Neil Moore of Bournemouth who was QE2 crew during the 1980′s, who is acting as an advisor.

It’s hard to say what it is about ships – what depths in us it is that they touch. Is it what you feel about them because they carry your life and those of others for the time being? Is it the aesthetic of their lines? Is it the sense of an integrated community they create and hold within their hulls? Is it the dauntlessness of the way they set sail each time for what is effectively a journey into the unknown? Is it all that they have felt, seen and heard but will keep silent for ever? It’s probably all of these things and then some.

If you have an interest in this ship, then this tribute website is the place to be, to share information of all kinds and to recover and build a unique community. It is your site.

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BBC video and story of arrival of QE2 in Dubai

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The BBC have discovered a key part of the plan for the QE2 in its translation to a floating hotel moored at the Jumeirah Palm Island in Dubai. It;s signature funnell is to be cut off and converted to serve as a dockside entrance to the ship hotel.

The story has a video of the ships arrrival at its new desert home and links to stories around her departure from Southampton.

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