Further Scribblings from the Queen Mary 2
by Published on 5th October 2015 07:20 AM
Sat Oct 3rd Quebec City: Unusual planning:The Queen Mary 2 has 3 days & 2 nights stay here. The city: High charm, quaint, narrow streets & gas lamps & terraced restaurants & antique shops & of course the imposing Chateau Frontenac overlooking the St Lawrence. And a busy day: Crystal Symphony, Silver Whisper, Eurodam, Aurora, Aidadiva & the Veendam all here.
Last night, I attended Cunard Street, well done readings with some songs about 175 years of Cunard history. Just before, invited by friends for a Weiner Schnitzel supper in the Princess Grill. The night before, dinner with Sal Scannella (formerly with Italian Line in their Lower Manhattan offices) & Ed Squire (onetime master aboard the Staten Island ferries). Other fellow passengers include Michael von Kirvan-Prichette, who has sailed on dozens of mostly unique passenger ships; the marine artist & astronomer Chris Butler; a retired Panama Canal pilot; and Marc-Antoine Bombail, a Swiss graphic, ocean liner devotee artist but who has just written a Cunard yearbook of historic dates, recreates vintage Cunard poster and even designs classic Cunard baggage stickers.
Gray skies: Yesterday, as we entered the mouth of the St Lawrence, the weather was less than pleasant – rain, fog, choppy seas. Even the mighty QM2 was doing a bit of a dance. Otherwise, a man from Indiana comes forward, at the book signing in the library, and tells me we sailed together fourteen years ago – on a Hawaiian cruise on the Independence. That was July 2001. How can he remember?
You learn to agree with the passengers, the keep-them-happy guests. At last night's World Club party, a lady was the big winner with 1,277 days on Cunard ships. She shared memories of that first voyage, but insisted she began on the Carmania in 1958. But in reality, there was no Carmania in the Cunard fleet then. She might have meant the Carinthia or the Caronia.
Yes, fellow passengers often have interesting backgrounds, stories to tell & sometimes they've done quite a lot of travel ships. Because of my talks about liners, they sometimes come forward. Sometimes they want to tell their story, share their past. As examples, Geoff & Marian live in England, in a little village in Gloucestershire. Geoff's father, an engineer, had two passions, great hobbies – steam locomotives and ocean liners. "In 1968, my father took accumulated leave and decided to take us around the world by ship. In over five months, we sailed in 8 different passenger ships," recalled Geoff. "We began by crossing from Liverpool to Montreal aboard the Empress of England [Canadian Pacific]. Eventually, we crossed Canada by train and, at Vancouver, boarded the Iberia [P&O], heading south to California, Hawaii, Fiji and New Zealand. We spent several weeks visiting Auckland, Wellington and several other cities before crossing the Tasman Sea to Sydney on the Oronsay [also P&O]. From Melbourne, we caught a ship named Aramac [Eastern & Australian Lines] headed for Hong Kong & Japan. We had two weeks in Japan before boarding the Chitral [also P&O] and going to Singapore. After a week there, we took a Dutch ship, the Tegelberg [Royal Interocean Lines], for South Africa. Next we crossed the South Atlantic on the Tjitjalengka [also Royal Interocean] to Buenos Aires. Finally, after touring the East Coast of South America, we finished up in Rio de Janeiro and from there we took the Brasil Star [Blue Star Line] on a 2 ½-week voyage up to London and home. My father had mapped out and booked the entire trip. It all worked. And what contrasts in the ships themselves – from, say, 1,400 passengers on the big Iberia to about four dozen on the freighter-like Brasil Star. Although I was just eighteen at the time, I seem to recall that the entire trip cost about 3,000 pounds each or about $4,000. I kept a journal, took countless little black & white photos and, back home, still have a post card & one menu from each of those 8 ships."
Close calls: Peter is a retired electrical engineer from Southampton. His company looked after the electrical side of the famed Queen Elizabeth 2. "The QE2 is venerated today, but she had more breakdowns than any other big liner," he told me. "When Her Majesty the Queen was aboard [in July 1990 for Cunard's 150th anniversary], the QE2's engines failed the very last fifteen minutes before docking at Southampton. It could have been very embarrassing, but fortunately the docking tugs were nearby and sped forward and gave the QE2 that last bit of power to dock. On another time, a year or two later, some of the cables in the engine room of the QE2 burned out. When we went aboard, those cables were like spaghetti – all rubbery and useless. Altogether and in thinking back, we had more emergency calls and repairs & replacements to the QE2 than any other ship!"
Brian Probetts (site admin)
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