Queen Mary

[vic mcclymont]

The Q. M. is languishing in California and according and according to an article in the Daily Express she is in danger of sinking.
Apparently below the waterline some of her plates are porous and her bilges are becoming flooded.
Some experts recon that if she was to be moved her back would break.
The owners say that the leaseholders should foot the bill for repairs whilst the leaseholders state that the owners should foot the bill.
Estimated cost of repairs are between $200 and $400m.
Could this be the end for a grand old lady?
Vic

[Lewis McColl]

I think she has been losing money for years now. I was on her in 1986 and she was tired looking then. Her lifeboats were rotting away holes all over the place. I mentioned in a post a week or so back that we had been able to watch a few scenes of a movie being made onboard her.
Vic she is in Long Beach California. I think sadly she has had her day looking likely it will be the breakers yard for her. Rather that than her just being abandoned and sink. She should have went to the breakers when she was taken out of service.

[cappy]

Old vesssels should be broken up on the end of there seafaring careers .....they only create sadnes and expense .....but i must say i did quite a few years ago see .....coming int frio two or three times a hulk of a sailing vessel of a good size with a good looking rake to her her .....this got me interested in who she was and how long she had been there.....after a good length of time ....i found she was the sailing vessel SAMUEL PLIMSOL ....named after the guy of cause of plimsol line fame......she had taken by all accounts one big battering in the ozzie bight ......and not worth any money spent on her and just spent her time for many moons as a coal hulk ......and supplying the coal burners which saw the end of sailing vessels ingeneral......a sad ending for what had been a fine looking sailing ship ......i believe she has gone now to where they all go sadly next to some old coal burner which was eventualy superseaded my todays gargantuans .......cappy

[Captain Kong]

I have stayed on her many many times in Long Beach,
I was a member of the Queen Mary Foundation and have been presented with many artifacts from her for work and research I have done for them
Very sad to hear of her condition

Brian

[j.sabourn]

Cappy it is only now when we are able to look back on our past lives that nostalgia sets in , most of it was just a way of returning To our youth. I always tried sometimes with success to leave the ships in the water whenever managed to get time for for what was considered a life of normalcy. However l have had 19 years of this so called normalcy and wonder at times if I have got my priorities right, we lived in a world that Joe Bloggs will never understand and most would never have endured . But I agree ships at their end of their life cycle should be broken up and not remain like some siren of the sea to entice the unwary back to the those who don’t know better. Ships to those who don’t know them are inaminate objects to those who worked them they were individuals who you talked to, they have every right to end their lives as we all do as time runs out.Most of us shave and they will continue to be of use as razor blades . How many fish did you bring home with you .? A couple of sprats and a tadpole out of Tynemouth lake ? You must be back safe in the warmer climes of Yorkshire now and totally refreshed after those chilly NE ers . Welcome home are you back in the shed yet ? Cheers JS

[cappy]

aye john back in yorkshire ...after a few days and what a difference a change makes after the ongoing pandemic .....the weather was very good 22 cent in shields and the sea air gave pat and i a good lift .....my 14 year old grandaughter loves shields and had a good time .....the dog lillie went plodging and loved it so we found it was worth going up and seeing the bonny tyne now .....ie not the coaly tyne......well john got rid off the shed a few months ago .....not missed it really just put a patio there instead......any way hope all is well in your new home and you are settling in the new car as well ....regards cappy

[happy daze john in oz]

I look back at photos of ships I knew and see them as they were and meant to be.
To see one is such a state is not good, it does not fit with memories of the great way they were.
Like all in life they have a span, one gone so should they.

[Graham Shaw]

SAMUEL PLIMSOLL. I just had to look that one up Cappy to see her fate.She was laid down in 1873 by Hood at Aberdeen for owners G.Thompson & Co. Sailing Vessel 1,520 tons.
Off.No. 65097.
Fate Hulked at Sydney,NSW 4/2003. (130 years old).
Your Avatar is very appropriate!

[cappy]

SAMUEL PLIMSOLL. I just had to look that one up Cappy to see her fate.She was laid down in 1873 by Hood at Aberdeen for owners G.Thompson & Co. Sailing Vessel 1,520 tons.
Off.No. 65097.
Fate Hulked at Sydney,NSW 4/2003. (130 years old).
Your Avatar is very appropriate!

did you ever see her in frio graham she was there in 62 63 she looked like a fine old girl even then .....i have recently googled her and she was a fast old lady i believe 60 someting days to sydney from the uk ...took me not far short of that on one old banger..the sad thing in one sense is she was superseeded by coal burners ...which now are gone ....to be superseeded by todays monster pigeon coops ...and they are STICKING sails back on them lol regards cappy

[j.sabourn]

Graham if you have a book with various mishaps to shipping, do you have any info. on a vessel going aground on the Barrier Reef FNQ would of been I would imagine in the 60s , and may of been one of Hogarths, if Hungry Hogarth was the company taken over by Lisles after this occurence. The reason I ask was because a Captain Turnbull I sailed with in the late 60s on a foreign flag vessel , he himself from Glasgow , was slightly peed off on how he was treated at the time , but that is another story. Another one I sailed with in that era of adventure where we always thought there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was an ex skipper so I was told off an Irish scoot which must have also been about the same era , he however never talked about it, but another Irishman on board did and was not very complimentary , but there again the skipper of the scoot had a different fetish preferring his right foot to his left, but think the scoot was lost with loss of life so it was never discussed. I wont divulge his name as he may still be alive , but was told any Irishman worth his salt would recognise it from years ago and was Irish folklore. However this was from one who only wore one sock on his left foot. That ship finished up with only excuse the expression 3 Europeans on board 2 Irishmen of dissimilar faiths and a dubious Geordie , me, The Bridge of Sighs would never of had a look in. Cheers JS