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149-564: Returned to transatlantic passenger service in 1920, she operated alongside Mauretania and the Berengaria . Considered during this period of time as one of the most attractive ships, Aquitania earned the nickname "the Ship Beautiful" from her passengers. She continued in service after the merger of Cunard Line with White Star Line in 1934. The company planned to retire her and replace her with RMS  Queen Elizabeth in 1940. However,

298-439: A steam turbine propulsion system using three Foster Wheeler E.S.D II boilers, which provided steam for the two Brown- Parsons turbines. The turbines were rated with a maximum power output figure of 110,000 shaft horsepower (82,000 kW) (normally operating at 94,000 hp or 70,000 kW) and coupled via double-reduction gearing to two six-bladed fixed-pitch propellers . The steam turbines were plagued with problems from

447-476: A British liner leaving New York. Upon arrival at her home port, she underwent minor modifications, which took into account observations made during the two first crossings (this was typical for a liner after its first round trip). Two more round trips took place in the second half of June and the whole of July of that year. Her architect Leonard Peskett was on board during those trips to note any defect and room for improvement. In total, 11,208 passengers travelled on

596-474: A Dubai-based construction company announced in March 2017 that it had been contracted to refurbish the ship. The restored QE2 opened to visitors on 18 April 2018, with a soft opening. By 1957, transatlantic sea travel was becoming displaced by air transit due to its speed and low relative cost, with passenger numbers split 50:50 between them. With jets capable of spanning the ocean non-stop replacing prop planes, and

745-522: A brass relief plaque with a fish motif from the first RMS  Mauretania  (1906) and an Art-Deco bas-relief titled Winged Horse and Clouds by Norman Foster from RMS  Queen Elizabeth . There were also a vast array of Cunard postcards, porcelain, flatware, boxes, linen, and Lines Bros Tri-ang Minic model ships. One of the key pieces was a replica of the figurehead from Cunard's first ship RMS  Britannia , carved from Quebec yellow pine by Cornish sculptor Charles Moore and presented to

894-632: A breakfast room, private veranda, sitting room, and servants' quarters. The main First-Class dining room was on F Deck and there were two restaurants on B Deck. The main dining room could accommodate 700 diners at tables for between 2 and 8 people. The Ritz-Carlton restaurant, which was joined with a winter garden /palm court in the Directoire style , was managed by staff from the Carlton Hotel in London. There

1043-527: A common practice of the day for the first ship in a new class, as it made the lines of the ship clearer in the black-and-white photographs. Her hull was repainted to black in dry dock. In the wake of the Titanic sinking , Aquitania was one of the first new ships to carry enough lifeboats for all passengers and crew. Eighty lifeboats, including two motorised launches with Marconi wireless equipment, were carried in both swan-neck and newer Welin type davits. There

1192-475: A diesel driven 30 kW generator up on the promenade deck. Power was provided for about 10,000 lamps and about 180 electric motors. She also had brass triple chambered 3 chime steam whistles on the 1st funnel and 2nd funnel. In 1914, Aquitania had the capacity to carry 3,220 passengers (618 First Class, 614 Second Class, 2,004 Third Class). After a refit in 1926, the figure was reduced to 610 in first class, 950 in second class, and 640 in tourist class. Although

1341-469: A fierce battle. On the morning of 24 November Aquitania en route to Sydney from Singapore spotted and picked up twenty-six survivors of the German ship but maintained radio silence and did not pass word until in visual range of Wilson's Promontory on 27 November. The captain had gone against orders not to stop for survivors of sinkings. There were no survivors from Sydney . December saw the outbreak of war in

1490-404: A larger and wider vessel than Lusitania and Mauretania (about 130 feet (40 m) longer). With four large funnels the ship would resemble the famous speed duo, but Peskett also designed the superstructure with "glassed in" touches from the smaller Carmania , a ship he also designed. Another design feature from Carmania was the addition of two tall forward deck ventilator cowlings. Although

1639-777: A massive transport of Australian and New Zealand troops to Suez and North Africa, with possible diversion to the United Kingdom if events required, was in planning with the numbered convoys to be designated as "US" with the large Atlantic liners assigned a role. The fast convoy designated as US.3 was composed of Aquitania and the liners Queen Mary , Mauretania , Empress of Britain , Empress of Canada , Empress of Japan and Andes . Aquitania , Empress of Britain and Empress of Japan , after embarking New Zealand troops at Wellington in May, sailed escorted by HMAS  Canberra , HMAS  Australia , and HMNZS  Leander to join

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1788-469: A message stating there was a bomb aboard Berengaria ; the vessel was then 1,200 miles out from New York, bound for Southampton. The ship was searched although the passengers and most crew were not informed about the reason. A fire drill was held just before the supposed time of detonation, so passengers could be placed close to their lifeboat stations without arousing suspicion. The bomb threat failed to materialize. On 11 May 1932, Berengaria ran aground in

1937-404: A new wheelhouse was constructed above the original one as the officers had complained about the visibility over the ship's bow . The second wheelhouse can be seen in later pictures of the era and the original wheelhouse area below had the windows plated in. Aquitania resumed her commercial service on 17 July 1920, leaving from Liverpool with 2,433 passengers on board. The crossing was a success;

2086-460: A piece missing and the propellers were suffering from erosion on their leading edges. These issues were attended to while the ship was refurbished with items borrowed from the Cunard vessels Transylvania and Carmania . Due to the extent of the work that had to be carried out, Imperator remained at Liverpool until 21 February and during this time the company's annual dinner was held on board before

2235-407: A port there for fifteen days, during which she underwent a final major cleaning and finishing in preparation for her maiden voyage. Aquitania was the first Cunard liner to have a length in excess of 900 feet (270 m). Unlike some four-funneled ships, such as White Star Line's Olympic -class ocean liners , Aquitania did not have a dummy funnel; each funnel was utilised in venting smoke from

2384-420: A shareholder revolt, led to the benefits of the project being reappraised and ultimately cancelled on 19 October 1961. Cunard decided to continue with a replacement plan but with an altered operating regime and more flexible design. Realising the decline of transatlantic trade, it was visualised that the new Queen would be dual-purpose three-class ship offering First, Cabin and Tourist passage for eight months

2533-587: A single ownership." SS Imperator SS Imperator (known as RMS Berengaria for most of her career) was a German ocean liner built for the Hamburg America Line, launched in 1912. At the time of her completion in June 1913, she was the largest passenger ship in the world, surpassing the new White Star liner Olympic . Imperator was the first of a trio of successively larger Hamburg American liners that included Vaterland (later

2682-462: A solid silver model of Queen Elizabeth 2 made by Asprey of Bond Street in 1975, which was lost until a photograph found in 1997 led to the discovery of the model itself. It was placed on Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1999. Three custom-designed tapestries were commissioned from Helena Hernmarck for the ship's launch, depicting the Queen as well as the launch of the ship. These tapestries were originally hung in

2831-440: A stage for theatrical performances to be held. In the evening the carpet could be removed for dancing. Off the entrance halls were amenities like a bookshop, florist, pharmacy, doctor's office, and the offices of the purser, chief steward, and baggage master. Imperator introduced a two-deck-high, Pompeiian -style swimming pool for its First-Class passengers. It was inspired by a similar swimming pool built in London in 1907 for

2980-654: A total of 60,000 men. During this period, she collided with USS Shaw and tore apart its bow. The accident killed a dozen members of the American ship's crew. After the end of the war, in December 1918, Aquitania was dismissed from military service. She collided with the British cargo ship Lord Dufferin at New York in the United States on 28 February 1919. Lord Dufferin sank and Aquitania rescued her crew. Lord Dufferin

3129-506: A tradition aboard Cunard ships) and Castaways on the starboard side. After the expansion of female crew following the conversion to diesel power, the female-only recreation and mess room became a crew library and later the crew services office. The final bar on Deck 6 aft was small and in a former crew launderette so it was called the Dhobi Arms, a hang out for the Liverpool crew but was closed in

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3278-455: A transport, returning American troops from Europe. Following her service with the U.S. Navy, Imperator was purchased jointly by Britain's Cunard Line and White Star Line as part of war reparations , due to the loss of the RMS Lusitania , where she sailed as the flagship RMS Berengaria for the last 20 years of her career. William H. Miller wrote that "despite her German heritage and

3427-501: A triple expansion system for four shafts. The port engine room contained the high pressure ahead (240 tons, 40 feet 2 inches (12.2 m) long with four stage expansion) and astern turbine (120 tons, 22 feet 11 inches (7.0 m) long) for the port shaft, the centre room contained two low pressure turbines with ahead and astern capability within single casings (54 feet 3 inches (16.5 m) long, nine expansion stages in ahead turbine, four in astern turbine) for

3576-644: A troop ship, was at pier 90 in New York along with Queen Mary while nearby, at pier 88, were the French ships Île de France and Normandie . She returned to Southampton and was requisitioned on 18 November. Aquitania ' s initial troop transport operation was taking Canadian troops to Scotland, Convoy TC1 in company with Empress of Britain , Empress of Australia , Duchess of Bedford , Monarch of Bermuda, HMS Hood , HMS Warspite , HMS Barham , HMS Resolution , HMS Repulse , HMS Furious , December 1939. Meanwhile,

3725-400: A year on the transatlantic route, then as a cruise ship in warmer climates and during the winter months. Compared with the older Queens, which had two engine rooms and four propellers, the newly designated Q4 would be much smaller, with one boiler room, one engine room, and two propellers, which combined with automation would allow a smaller engineering complement. Producing 110,000 shp,

3874-662: A year". After completing troopship service, the vessel was handed back to Cunard-White Star in 1948. She underwent a refit for passenger service. She was then used to transport war brides and their children to Canada under charter from the Canadian government. This final service created a special fondness for Aquitania in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the port of disembarkation for these immigration voyages. Aquitania sailed on her last commercial voyage from Halifax to Southampton, from November 24, 1949 to 1 December 1949. After serving her purpose,

4023-494: Is the world ). The eagle's wings were torn off in an Atlantic storm during the 1914 season, after which the figurehead was removed and replaced with gold scroll-work similar to that on the stern. During her initial sea trials, the ship ran aground on the Elbe river due to insufficient dredging and flash fire in the engine room which resulted in eight crewmen being taken to hospital. During her official trials , she suffered overheating of

4172-678: The Art Deco interiors of the previous Queens in favor of everyday modern materials like laminates , aluminium and Perspex . The public rooms featured glass, stainless steel, dark carpeting and sea green leather. Furniture was modular, and abstract art was used throughout public rooms and cabins. Dennis Lennon was responsible for co-ordinating the interior design, assisted by Jon Bannenberg and Gaby Schreiber ; his original designs only remained intact for three years. The Midships Lobby on Two Deck, where first-class passengers boarded for transatlantic journeys and all passengers boarded for cruises,

4321-664: The Cruiser and Transport Force from 3 June to 10 August, she made three cruises from New York to Brest, returning over 25,000 troops, nurses, and civilians to the United States. While en route to New York City on 17 June, Imperator assisted the Jeanne d'Arc , which had broken down in the Atlantic Ocean. The then president-elect of Brazil Epitácio Pessoa was on board Jeanne d'Arc and Imperator received him and his party for transport to

4470-582: The Falklands War , and the funnel was repainted in traditional Cunard orange and black, with black horizontal bands, known as "hands". The original narrow funnel was rebuilt larger during her 1986 refurbishment in Bremerhaven , using steel panels from the original, when the ship was converted from steam to diesel power. Large quantities of weight-saving aluminium were used in the framing and cladding of QE2 ' s superstructure in place of steel. Reducing

4619-476: The Mauretania and Berengaria (formerly the German liner Imperator ) in a trio known as "The Big Three." In 1924, a new restriction on immigration was passed in the United States, causing the number of third-class passengers to decline significantly. From more than 26,000 third-class passengers transported by Aquitania in 1921, the figure fell to about 8,200 third-class passengers in 1925. The number of crew

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4768-617: The Mediterranean . These were successful, especially for Americans who went on "booze cruises," tired of their country's prohibition . Another problem also arose: the two liners of the Norddeutscher Lloyd , SS Bremen and SS Europa , successfully captured the Blue Riband and many customers. In 1934, the number of passengers Aquitania carried declined to around 13,000 from 30,000 in 1929. The ship, however, remained popular and she

4917-703: The Palladian lounge; a faithful interpretation of the style of architect John Webb . The second class had a dining room, several lounges, a smoking room, a veranda café, and a gymnasium; many being unique facilities for this class on British ocean liners of the time. The third class had several common areas, a promenade, and three shared bathrooms. The cabins offered great comfort. The first class included eight luxury suites, named after famous painters. A large number of first-class cabins had bathrooms, although not all did. The second-class cabins were larger than average, most being capable of accommodating three people as opposed to

5066-486: The QE2 was designed by James Gardner . The result was described by The Council of Industrial Design as that of a "very big yacht" and with a "look [that was] sleek, modern and purposeful". As built, QE2 had a gross tonnage of 65,863  GRT , was 963 ft (294 m) long, and had a top speed of 32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph) with steam turbines; this was increased to 34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph) when

5215-625: The River Tyne under the command of Captain George Gibbons to be scrapped down to the waterline . Due to the size of the vessel and the outbreak of the Second World War, the final demolition took place only in 1946. Queen Elizabeth 2 Queen Elizabeth 2 ( QE2 ) is a retired British passenger ship converted into a floating hotel. Originally built for the Cunard Line , the ship

5364-643: The Royal Automobile Club , of which Charles Mewès was also one of the architects. Connected to the pool were Victorian-style Turkish baths , steam baths, electric baths , massage and hairdressing rooms. The gymnasium was "the largest and most luxurious that has ever been fitted up on a passenger steamer...", according to The Marine Engineering and Naval Architect . For the first time on an ocean liner, Second-Class had its own gymnasium as well. Second-Class passengers also had their own smoking room, reading and writing rooms, dining room, and music room. While

5513-609: The Royal Victoria Hospital , Netley , England, to receive casualties from Normandy. The unit was sent by "devious routes" by train to Jersey City where under cover of darkness they boarded a ferry crossing to the covered pier 86 in New York where a band played and the Red Cross served their last coffee and doughnuts as they boarded "N.Y. 40", the New York Port of Embarkation code designation for Aquitania , which got underway

5662-589: The Solent . She was refloated an hour later. In May 1934, Berengaria was again in the headlines when she ran aground on mud banks at Calshot on the Solent. She was pulled free by four tugs from Southampton. The vessel suffered no damage and the incident did not affect her sailing schedule. Despite her German heritage, Berengaria served as flagship of the Cunard fleet until replaced by her sister ship, RMS  Majestic (also German: ex- SS Bismarck ), in 1934 after

5811-460: The White Star Line , in 1934 in order to do so. The Queen Mary entered service in 1936. Author C. R. Bonsor writing in 1963 states, "from 1936 on it became necessary to squeeze the maximum speed out of Aquitania in order to make her a suitable running mate for Queen Mary thus 24 knot passages became regular". Aquitania ran aground in the Solent on 24 January 1934 but was refloated later

5960-504: The sinking of the Titanic in April 1912, the shipyard added more lifeboats to Imperator to ensure there was more than enough room for all passengers and crew. In total, Imperator would carry 83 lifeboats capable of holding 5,500 people between them, 300 more than the ship's maximum capacity. Before her launch on 23 May 1912, Cunard announced that its new ship, RMS  Aquitania , which

6109-456: The 1994 refit, with Cunard opting to use the line's traditional ocean liners as inspiration. The green velvet and leather Midships Bar became the Art Deco inspired Chart Room, receiving an original, custom-designed piano from Queen Mary . The (by then) blue dominated Theatre Bar was transformed into the traditional Edwardian -themed Golden Lion Pub. Some original elements were retained, including

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6258-469: The 19th. Whereas German ships are usually referred to with the feminine article ( die ), Imperator was instead referred to with the masculine article ( der ), on the explicit personal wishes of Emperor Wilhelm II. The architect and designer Charles Mewès was responsible for the interior design of the Imperator and his sister ships. One German critic commented on the prevalence of French-style décor on

6407-558: The Australian component off Sydney on 5 May 1940. Joined off Sydney by Queen Mary and Mauretania the convoy sailed the same day to be joined the next by Empress of Canada from Melbourne for a stop at Fremantle 10–12 May before the voyage intended to be for Colombo . About midway to Colombo, on 15 May, the convoy was rerouted due to the rapid German penetrations into France with the ultimate destination of Gourock, Scotland via Cape Town , South Africa and Freetown, Sierra Leone where

6556-546: The Australian cruiser HMAS  Sydney . Sydney had engaged in battle with the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran . There has been much unsubstantiated speculation that Kormoran was expecting Aquitania , after spies in Singapore had notified Kormoran ' s crew of the liner's sailing and planned to ambush her in the Indian Ocean west of Perth but instead encountered Sydney on 19 November. Both ships were lost after

6705-501: The Cunard refit changed plates identifying switches and valves were reversed and reinscribed in English, drains in cabin bathtubs remained marked AUF and ZU and ashtrays still read ZIGARREN . In August 1914, as World War I began, she was laid up at Hamburg and remained inactive for more than four years, falling into dilapidation. Following the Armistice of 11 November 1918 , Imperator

6854-466: The Cunard tradition of regular scheduled transatlantic crossings every year of her service life. Queen Elizabeth 2 retired from active Cunard service on 27 November 2008. She had been acquired by the private equity arm of Dubai World , which planned to begin conversion of the vessel to a 500-room floating hotel moored at the Palm Jumeirah , Dubai. The 2008 financial crisis intervened, however, and

7003-529: The First World War, Mewès was charged with the decoration of HAPAG's trio of giant new ships, Imperator , Vaterland , and Bismarck , while Davis was awarded the contract for Aquitania . In a curious arrangement between the rival Cunard and Hamburg-Amerika Lines, Mewès and Davis worked apart—in Germany and England respectively and exclusively—with neither partner being able to disclose details of his work to

7152-406: The First-Class staterooms on Imperator , all of which had free-standing beds and marble-topped washstands with hot and cold running water. Almost all First-Class cabins were "outside" cabins, meaning they had portholes or windows for natural light and ventilation. Over 200 cabins were reserved for single occupancy, and 150 had en-suite bathrooms. The two "Imperial" suites had 12 rooms each, including

7301-527: The Governor of Kagoshima , Japan, during her 1979 world cruise, as was a Wedgwood vase presented to the ship by Lord Wedgwood. Throughout the public areas were also silver plaques commemorating the visits of every member of the Royal Family, as well as other dignitaries such as South African president Nelson Mandela . Istithmar bought most of these items from Cunard when it purchased QE2 . The majority of

7450-576: The Pacific, then Japanese advances throughout Southeast Asia and toward Australia, necessitating the redeployment of defensive forces. On 28 December Aquitania and two smaller transports departed Sydney with 4,150 Australian troops and 10,000 tons of equipment for Port Moresby , New Guinea. (On the same date, USS  Houston and other U.S. ships evacuating from the north reached Darwin , with USS  Pensacola , and elements of her diverted Philippine convoy some 300 miles (480 km) ahead.) Aquitania

7599-620: The Quarter Deck "D" Stairway, outside the Columbia Restaurant. They were originally made with golden threads, but much of this was lost when they were incorrectly cleaned during the 1987 refit. They were subsequently hung in the "E" stairway and later damaged in 2005. There are numerous photographs, oils, and pastels of members of the Royal Family throughout the vessel. The ship also housed items from previous Cunard ships, including both

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7748-658: The United States Liner Leviathan ) and Bismarck (later the White Star Line Majestic ) all of which were seized as war reparations. Imperator served for 14 months on HAPAG's transatlantic route, until the outbreak of World War I , after which she remained in port in Hamburg . After the war, she was briefly commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Imperator (ID-4080) and employed as

7897-642: The United States, arriving there several days later. Decommissioned at Hoboken, New Jersey in early 1919, Imperator was transferred to the British Shipping Controller on 20 September, and it was decided that Cunard would operate her. Captain Charles A. Smith and a full crew were sent out to New York on Carmania the new operators and the official handover from the British Shipping Controller to Cunard took place on 24 November. Imperator

8046-422: The United States, which started in 1919. American liners were legally part of the territory of the United States, and thus alcoholic beverages could not be served on them. Passengers who wanted to drink therefore travelled on British liners in order to do so. Aquitania enjoyed great success, making much profit for her company. In 1929, she underwent a major refit. A bathroom was added to many first-class cabins, and

8195-527: The White Star Line's Olympic -class model with a slower but larger and more luxurious ship. The plan for the building of that liner began in 1910, under the leadership of Leonard Peskett. Several draft plans were conceived in order to determine the main axes of what should be the ship for which an average speed of 24 knots was planned. In July of that year, the company launched the construction offers to several shipyards before choosing John Brown and Company ,

8344-585: The Yacht Club, and one of Queen Elizabeth II in the Queen's Room. Four life-size statues of human forms—created by sculptor Janine Janet in marine materials like shell and coral, representing the four elements—were installed in the Princess Grill. A frieze designed by Brody Nevenshwander, depicting the words of T. S. Eliot , Sir Francis Drake , and John Masefield , was in the Chart Room. The Midships Lobby housed

8493-490: The addition of a cinema during her refit from 1932 to 1933 and the reorganisation of the tourist class during the 1920s for giving greater comfort to poor passengers. Aquitania ' s maiden voyage was under the command of Captain William Turner on 30 May 1914 with arrival in New York on 5 June. The voyage and arrival in New York received great attention. Fifteen days earlier, the German liner SS  Vaterland , being

8642-562: The aid of ten tugboats, on the next high tide the ship was freed. When the new liner RMS Queen Elizabeth was due to enter service in 1940, newspapers speculated that Aquitania would be scrapped that year, since the QE replaced her on the North Atlantic route. However, during that period, her performance continued to satisfy her company and the Second World War soon broke out as well, making

8791-457: The barely disguised Teutonic tone of her interiors, she was thought of in the 1920s and 30s as one of Britain's finest liners." The first plates of the keel were laid in 1910 at the Vulcan Shipyards in Hamburg , Germany, and the ship made its maiden voyage in 1913. At 52,117 gross register tons , Imperator was the largest ship in the world until Vaterland sailed in May 1914. After

8940-623: The builder of the Lusitania . The company chose Aquitania as the name for its new ship in continuity with those of its two previous duo. The three ships were named respectively after the Ancient Roman provinces Lusitania , Mauretania , and Gallia Aquitania . Aquitania was designed by Cunard naval architect Leonard Peskett . She was a one of a kind liner as she did not have an identical sister ship of size and appointments as with Lusitania/Mauretania or Olympic/Titanic . Peskett drew up plans for

9089-423: The command of James Charles , the ship was back on the high seas in troopship service, conveying North American troops to Britain. Many of these departures were from the port of Halifax, Nova Scotia where the ship's dazzle paint scheme was captured by artists and photographers, including Antonio Jacobsen . On one occasion Aquitania transported over 8,000 men. During her nine voyages, she transported approximately

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9238-507: The construction and decoration of the Ritz Hotel in London and Davis himself had designed several banks in that city. His partner in the firm, Charles Mewès , had designed the interiors of the Paris Ritz, and had been commissioned by Albert Ballin , head of Germany's Hamburg America Line (HAPAG), to decorate the interiors of the company's new liner Amerika in 1905. In the years prior to

9387-519: The crew were accommodated in two- or four-berth cabins, with showers and toilets at the end of each alleyway. These were located forward and aft on decks three to six. At the time she entered service, the crew areas were a significant improvement over those aboard RMS  Queen Mary and RMS  Queen Elizabeth ; however the ship's age and the lack of renovation of the crew area during her 40 years of service, in contrast to passenger areas, which were updated periodically, meant that this accommodation

9536-490: The danger from aircraft to such a valuable asset and so many troops caused a change of plans. Instead, Aquitania departed Sydney on 10 January, reaching Ratai Bay at the Sunda Strait on 20 January, where 3,456 personnel (including some Navy, Air Force and civilians) were transhipped under a covering naval force to seven smaller vessels (six of them Dutch KPM ships) that would continue to Singapore as convoy MS.2A. Aquitania

9685-570: The debut of the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC8 in 1958, the trend was rapidly increasing. Simultaneously, the aging Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were becoming increasingly expensive to operate, and both internally and externally were relics of the pre-war era. Despite falling passenger revenues, Cunard did not want to give up its traditional role as a provider of a North Atlantic passenger service and Royal Mail carrier, and so decided to replace

9834-472: The draft of the ship lowered fuel consumption, but invited the electrochemical corrosion where the dissimilar metals are joined together, prevented by using a jointing compound. The low melting point of aluminium caused concern when QE2 was serving as a troopship during the Falklands War, with some fearing that if the ship were struck by a missile her upper decks would collapse quickly due to fire. In 1972,

9983-499: The escort strengthened by various ships including the aircraft carriers HMS  Hermes and HMS  Argus and the battlecruiser HMS  Hood . The convoy arrived in the Clyde and anchored off Gourock on 16 June 1940. Now repainted battleship grey, in November 1941 Aquitania was in the British colony of Singapore , from which she sailed to take part indirectly in the loss of

10132-401: The first penthouse suites were added in an aluminium structure on Signal Deck and Sports Deck (now "Sun Deck"), behind the ship's bridge , and in 1977 this structure was expanded to include more suites with balconies, making QE2 one of the first ships to offer private terraces to passengers since Normandie in the 1930s. Her balcony accommodation was expanded for the final time when her funnel

10281-455: The flared columns in the Queen's Room and Mid-Ships Lobby. The Queen's Room's indirect ceiling lighting was replaced with uplighters which reversed the original light airy effect by illuminating the lowered ceiling and leaving shadows in the ceiling's slot. By the time of QE2's retirement, the ship's synagogue was the only room that had remained unaltered since 1969. However it was reported that during QE2 ' s 22 October five-night voyage,

10430-596: The harbor pilot assigned to bring her into the Ambrose channel, Captain George Seeth, noted that the ship listed from side to side when the helm changed the ship's direction. She was soon nicknamed "Limperator". In October 1913, Imperator returned to the Vulcan shipyard to facilitate drastic work to improve handling and stability, as it had been discovered that her center of gravity was too high (see metacentric height ). To correct

10579-534: The international public, especially Americans." One contemporary review noted how the ship's "great size...has enabled her designers to allow unusual space for passenger accommodation." This was echoed in The Master, Mate, and Pilot , which stated that "taking advantage of his great dimensions, the ships' public cabins, and staterooms have been made so large as to avoid any suggestion of crowding." Space-saving devices like berths and folding washbasins were eliminated in

10728-480: The invasion of Europe in 1944 troop deployments to Britain depended heavily on Aquitania and the other "Monsters" and no allowance could be made for interruption of their service for other transport requirements. Wartime embarkation at New York is described in some detail in the description of the departure of the Special Navy Advance Group 56 (SNAG 56) that was to become Navy Base Hospital Number 12 at

10877-503: The journey to make sure that everything went smoothly. On the way, she stopped at Southampton and Cherbourg before proceeding across the Atlantic to New York , arriving on 19 June 1913. On board were 4,986 people, consisting of 859 first-class passengers, 647 second-class passengers, 648 third-class passengers, 1,495 in steerage, and 1,332 crew. The ship returned to Europe from Hoboken, New Jersey , on 25 June 1913. On his first arrival,

11026-535: The largest ship in the world at the time, was put into service. In the eye of the press, this maiden voyage was a matter of national prestige. However, this event was overshadowed by the sinking of RMS  Empress of Ireland in Quebec the previous day with over a thousand drowned. However, no passenger cancelled their voyage aboard the Aquitania , despite the strong emotion aroused by this sinking. During her maiden voyage,

11175-402: The late '80s. A bar, dedicated for the officers, is located at the forward end of Boat Deck. Named The Officers Wardroom , this area enjoyed forward-facing views and was often opened to passengers for cocktail parties hosted by the senior officers. The crew mess was situated at the forward end of One Deck, adjacent to the crew services office. Queen Elizabeth 2 was originally fitted out with

11324-582: The main propellers, with long vanes protruding from the centre hub. The Grim Wheels were designed to recover lost propeller thrust and reduce fuel consumption by 2.5 to 3%. After the trial of these wheels, when the ship was drydocked, the majority of the vanes on each wheel were discovered to have broken off. The wheels were removed and the project was abandoned. Other machinery includes nine heat recovery boilers, coupled with two oil-fired boilers to produce steam for heating fuel, domestic water, swimming pools, laundry equipment, and galleys. Four flash evaporators and

11473-572: The major redeployment of Australian troops from North Africa to the defence of Australia and start of offensive operations in the Southwest Pacific . Aquitania , Queen Mary , Île de France , Nieuw Amsterdam , and the armed merchant cruiser HMS Queen of Bermuda transported the Australian 9th Division to Sydney in Operation Pamphlet during January and February 1943. By the buildup for

11622-574: The merger of Cunard with White Star Line . In later years, Berengaria was used for discounted Prohibition -dodging cruises, which earned her jocular nicknames like Bargainaria and Boringaria . Toward the end of her service life, the ship suffered several electrical fires caused by aging wiring, and Cunard-White Star opted to retire her in 1938. She was sold to Sir John Jarvis , who had also purchased Olympic , to provide work for unemployed shipbuilders in Jarrow , County Durham . Berengaria sailed for

11771-637: The morning of 29 January 1944 with some 1,000 Navy and 7,000 Army personnel for arrival at Gourock, Scotland 5 February. In eight years of military work, Aquitania sailed more than 500,000 miles, and carried nearly 400,000 soldiers, to and from places as far afield as New Zealand, Australia, the South Pacific, Greece and the Indian Ocean. Cunard historian Michael Gallagher said: "Wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill credited Aquitania , with Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth , for shortening World War II in Europe by

11920-411: The name: RMS Queen Mary 2 . Queen Elizabeth 2 was refitted with a modern diesel powerplant in 1986–87. She undertook regular world cruises during almost 40 years of service, and later operated predominantly as a cruise ship, sailing out of Southampton, England. Queen Elizabeth 2 had no running mate and never ran a year-round weekly transatlantic express service to New York. She did, however, continue

12069-530: The new ship was to have the same 28.5 knots (52.8 km/h) service speed as her predecessors, while consuming half the fuel. A reduction to 520 tons per 24 hours was estimated to save Cunard £1 million annually. Able to transit both the Panama and Suez canals, her 7-foot (2.1 m) shallower draught of 32 feet (9.8 m) would allow her to enter more and smaller ports than the old ships, particularly in tropical waters. The interior and superstructure for

12218-629: The new ship: Louis XVI seems to be the real Imperator ...judging by the decorative effects with which the world's biggest liner is embellished...the ladies saloon in Colonial, the smoking room in Flemish, the swimming pool in Pompeiian, the wintergarten in Louis XVI, the parlor in Louis XVI. - Louis XVI everywhere. Where is there any manifestation of present-day German style...the company, of course, must cater to

12367-430: The obsolete Queens with a new generation liner. Designated Q3 during work-up, it was projected to measure 75,000 gross register tons , have berths for 2,270 passengers, and cost about £30 million. Work had proceeded as far as the preparation of submissions from six shipyards and applying for government financial assistance with the construction when misgivings among some executives and directors, coupled with

12516-436: The old Aquitania was taken out of service in December 1949, when the ship's Board of Trade certificate was not renewed as the condition of the ship had deteriorated, and it would have been cost-prohibitive to be brought up to new safety standards, namely fire code regulations. The decks leaked in foul weather, the bulkheads and funnels were corroded to a point that one could stick their finger through them. A long-standing rumor

12665-458: The old ocean liner useful once again. The year 1939 saw an increase in the number of wealthy passengers on board. The ship was then already 26 years old. Aquitania , with a normal troop capacity of 7,400, was among the select group of large, fast former passenger ships capable of sailing independently without escort transporting large numbers of troops that were assigned worldwide as needed. These ships, often termed "Monsters" until London requested

12814-455: The original specification mentioned a capacity of 972 crew members, the ship sometimes carried around 1,100. Although Aquitania lacked the lean, yacht-like appearance of running mates Mauretania and Lusitania , the greater length and wider beam allowed for grander and more spacious public rooms. Her public spaces were designed by the British architect Arthur Joseph Davis of the interior decorating firm Mewès and Davis. This firm had overseen

12963-513: The other. Although this arrangement was almost certainly violated, Aquitania ' s first-class interiors were largely the work of Davis. The Louis XVI dining saloon owed much to Mewès' work on the HAPAG liners, but it is likely that having worked so closely together for many years the two designers' work had become almost interchangeable. Indeed, Davis must be given credit for the Carolean smoking room and

13112-450: The outbreak of the Second World War allowed the ship to remain in service for ten more years. During the war and until 1947, she served as a troop transport. She was used in particular to take home Canadian soldiers from Europe. After the war, she transported migrants to Canada before the Board of Trade found her unfit for further commercial service. Aquitania was retired from service in 1949 and

13261-403: The problem, the marble bathroom suites in first class were removed and heavy furniture was replaced with lightweight wicker cane. The ship's funnels were reduced in height by 9.8 ft (3 m). Finally, 2,000 tons of cement was poured into the ship's double bottom as ballast. This work cost £200,000, which had to be borne by the shipyard as part of their five-year warranty to the shipowners. At

13410-552: The rivalry between the White Star Line and Cunard Line , Britain's two leading shipping companies. The White Star Line's Olympic , Titanic and the upcoming Britannic were larger than the latest Cunard ships, Mauretania and Lusitania , by 15,000 gross register tons. The Cunard duo were significantly faster than the White Star ships, while White Star's ships were seen as more luxurious. Cunard needed another liner for its weekly transatlantic express service, and elected to copy

13559-543: The same day. The merger of the two companies into Cunard-White Star Line resulted in a large surplus of liners being owned by a single company. Thus, very old ships, such as the Mauretania and the Olympic , were removed from service immediately and sent to the scrapyard. However, the Aquitania was not, despite her age. On 10 April 1935, Aquitania went hard aground on Thorne Knoll in the Solent near Southampton, England, but with

13708-498: The same time, an advanced fire sprinkler system was fitted throughout the ship, as several fires had occurred on board since the vessel had entered service. During the 1914 refit of Imperator , Commodore Ruser handed over command of the ship to Captain Theo Kier and left to take command of the new larger flagship Vaterland , which was nearing completion. Imperator returned to service on 11 March, arriving in New York five days later on

13857-461: The ship backward or stop her moving forward. The pitch of the new variable pitch blades could simply be reversed, causing a reversal of propeller thrust while maintaining the same direction of propeller rotation, allowing the ship shorter stopping times and improved handling characteristics. The new propellers were originally fitted with "Grim Wheels", named after their inventor, Dr. Ing Otto Grim. These were free-spinning propeller blades fitted behind

14006-506: The ship by Lloyd's of London . On the Upper Deck sits the silver Boston Commemorative Cup, presented to Britannia by the City of Boston in 1840. This cup was lost for decades until it was found in a pawn shop in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On "2" Deck was a bronze entitled Spirit of the Atlantic that was designed by Barney Seale for the second RMS  Mauretania  (1938) . A large wooden plaque

14155-459: The ship carried around 1,055 passengers, which was about a third of her total capacity. This was because a superstition pushed some people away from travelling on a ship's maiden voyage. The crossing fully satisfied the crew and the company. Average speed for the voyage, a distance of 3,181 nautical miles (5,891 km; 3,661 mi) measured from Liverpool to the Ambrose Channel lightship ,

14304-515: The ship during her first six crossings. Chirnside 2008 , p. 26 Her career was abruptly interrupted by the outbreak of World War I , which removed her from passenger service for six years. In June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, and the world was soon plunged into World War I. Aquitania was converted into an armed merchant cruiser on 5 August 1914, for which provision had been made in her design. On 8 August, having been rid of decorative elements and armed with guns, she

14453-478: The ship maintained good speed while showing that now being oil-fueled was much cheaper than coal-fueled propulsion. The ship's arrival in New York Harbor was filmed as part of the pioneering 1921 documentary Manhatta , in which she is seen being pushed to her destination by tugboats. The months that followed were just as promising, despite a stewards' strike in May 1921. At the beginning of the decade, Aquitania

14602-733: The ship returned to service on the North Atlantic. On 2 March 1920, the ship left New York, taking nine days to reach Southampton. During the voyage, Imperator developed a severe list that was found to be caused by a faulty ash ejector. Cunard decided that the ship was in need of a major overhaul and she was withdrawn from service. Sir Arthur Rostron of the RMS Titanic passenger rescue fame and former captain of Carpathia took command of Imperator in July 1920. The following year both Imperator and Aquitania were sent to Armstrong Whitworth shipyards to be converted from coal firing to oil. The ship

14751-456: The ship to the battlefield between May and August of that year. Aquitania then was converted into a hospital ship , and acted in that role during the Dardanelles campaign . In 1916, the year that White Star's flagship, and one of Aquitania ' s main rivals, Britannic , was sunk, Aquitania was returned to the trooping front, and then in 1917 was laid up in the Solent . In 1918, now under

14900-691: The ship was laid up at Dubai Drydocks and later Mina Rashid . When she started her new life in Port Rashid as a floating hotel, during that time she completed 1,400 voyages over six million nautical miles while carrying 2.5 million passengers over 25 world tours. Subsequent conversion plans were announced in 2012 and then again by the Oceanic Group in 2013, but both plans stalled. In November 2015, Cruise Arabia & Africa quoted DP World chairman Ahmed Sultan Bin Sulayem as saying that QE2 would not be scrapped and

15049-465: The ship's boilers. Steam was provided by twenty-one forced-draft, double-ended Scotch boilers , having eight furnaces each, that were 22 feet (6.7 m) long with diameter of 17 feet 8 inches (5.4 m) arranged in four boiler rooms. Each boiler room had seven ash expellers with pump capacity of approximately 4,500 tons per hour that could also be used as emergency bilge pumps. Steam drove Parsons turbines in three separate engine rooms in

15198-497: The ship's outward dimensions were greater than that of Olympic , her displacement and tonnage were lower. With Aquitania ' s keel being laid at the end of 1910, the experienced Peskett took a voyage on Olympic in 1911 so as to experience the feel of a ship reaching nearly 50,000 tonnes as well as to copy pointers for his company's new vessel. Though Aquitania was built solely with Cunard funds, Peskett designed her according to strict British Admiralty specifications. Aquitania

15347-413: The ship, especially in passenger corridors and staterooms. There was also an Observation Bar on Quarter Deck, a successor to its namesake, located in a similar location, on both previous Queens , which offered views through large windows over the ship's bow. The QE2 ' s 1972 refit plated over the windows and turned the room into galley space. Almost all of the remaining original decor was replaced in

15496-442: The standard four. Her Third Class accommodations were a great expansion in facilities compared to her running mates. While most Cunard liners had their Third Class areas confined forward, aboard Aquitania such spaces spanned the full length of the ship, and included several large open areas, three large dining rooms and both open and enclosed promenades. Over her thirty-five years career, her facilities changed. Examples of this were

15645-405: The steam turbines were removed and replaced with nine German MAN 9L58/64 nine-cylinder, medium-speed diesel engines, each weighing approximately 120 tons. Using a diesel-electric configuration, each engine drives a generator, each developing 10.5 MW of electrical power at 10,000 volts. This electrical plant, in addition to powering the ship's auxiliary and hotel services through transformers, drives

15794-576: The synagogue was dismantled and removed from the ship before her final sailing to Dubai. The designers included numerous pieces of artwork within the public rooms of the ship, as well as maritime artefacts drawn from Cunard's long history of operating merchant vessels. Althea Wynne 's sculpture of the White Horses of the Atlantic Ocean was installed in the Mauretania Restaurant. Two bronze busts were installed—one of Sir Samuel Cunard outside

15943-543: The term be dropped, were Aquitania , Queen Mary , Queen Elizabeth , Mauretania (II) , Île de France and Nieuw Amsterdam with "lesser monsters" being other large ex-liners capable of independent sailing with large troop capacity that accounted for much of the troop capacity and deployment, particularly in the early days of the war. Plans to replace Aquitania with the newer Queen Elizabeth in 1940 had been forestalled by outbreak of World War II in 1939. On 16 September 1939 Aquitania , awaiting initial refit as

16092-412: The time the ship first entered service and, despite being technically advanced and fuel-efficient in 1968, her consumption of 600 tons of fuel oil every twenty-four hours was more than expected for such a ship by the 1980s. After seventeen years of service, the availability of spare parts was becoming difficult due to the outdated design of the boilers and turbines and the constant use of the machinery which

16241-451: The tourist class was renovated. While new competitors, such as the German liner SS Bremen , entered service, Aquitania remained particularly popular after fifteen years of service. Following the stock market crash of 1929, many ships were affected by the economic downturn and reduced traffic. Aquitania found herself in a tough position. Only a few could afford expensive passage on her now, so Cunard sent Aquitania on cheap cruises to

16390-699: The turbines and some stability issues were discovered. The trials were therefore abandoned and the builders were called in to carry out emergency work. Coincidentally, 1913 was the silver jubilee year for the Kaiser , so he was going to be treated to an overnight cruise on the North Sea before the ship would make its maiden voyage. The overnight cruise was canceled; it was eventually carried out in July of that year. Imperator left on her maiden voyage on Wednesday, 11 June 1913, with Commodore Hans Ruser in command and Hamburg-Amerika appointing four other subordinate captains for

16539-443: The two centre shafts and the starboard room contained the intermediate pressure ahead turbine (41 feet 6.5 inches (12.7 m) long) and a high pressure astern turbine (twin of the port high pressure turbine) for the starboard shaft. The electrical plant, located on G deck below the waterline, consisted of four 400 kW British Westinghouse generator sets generating 225 volt direct current, with emergency power provided by

16688-431: The two main propulsion motors, one on each propeller shaft. These motors produce 44 MW each and are of synchronised salient-pole construction, nine metres in diameter and weighing more than 400 tons each. The ship's service speed of 28.5 knots (52.8 km/h) was now maintained using only seven of the diesel-electric sets. The maximum power output with the new engine configuration running increased to 130,000 hp, which

16837-425: The vessel was re-engined with the diesel-electric powerplant. At the time of retirement, the ship had a gross tonnage of 70,327. The hull was of welded steel plates, which avoided the weight penalty of over ten million rivets and overlappeding of historic ship construction, and was fitted with a modern bulbous bow . Like both Normandie and France , QE2 had a flared stem and clean forecastle . What

16986-586: The west coast of the U.S. to Hawaii. Then Aquitania was temporarily transferred from Pacific duties to support the movement of troops from the United States to Britain, sailing 30 April from New York in a large convoy that transported some 19,000 troops. On 12 May 1942 Aquitania loaded troops at Gourock destined for the war in the Middle East, departing in convoy WS19P on 1 June with destroyers and heavy weather, she broke off independently on 7 June due to her greater speed with designation WS19Q. The first port of call

17135-491: Was launched on 21 April 1913 after being christened by Alice Stanley , the Countess of Derby, and fitted out over the next thirteen months. Notable installations were electrical wiring and decorations. The fitting out was led by Arthur Joseph Davis and his associate Charles Mewès . On 10 May 1914, she was tested in her sea trials and steamed at one full knot over the expected speed. On 14 May, she reached Mersey and stayed at

17284-410: Was 23.1 knots (42.8 km/h; 26.6 mph), taking into account a five-hour stop due to fog and the proximity of icebergs. The ship briefly managed to exceed 25 knots. Also, her coal consumption was significantly lower than that of Lusitania and Mauretania . Many passengers enjoyed the voyage. On the return trip, the success was renewed; she carried a total of 2,649 passengers, which was a record for

17433-481: Was 48 hours at Freetown (West Africa) on 11 June, then 3 days at Simonstown , South Africa 20 June 48 hours at Diego Suarez , Madagascar from 30 June 24 hours at Steamer Point , Aden on 3 July, and then disembarkation at Port Tewfik , Egypt from 8 July 1942. The return journey was via Diego Suarez, Cape Town, Freetown and then to Boston. By September Aquitania was engaged in a triangular troop deployment of United States-United Kingdom-Indian Ocean voyages. As part of

17582-413: Was a circular room with a sunken seating area in the centre with green leather-clad banquettes surrounded by a chrome railing. In the centre was a flared, white, trumpet-shaped, lighted column. The Theatre Bar on Upper Deck featured red chairs, red drapes, a red egg crate fibreglass screen, and even a red baby grand piano . Some more traditional materials like wood veneer were used as highlights throughout

17731-457: Was also a Grill Room at the aft end of B Deck, a tea garden, and a Veranda café. Other First-Class public rooms included a 72-foot-long lounge/ballroom, several ladies sitting rooms, and a smoking room. The Tudor style smoking room was decorated with brick from a demolished Tudor-era cottage in England. The lounge, or "Social Hall", as it was called, was hung with Gobelins tapestries and included

17880-496: Was also a double hull and watertight compartments that were designed to allow the ship to float with five compartments flooded. As required by the British Admiralty, she was designed to be converted into an armed merchant cruiser , and was reinforced to mount guns for service in that role. The ship displaced approximately 49,430 tons, of which the hull accounted for 29,150 tons, machinery 9,000 and bunkers 6,000 tons. Aquitania

18029-588: Was also the last four-funnelled passenger ship to be scrapped. The ship's wheel and a detailed scale model of Aquitania may be seen in the Cunard exhibit at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax. Maritime author N. R. P. Bonsor wrote of Aquitania in 1963: "Cunard had recovered possession of their veteran in 1948 but she was not worth reconditioning. In 35 years of service Aquitania had sailed more than 3 million miles and apart from one or two early Allan Line steamers no other ship served for as long in

18178-571: Was back in Sydney on 8 January 1942. The next effort was reinforcement of Singapore and the Netherlands East Indies with Aquitania transporting Australian troops (whose equipment was in Convoy MS.1) as the single ship MS.2 convoy, under escort of HMAS Canberra . The ship had been the only suitable transport for such a large movement. Originally, transport directly to Singapore was considered, but

18327-514: Was built in the John Brown and Company yards in Clydebank , Scotland, where the majority of the Cunard ships were built. The keel was laid in the same plot where Lusitania had been built, and would later be used to construct Queen Mary , Queen Elizabeth , and Queen Elizabeth 2 . Just like with Mauretania , for the launch the hull was painted in a light grey colour for photographic purposes;

18476-534: Was considered basic by the end of her career. Officers were accommodated in single cabins with private in-suite bathrooms located on Sun Deck. There were six crew bars, the main four were split into the Senior Rates Recreation Rooms on Deck 2 and the Junior Rates on Deck 3, with Deck and Engine Departments on the port side and Hotel on the starboard side of the ship. The Female crew recreation room

18625-436: Was controversial at the time was that Cunard decided not to paint the funnel with the line's distinctive colour and pattern, something that had been done on all its merchant vessels since the first Cunarder, RMS  Britannia , sailed in 1840. Instead, the funnel was painted white and black, with the Cunard orange-red appearing only on the inside of the wind scoop. This practice ended in 1983 when QE2 returned from service in

18774-414: Was decided to replace the engines, as it was calculated that the savings in fuel costs and maintenance would pay for themselves over four years while giving the vessel a minimum of another twenty years of service, whereas the other options would only provide short-term relief. Her steam turbines had taken her to a record-breaking total of 2,622,858 miles in 18 years. During the ship's 1986 to 1987 refit,

18923-474: Was designed in Cunard's offices in Liverpool and Southampton and built in Clydebank , Scotland. She was considered the last of the transatlantic ocean liners until "Project Genesis" was announced by Cunard Line in 1995 after the business purchase of Cunard by Micky Arison ; chairman of Carnival and Carnival UK . Project Genesis was intended to create new life in the ocean liner saga, and in 1998, Cunard revealed

19072-402: Was finally finished in November 1951. This ended a career which included steaming 3 million miles over 450 round voyages. Aquitania carried 1.2 million passengers through an active sea career that spanned nearly 36 years, making her the longest-serving Express Liner of the 20th century. Aquitania was the only major liner and largest vessel to serve in and survive both World Wars. She

19221-529: Was given the theatre balcony on Boat Deck, and tourist class the orchestra level on Upper Deck. Over the span of her thirty-nine-year seagoing career, QE2 received a number of interior refits and alterations. The year QE2 entered service, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, the Concorde prototype was unveiled, and the Boeing 747 first took flight. In keeping with those technology influenced times, Cunard abandoned

19370-479: Was greater than the previous system's 110,000 hp. Using the same IBF-380 ( Bunker C ) fuel, the new configuration yielded a 35% fuel saving over the previous system. During the re-engining process, her funnel was modified into a wider one to accommodate the exhaust pipes for the nine MAN diesel engines. During the refit, the original fixed-pitch propellers were replaced with variable-pitch propellers . The old steam propulsion system required astern turbines to move

19519-437: Was laid out in a horizontal fashion, similar to France , where the spaces dedicated to the two classes were spread on specific decks, in contrast to the deck-spanning vertical class divisions of older liners. Where QE2 differed from France in having only two classes of service, with the upper deck dedicated to tourist class and the quarter deck beneath it to first-class. Each had its own main lounge. Another modern variation

19668-663: Was later refloated and beached. In June 1919, Aquitania ran a Cunard "austerity service" between Southampton , Cherbourg , and New York. In December of that year Aquitania was docked at the Armstrong Whitworth yards in Newcastle to be refitted for post-war service. The ship was converted from coal burner to oil-fired, which greatly reduced the number of engine room crew required. The original fittings and art pieces, removed when refitted for military use, were brought out of storage and re-installed. At some point during this time,

19817-507: Was made that during a corporate luncheon held on the ship, a piano had fallen through the roof of one of the dining rooms from the deck above. This has been proven to be false. After its last voyage in February 1950 from Southampton to Faslane , the vessel was sold to British Iron and Steel Corporation for scrap for £125,000 at Faslane in Scotland . Dismantling took more than a year to complete and

19966-404: Was mainly due to Cundard's cost-saving deletion of the originally planned 4th boiler while the ship was still on the drawing board. The shipping company decided that the options were to either do nothing for the remainder of the ship's life, re-configure the existing engines, or completely re-engine the vessel with a modern, more efficient and more reliable diesel-electric powerplant. Ultimately it

20115-565: Was on Deck 1 next to their dedicated mess room. Over time the Deck & Engine Ratings Room became The Petty Officers Club and then the Fo'c'sle Club when the British Deck and Engine crew were changed to Filipino crew. The Hotel Senior Rates room became a crew gym. The Junior Rates Rooms on Deck 3 were the main crew bars and were called The Pig & Whistle . ("The 2 deck Pig" and three deck pig, for short and

20264-503: Was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic liner and a cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. She was then laid up until converted and since 18 April 2018 has been operating as a floating hotel in Dubai . Queen Elizabeth 2 was designed for the transatlantic service from her home port of Southampton , UK, to New York , United States. She served as the flagship of the line from 1969 until succeeded by Queen Mary 2 in 2004. Queen Elizabeth 2

20413-436: Was presented to Queen Elizabeth 2 by First Sea Lord Sir John Fieldhouse to commemorate the ship's service as a Hired Military Transport (HMT) in the Falklands War . There was also an extensive collection of large-scale models of Cunard ships located throughout Queen Elizabeth 2 . Over the years the ship's collection was added to. Among those items was a set of antique Japanese armour presented to Queen Elizabeth 2 by

20562-549: Was providing tourist class with a grand two-story main ballroom, called the Double Room (later the Grand Lounge), created by opening a well in the deck between what were to have been the second and third class lounges in the ship's original three class design. This too was unconventional in that it designated a grander space for tourist class passengers than first class, who gathered in the standard height Queen's Room. The First-class

20711-462: Was renamed after the English queen Berengaria of Navarre , wife of Richard the Lionheart , in February 1921. The name deviated from the usual Cunard practice of naming ships after Roman provinces , but still retained the "-ia" suffix that was typically seen with other Cunard ships at the time. In September 1925, a security alert at sea was triggered when the Cunard company offices in New York received

20860-461: Was returned to Sydney on 31 January. With the United States in the war, Aquitania (then with a troop capacity of 4,500) had been scheduled for transport duties from the United States to Australia in February, but necessary repairs delayed that. Because her deep draft was hazardous in Australian and intermediate ports in the Pacific Islands, she spent March and April 1942 transporting troops from

21009-554: Was sent on patrol. On 22 August, she collided with a liner named Canadian . Shortly after, the Admiralty found that large liners were too expensive to operate as cruisers. On 30 September, she was repaired, disarmed, and returned to Cunard Line. After being idle for a time, in the spring of 1915 she was recalled by the Admiralty and converted into a troopship , and made voyages to the Dardanelles , sometimes running alongside Britannic or Mauretania . Around 30,000 men were transported on

21158-534: Was sold for scrapping the following year. Having served as a passenger ship for 36 years, Aquitania ended her career as the longest-serving Cunard vessel, a record which stood for six years until overtaken by RMS Scythia 's service record of 37 years. In 2004 Aquitania' s service record was pushed into third place when Queen Elizabeth 2 became the longest-serving Cunard vessel. She was nicknamed The Ship Beautiful for her interior and Cunard's Old Reliable for her war service. The origins of Aquitania lay in

21307-616: Was taken over by the Allied Food Shipping and Finance Agreement, and allocated to the United States for temporary use as a transport alongside Vaterland , which was now renamed SS Leviathan and bringing American service personnel home from France. She was commissioned as the USS Imperator (ID-4080) in early May 1919. After embarking 2,100 American troops and 1,100 passengers, Imperator departed Brest, France on 15 May 1919, arriving at New York City one week later. Operating with

21456-482: Was the only large liner in the service of Cunard Line as the Mauretania was undergoing repair after a fire. The year 1921 was thus an exceptional year for her; she crossed the Atlantic 30 times (15 round trips) and broke a record by transporting a total of 60,587 passengers that year (including 26,331 in third class), averaging more than 2,000 passengers per crossing. In the following year, the Mauretania rejoined her in Cunard service. Aquitania operated in service with

21605-458: Was the third busiest in the early 1930s behind those two German liners. To keep the ship up to date, she underwent a refit, which added a cinema, between 1932 and 1933. At the same time, in order to modernise its fleet, the company ordered the Queen Mary . The Great Depression , however, prevented the company from being able to fully finance the construction, and the company merged with its rival,

21754-420: Was then transferred to Cunard's Pier 54 for Cunard service. The ship arrived at Southampton on Sunday 10 December 1919 and then proceeded to Liverpool for what was planned to be a quick overhaul (he was scheduled to leave on his first voyage for the new owners on 10 January 1920). Upon inspection, the ship was found to be in poor condition. During dry-docking on 6 January, it was found that the ship's rudder had

21903-492: Was thus reduced to around 850 people from the original 1,200. The third class was no longer the key to the profitability of the liner, and so the company had to adapt. The third-class gradually became a tourist class, which offered decent service at a low price. In 1926, the ship underwent a major overhaul, which reduced the passenger capacity from around 3,300 to around 2,200. Still, the Cunard Line benefited from prohibition in

22052-588: Was under construction at the time at the John Brown shipyards in Glasgow , would be longer by 1 foot (300 mm), causing dismay in Hamburg. Several weeks later, she was fitted with a figurehead, an imposing bronze eagle, increasing her length past that of Aquitania . The eagle was created by Professor Bruno Kruse of Berlin , and adorned her forepeak with a banner emblazoned with HAPAG's motto Mein Feld ist die Welt ( My field

22201-468: Was widened during the 1986/87 overhaul. QE2 ' s final structural changes included the reworking of the aft decks during the 1994 refit, following the removal of the magrodome , and the addition of an undercover area on Sun Deck during the 2005 refit outfitted as the Funnel Bar. Queen Elizabeth 2 ' s interior configuration was originally designed for segregated two-class Atlantic crossings. It

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