“Queen Mary 2” breaks maritime records

	Floating palace: described as the grandest and largest passenger liner ever built, the UK-designed “Queen Mary 2”, built for Cunard at a cost of 540 million pounds, has completed successful sea trials.

Described as the grandest and largest passenger liner ever built, the “Queen Mary 2” has completed successful sea trials, been officially named by Queen Elizabeth II and is on schedule for her official maiden voyage due to start from her home port of Southampton, England, on 12 January.

The luxury ship costing 540 million pounds and weighing 150,000 tonnes is 345 metres long – equivalent to the length of four football fields – and 45 metres longer than the Eiffel tower is high. She equates to the height of a 23-storey building, having 17 decks towering 60 metres above the waterline.

According to Captain Ronald Warwick, master-designate of the “Queen Mary 2”, the sea trials were “a tremendous success”. And the ship’s naval architect, also present at the trials, considered them to have “exceeded expectations in all respects”.

Reflecting Cunard’s ambitious programme to cater for the expanding cruise market, the “Queen Mary 2” will take over the role of her famous sister ship, “Queen Elisabeth 2”, as the company’s flagship transatlantic carrier. In addition to offering regularly scheduled transatlantic crossings between Southampton and New York, she will also cruise to the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Caribbean and Canada.

	The design of public spaces and cabins is, to say the least, exclusive.

Olympic hotel
Between 12 and 30 August 2004 the “Queen Mary 2” is destined to take centre stage when she acts as a floating hotel in Athens as the flagship of the 2004 Olympic Games.

Despite her size – she has enough room to accommodate some 3,000 passengers in an area over half the size of London’s Trafalgar Square – the “Queen Mary 2” has “athletic” speed and dexterity, able to power ahead at 30 knots which is twice the speed of a Caribbean cruise ship or nearly three times the speed of a blue whale. Yet she is also able to make subtle manoeuvres at the flick of a single control stick on the bridge, without any need for tugboats.

Evoking the grand transatlantic era of ocean travel, she has domed salons, sweeping staircases, majestic promenades, five swimming pools, a two-storey theatre and the largest ballroom at sea. Her design is the culmination of work carried out over two years by teams of architects, engineers and maritime experts in the United Kingdom. Their achievement has earned the praise of one of the company’s best-known former employees, one-time steward Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott who has welcomed the policy adopted of incorporating the best of traditional features in the 21st-century record-breaking vessel.

Claimed to be among the most environmentally friendly ships in the world, the “Queen Mary 2” is designed with “improved combustion and smokeless exhaust” diesel engines boosted by gas turbines, ideal for use in especially environmentally sensitive areas. Sophisticated sewage treatment plant and recycling systems are installed with the aim of achieving zero discharge, an important factor in the international efforts being made to deal with ocean and river pollution.

The ship’s refrigeration plants for air-conditioning and stores are designed to achieve zero ozone depletion and almost zero global warming potential. Wet food and dry waste incineration systems ensure that food waste and other materials are hygienically processed, most chemical compounds being broken down to produce exhaust with a minimum effect to the environment.

The ship’s anti-fouling coatings of self-polishing cupris oxide paint have no tin-based properties, in line with international requirements, and cause no harm to the marine environment.

Technological features include four huge folding fin stabilisers built by Brown Brothers, of Edinburgh, Scotland, and capable of reducing the ship’s roll by 90 per cent. Each stabiliser weighs 70 tonnes, has a surface area of 15 square metres and can be extended or retracted in 30 seconds.

50-metre bridge
The ship’s nerve centre is its 50-metre-wide bridge that houses the latest navigational aids supplied by Kelvin Hughes of London. Designed to take into account the latest thinking on safe bridge team management, the equipment features flat screens for radar, navigation displays, safety criteria and manoeuvring systems, water consumption, ballast transfer and weather information. All the screens can be interswitched at the operator’s discretion and include picture-in-picture facilities for showing added features such as closed circuit camera pictures.

//Alan Symes
London Press Service