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Queen Elizabeth 2
Quick facts...
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| Owners: |
Cunard Line |
| Builders: |
John Brown & Co Ltd.
Clydebank |
| Launched: |
20 Sept 1967 |
| Tonnage: |
70,327 tons gross |
| Dimensions: |
963 x 105 feet
(293.5 x 32.1 metres) |
| Machinery: |
Diesel-electric,
twin screw
28 knots service,
34.6 knots maximum |
| Complement: |
Up to 1900 passengers
up to 1015 Crew |
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As part of their 150th Anniversary celebrations in 1990, Cunard scheduled
their flagship, Queen Elizabeth 2, to visit Greenock on the River Clyde.
This was a pilgrimage to the waters which bore QE2 and so many of her famous
Cunard predecessors to the world. In appreciation of this moving tribute, an
estimated 200,000 admirers lined strategic points along the Lower Clyde to
gaze in awe at this majestic reminder of the River's one-time shipbuilding
supremacy. Many suspected that, as this was QE2's first visit to her roots
since the late 1960s, it may have also proved to be her last. Not
surprisingly, emotions ran high, not least for those who had been involved
in her construction at the famous John Brown Shipyard in Clydebank.
At the end of her brief stay, the mighty liner eased from her Greenock berth
with three soulful farewell blasts on her deep siren. Shortly after, QE2 was
joined by the world's last sea-going paddle steamer,
Waverley. Accompanied
by a swarm of little craft, the distinguished pair presented an unforgetable
sight as they passed the famous Cloch lighthouse and headed out into the
sunny haze of the beautiful Firth of Clyde.
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