New Cunard Queen makes a splash

Saturday, 06 Jan, 2010 0

Cunard’s newest ship Queen Elizabeth has been floated out of its construction dock in Italy.

The ceremony involved the welding of significant coins beneath the mast of the ship for good luck.

The ship was blessed and the valves of the dry dock opened to allow the ship to meet the water for the first time.

The ceremonies took place at the Fincantieri’s Monfalcone shipyard near Trieste.

The 2,092-passenger ship is due to depart on its sold out maiden voyage on October 12 from Southampton.

The maiden season will run until January 2011 and include voyages to the Western and Central Mediterranean and the Caribbean.

The world’s newest ocean liner will depart Southampton on January 5, 2011 on her 103-night maiden world voyage.

There will be 35 maiden calls, including Cunard’s first call at Port Denarau in Fiji.

The ship will sail in tandem to New York with Queen Victoria before all three Cunard Queens meet in New York on January 13, 2011.

Queen Elizabeth will also meet with Queen Mary 2 in Sydney February 22 and Civitavecchia on April 13 and Queen Victoria again in Aruba on January 19.

Cunard president and managing director Peter Shanks was joined by 79-year old Florence (Dennie) Farmer as guest of honour at the event.

Her husband, Willie Farmer, joined Cunard in September 1938 and served as chief engineer on both the previous Queen Elizabeth and QE2 until retirement in 1979.

Shanks said:“It is only a little over six months since the keel for this great ship was laid.

“In that short time a solitary block at the bottom of the dry-dock has, as a result of the skill and discipline of the workforce here at Fincantieri, grown into this awe-inspiring vessel.

“Even in her present unfinished state, devoid of the carpets and curtains, furnishings and facilities, paintings and porcelain that we associate with a Cunard luxury liner, she is awesome.

“Of our 170 years of history there has been an ‘Elizabeth’ in the fleet for over 70 and this ship – the second largest Cunarder ever built – will take the name far into the 21^st Century”.

by Phil Davies

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Phil Davies

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