A Review and notes of
Stephen Payne's
excellent "Queen Elizabeth 2 : A Complete History" lecture to the joint
RINA and
IESIS meeting at the Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow on Tuesday the 9th of
December 2008.
My late father had been a member of
IESIS (the Institute
of Engineers and Shipbuilders In Scotland) for many, many years and my
Mum and I felt we should attend this talk both because we were
interested in the QE2, but also because we knew Dad would have been
there if he was still with us. I attended even though I had a
really bad cold - something of a
recurring theme for me on QE2 related activities in December!
I had been wanting to ask questions and chat to people, but in the end I
said nothing, much to my Mum's relief... I'm sure there were people
there who would have known my Dad. There were very many
grey-haired professional looking men in their 60s, 70s and 80s,
reflecting the huge skill base that we had when the QE2 was being built.
Lots of them reminded me of Dad - lots of Barbour jackets!
Stephen Payne was the chief naval architect of the QM2, the greatest
liner in the world now that QE2 has retired, and has a
great love for the QE2. Many of QM2's design features drew
inspiration from the QE2 that she 'was the direct replacement for'.
He is now the chief achitect for Carnival cruise line, the biggest
cruise line in the world.
Stephen's talk was interesting, with lots of period photos. He
didn't really have time to go into much detail though, and I confess
that I learned nothing new during the talk... he also didn't really
express much passion, but I thought it came across more afterwards in
the question and answer session.
After the talk there was a lengthy question and answer session which
was fascinating. Many of the packed audience had been closely
involved in the creation of the QE2 and had many interesting pearls of
wisdom to share. This then drew more information from Stephen.
Although he had hardly mentioned QM2 during his talk, he was asked
about it and we all learned just what a good ship she is. Having
also learned that really it was indeed QE2's time to leave service it
was a nice mood to leave on. I think it would be sadder indeed if
QE2 had left service without the magnificent QM2 to take her place.
It was quite poignant to be at this meeting as QE2 sat in Dubai, empty,
lights still ablaze, the echo of the farewell parties on board just 2
weeks before still to be heard... awaiting her fate.
If Stephen ever reads this, thanks for taking the time to come to
Glasgow - we all appreciated it very much! Sorry I didn't get to
speak to you, but if I had done, you'd have caught my cold!
- QE2 was originally intended to have 4 boilers but
cost-cutting meant that she actually only had 3. This
meant that there was no 'offline' time for any boiler because they
were all needed to make her 28.5 knot service speed to allow her to
keep to schedule on the Atlantic run. This became more of a
problem when she was driven harder for more profit by Trafalgar
house - less time in port meant more profit, but no time to maintain
a faulty boiler. The redundancy was put back in 1987 with the
diesel-electric transplant.
Only 7 out of 9 engines was needed to keep to schedule.
- The most amazing comment, from my point of view, was
Stephen's vision of the powerplant of the future liner. A
nuclear power plant, the size of a small car, powering steam
turbines - back to the future! He'd seen one similar on
a nuclear submarine at Barrow-in-Furness and it had given him the
idea.
- QE2's hull was immensely heavy & strong. In places
it was 95% stronger than it needed to be. One of the reasons
for this was to make her more stable than the Queens she replaced.
- Despite that incredibly strong hull, on very heavy seas, if you
know where to look, you could see her hull and deck plates
flexing - just as they were designed to. On the Quarter
Deck promenades, you could see a giant ripple come down the carpet
as the ship rode the waves.
- According to Stephen, the reason her
Grim Wheels fell off so
quickly, was because the then Trafalgar House chairman was so
pleased with the newly re-engined ships performance forward (33
knots) that he asked for her to be taken at full speed astern.
She achieved a spectacular 22 knots, but the Grim Wheels were simply
not designed for this, and failed.
- "Her time had come". Even without the SOLAS2010
requirements, her plumbing and air-conditioning were old &
troublesome, and her fragile and brittle aluminium superstructure
was a permanent expensive headache. Carnival/Cunard were
worried about an embarrassing PR disaster if there was a major
problem on a cruise.
- Compared to the new QM2, she rolled and pitched a lot
more. Stephen put this mostly down to the simple fact that QM2
is twice as big, but also the huge amount of stability they built
into her. QE2 with all 4 stabilisers deployed, still rolled
far more than QM2 does with just one stabiliser deployed.
- Someone in the audience asked 'if she ever made any money'.
This is a typically British thing. Believe all the bad PR, and
never recognise our achievements. QE2 made a VAST amount of
money, virtually from day 1. She was a near-perfect money
making machine! The fact that she survived for 40 years is
down to this one simple fact. The perception, in Britain, was
that she always made a loss. Stephen made the reality crystal
clear, in his subtle, understated polite way.
- He said he'd met Dubai people in Southampton and they said
they'd thrown the more wild ideas out, were re-considering
everything, and might even consider taking the ship on day trips...
- The hull was pretty much in as good as new condition.
- The original lookout bar had a tendency to make people seasick
because it was so far forward and it exaggerated the movement of the
ocean.
- The Magradome over the Lido was a real nuisance because it used
to jump off its rails in the stormy Atlantic.
- The original Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary had gigantic fresh
water tanks in their double bottoms. By the time they were
reaching New York and most of the water was used up, the ships
became considerably more top heavy and would list 6 degrees or more
as passengers moved to view the Statue of Liberty and then Manhattan
itself. The engine room crew could tell where the ship
was by this movement! QE2, built to cruise as well as cross,
had no need for quite such gigantic tanks, as she was also able to
make her own fresh water.
- His favourite spot on board was the Chart Room Bar for a drink
before dinner. Mine too.
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