Don't let QE2 suffer the same fate as Queen Mary

FOR decades she was the elegant epitome of the British shipbuilders' craft.

Her huge bow cut through the Atlantic waves, gales swept her decks and storms did their worst but Cunard's great liner Queen Mary steadfastly carried out a total of 1,001 crossings between Southampton and New York.

Constantly hunted down by German U-boats she outran the enemy throughout the Second World War to survive unscathed and ferry thousands upon thousands of allied troops as her crucial contribution to the final victory.

Ironically, with all this glorious history in her wake, the great ocean-going liner that was always affectionately known in Southampton as simply the Mary, is today facing her darkest hour with bankruptcy possibly threatening her very existence.

Ominously it is also a situation that could one day befall the most famous ship in the world, Southampton's legendary Queen Elizabeth 2.

This year QE2 celebrates the 36th anniversary of her maiden voyage. At present there is no suggestion she is close to being withdrawn from service but there are already moves locally to try and keep her as a tourist attraction in Southampton whenever that day does finally come.

Confidence is high among those backing the QE2 scheme that, despite the financial crisis facing Queen Mary, the plan to turn the Cunarder into a magnet for visitors to Southampton would be a success.

Maritime historian Terry Yarwood, who has voyaged on the liner more than 20 times and is one of the small group heading up the QE2 proposal, said: "Southampton just cannot afford to miss out in ensuring that whenever QE2 comes to the end of her time with Cunard the city must be in a position to acquire such an icon.

"Someone has to get the ball rolling, and rolling now and in good time so we are ready, whenever the day comes that QE2 is put up for sale, we can immediately step forward and keep her here in Southampton where she belongs.''

However, there are others within shipping that do not view this scheme so optimistically and point to the sun and palm trees of California where Mary has been a tourist attraction, hotel and conference centre for nearly four decades but is today facing a bleak future.

Sadly the great liner that survived the full fury of the world's oceans is now wallowing in the deep and troubled waters of financial distress which could yet result in her taking a one-way trip to the scrapyard.

It is a fate that many other old vessels have foundered on and highlights a long-running and often heated debate within the shipping industry, maritime heritage organisations and individuals who have an interest in old vessels.

The question is simply this: should great passenger ships, when they come to the end of their working life, be saved and turned into a museum piece or consigned to the breaker's yard to be fondly remembered as they were in their heydays?

Queen Mary and her present cash crisis embody all the arguments for and against saving liners and cruise ships for future generations.

The old Cunarder is not alone in having to face the harsh economic realities that have dogged other ships such as Windsor Castle, which sailed between Southampton and South Africa, Oriana, the former P&O vessel launched in 1959 and, even, perhaps sometime in the future, QE2.

At present, times could not be better for QE2, which is enjoying exceptionally buoyant booking levels with her 2005 programme of voyages a runaway success and the number of passengers on the ship's recent world cruise at a record high.

However, in five years' time a new and demanding set of regulations governing passenger ships comes into force which will call for some tough decisions from the bosses at the Miami-based Carnival Corporation, the parent company of Cunard, when it comes to QE2.

The options will be either to spend a large amount of money on a ship which, by then, will be more than 40 years old and keep her sailing under the Cunard flag, sell her to another operator anxious to own such a famous vessel, obtain the best price possible from a scrapyard or perhaps let QE2 be acquired by a consortium, such as the Southampton group, that would run her as a museum.

If an organisation such as this ever did gain control of QE2 sometime in the future then it seems clear that it would have to accept that it would never make money by running it as solely a museum but the ship would have to be sold to the public as a wider attraction.

The Southampton group, still only at the early stages of being formed in the city, wants to eventually safeguard QE2 in her home port as a tourist attraction, hotel and conference centre.

Does that idea sound familiar?

For some months now the American organisation that operates Queen Mary in exactly that way in Long Beach has been locked into protracted negotiations over 3.4 million dollars of disputed rent for the vessel, which is owned by the city of Long Beach. The present company, now embroiled in the rent squabble, has run Queen Mary for the past 12 years but before that, since 1967, the year the ship left Southampton for the last time, a whole series of operators have come and gone.

Each one tried a different approach to put Queen Mary on a financially sound footing but none really succeeded.

Plans came and went that included high-rise apartments and an amusement theme park, however nothing materialised.

Last August Internet rumours reached Southampton that Queen Mary could even be up for sale and there were suggestions a Las Vegas corporation might take over the vessel and her berth in Long Beach but then it backed down.

Talks over the rent continued until last month when the company operating Queen Mary filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, casting uncertainty over the future of the historic attraction as the whole situation heads for a court hearing.

It is against this background that the other old Southampton favourite, Windsor Castle, has now gone for scrap despite an attempt by a group of enthusiasts to buy the former Union Castle liner.

The old Oriana, once such a proud sight in Southampton back in the 1950s, is also under threat in China after being badly damaged by a savage typhoon.

However, Mr Yarwood is convinced the QE2 plan would be a success.

"The presence of QE2 in the city would be an enormous boost for the city as a tourist centre, bringing many new jobs and generating large amounts for the local economy,'' said Mr Yarwood.

"I know there have been previous ideas to bring other ships to Southampton but QE2 is different.

"This is a serious commercial proposition which at the same time preserves her for the future, and that can only be good for Southampton and the nation as a whole.''

If sometime in the years ahead firm plans were put forward to conserve QE2 for the city and country it would be a brave organisation indeed who took on what would be a daunting task of finding a permanent berth, transforming the ship into a full-time museum together with other attractions, funding salaries and constantly attracting enough visitors to make the whole scheme work.

Of course, just because such a strategy cannot be made to work successfully in America, it does not follow a similar project would not work in Great Britain with its long heritage steeped in the sea.

However, perhaps wonderful ships like these are only ever meant to go to sea, fulfilling the role for which they were built and not, when their working lives come to an end, be destined to live out an unhappy retirement forever moored to the shore and going nowhere.