Cunard has repeatedly said Southampton's Queen Mary 2 will be built on an unprecedented scale but nothing quite prepares you for standing in a dry dock dwarfed by the biggest passenger liner the world has ever seen.

So vast, it is just not possible to take it all in at once. Huge cranes and trucks are reduced to matchbox size next to the soaring hull and superstructure, while along the quay an army of workmen prepare for the next stage in the relentless building programme.

Nearby, finishing touches are being put to the stern section already proudly carrying the names Queen Mary 2 and Southampton, her city of registry.

By this time next year, QM2 will be with us in Southampton preparing for the glittering, dockside naming ceremony and for her maiden voyage which will take her across to America.

Dubbed one of the most prestigious and complex engineering projects of the 21st century, QM2 is already of breathtaking dimensions and that is with only half of her steelwork complete.

When finished, the 150,000 ton QM2 will tower over all that has gone before her as she claims the crown of being the longest, largest, widest, tallest and most expensive liner ever.

She will be of immense proportions, more than twice the size of the present Queen Elizabeth 2, the like of which Southampton, in its long history as Great Britain's gateway to the world, has never seen before.

Since the keel laying ceremony in July, QM2 has rapidly taken shape as the huge building blocks being used in her construction have been lowered into place at the French shipyard of Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint-Nazaire, the birth place of such sea-going legends as Normandie and SS France.

On board craftsmen work among the bare metal bones of the ship, welders light up the gloom with cascades of sparks, and the noise of construction is almost deafening at times.

Through darkened corridors, thick with snaking cables disappearing into the bowels of the ship, it takes a giant leap of imagination to envisage how the liner's present skeleton will finally look once fleshed out with sumptuous public rooms, elegant decks, luxurious staterooms and spectacular restaurants.

Bit by huge bit - the funnel alone weighs 100 tons - QM2 is emerging on time and ready to be moved out of the present construction dock to the fitting-out berth in March.