Shipping forecast

Far away from the city, two huge undertakings that will have a major impact on Southampton are now gathering pace and it won't be long until they are both an amazing reality.

Nothing in its long history will prepare Southampton for the sight that lies in wait this coming December when the largest passenger liner ever seen, the 150,000 ton Queen Mary 2, arrives in her home port for the first time.

This will be a truly global event with television stations and news organisations already making plans to beam the arrival of QM2 in Southampton to all corners of the world.

Then, in little more than a year later, another massive new vessel, Queen Victoria, will make her dramatic entrance into the docks adding a further significant boost to Southampton's reputation as an important UK centre for international shipping.

Queen Victoria, her striking appearance echoing the present Queen Elizabeth 2, will set new standards for the multi-million pound British cruising industry and generate even more jobs and income for the local economy.

Cruising is now a vital component in the region's prosperity with the ships and their passengers consuming a wide ranging list of services and supplies from companies around Southampton.

One industry estimate suggests that each Southampton-based cruise ship pours more than £35m annually into city cash registers and company coffers.

This year Southampton's dominance of the British cruise market is underlined by the fact that about 400,000 passengers will board across Southampton's quaysides and nearly 220 separate cruise ship calls have been booked with the docks.

Southampton's two new vessels represent a massive investment of more than $1 billion by the Miami based Carnival Corporation that now owns Cunard, the company that will operate the ships.

Unlike so many of Cunard's previous liners these will not be built in the UK but on the continent with QM2 under construction in France and Queen Victoria in Italy.

It is a sad, but glaringly real, fact of life that the yards, expertise and the skilled workforce needed to transform these highly complex and sophisticated enterprises from a designer's blueprints into a sea-going vessel just no longer exist in this country.

Since the 1960s when QE2, the last true transatlantic liner to be built in the UK, was constructed by Upper Clyde Shipbuilders, the market has been centred around a handful of yards in France, Germany, Finland, Japan and Italy.

It was the famous French shipyard of Chantiers de l'Atlantique at Saint Nazaire that eventually won the contract to build QM2, the largest, longest, tallest, widest and most expensive passenger ship of all time.

QM2 is now well advanced with the ship being fitted out with all the luxury facilities and accommodation now demanded by passengers who will pay thousands of pounds for the chance to travel in some of the most sumptuous surroundings of any vessel afloat today.

For example it will cost you a bumper £26,839 each for a couple to book one of QM2's two grandest of suites, which of course naturally come with their own butler, for the 15-day maiden voyage from Southampton to Fort Lauderdale next January.

If that is just a little too pricey then at the other end of the scale £2,449 will buy a berth in one of the ship's standard inside cabins.

But there is no need to reach for your cheque book straight away as the voyage has long been long sold out with Cunard swamped with potential passengers all waving credit cards and cash within days of it first being announced last year.

Later on in 2004, when QM2 takes over the role previously undertaken by QE2 on Cunard's traditional route between Southampton and New York, the most lavish of staterooms, featuring their own living room, dining room, two marble bathrooms with separate whirlpool and private balcony could be yours for £19,369 each for the six-night passage. The more modest inside accommodation has a price tag of up to £1,319 per person.

Cunard does not hold back when it comes to describing QM2. A company spokesman said: "Without question, the ship will be the most magnificent resort on the planet.

"She will spend her inaugural year in European and American waters, visiting New England, Canada, the Caribbean and Rio at carnival.''

By any stretch of the imagination, QM2 is going to be stunning. Even today in the shipyard her sheer scale dominates all that is around her - after all, from the top of the funnel to the base of the keel is the equivalent of 23-storey high-rise building.

Cunard's boast is that QM2 will be the "greatest ocean liner of all time'' - a superlative that the shipping line is happy to back up with some impressive facts and figures.

At 236ft, QM2 is taller that the Statue of Liberty, the Tower of London and the Colosseum in Rome.

At 1,132ft-long the liner stretches to three and a half football pitches, 41 double decker buses laid end to end or four New York city blocks.

QM2 will generate enough electricity to power the whole of the city of Southampton while 1,550 miles of cabling is being used in her construction.

The ship's four propulsion pods, each weighing 250 tons, have now been positioned beneath the vessel sweeping away the traditional long shaft, propellers and rudder.

Gradually all the strands of this formidable scheme are being pulled together and, if every deadline is met, QM2 should be alongside 38/9 berth in Southampton's Eastern Docks just before Christmas with her spectacular naming ceremony set for January 10 - two days before her maiden voyage. Compared to QM2, work on the 85,000 ton Queen Victoria, or Queen Vic as many in Southampton docks have already dubbed her, is at an early stage at the Fincantieri shipyard in Italy.

Initial pieces of steel have been cut, the first block to be used in the construction process for the ship, which will be dedicated to the British cruise market and carry up to 1,968 passengers, has been put into place and the vessel's keel laying ceremony took place last week.

After Queen Victoria enters service in April, 2005, it will mean that for the first time in its long heritage the Cunard fleet will include three

Queens for the first time.

She will operate voyages in and out of Southampton to the Mediterranean, Canaries, northern Europe as well as cruises to the Caribbean.

Her many on-board facilities have already been revealed by Cunard and they include a covered wrap-around promenade deck, a forward-facing observation lounge, as well as a large pool with a retractable roof.

Innovative exterior lifts, with glass walls, will uniquely tower ten decks high on both sides of the vessel giving passengers sweeping views across the waves and the side of the ship.

Everything about the ship will be designed for British tastes, the menus, entertainment and lecture programme will be aimed at the UK market and the on board currency will be sterling.