The Start of an Era?

This is probably of little interest to many of you (‘Many of you?’ I hear you snigger – well either of you, then), but as it concerns another passion of mine and I enjoy writing, then write about it I shall!

In the annals of merchant shipping, yesterday (8th January 2004) was an historic day, and one which 10 or 20 years ago the world never have considered seeing again. It marked the official naming and ‘launch’ of possibly the greatest passenger ship in maritime history, Cunard’s Queen Mary 2. This magnificent ship is special for a number of reasons. It’s already been well documented that she’s the largest, longest, tallest and most expensive passenger ship ever built, but there’s also a more significant reason for the QM2 to be such a special vessel. Not only is she a cruise ship, and aside from her size there’s nothing of particular significance about that, but she’s also an ocean liner in the traditional sense, and it’s this fact that makes her such a remarkable ship in the 21st century.

As I’ve already mentioned, cruise ships are still a common sight around the world these days, and the cruising industry has experienced a significant growth over the last decade, with many new and ever larger ships being built. But the ocean liner is for all intents and purposes a dead breed and has been for decades. Or so we thought.

The actual design and structure of a cruise ship compared to that of an ocean liner is not all that different; it’s the function that the ship fulfils and where it goes which is the main difference between the two. Whilst a cruise ship will sail leisurely around coastal waters for the majority of the time, making frequent stops in different ports to allow passengers to embark and disembark, either as final destinations or for daily excursions, an ocean liner was the very means of getting from one place to another rather than being a holiday in itself. It’s around 50 years since commercial airliners began to literally overtake ocean liners as the preferred way to travel long distances around the world across seas and oceans. As passenger air travel became faster and cheaper and airliners increased in size during the 1950’s, the need to travel across vast stretches of water by ship became ever more obsolete as ocean liners were both slow and expensive by comparison. This inevitable decline in demand for travelling by sea had a profound and irreversible effect on all shipping lines around at the time, many of them going out of business and those that remained having to convert their fleet to cruising only.

The busiest and most profitable route for ocean liners has always been the North Atlantic run between Europe and North America. In their heyday between the turn of the 20th century and the Second World War, hundreds of ships owned by a great number of shipping lines plied this popular route. As air travel increased, so the numbers of ships dwindled, and even Cunard, the most successful passenger shipping line in the world, was not immune to the threat from commercial air travel. Their two most famous ships, the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary, had slowly been losing money during the 1950’s after their initial success in re-entering service on the North Atlantic run after the Second World War. After prolonging their life as long as possible by combining their Atlantic duties with the more profitable cruising opportunities, they finally retired from service in 1967.

The last true ocean liner to be built was Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2 launched in 1969, but even this great ship wasn’t just an ocean liner. Cunard realised that they were never going to survive by building new ships specifically as liners for the North Atlantic run, so from the lessons learned from the final years of the original two Queens, the QE2 was always designed to be able to be both an ocean liner and a cruise ship. It was a huge gamble for Cunard but it paid off; the QE2 has been one of the most successful passenger ships of all time and is still in profitable service 35 years later. But as majestic and well loved as she is, the QE2 has been lagging behind in the size and facilities stakes for many years, so Cunard (now owned by Carnival Cruise Lines) decided to take that gamble again and build another flagship along the same lines, that of cruise ship in warmer climates through the winter months and ocean liner between Southampton and North America during the summer.

The result is the QM2, and if anything is an even bigger gamble than it was in 1969. In the 21st century, the only reason for wanting to travel to New York aboard an ocean liner is that of romance and nostalgia; what previously was the means to an end has now become the end in itself. Travelling by ocean liner on the North Atlantic run is still slow and almost prohibitively expensive for most of us compared to flying, but amazingly there’s still a market for it, or at least that’s what Cunard are banking on.

Whether she’s a success or not, she’s a beauty (see here for yourself). Unlike most contemporary cruise ships, the QM2 wasn’t designed like a great white block of flats with a pointy end; she’s a true ocean liner with a black painted hull and gleaming white superstructure set far back from her bow. She manages to combine the classic ocean liner look with all the space and facilities that the modern cruise ship demands.

Probably my only true ambition in life was to sail from Southampton to New York on the QE2 and return by Concorde. ‘Doh!’ I hear you cry, and you’re right. That’s the last time I make any ambitions. The QE2 has now retired from her life as an ocean liner to be cruising only from now on, and dear old Concord made its final flight in October 2003. I came close to achieving half that ambition in 2001 when we were due to book a crossing to New York on the QE2 for my 30th birthday the following year, but unfortunately the events of September 11th 2001 put pay to that. However, I’d still like to make the voyage on the QM2, but I’d better start saving the pennies now as the most basic inside cabin start from around £1000!

Cunard’s slogan used to be “Getting there is half the fun!”. Let’s hope it still is.

9th January 2004