The
RMS Queen Mary 2 is an
ocean liner named after the
Cunard Line's original
Queen Mary, completed in 1936, which was in turn named after
Mary of Teck, wife of King
George V. It does not commemorate the reign of
Queen Mary II. At the time of her construction in 2003 by the
Chantiers de l'Atlantique, the
Queen Mary 2 was the longest, widest and tallest
passenger ship ever built, and with her , was also the largest. She no longer holds this distinction after the construction of
Royal Caribbean International's
Freedom of the Seas in April 2006, and the same company's
Oasis of the Seas in October 2009. However,
Queen Mary 2 remains the largest ocean liner (as opposed to
cruise ship) ever built.
[ /] The
Queen Mary 2 was the first major ocean liner built since the in 1969.
facilities include 15 restaurants and bars, five swimming pools, a casino, a
ballroom, a theatre, and a
planetarium.
In addition, there are kennels onboard, as well as a nursery. The
Queen Mary 2 is one of the few ships afloat to have remnants of a
class system onboard, most prominently seen in her dining options.
Characteristics
The
Queen Mary 2 is the current
flagship of the Cunard Line. The ship was constructed to complement the
RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, the Cunard flagship from 1969 to 2004—replacing it on the transatlantic route.
Queen Mary 2 had the
Royal Mail Ship (RMS) title conferred on her, as a gesture to Cunard's history, by
Royal Mail when she entered service in 2004 on the Southampton to New York route.
The
Queen Mary 2 is not a
steamship like many of her predecessors, but is powered primarily by four
diesel engines with two additional
gas turbines which are used when extra power is required; this
CODAG configuration is used to produce the power to drive her four electric propulsion pods as well as powering the ship's hotel services. Like her predecessors she is built for crossing the Atlantic ocean, though she is regularly used for cruising purposes; in the winter season she cruises from New York to the Caribbean on 10 or 13 day tours.
Queen Mary 2's open ocean speed sets the ship apart from cruise ships, such as
Oasis of the Seas, which has an average speed of ; the QM2's normal service speed is 26 knots.
Design and Construction
Queen Mary 2 under construction, her
radar mast in the right foreground
Cunard completed a design for a new class of , 2,000-passenger liners on 8 June 1998, but revised them upon comparing those specifications with
Carnival Cruise Lines'
Destiny-class cruise ships and
Royal Caribbean's
Voyager of the Seas.
In December 1998, Cunard released details of
Project Queen Mary, the project to develop a liner that would complement
Queen Elizabeth 2.
Harland and Wolff of
Northern Ireland,
Aker Kværner of
Norway,
Fincantieri of
Italy,
Meyer Werft of
Germany, and
Chantiers de l'Atlantique of
France were invited to bid on the project. The contract was finally signed with Chantiers de l'Atlantique, a subsidiary of
Alstom, on 6 November 2000. This was the same yard that built Cunard's former rivals, the
SS Normandie and
SS France of the
Compagnie Générale Transatlantique.
Her
keel was laid down in the
Louis Joubert Lock on 4 July 2002, in
Saint-Nazaire, France, with the hull number
G32. Approximately 3,000 craftsmen spent around 8 million working hours on the ship, and around 20,000 people were directly or indirectly involved in her design, construction, and fitting out. In total, 300,000 pieces of steel were assembled into 94 "blocks" off of the drydock, which were then stacked and welded together to complete the hull and superstructure.
The
Queen Mary 2 was
floated on 21 March 2003. Her sea trials were conducted between 25 September-29 September and 7 November-11 November 2003, between Saint-Nazaire and the off-shore islands of
Ile d'Yeu and Belle-Ile. The final stages of construction were marred by a fatal accident on 15 November 2003, when a gangway collapsed under a group of shipyard workers and their relatives who had been invited to visit the vessel. 48 people on the gangway fell over 15 m (50 ft); 32 were injured and 16 were killed.
Construction was completed on schedule. Due to the size of the ship, the high quality of materials, and that, having been designed as an ocean liner, she required 40% more steel than a standard cruise ship, the final cost ended up being approximately $300,000 US per berth - nearly double that of many large passenger ships.
Cunard took delivery in
Southampton, England on 26 December 2003. On 8 January 2004, the liner was named
Queen Mary 2 by her namesake's granddaughter,
Queen Elizabeth II.
Exterior
Diagram showing the
Queen Mary 2's size compared to the
RMS Titanic, a human, a car, a bus and an
Airbus A380 airliner.
The
Queen Mary 2s principal naval architect was Carnival's house designer, Stephen Payne, who had been interested in ocean liners since he was a child and has described himself as an ocean liner aficionado. The vessel was designed to resemble her running mate Queen Elizabeth 2
, but several aspects of her design are also inspired by other vessels. The forward bridge screen was designed to most resemble her predecessor Queen Mary
, and the forward whaleback is reminiscent of many CGT liners, particularly the Normandie
and the France
.
The Queen Mary 2
has 14,164 square metres (3.5 acres) of exterior deck space, with wind screens to shield passengers as the ship travels at high speeds. Four of the ship's five swimming pools are outdoors (although one of these is only one inch deep for the use of small children). One of the pools on Deck 12 is covered with a retractable magrodome. The indoor pool is on Deck 7, in the Canyon Ranch Spa Club.
In common with liners such as SS Rotterdam
there is a continuous wrap-around promenade deck on Deck 7. The promenade passes behind the bridge screen and allows passengers to completely circumnavigate the deck while protected from the strong winds generated by the ship at full speed. One circuit of the promenade is a distance of . The two slender after-stacks are a further direct reference to the Rotterdam
. The flanking promenades are created by the need to step the superstructure in, to allow for space for lifeboats. By SOLAS standards the lifeboats should have been lower on the ship's hull ( above the waterline), but for the sake of the Queen Mary 2s appearance as well as to avoid the danger of large North Atlantic waves damaging the boats in a storm, Payne convinced SOLAS officials to exempt the
Queen Mary 2 from this requirement, and the boats are above the waterline.
One aspect of the
Queen Mary 2 that has been criticised is the contour of her stern. Payne's intent was to make the ship's stern profile similar to that of the
Queen Elizabeth 2, with a spoon shape, but the mounting of the
propeller pods required a flat
transom. The compromise was a
Constanzi stern – a combination of a more traditional cruiser stern with a contemporary box-like transom stern. Payne had specifically said that he would not resort to adding any non-functional elements to the
Queen Mary 2s design purely to make her appear more "liner-like". It can indeed be argued that the stern satisfies a mixture of functional and aesthetic requirements: A Constanzi stern provides the transom required for azimuthal pod propulsors, yet provides better seaholding characteristics in a following swell than a standard transom stern. The stern design, too, has been seen by some as a homage to earlier (especially Italian-built) liners such as the SS Eugenio C.
and the SS Oceanic
.
The ship's external appearance contains three thick black lines that wrap around either edge of her bridge screen, and at the stern end of the superstructure. The purpose of these is to recall the appearance of the crossovers of the forward decks on the original Queen Mary
.
In common with many modern ships, both passenger and cargo, Queen Mary 2
has a bulbous bow to reduce drag and thereby increase speed, range, and fuel efficiency.
While of a similar design to that of the Queen Elizabeth 2
, the Queen Mary 2s funnel was designed with a slightly different shape. The difference was required because, due to the height of the vessel, a taller funnel would have made it impossible for the ship to pass under the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in
New York City at high tide. The final design now permits a minimum of of clearance under the bridge at high tide.)
As the
Queen Mary 2 is too large to dock in many ports, passengers are ferried to and from the ship in specially-built
tenders, which can be used as lifeboats in an emergency. While at sea, these are stored in davits alongside the lifeboats. To transport passengers to shore, the tenders pull up to one of four loading stations, which each have a large hull door that hydraulically opens outwards to form a boarding platform, complete with railings and decking.
is a
post-panamax ship. The decision not to constrain her size in order to transit the
Panama Canal was taken as the
Queen Elizabeth 2 only transited once a year, during the world cruise. Cunard decided to pass up the convenience of the occasional Canal passage in favour of a larger passenger capacity. As a result, however, the
Queen Mary 2 must circumnavigate South America in order to cross between the Atlantic and Pacific.
Interior
Like on many modern passenger ships, many of the major public rooms onboard
Queen Mary 2 are on the lowest public decks of the ship, with the passenger cabins stacked above.
This is the opposite of the traditional practice on ocean liners, but the design allowed for larger rooms to be contained within the stronger hull, as well as for more passenger cabins to have private balconies higher up on the ship, where they are less affected by large waves. Payne attempted to create a central axis to the two main public room decks (similar in fashion to the
Normandie), but a full vista is broken by various public rooms that span the full beam of the ship. The dining rooms were placed further aft, though not directly at the stern, where the fore-aft
pitching of the ship is most noticeable, and where vibration from the propellers at full speed might cause discomfort to dining passengers.
Deck 2, the lowest passenger deck, contains the Illuminations theatre, cinema and planetarium; Royal Court Theatre; Grand Lobby; "Empire Casino"; "Golden Lion Pub"; and the lower level of the "Britannia Restaurant". Deck 3 holds the upper levels of "Illuminations", the "Royal Court theatre" and the "Britannia Restaurant", as well as a small shopping arcade, "Veuve Cliquot champagne bar", the "Chart Room", "Sir Samuel's" wine bar, the "Queen's Room", and the "G32" Nightclub. The other main public deck is Deck 7, on which are the "Canyon Ranch Spa", "Winter Garden", "King's Court", the "Queen's Grill Lounge", and the "Queen's Grill" and "Princess Grill" restaurants for higher-fare passengers. The public rooms on Deck 8 include the
à la carte Todd English Restaurant, a library, a book shop and the upper part of the Canyon Ranch Spa. Also on Deck 8 is a large outdoor pool and terrace at the stern.
The King's Court area on the ship is open 24 hours a day, serving as a buffet restaurant for breakfast and lunch. The overall space is divided into quarters, with each section decorated according to the theme of the four separate alternate dining venues that are "created" each evening through lighting, tableware, and menus: Lotus, which specialises in
Asian cuisine; the Carvery, a British-style grille; La Piazza, with
Italian food; and the Chef's Galley, which offers an interactive experience to food preparation. From 23:00 onwards the one section remains open as a buffet until 05:00; a continental breakfast service then starts at 05:00, other sections open at various times so by 08:30 all section are open for breakfast.
The passengers' dining arrangements onboard are dictated by which 'class' of accommodation they choose to travel in. Most passengers (around 85%) are in
Britannia class (and therefore dine in the main restaurant). However, passengers can choose to upgrade to either a 'junior suite' (and dine in the "Princess Grill"'), or a suite (and dine in the "Queens' Grill"). Those in the two latter categories are grouped together by Cunard as "Grill Passengers", and they are permitted to use the "Queens' Grill Lounge" and a private outdoor area on deck 11 with its own whirlpool.
This feature is also present on both the
Queen Victoria and the
Queen Elizabeth. However, all other public areas can be used by all passengers.
As the Britannia Restaurant takes up the full width of the ship on two decks, a 'tween deck, called Deck 3L, was devised to allow passengers to walk from the Grand Lobby to the Queen's Room without traversing the dining room mid-meal. The deck consists of two corridors that run beneath the upper balcony of the restaurant on Deck 3, and above the main dining area on Deck 2. This is why the balcony of the Britannia has tiers that step up towards the hull. This arrangement is illustrated on the hull where there is a stack of three rows of windows in the area where the main restaurant sits - the two upper- and lower-most rows illuminate the dining room, while the centre row serves Deck 3L. There is a similar arrangement through the Royal Court Theatre. As well, the passages that run on either side of Illuminations on Deck 3 ramp upwards to compensate for the change in deck elevation between the entrance to Illuminations and an elevator bank forward of the room.
The kennels, located aft on starboard side of Deck 12, are available only for transatlantic crossings. They can accommodate up to twelve dogs and cats in six small and six large cages.
More than 5000 specially-commissioned works of art are visible in the Queen Mary 2s public rooms, corridors, staterooms and lobbies, having been created by 128 artists from 16 different countries. Two of the most notable pieces are Barbara Broekman's tapestry, an abstract depiction of an ocean liner, bridge, and New York skyline which spans the full height of the Britannia Restaurant, and John McKenna's sheet bronze relief mural in the Grand Lobby, inspired by the Art Deco mural in the main dining room of the original Queen Mary.Technical
Power plant and propulsion system
The Queen Mary 2s power plant comprises both four 16-cylinder Wärtsilä 16V46CR EnviroEngine marine diesel engines generating a combined at 514 rpm, as well as two General Electric LM2500+ gas turbines which together provide a further . Such a combined arrangement, known as CODAG (Combined Diesel And Gas turbine), provides for economical cruising at low speed combined with an ability to sustain much higher speeds when required, and has been common in naval vessels for some time.[ ] While Queen Mary 2 is the first passenger ship to feature CODAG propulsion, the first major passenger vessel to be powered by gas turbines was the Finnish ferry Finnjet in 1977.
Thrust is provided by four Rolls-Royce Mermaid podded propulsion units, each featuring one forward-facing low-vibration Kamewa propeller with separately bolted blades. (Queen Mary 2 carries 8 spare blades on the foredeck, immediately forward of the bridge screen.) The forward pair are fixed, but the aft pair can rotate through 360°, removing the need for a rudder.
Three of the eight spare propeller blades mounted on the foredeck.
In a further break with tradition, Queen Mary 2s gas turbines are not housed along with her diesels in the engine room deep in her hull, but instead reside in a thoroughly soundproofed enclosure directly underneath the funnel. This arrangement allowed the vessel's designers to supply the oxygen-hungry turbines with air intakes without having to run air ducts the entire height of the ship, which would have wasted valuable interior space. Water supply
Freshwater aboard the Queen Mary 2 is supplied primarily by three seawater desalination plants. The plants, each with a capacity of 630,000 litres per day, use multiple effect plate (MEP) distillation technology. The plants’ energy is supplied primarily by steam and cooling water from the ship’s gas turbines and diesel engines, or - if needed - by steam from the ship’s two oil-fired boilers. The traditional multiple-effect distillation technology has been improved for the ship’s plant, so that scaling of plates is reduced, vastly reducing the need to maintain the plant by eliminating the need to scrub the plates with acid. The desalinated water has a very low salt content of less than 5 parts per million. Average total water production is 1,100,000 litres per day with a capacity of 1,890,000 litres, so that there is ample spare capacity. The ship could easily be supplied by only two of the three plants.[ Cunard. RMS Queen Mary 2 Technical Specification. Flyer made available to passengers of the QM2.] If the ship runs at slow speed, the engines do not produce enough steam to run the desalination plants. In that case, or if water is cheaper to buy on shore in a particular port than to desalinate, water is taken aboard in a port. The seawater intakes are located in the hull of the ship. Concentrated salt solution (brine) is being discharged to the sea closer to the ship’s stern together with cooling water from the engines.Service history
On 12 January 2004 the Queen Mary 2 set sail on her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the United States, carrying 2,620 passengers under the command of captain Ronald Warwick, who had previously commanded the Queen Elizabeth 2. Warwick is the son of William (Bill) Warwick who had also been a senior Cunard officer and the first captain of the Queen Elizabeth 2. The ship arrived in Southampton late from her maiden voyage after bow doors which covered the thrusters failed to shut in Portugal.
During the XXVIII Olympics the Queen Mary 2 sailed to Athens and docked at Piraeus for two weeks for use as a hotel-ship, serving the then Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair and his wife Cherie, the French President Jacques Chirac, former US president George H. W. Bush, and the US Olympic men's basketball team.
One 2005 transatlantic crossing saw the Queen Mary 2 carrying, in a locked steamer trunk, the first US copy of J. K. Rowling's book Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, autographed by the author. In a promotional press release for the event, Cunard said (though without cited verification) that this marked the first time a book had been transported to its international launch aboard an ocean liner.
In January 2006 the Queen Mary 2 embarked on a circumnavigation of South America as the ship is too large to pass through the Panama Canal. Upon departure from Fort Lauderdale one of her propeller pods was damaged when it struck a channel wall, forcing the ship to sail at a reduced speed, which resulted in Commodore Warwick's decision to skip several calls on its voyage to Rio de Janeiro. Many of her passengers threatened to stage a sit-in protest because of the missed calls, before Cunard offered to refund the voyage costs. The Queen Mary 2 continued to operate at a reduced service speed, and several itinerary changes were necessary until repairs had been completed after the ship returned to Europe in June, where the Queen Mary 2 paid a visit to dry dock, and the damaged propeller pod was unseated. In November the Queen Mary 2 was dry-docked once more at the Blohm + Voss yard in Hamburg (drydock Elbe 17) for the reinstallation of the repaired propeller pod. At the same time, sprinkler systems were installed in all of the vessel's balconies to comply with new safety regulations which had come into effect since the MV Star Princess fire. Additionally, both bridge wings were extended by 2 metres to improve visibility.
After completing the journey around South America, on 23 February 2006, the Queen Mary 2 met her namesake, the original RMS Queen Mary, which is permanently docked at Long Beach, California. Escorted by a flotilla of smaller ships, the two Queens exchanged a "whistle salute" which was heard throughout the city of Long Beach.
On 10 January 2007 the Queen Mary 2 started her first world cruise, circumnavigating the globe in 81 days. On 20 February, she met her fleet-mate, the Queen Elizabeth 2, also on her 2007 world cruise, in Sydney harbour. This is the first time two Cunard Queens had been together in Sydney since the original Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth served as troop ships in 1941. Despite the early arrival time of 5:42 am, the Queen Mary 2's presence attracted so many viewers that the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Anzac Bridge were blocked. With 1,600 passengers leaving the ships in Sydney, Cunard estimated the stopovers injected more than $1 million into the local economy.
In July 2007 the National Geographic Channel broadcast the documentary Megastructures about the Queen Mary 2.
On 3 August 2007 three men were arrested while piloting and escorting a replica of a Turtle within of the Queen Mary 2 without authorization at New York City's cruise ship terminal.
The Queen Mary 2 met the Queen Victoria and the Queen Elizabeth 2 near the Statue of Liberty in New York City harbour on 13 January 2008, with a celebratory fireworks display; the Queen Elizabeth 2 and Queen Victoria made a tandem crossing of the Atlantic for the meet. This marked the first time three Cunard Queens have been present in the same location. Cunard purported this to be the last time these three ships will ever meet, due to the Queen Elizabeth 2s impending retirement from service in late 2008.
Queen Mary 2
next to Queen Elizabeth 2
with Queen Victoria
in the front.
On 29 October 2008, during a refit in dry dock in Hamburg, Germany, a worker attempted to murder his former lover after she ended the relationship by strangling her in his cabin. The suspect has been arrested, however he has since been released. Officers on the scene stated that "he was drunk and didn't like what he heard".
With the retirement of Queen Elizabeth 2 (on 27 November 2008 ), Queen Mary 2 is the only operational ocean liner left in active passenger service. Queen Mary 2 rendezvoused with Queen Elizabeth 2 in Dubai on Saturday 21 March, 2009 while both ships were berthed at Mina Rashid.
In October 2009, Queen Mary 2 celebrated her 5th year in service with an 8-night voyage around the British Isles. The voyage included maiden visits to Greenock and Liverpool.The Boston Cup
Carried aboard QM2 is the Boston Cup. Sometimes referred to as The Britannia Cup, this artefact was created for Sir Samuel Cunard in Boston to commemorate the arrival of his first vessel Brittannia. Cunard had selected Boston as the American port for his Atlantic service which resulted in a strong connection between Boston and the Cunard Line.
It is believed that the cup was presented to Sir Samuel Cunard sometime in 1840 however for much of its life it was missing. It was discovered in an antique shop in 1967 and returned to Cunard where it was placed aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2. In 2004, when QM2 became flagship, the Boston Cup was placed aboard QM2 as a symbol of her being Cunard's flagship. It now forms part of the Maritime Quest aboard. Environmental performance
The carbon footprint of passenger ships such as the Queen Mary 2 is greater than that of air travel, as detailed below. Concerning waste discharges to the sea, the Queen Mary 2 was designed with ambitious environmental targets in mind, far exceeding international standards. Initial targets included the reuse of treated wastewater for non-potable uses and zero discharge of solid waste into the sea. For economic and other reasons, as well as in order to reduce energy consumption from incineration, these measures were not implemented. Still, the Queen Mary 2s environmental performance in terms of sea discharges exceeds international standards, as detailed further below. It also exceeds the performance of many older ships. Greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution
The carbon offset company Climate Care calculates that Queen Mary 2 emits 0.43 kg of CO2 per passenger mile. This figure is the resulting CO2 emissions at normal cruising speed of 26 knots using only the four diesels instead of the ships maximum speed of 29-30 knots obtained when also running the gas turbines to supply power. Still according to Climate Care, CO2 emissions from a long-haul flight are 0.257 kg, including an allowance for the further damage of emissions being produced in the upper atmosphere. Based on these figures, the greenhouse gas emissions of the Queen Mary 2 are 67% higher than those of long distance air travel. Cunard, the ship's owner, does not release figures on its ships' carbon footprint, arguing that any comparison with air travel is flawed since the ship includes a full-fledged hotel and thus is more than a mere means of transport.
In areas where air pollution from sulfur dioxide which causes acid rain is a concern, the ship switches to low-sulfur fuel in order to minimize air pollution. Wastewater disposal
Grey water (from showers, sinks, laundry facilities etc.) and black water (from low-flush toilets, urinals and wastewater from the medical center) is collected through separate piping systems, the former functioning by gravity and the latter being a vacuum system. They lead to two identical wastewater treatment plants that use membrane bioreactor technology, followed by ultrafiltration and disinfection with ultra-violet radiation.
As on other ships, bilge water, the oily water that collects at the bottom of a ship, is treated separately through a centrifuge that separates oily sludge and residual water. Residual water with an oil content of less than 15 parts per million is discharged to the sea. Solid waste disposal
Solid waste is separated by kitchen staff or stewards who empty waste bins in passenger rooms. It is then processed depending on the type of waste. Organic kitchen waste is transported through a piping system to a facility where it is being shredded, de-watered in vacuum chambers, compressed and then discharged into the open sea when the ship is more than 12 nautical miles from shore. Alternatively, if the ship is in coastal areas or in other closed seas, organic waste can also be incinerated. However, this requires substantial energy because of the high fluid content of organic waste. Light plastic (wrapping, water bottles) and paper is shredded and burnt in the ship’s incinerators. Hard plastic that does not burn easily, cardboard and glass are being shredded and/or compacted and then stored for ultimate disposal or recycling on land by licensed contractors.
It had initially been envisaged to also incinerate dried residual sludge from the wastewater treatment plants and machine oil. Environmental monitoring and compliance
Discharges of sensitive substances, in particular the residual oil content of treated bilge water and air emissions, are monitored regularly in order to ensure compliance with environmental standards. According to Cunard, the ship exceeds the requirements of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution From Ships (MARPOL) of the International Maritime Organization. For example, it discharges waste into the sea only in areas more than 12 nautical miles from any coast, although MARPOL allows discharge of treated organic waste and treated bilge water closer to the shore.Footnotes
