QEII sails into Scarborough

Yesterday it happened and we had a grandstand view from our Fifth Floor flat on the South Cliff!


Sir Jim fixes Scarboro' QE2 visit

SCARBOROUGH celebrity Sir Jimmy Savile says he has 'fixed it' for the Queen Elizabeth 2 to sail into the South Bay in September.

Sir Jimmy has been holding talks with the owners Cunard which has confirmed the vessel will make a detour from the normal shipping route so that locals and holidaymakers will be able to get a close up of the Queen Elizabeth 2 on September 16. Sir Jimmy, who has a home in South Cliff, said: "The visit should attract tens of thousands of extra visitors to the East Coast. "The ship will be passing on a Sunday which is a bonus because it will mean a lot of people will decide to make a weekend of it in Scarborough." He added: "The visit of the Queen Elizabeth 2 will be great for the local economy because there will be so many more people spending money in Scarborough."

Huge crowds turned out in July 2004 to see the Queen Mary 2 visit Scarborough. Sir Jimmy, who is a regular Cunard customer, said: "It ended up less than a mile from the beach. "I have been told that Queen Elizabeth 2 will try to do the same, weather permitting. "Large vessels are usually about three or four miles away from land when they pass Scarborough because they have set a course to miss Flamborough Head. The Queen Elizabeth 2 was the Cunard flagship from 1969 until she handed over the role to the Queen Mary 2 in May2004.

The Queen Elizabeth 2 will be visiting Scarborough as part of a voyage round Britain to commemorate her launch 40 years ago. The ship will set sail from Southampton and head for the east coast before sailing by Bridlington, Filey, Scarborough and Whitby. Before arriving in Scarborough, the ship will have been on numerous cruises to exotic destinations all over the world. The anniversary cruise with 1,778 passengers is already sold out. Prices range from £1,059 for an inside cabin to £8,109 for a guest suite per person. This time next year the vessel will be on a 90-day cruise visiting South America, the Pacific and the Far East. Prices start from around £6,600. The QE2 has the largest cinema at sea, with a capacity of 531, and is the fastest merchant ship in operation, capable of speeds of up to 34 knots. Its nine engines are each the size of a double decker bus.

Put out the flags to welcome the QE2

SCARBOROUGH'S Spa Complex will be waving the Union Jack when the QE2 arrives at the weekend.

The famous liner is sailing up the East Coast on its way to the Tyne – and will “pull in” about a mile off Scarborough – as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations. It is also a farewell voyage; the ship is to become a floating hotel in Dubai. The Spa has organised a special nautical theme for Sunday’s visit including two firework displays at the old South Bay swimming pool. The first takes place on Saturday at 8.30pm with the second earmarked for Sunday at noon. The displays are sponsored by James Corrigan of Corrigans Amusements in memory of his late father Jimmy. On Sunday the Spa Orchestra will dedicate its 11am Sun Court Enclosure concert to the arrival of the famous ship. The orchestra will be performing pieces representing countries across the globe including French, Spanish and Italian music and rhythmic Latin dance music.There will be a break during the show to let the audience see the ship in the bay. After the concert the Spa will host a QE2 themed Sunday Carvery. General manager Mike McCarthy said: “This is a huge event for Scarborough and we want as many people as possible to get involved. We want the streets to be filled with people to welcome the QE2 to the town.” Mayor of Scarborough Cllr Janet Jefferson said: “This is fantastic for the town. I urge as many people as possible to come and welcome the ship. We all should appreciate that it is coming to Scarborough. It will be a great occasion.” Cllr Jefferson will be at the Spa and has invited two people to join her and her consort Geoff to a free carvery paid for by James Corrigan. The couple who make the largest bid for a donation to the Mayoress’s Community Fund can join them for lunch.To bid contact Steve Hollingworth at Scarborough Town Hall on (01723) 232566 by tomorrow afternoon.


QE2 sails into South Bay


THE QE2, the world's most famous liner, sailed into Scarborough's South Bay, watched by thousands of people.

The ship, on a round-Britain tour to mark its 40th anniversary, sailed past Flamborough Head and Filey before arriving off Scarborough, and then on past Whitby. It is pictured being watched by hundreds of people on Scarborough's outer pier as it sails past. It dwarfed the Regal Lady, which can be seen behind it on the photo on the previous page. It was on its way up to the Tyne and then the Clyde, where it was launched by the Queen in 1967. At first a distant speck on the horizon, the QE2 turned in towards Scarborough and sailed close enough past the harbour and castle headland for the awestruck spectators at both bays to see its splendour. As it passed, the historic ship blew its horn in salute to the town, and a fireworks display at the site of the South Bay Pool was the town's response. Sir Jimmy Savile, who has a home in the town, was taken out on a boat to board the QE2 for its farewell tour. He had fixed it with owners Cunard for the liner to make a detour from the normal shippng route and allow people to get a close-up view. Beforehand he joked: "I might get in the Guinness Book of Records for catching the largest water taxi ever." There was heavy traffic congestion on the South Cliff as hundreds of people tried to park so they could glimpse the spectacle. Vantage points such as the Esplanade, Town Hall gardens and Scalby Mills were full of people armed with binoculars and cameras. For those on the South side, the sight of the huge liner coming in close to the harbour and rounding the castle headland, in glorious sunshine, was unforgettable. The journey around Britain is the famous ship's swansong; later this year it is to become a floating hotel in Dubai.

What makes the QEII a legend among liners?
Stephen Lamport reviews QE2: 40 Years Famous by Carol Thatcher

What man-made leviathan nearly 1,000 ft long can steam through the water at nearly 40 mph, every day using more than 1,000 tonnes of water, 3,000 eggs, 2,500 tea bags, 200 bottles of Champagne and 40 gallons of spirits, and each year consuming more than 135,000 bottles of wine and 150 miles of clingfilm?
What ship has sailed 5.5 million miles - 11 times to the Moon and back - made more than 800 Atlantic crossings, uses a litre of fuel to push herself 11 feet, and houses the largest floating library in the world?
The answer is the QE2, Cunard's longest-serving ship. This book is a celebration of the 40 years of what Carol Thatcher calls "the most famous ship in existence", and whose birthday falls on September 20.
The figures are staggering. But this is also a ship whose history has been far from untroubled and uncontroversial. All celebrities are potential victims of the passing fashions that create them. The achievement of the QE2 is that she has weathered the mishaps and criticisms, has renewed and reburnished herself, and has acquired a reputation of such long-term credit that she has continued to flourish notwithstanding a succession of tricky passages.
The problems started even before her birth. As Thatcher makes clear, the QE2 was conceived in uncertainty. The early 1960s were bad years for the passenger ships business. Cunard's Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were consistently losing money. Shareholders were unhappy at plans to build what might have proved another commercial disaster. The decision to build was eventually taken by a whisker.
Construction seems to have been something of a nightmare. The John Brown yard in Clydebank was constantly beset by labour issues. "Squirrelling", as pilfering is known in the trade, was endemic and at one point some of the shipworkers were apparently stealing from the ship faster than the yard could build her.
And the name itself is a story of the unexpected. Cunard, in the greatest possible secrecy, finally chose Queen Elizabeth. But when the Queen launched the ship on that sunny September afternoon in 1967, she herself named it Queen Elizabeth the Second.
The QE2 was finally handed over, six months late, in April 1969, at a cost of just under £29 million - huge at the time, modest now. Since then, she has rarely been out of the news, and has consistently confounded the City analysts who, even as she entered service, thought she would be better mothballed.
She was the largest ship ever to pass through the Panama Canal on her first world cruise in 1975 - where there was less than a foot to spare on each side of the ship as she squeezed through the canal locks.
She was the victim of a ransom demand in 1972 made by, as it turned out, a New York shoe salesman, which saw four British bomb disposal experts parachuted on to the ship to search for bombs - the real-life forerunner of Richard Harris's Juggernaut.
She was a troop carrier to South Georgia during the Falklands war, a role for which she was converted in less than a week and which the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher said gave her a genuinely sleepless night. In 1995, the QE2 withstood a 95ft storm wave breaking across her bow during Hurricane Luis.
There has been a continuing catalogue of maritime mishaps: jellyfish fouling the ship's engines and causing her to drift helplessly towards the rocks off Jamaica; a 60ft whale impaled on her bow entering Lisbon; running on to the rocks near Martha's Vineyard.
And an endless procession of dry-dock maintenance and refits, often going over time and resulting in cancelled cruises, disgruntled passengers and awful publicity. Yet this unique lady somehow sails through it all with her reputation sometimes dented, but never apparently undimmed.
This is a great story rather than a great book. It is not for the coffee table, though this is probably the intended destination. The pictures are too disappointing and the format too unexciting. The text is too much a catalogue of refits, onboard personalities and semi-technical description to do real justice to the essential romance of this magical subject.
I yearned for more of the colour and less of the publicity handout. And yet the greatness of the ship still captivates.
But there is a final poignancy to the story when, in May 2004, the status of Cunard flagship finally passed from the QE2 to the newly arrived Queen Mary 2. The photographs of them together are perhaps the best in the book.
I suspect there will be many like me who, if they dip into this book, will reach that concluding iconic picture of the two Queens together in Sydney Harbour feeling a similar sense of nostalgic longing.