by lightbody » Sat Jul 09, 2005 8:57 pm
Sorry for replying to an old thread, but i only just noticed it!
Am a huge fan of the 'Queens' and have visited both the QM in Long Beach and the QE2 however I don't think either could practically return to the Clyde.
The amount of maintenance required on these ships is immense, even if they're just sitting still. Its the maintenance that made them amazing experiences - gleaming teak handrails, carefully maintained teak decking, 1000s of shining windows, gleaming white paint, carefully painted railings - as soon as these things stop, it starts sliding downhill fast.
The Queen Mary was looking very, very ropey when i saw her with water leaking through roofs, rust all over the place and basically a shadow of the classy lady she once was. And thats with her sitting in a warm, dry location with only occasional rain. Britannia suffers in the same way.
Also, to move Queen Mary now is virtually impossible - she's lost a lot of her structural strength through the ill-conceived removal of various bulkheads and is top-heavy due to the removal of enormous amounts of machinery from her bowels to make space that was never really needed. If she could be put in a floating dry dock (is there one big enough?) it might just about be possible...
QE2 is also suffering from a lot of aluminium corrosion to her upper superstructure - this is patched from time to time but I'm not sure what would happen with this in the future - presumably even more expense. This was state-of-the art when she was built, but is now the only aspect of her structure to be ageing fast.
Power - Queen Mary had to have her entire power system converted - she was DC, Long Beach was AC... so lots of her original lights now don't work or are dimmer than they're meant to be, things like original clocks and fans haven't worked since her conversion. Don't assume that QE2 could just be 'plugged into the mains'. Also her plumbing is now ropey...
Clydebank - a cheap way to commemorate what was achieved there - draw out the 1000ft+ 'footprint' in paint on a large enough piece of land somewhere - thats all. Show the sheer size of what was achieved... there is nothing there now except a fish & chip shop in the shape of a boat. sad.
PS: love this site, just don't often post because i don't normally have anything to add...