Queen Mary 2

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. In total, 16 people were killed and another 32 people injured after a 15-metre (49 ft) fall into the drydock.[20]

Construction was completed on schedule.[21] On 22 December 2003, Queen Mary 2 left Saint-Nazaire and arrived in Southampton, England, on 26 December 2003.[22] On 8 January 2004, the liner was officially named by Queen Elizabeth II.[23][24]

Queen Mary 2 at Trondheim, 2007

Queen Mary 2 at Cape Town, showing the Costanzi stern

Queen Mary 2's principal naval architect was Carnival's in-house designer, Stephen Payne.[25] He intended many aspects of the ship's design to resemble notable aspects of former ocean liners, such as Queen Elizabeth 2 and the ship's predecessor Queen Mary. These include the three thick black lines known as "hands that wrap around either edge of the ship's bridge screen, and at the stern end of the superstructure, which are to recall the appearance of the crossovers of the forward decks on the first Queen Mary.[26]

Queen Mary 2 has 14,164 square metres (152,460 sq ft) of exterior deck space, with wind screens to shield passengers in rough seas. The ship was originally constructed with five swimming pools. However, the shallow "Splash Pool" on Deck 13 was removed during the ship's 2016 refurbishment to make room for additional staterooms. Two of her remaining four swimming pools are outdoors. There are indoor pools on Deck 7, in the Canyon Ranch Spa Club, and on Deck 12. The Pavilion Pool on Deck 12 is covered with a retractable magrodome.

In common with liners such as RMS Queen Mary, there is a continuous wrap-around promenade deck (Deck 7). This passes behind the bridge screen and allows passengers to circumnavigate the deck while protected from the winds; one circuit is 620 m (2,030 ft) long. The flanking promenades are created by the need to step the superstructure to allow space for lifeboats. By SOLAS standards, these should have been lower on the hull (15 m (49 ft) above the waterline), but for the sake of appearance as well as to avoid the danger of large waves damaging the boats, Payne convinced SOLAS officials to exempt Queen Mary 2 from this requirement, and the boats are 25 m (82 ft) above the waterline.[27]

Payne's original intention was for a stern profile with a spoon shape, similar to most previous liners, but the mounting of the propeller pods required a flat transom. The compromise was a Costanzi stern – a combination of the two, which provides the transom required for azimuthal pod propulsors and has better seaholding characteristics in a following swell.[28] In common with many modern ships, Queen Mary 2 has a bulbous bow to reduce drag and thereby increase speed, range, and fuel efficiency.[29]

Bulbous bow of Queen Mary 2

While of a design similar to that of Queen Elizabeth 2, Queen Mary 2's funnel has a slightly different shape, because 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 permits a minimum of 13 feet (4.0 m) of clearance under the bridge.[30]

As Queen Mary 2 is too large to dock in many ports, passengers are often ferried to and from the ship in tenders, which can also be used as lifeboats. These are stored at sea in davits alongside the lifeboats. To transport passengers ashore the tenders pull up to one of four loading stations, each of which has a large hull door that opens hydraulically to form a boarding platform, complete with railings and decking.[15]

Queen Mary 2 is a post-Panamax ship, too wide to use the Panama Canal before its expansion in 2016. As a result, she had to circumnavigate South America to transit between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The decision not to constrain her width to transit the Panama Canal was taken as Queen Elizabeth 2 only transited once a year, during the world cruise. Cunard decided to pass up the convenience of the occasional passage in favour of a greater passenger capacity.[31]

Queen Mary 2, the extensive library also has a reading area overlooking the bow of the ship.

As is the case with many modern passenger ships, many of the major public rooms on board Queen Mary 2 are on the lowest public decks of the ship, with the passenger cabins stacked above.[32] 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-and-aft pitching of the ship is most noticeable, and might cause discomfort to dining passengers.

Deck 2, the lowest passenger deck, contains the Illuminations theatre, cinema and planetarium (the first at sea);[33] 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", "Carinthia Lounge", "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 "Verandah Restaurant" an 8,000-volume library[34] (the largest of any cruise ship[35]), 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.[32] The kennels, located aft on starboard side of Deck 12, are available only for transatlantic crossings. They can accommodate up to twenty two dogs (the kennels will also take cats) in small and large cages.[36]

The lower two decks of the Grand Lobby on Queen Mary 2

The King's Court area on the ship is open twenty four 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.[37][38]

The passengers' dining arrangements on board are dictated by the type of accommodation in which they choose to travel. Around 85% of passengers 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".[39][40] 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.[32][41] This feature is also present on both Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. However, all other public areas can be used by all passengers.[42]

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.[32]

John McKenna's bronze sculpture panel on the grand lobby staircase

More than 5,000 commissioned works of art are visible in Queen Mary 2's public rooms, corridors, staterooms and lobbies, having been created by 128 artists from sixteen countries.[43] 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 the British sculptor John McKenna's sheet bronze relief mural in the Grand Lobby, a seven square metre portrait of the ship fabricated in bronze inspired by the Art Deco mural in the main dining room of the original Queen Mary.[44] The 10th Deck Pavillion features a glass ellipse sculpture by Tomasz Urbanowicz called "Blue Sun Setting in the Ocean".[45]

Queen Mary 2's power plant comprises four sixteen-cylinder Wärtsilä 16V46CR EnviroEngine marine diesel engines, generating a combined 67,200 kW (90,100 hp) at 514 rpm, and two General Electric LM2500+ gas turbines, provide a further 50,000 kW (67,000 hp); these drive electric generators, which in turn provide the power to drive four 21,500 kW (28,800 hp) Alstom electrical motors located inside the podded propulsors (and thus entirely outside the vessel's hull).[15] Such an arrangement, known as integrated electric propulsion (IEP), 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 several decades.[15]

The propulsors are Rolls-Royce Mermaid azimuth thruster type podded propulsion units,[46][47] each with one forward-facing low-vibration propeller with separately bolted blades. The forward pair of thrusters is fixed, but the aft pair can swivel through 360°, removing the need for a rudder.[15] Queen Mary 2 is the first quadruple-propeller passenger ship completed since the SS France in 1961.[48] Queen Mary 2 carries eight spare blades on the foredeck, immediately forward of the bridge screen.[49] In addition to the primary thrusters, the ship is also fitted with three bow thrusters, with a power output of 3.2 MW each. These allow the ship to turn in its own length while in port, to conduct more complex docking manoeuvres.[15]

Three of the eight spare propeller blades mounted on the foredeck

Unusually, Queen Mary 2's gas turbines are not housed along with her diesels in the engine room deep in her hull, but instead are in a soundproofed enclosure directly beneath 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 height of the ship, which would have wasted valuable interior space.[15]

Queen Mary 2 has a fully integrated bridge system designed by British firm Kelvin Hughes, which controls the ship's navigation systems, radar, dynamic positioning system, and engine monitoring system. Kelvin Hughes supplied many of the ship's components, including the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) and eight multifunction display units.[50]

Fresh water aboard Queen Mary 2 is supplied by three seawater desalination plants. The plants, each with a capacity of 630,000 litres (170,000 US gal) 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 maintenance required. The desalinated water has a very low salt content of less than five parts per million. Average total water production is 1,100,000 litres (290,000 US gal) per day with a capacity of 1,890,000 litres (500,000 US gal) so that there is ample spare capacity. The ship could easily be supplied by only two of the three plants.[51] Potable water tanks have a capacity of 3,830,000 litres (1,010,000 US gal), enough for more than three days of supply.[52] If the engines are running on low load (when the ship is running at a slow speed) the engine jacket cooling water temperature is insufficient to heat the seawater to run the desalination plants. In that case steam from oil-fired boilers is used to heat the sea water. This is uneconomical as generating steam is expensive. It may be cheaper, therefore, to buy water in a particular port than to produce it on board. The seawater intakes are located in the hull of the ship. Concentrated salt solution (brine) is discharged to the sea closer to the ship's stern together with cooling water from the engines.[53] An additional plant was added during the 2016 refit.

Queen Mary 2 in Sydney, 20 February 2007

On 10 January 2007, Queen Mary 2 started her first world cruise, circumnavigating the globe in 81 days. On 20 February, she met her fleet-mate, Queen Elizabeth 2, also on her 2007 world cruise, in Sydney harbour. [72] 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.[73] 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.[74] With 1,600 passengers leaving the ships in Sydney, Cunard estimated the stopovers injected more than $3 million into the local economy.[75]

On 10 January 2012, the ship embarked on a three-month world cruise from Southampton, travelling south and then east around Africa, a first ever circumnavigation of Australia, to Japan, then back to Southampton along the south coastline of Eurasia and through the Suez Canal.[76]

In October 2009, Queen Mary 2's fifth year in service was celebrated with an 8-night voyage around the British Isles. The voyage included maiden visits to Greenock[77] and Liverpool.[78]

The Boston Cup aboard Queen Mary 2

Carried aboard Queen Mary 2 is the Boston Cup. Sometimes referred to as The Britannia Cup, this artifact was created for Sir Samuel Cunard in Boston, United States, to commemorate the arrival of his first vessel RMS Britannia.[79] Cunard had selected Boston as the American port for his Atlantic service, which resulted in a strong connection between Boston and the Cunard Line.[80] It is believed that the cup was presented to Sir Samuel Cunard sometime in 1840, but 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 Queen Elizabeth 2. In 2004, when Queen Mary 2 became the flagship, the Boston Cup was placed aboard Queen Mary 2.[79] It is in a glass case, aft of the Chart Room lounge.[81]

In July 2007 the National Geographic Channel broadcast an episode of the documentary series Megastructures about Queen Mary 2.[82] The vessel also featured in the pilot episode of the documentary TV series Mighty Ships.

The propulsor pods fitted to Queen Mary 2 have been prone to failure, attributed to the motors' thrust bearings, which continued to show a tendency to fail even after numerous attempts at redesign. In January 2009, Carnival, through its Cunard division, sued Rolls-Royce in the United States. The line alleged that the Mermaid pod propulsion systems fitted to Queen Mary 2 were inherently defective in design, and that Rolls-Royce knew about the design deficiencies and deliberately conspired to mislead, deceive and defraud in the course of winning the contract.[83] In January 2011, the court awarded Carnival US$24 million (approximately UK£15 million at the time of verdict).[84]

Three years after the first Cunard Royal Rendezvous on the same date, Queen Mary 2 met up with Queen Victoria and the then brand-new MS Queen Elizabeth for another Royal Rendezvous in New York City on 13 January 2011. Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth made a tandem crossing of the Atlantic for the event. All three ships met in front of the statue of Liberty at 6:45 pm for Grucci fireworks. The Empire State Building was lit up in red to mark the event.[62]

On 5 June 2012, the three Queens met again, but this time in Southampton to celebrate the Diamond jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.[85]

Queen Mary 2 has rendezvoused with ocean rowing teams in the middle of the Atlantic. On 30 July 2010 she met up with Artemis Investments, whose rowing crew were Don Lennox, Livar Nysted, Ray Carroll, Leven Brown. Carroll had been a former engineer and was patched through via marine VHF radio and Queen Mary 2's public address system to speak to the captain and crew.[86][87][88] On 26 September 2013 Queen Mary 2 resupplied solo-rower Mylène Paquette and her vessel Hermel with a replacement satellite phone, drogue anchor and groceries. Queen Mary 2 changed her course by 20 degrees and only added 14 miles to the overall distance of the crossing.[89][90][91]

A small fire broke out in the gas turbine engine room (located high on the ship behind the Queen Mary 2 sign[92]) on the evening of 5 October 2011. The fire was started in one of the ship's gas turbines. No injuries were reported, and crew on board the ship safely extinguished the fire.[93]

On 23 September 2010, an incident occurred in Queen Mary 2's aft harmonic filter room. This resulted in the shutdown of all four propulsion motors and a loss of electrical power throughout the ship. Within an hour, the ship's main generators were restarted and the ship was able to resume passage. Later investigations found that an explosion was caused by electrical arcing within the aft harmonic filter igniting leaked dielectric fluid vapour.[94]

On 6 July 2013 Queen Mary 2 departed New York en route to Southampton on her 200th transatlantic voyage. On board speakers were Stephen Payne OBE—the ship's designer—and presenter and newsreader Nick Owen, who presented talks about the ship's design.[95]

Undefaced Red Ensign flown by RMS Queen Mary 2 in New York, July 2014.

On 6 May 2014, all three Queens met up for the first time in Lisbon, Portugal. The three ships sailed abreast of each other from Lisbon to Southampton. On 9 May 2014 Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria led Queen Mary 2 up the Southampton channel where they docked in formation at the QEII terminal and performed a birthday salute to Queen Mary 2. The anniversary included a tour of the ship by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.

On 25 May 2015, all three Queens met, once again, at Liverpool, in order to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the shipping line. After arriving at Liverpool the previous day, Queen Mary 2 made a brief excursion to the entrance of the River Mersey to welcome her two fleetmates into port in the early afternoon. The three Cunarders then sailed, in formation, towards Liverpool. The ships spent several hours together, before the departure of Queen Mary 2 to Saint Peter Port, Guernsey.[96][97][98]

On 2 July 2015, Queen Mary 2 began a 175th Anniversary Crossing in Southampton. She sailed first to Liverpool, leaving that city after a fireworks display on 4 July, the actual anniversary date of Cunard's first transatlantic voyage. Queen Mary 2 followed the route of the original ship Britannia, calling first at Halifax, Nova Scotia. After a day there, she headed first upriver into the harbor, using her bow thrusters and swivel-pod motors to negotiate the tight turnaround to come back down close to the cityfront. A 21-gun salute and bagpipe band honored the ship.

From Halifax, the ship sailed to Boston and was there for a full day at the cruise terminal (Boston was the terminus of the original crossing in 1840). In the evening the ship backed out into Boston Harbor, where a fireworks display was presented before Queen Mary 2 sailed away.[99] After a night and day at sea, the vessel entered New York Harbor early the morning of 14 July and docked at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. Later in the evening the vessel sailed to the lower harbor, between the Statue of Liberty and the Battery, for the Forever Cunard Queen Mary 2 Light Show.[100]

The RMS Queen Mary 2 visiting Sydney Harbour, Cape Breton Island on October 1st, 2016.

In June 2016, Queen Mary 2 underwent a $132 million/£90 million renovation at Blohm+Voss over 25 days.[101][102] Major changes include the addition of fifteen single occupancy staterooms, thirty additional balcony staterooms, and ten more animal cages for an enlarged kennels.[103] According to Blohm+Voss, the refit included the installation of "scrubbers" and exhaust gas filters to reduce emissions.[104]

On 10 June 2017, Queen Mary 2, commanded by Captain Christopher Wells, came to the rescue of a stranded solo yachtsman, 73-year-old Mervyn Wheatley, whose craft Tamarind had been disabled by a strong storm while participating in the Observer Single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race. British and Canadian coastguards coordinated this long-range rescue after they detected Tamarind's distress beacon. Queen Mary 2 was guided to Wheatley's position by a Royal Air Force Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft.[105]

When COVID-19 started to spread around in the world in 2020, Queen Mary 2 was in the midst of a world cruise. In early February, Cunard cancelled the Asian leg of the voyage, and the vessel stopped in Singapore only to refuel and sailed to Australia.[106][107] On 15 March, Cunard cancelled the remainder of the voyage, disembarked all passengers at Fremantle, and ordered the ship back to Southampton.[108][109] It stopped briefly on 2 April in Durban to disembark six South African crew members before continuing to its home port.[110][111] Queen Mary 2 arrived back in Southampton on 15 April.

Because of the pandemic, Cunard suspended all voyages of the Queen Mary 2 until November 2021.[112] In August 2021 Cunard announced that the ship would enter drydock in Brest, France prior to her return to service.[113] On 28 November 2021, Queen Mary 2 returned to service.[114]