The Queen Elizabeth 2, the 40-year-old
ocean liner that has traveled more miles than any passenger vessel
afloat today, will turn off its engines in 2008.
After crossing
the Atlantic more than 800 times and carrying more than 2.5 million
passengers, the Cunard Line ship will move to Dubai, United Arab
Emirates, where it will become a floating hotel and museum.
Such a fate would
have been hard to imagine for the vessel when it was launched by
Queen Elizabeth II in 1967. The ship went on to set records for
transatlantic speed. It even once carried British military troops
during a wartime deployment.
"We are delighted
that when her legendary career as an ocean liner ends, there will
continue to be a permanent home for her that will enable future
generations to continue to experience fully both the ship and her
history," said Cunard's president, Carol Marlow.
Cunard sold the
QE2 to Istithmar, a wholly owned company of the Dubai government.
It plans to convert the liner into a luxury hotel off of Palm
Jumeirah, the world's largest man-made island.
The QE2's fate is
similar to that of a predecessor, the Queen Mary, which is a
floating hotel and tourist attraction in Long Beach,
Calif.
Cunard said it
would deliver the QE2 to Dubai World in November 2008, where it
would be permanently berthed at a specially constructed pier at the
Palm Jumeirah.
Istithmar said
the QE2 would commence service in its new role in 2009, after an
extensive refurbishment that would aim to re-create QE2's original
interior decor and fittings and build an onboard museum of the
ship's history.
"QE2 at the Palm
Jumeirah will become one of the must-see experiences of Dubai and
of the Middle East," said Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman of
Dubai World, in a statement.
The Palm Jumeirah
was developed in 2001 as a residential, tourism and leisure
destination by Nakheel, also a Dubai World company. It is the first
and smallest of three Palm Islands Nakheel is developing that will
double the length of Dubai's shoreline. From the air, the island
looks like a palm tree; residential and tourist properties are
built along its trunk, crescent, and fronds.
A 'perfect match'
Nakheel said that
over the next five years, the Palm Jumeirah will become home to
more than 30 beachfront hotels, and that it recently inked a
15-year deal to bring a Cirque de Soleil show to the
island.
Charlie Taylor,
Nakheel's communications manager, 
said that the QE2 and the Palm
Jumeirah were a perfect match.
"The QE2 is a
major symbol of maritime history and was quick to become a maritime
icon. And the Palm Jumeirah, since its development, has also very
quickly become an iconic landmark," Taylor said. "So to have the
QE2 on the Palm Jumeirah, you are bringing together two
icons."
Taylor also said
that Dubai was established by sailors from around the Middle East
and has a strong maritime heritage, a sentiment echoed by Dubai
World in its promise to preserve the ship's heritage.
"Dubai is a
maritime nation and we understand the rich heritage of QE2," said
bin Sulayem. "She is coming to a home where she will be
cherished."
For Carnival
Corp., Cunard's parent company, the move made sense. Cunard's
second new-build in three years, the Queen Victoria, will join the
fleet in December.
"When we merged
with P&O Princess, we had certain strategic things we wanted to
do, and part of that strategy was to modernize the fleet," said
Carnival CEO Micky Arison during a conference call last week to
discuss the company's second-quarter earnings.
"We are only
moving out capacity that is not consistent with the fleetwide
profile these brands have today," added Carnival COO Howard
Frank.
"We are just
bringing in the new Queen Victoria, and we have these two modern
ships and this very old, terrific, great ship -- but that in the
long term, eventually we have to retire. It's very old."
Reaction to the
sale has been mixed. While some Cunard aficionados have expressed
resentment towards Cunard for selling an icon of steam travel to
what they consider a theme park, others were relieved it would live
out its days with its original status preserved.
"If you look at
other ships that have gone, certainly having it as the way it is
intended is better than being broken up and destroyed," said
Matthew Schulte, executive director of the Steamship Historical
Society of America, based in Rhode Island.
"She'll be there
for a while the way the Queen Mary is in Long Beach. It's great
that she's there, because there are people that do not have other
opportunities to see vessels such as this."
Taylor, of
Nakheel, also predicted that having the ship on Palm Jumeirah would
allow "far more people to be able to experience it and see what
it's like than maybe when it was sailing around the
world."
John
Maxtone-Graham, a steamship historian and author, has sailed on the
QE2 no less than 50 times. He said he was surprised by the
announcement, because while on a 2005 trip to Norway and Iceland,
the curtains, carpeting and bed skirting were replaced in his
stateroom.
"And I thought,
at least this is a ship that's not about to go out of business," he
recalled.
Maxtone-Graham
guessed the ship would have continued sailing until 2010, when an
updated International Convention for the Safety of Life is expected
to retire many older ships. The QE2 as it is now would not be in
compliance with the new regulations, which preclude any combustible
materials, such as wood.
Maxtone-Graham
noted that the 40-year-old ship beat the standard life expectancy
of a cruise ship, which is about 30 years, thanks to a "heart
transplant," as he called the QE2's conversion from steam to diesel
electric engines in 1987.
As much as he
would like to think the QE2's berth in Dubai would preserve its
maritime life, he said past passengers will know better.
"A ship must be
moving," he said. "It must have a mission."
To contact reporter Johanna Jainchill, send e-mail to [email protected].
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For more details on this article, see "QE2 sets series of 'Farewell Voyages.' "