where is mmcomputing?

[Simon W]

Originally Posted by Ken

Simon

The word in Southampton is and its probably just a myth but...........

The Queen Victoria was going to be the new Mary and the Mary was originally going to be the Victoria. Cunard (P&O) needed a new flagship fast for the image and swapped names over.

Is there any truth in that or is it an urban myth?

As far as I know Cunard planned to build the Queen Victoria first and the Queen Mary 2 second. Then somewhere along the line they decided to reverse the construction schedule - i.e. build the 151,000-ton QM2 first and the 90,000-ton QV second. So they just swapped the order of building, not the names & sizes of the ships. QM2 was always going to be the bigger ship.

The swap was probably governed by the availability of the two yards that were going to build the ships. QV is being built near Venice by the Marghera shipyard. QM2 was built by the French yard - Chantiers de L'Atlantique- who also built the most beautiful liner of them all, SS Normandie.

Launched in 1935, Normandie was QM1's greatest rival. They had a running battle for the Blue Riband that lasted from 1936 until 1938. QM1 finally took the record away from Normandie in August '38 with a fastest crossing time of 3 days 21 hours (average speed 31.7 knots). She held it until 1952.

(NB. 31.7 knots is 36.5 mph which is seriously fast for an 81,000-ton object!!)

PS. I have just sent The Grey Ghosts taster to you by email. Hope you don't mind!

NORMANDIE