Queen’s Final Voyage

After nearly 40 years of service, the Queen Elizabeth II began her final voyage last Saturday — by being blown onto a sandbar near Southampton. Fortunately, it was a soft landing. Tugs pulled her off and festivities were delayed by only about half an hour. More than a few people at the gala farewell joked that the ship grounded herself deliberately to avoid being taken out of service.

It was easy to anthropomorphize when it came to the grand dame of ocean liners. Built in 1967 (and making her maiden voyage in 1969), the 963-ft, 70,000-ton liner has transported 2.5 million passengers some 5.5 million miles over the oceans of the world, including 800 transatlantic trips and 25 round-the-world voyages. She is the longest serving ship in the Cunard line, set many speed and endurance records, and even served as a troop ship during the Falklands war. If those bulkheads could talk . . . .

Although she will no longer sail the seas, the QE2 will live on. Her final voyage is to Dubai, where she will be remodelled and reopened as a floating hotel in 2010. And actually, some of those bulkheads will talk — the $80 million selling price included the ship’s valuable onboard art collection, and the makeover is slated to include an onboard museum chronicling the ship’s long and colorful history.