Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) is a retired British passenger ship converted into a floating hotel. Originally built for the Cunard Line, the ship was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic liner and a cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. She was then laid up until converted and since 18 April 2018 has been operating as a floating hotel in Dubai.
RMS Olympic was a British ocean liner and the lead ship of the White Star Line's trio of Olympic-class liners. Olympic had a career spanning 24 years from 1911 to 1935, in contrast to her short-lived sister ships, Titanic and Britannic. This included service as a troopship during the First World War, which gained her the nickname "Old Reliable", and during which she rammed and sank the U-boat U-103. She returned to civilian service after the war, and served successfully as an ocean liner throughout the 1920s and into the first half of the 1930s, although increased competition, and the slump in trade during the Great Depression after 1930, made her operation increasingly unprofitable. Olympic was withdrawn from service and sold for scrapping on 12 April 1935 which was completed in 1937.
Cunard Line is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Bermuda.
RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by Cunard Line. In tandem with Queen Mary both ships provided a weekly luxury liner service between Southampton in the United Kingdom and New York City in the United States, via Cherbourg in France.
The Blue Riband is an unofficial accolade given to the passenger liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean in regular service with the record highest average speed. The term was borrowed from horse racing and was not widely used until after 1910. The record is based on average speed rather than passage time because ships follow different routes. Also, eastbound and westbound speed records are reckoned separately, as the more difficult westbound record voyage, against the Gulf Stream and the prevailing weather systems, typically results in lower average speeds.
An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes. Only one ocean liner remains in service today.
RMS Scythia was a Cunard ocean liner. She sailed on her maiden voyage in 1921, and became a troop and supply ship during the Second World War. Scythia was the longest serving Cunard liner until 4 September 2005, when her record was surpassed by Queen Elizabeth 2.
RMS Caronia was a 34,183 gross register tons (GRT) passenger ship of the Cunard Line. Launched on 30 October 1947, she served with Cunard until 1967. She was nicknamed the "Green Goddess" after her light green hull livery. She was one of the first "dual-purpose" ships, built both for 2-class transatlantic crossings and all 1st-class cruising. After leaving Cunard she was briefly Caribia in 1969, after which she was laid up in New York until 1974, when she was sold for scrap. While being towed to Taiwan for scrapping, she was caught in a storm on 12 August. After her tow lines were cut, she repeatedly crashed on the rocky breakwater outside Apra Harbor, Guam and broke into three sections.
RMS Aquitania was an ocean liner of the Cunard Line in service from 1914 to 1950. She was designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. She was launched on 21 April 1913 and sailed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York on 30 May 1914. She was given the title of Royal Mail Ship (RMS) like many other Cunard ocean liners since she carried the royal mail on many of her voyages. Aquitania was the third in Cunard Line's grand trio of express liners, preceded by RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania, and was the last surviving four-funnelled ocean liner. Shortly after Aquitania entered service, the First World War broke out, during which she was first converted into an auxiliary cruiser before being used as a troop transport and a hospital ship, notably as part of the Dardanelles Campaign.
RMS Mauretania was an ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by Wigham Richardson and Swan Hunter on the River Tyne, England for the British Cunard Line, launched on the afternoon of 20 September 1906. She was the world's largest ship until the launch of RMS Olympic in 1910. Mauretania captured the eastbound Blue Riband on the maiden return voyage in December 1907, then claimed the westbound Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing during her 1909 season. She held both speed records for 20 years.
SS Imperator was a German ocean liner built for the Hamburg America Line, launched in 1912. At the time of her completion in June 1913, she was the largest passenger ship in the world, surpassing the new White Star liner Olympic.
RMS Majestic was a British Ocean liner working on the White Star Line’s North Atlantic run, originally launched in 1914 as the Hamburg America Liner SS Bismarck. At 56,551 gross register tons, she was the largest ship in the White Star Line and the largest ship in the world until completion of SS Normandie in 1935.
RMS Adriatic was a British ocean liner of the White Star Line. She was the fourth of a quartet of ships of more than 20,000 GRT, dubbed The Big Four. The ship was the only one of the four which was never the world's largest ship. However, she was the largest, the fastest, and the most luxurious of the Big Four, being the first ocean liner to have an indoor swimming pool and Victorian Turkish baths.
A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft. It is also referred to as a "shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and it can last from a few hours to many days.
MV Georgic was the last ship built for the White Star Line before its merger with the Cunard Line. Built at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, she was the running mate of MV Britannic. Like Britannic, Georgic was a motorship, and not a steamer, fitted with a diesel powerplant. At the time of her launch in 1931, she was the largest British motorship.
RMS Carinthia was an ocean liner built in 1956 as one of the four Saxonia class ships. She sailed for Cunard Line from her completion until 1968 when she was sold to Sitmar Line, rebuilt into a full-time cruise ship and renamed SS Fairsea. She sailed with Sitmar until 1988, when Sitmar was sold to P&O. She was renamed SS Fair Princess and sailed for Princess Cruises and P&O Cruises until 2000. She was then sold to China Sea Cruises and renamed SS China Sea Discovery. In 2005 or 2006 she was scrapped in Alang, India.
RMS Queen Mary 2 (QM2) is a British transatlantic ocean liner. She has served as the flagship of Cunard Line since succeeding Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2004. The ship was officially named Queen Mary 2 by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004 after the first RMS Queen Mary of 1936. With the retirement of Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2008, Queen Mary 2 is the only ocean liner in service in the world. It has a regular service between Southampton, England, and New York City, United States, and an annual world cruise.
Sir James Gordon Partridge Bisset, CBE, RD was a British merchant sea captain who served as Commodore of the Cunard White Star Line (1944–47). He documented his fifty-year sea career in a three volume autobiography: Sail Ho! My Early Years at Sea (1958); Tramps and Ladies – My Early Years in Steamers (1959) and Commodore – War, Peace and Big Ships (1961). In addition, Bisset authored Lifeboat Efficiency (1924) which became the primary text used by the British Merchant Marine until the Second World War for instructing merchant seaman in lifeboat utilization and handling, and Ship Ahoy ! : Nautical Notes for Ocean Travellers (c.1930), a treatise on shipboard operations for the edification of passengers. He served in or commanded Cunard liners including Carpathia, Caronia, Franconia, Mauretania, Aquitania, Berengaria, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.
RMS Andes was a 26,689 GRT steam turbine Royal Mail Ship, ocean liner, cruise ship, and the flagship of the Royal Mail Lines fleet. She was the second Royal Mail ship to be named after the South American Andes mountain range. The first RMS Andes was an A-class liner launched in 1913. In 1929 that RMS Andes was converted into a cruise ship and renamed Atlantis.
Sir James Thomas Walter Charles KBE CB RD RNR was a British ocean liner captain and later Commodore of the Cunard Steamship Company.
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