Stephen M. Payne | |
---|---|
Born | Stephen Michael Payne c. 1960 (age 63–64) Greater London |
Nationality | British |
Citizenship | United Kingdom |
Engineering career | |
Discipline | Ship Science |
Practice name | PFJ Maritime Consulting Ltd (2011-2016) [1] |
Employer(s) | Carnival Corporate Shipbuilding (1985-2010) |
Projects | MS Rotterdam (VI), passenger ship design |
Significant design | RMS Queen Mary 2 |
Significant advance | podded propulsion |
Awards | Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, Royal Designer for Industry, VADM Land Medal |
Stephen Michael Payne is a British naval architect. [2] He has worked on the designs of approximately 40 passenger ships for the Carnival Corporation, including the Cunard ocean liner Queen Mary 2. [3] He is an independent maritime consultant and is an educational advocate for engineering careers.
Stephen Michael Payne was born in London, England circa 1960. [4] : 12 He was educated in the local council schools including the Catford Boys School, where two of its teachers would have a key role in shaping his career. His interest in ocean liners began at age 5 when the BBC children’s television program Blue Peter featured a tour of the RMS Queen Elizabeth. He would later state that he was immediately captivated by the ship. [5] His interest in ships intensified during a 1969 family visit to the then new Queen Elizabeth 2 in Southampton where he also observed the SS United States, on one of her last transatlantic crossings, arriving in port. [6] In 1972 the program’s magazine described the destruction by fire of the ex-Queen Elizabeth in Hong Kong harbor and ended with the statement “…nothing like her will ever be built again.” With encouragement from a Catford English teacher Payne wrote a letter of complaint to the program arguing that they were wrong, another ship to rival her would indeed be built and he would design it. The program applauded his ambition but cautioned him not to be discouraged if it never happened. [7]
When the time came for him to consider university studies however his career counselors discouraged Payne from any engineering career as it was then seen as having limited job prospects. They advised him to instead study chemistry and he enrolled at Imperial College London. After one year of study he met with his former physics teacher from Catford who agreed that Payne had been badly advised, and helped him obtain funding to transfer to the University of Southampton's Ship Science program. [8] While there, he also enrolled in the University Royal Naval Unit (URNU) to experience how ships responded at sea. [9] After graduating in 1984 with a B.Sc.(Hons) in ship science, he accepted a position at Marconi Radar. His role was to advise the company on aspects of ship motion and ship design. [9]
Payne began his work with Carnival Corporation in January 1985 when employed by Technical Marine Planning, Ltd, then a London-based consultancy firm under contract with Carnival for the design and construction supervision of its new ships. (By 1995 the firm was absorbed into Carnival and became its newbuild department.) [10]
His first assignment was to assess stability of the MS Holiday. [4] : 14 He next became a member of the design team for the Carnival Fantasy-class ships which entered service starting in 1990. The last two Fantasy ships, Elation and Paradise, were equipped with ABB Azipod thrusters rather than traditional shaft drives, a development which influenced his later work. By 1995 he was a Senior Naval Architect and oversaw the construction of the first Destiny-class ship. [11] His next major project was the design of Holland America Line's new flagship MS Rotterdam VI where he was project manager. Payne designed the new ship with twin funnels, a tribute to the 1959 SS Rotterdam V. [12] Following completion of the Rotterdam, Payne was project manager for the Costa Atlantica and the Spirit-class ships. [4] : 14
In May 1998 Carnival acquired the Cunard Line, and Payne was given charge of designing the new ocean liner Queen Mary 2 (QM2) to replace the aging Queen Elizabeth 2 as Cunard's transatlantic liner. [4] : 15 Payne's design was heavily influenced by past Atlantic liners. "I have this philosophy that to get things right the first-time, you need to have an appreciation for history - of what has been done before." [13] QM2 has a breakwater adopted from the Normandie and split engine rooms to avoid having a single point of failure. "The bridge, the mast, and the funnel are all loosely based on the Queen Elizabeth 2 and I felt it particularly important to echo some of the similarities between that ship and this one to create the lineage progression." [14] On three occasions Carnival's board halted the project as they did not consider it commercially viable. [15] Payne refined the design and instituted several innovations to justify the new liner's construction cost. He placed the new ship's public spaces near the water line. This allowed for premium fare balcony (rather than porthole) cabins to be placed in the hull yet high enough to have a margin of protection from the sea conditions of the north Atlantic. Payne also created more revenue-producing interior space by removing one engine room from the initial design and instead using gas turbines at the base of the funnel. Podded propulsion, rather than shaft drives, was used to free up even more interior space and offered greater fuel efficiency and maneuverability. Spectacular public rooms, restricted to only first class passengers on the great twentieth century liners, were open to all passengers. [3] QM2 was delivered to Cunard in December 2003, on time and under budget. [16]
During the design phase of Queen Mary 2 Payne was appointed a member of a safety Innovation Group for the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency. [17] His next major project was to lead the design team for the Seabourn Cruise Line Odyssey-class ships which entered service starting in 2009. Carnival's later newbuild contracts would stipulate podded propulsion as they offered fuel savings and superior maneuverability compared to traditional shaft drives. Payne would later state, "I have yet to meet a ship's master who is familiar with pods that doesn't prefer them to shafts, rudders and stern thrusters." [18]
In 2010, Payne left Carnival and became a founding member of the consultancy PFJ-Maritime Consulting Ltd. [9] As a maritime consultant Payne has been involved in shipping law, [19] passenger vessel safety, [20] future developments for shipping propulsion, [21] He is also an industry consultant for the emergence of Asian shipyards for ship building and refurbishment. [22] Payne also consulted with the Ministry of Defense during the development of the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. [23]
In 2021 Payne revealed the design of a new flagship to replace the royal yacht HMY Britannia, which was decommissioned in 1997. [23] When not in use by the royal family it would host diplomatic events and promote British trade. [24] In November 2022 the UK government officially terminated the project. [25]
As a result of the media attention given to Queen Mary 2 and his role as lead designer, Payne received correspondence from students who asked about engineering careers. They were encountering many of the same biases as he himself had received thirty years earlier: that it was a profession in decline and without a promising future. [26] To help address this persistent attitude, Payne and some colleagues founded the Future Engineers initiative. [1] The program featured a specific engineering project and allowed students and their teachers visit the site and interact with the designers and engineers.
Payne also served as a governor of the Quilley School [27] prior to its merger with Crestwood College. In 2003 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject "Genesis of a Queen". [28] He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Webb Institute (Glen Cove, New York) from 2011 [29] to 2020. [30] Between 2012 and 2016 Payne was President of The National STEM Skills Passport. [31]
In June 2021 Payne announced his support [32] for the construction of a new National Flagship. [33] Writing for an industry publication, Payne argued that with the retirement of Britannia, "the UK lost a highly effective ambassador for trade promotion and State diplomacy." A new yacht with British design, equipment and innovation "would be an international showcase for all things British Maritime." [32] Payne however criticized the design released by Prime Minister Boris Johnson's office as "...akin to a 1950s Hull trawler" and "...not such a good idea for a global voyager crossing the Atlantic, Pacific, or even rounding the tip of Africa." [34]
In 2004, Payne was awarded the Civil Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for his service to the shipping industry. [35] He also received professional and academic awards:
Payne is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) [6] and a Freeman of the City of London. [47] [Permanent Dead Link]
Forewords to:
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.
The 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 four ships have been registered in Hamilton, Bermuda.
RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by Cunard Line. Along with the Queen Mary, she provided a weekly transatlantic service between Southampton in the United Kingdom and New York City in the United States, via Cherbourg in France.
RMS Queen Mary is a retired British ocean liner that operated primarily on the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line. Built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland, she was subsequently joined by RMS Queen Elizabeth in Cunard's two-ship weekly express service between Southampton, Cherbourg and New York. These "Queens" were the British response to the express superliners built by German, Italian, and French companies in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freighters once common on the seas in which the transport of passengers is secondary to the carriage of freight. The type does however include many classes of ships designed to transport substantial numbers of passengers as well as freight. Indeed, until recently virtually all ocean liners were able to transport mail, package freight and express, and other cargo in addition to passenger luggage, and were equipped with cargo holds and derricks, kingposts, or other cargo-handling gear for that purpose. Only in more recent ocean liners and in virtually all cruise ships has this cargo capacity been eliminated.
Carnival Corporation & plc is a British and American cruise operator with a combined fleet of over ninety vessels across nine cruise line brands and one joint venture with China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC). A dual-listed company, Carnival is composed of the Panama-incorporated, US-headquartered Carnival Corporation, and UK-based Carnival plc, which function as one entity. Carnival Corporation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, whereas Carnival plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange with an ADR listing on the NYSE. Carnival is listed in both the S&P 500 and FTSE 250 indices.
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.
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The Cunard Building is a Grade II* listed building in Liverpool, England. It is located at the Pier Head and along with the neighbouring Royal Liver Building and Port of Liverpool Building is one of Liverpool's Three Graces, which line the city's waterfront. It is also part of Liverpool's former UNESCO designated World Heritage, the Maritime Mercantile City.
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.
Sir William Henry White, was a prolific British warship designer and Chief Constructor at the Admiralty.
MS Queen Victoria (QV) is a Vista-class cruise ship operated by the Cunard Line and is named after the former British monarch Queen Victoria. The vessel is of the same basic design as other Vista-class cruise ships, including Queen Elizabeth. At 90,049 gross tonnage (GT) she is the smallest of Cunard's ships in operation. Her facilities include seven restaurants, thirteen bars, three swimming pools, a ballroom, and a theatre.
P&O Cruises is a British cruise line based at Carnival House in Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. It was originally a subsidiary of the freight transport company P&O and was founded in 1977. Along with P&O Cruises Australia, another former subsidiary of P&O, it has the oldest heritage of any cruise line in the world, dating to P&O's first passenger operations in 1837.
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The Royal Corps of Naval Constructors (RCNC) is an institution of the British Royal Navy and Admiralty for training in naval architecture, marine, electrical and weapon engineering. It was established by Order in Council in August 1883, on the recommendation of the naval architect Sir William White. Its precursor was the Royal School of Naval Architecture, London.
Sir Thomas John Parker is a British businessman. He is chairman of Laing O'Rourke and former chairman of Pennon Group, a director of Carnival Corporation & plc and lead non-executive director at the Cabinet Office. He has been a director or chairman of numerous other public companies including Airbus, Anglo American plc, Babcock International, British Gas, DP World, Lattice Group, National Grid plc and Ombu Group. He is a past president of the Royal Academy of Engineering, patron at the Centre for Process Innovation and a Visiting Fellow of the University of Oxford.
RMS Queen Mary 2 (QM2) is a British ocean liner. She has served as the flagship of the Cunard Line since January 2004, and as of 2024, is the only active, purpose-built ocean liner still in service. Queen Mary 2 sails regular transatlantic crossings between Southampton and New York City, in addition to short cruises and an annual world voyage.
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