The venerable Queen Elizabeth 2 has long since become a floating legend. Launched in 1967, she was for three decades considered the last of her kind, a cherished and beloved remnant from the age of the great ocean liners. So Cunard’s decision, on the eve of the new Millennium, to build a new liner for the transatlantic service, caused widespread interest. The Queen Mary 2 would not have been a true Cunarder had she not embodied a number of superlatives and when she entered service in 2004 she was the longest, widest, highest and most expensive passenger ship ever built, at once a eulogy to maritime nostalgia and the embodiment of modern technology and design. To further build on the success of these two ships Cunard commissioned the Queen Victoria, launched in December 2007. Sporting the company’s classic livery — black hull, white superstucture and red funnel — the ship is employed exclusively for luxury cruises from her homeport of Southampton. Cunard’s new Queen Elizabeth will be in service in early 2011 and the author covers her design and commissioningrnrnIn this new, updated paperback edition the author describes the history of the Cunard Line, the first years in service of the Queen Mary 2, and the conception, building and launching of the Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth, before saying farewell to the QE2, which was retired in November 2009. This beautiful book is both a lavish tribute to the world’s best-known shipping line and an intriguing examination of the world’s most famous contemporary cruise liners.
