QUEEN ELIZABETH 2
- 36 YEARS OF ACHIEVEMENT
QE2 has…
completed 1,383 voyages with an
average speed of 24.75 knots
sailed 5.3
million nautical miles – that’s more than any
other ship ever and the equivalent of
travelling to the moon and back 12 times
carried almost
three million passengers
completed 796
Atlantic crossings
called at New
York 705 times and Southampton 651 times
completed 23
full World Cruises
nine diesel
electric engines – each the size of a double
decker bus
the most
powerful propulsion plant on a non-military
vessel
the largest
marine motors ever built
the largest
cinema at sea (capacity 531)
the only
Synagogue at sea
been commanded
by 24 Captains
QE2 is…
probably the
most misnamed ship in the world. She is Queen
Elizabeth 2, not Queen Elizabeth II
the most famous
ship in operation
the only ship to
be awarded Five Stars by the RAC
the largest
consumer of caviar on earth
the fastest
merchant ship in operation, capable of speeds
of up to 34 knots (cruising speed 28.5 knots)
Unbelievable!
She cost just
over £29 million to build in 1969 – since then
Cunard has spent more than fifteen times that
amount on refits and refurbishments
The £100 million
cost of re-engining her in 1986 / 87 is the
largest amount ever spent on such a project.
Her steam turbines had taken her a total of
2,622,858 million nautical miles – the
equivalent of 120 times around the world – and
were replaced by the present diesel electric
propulsion system
On 13 June 1999,
QE2 exceeded 175,290 hours of steaming
time – that equates to exactly 20 years on the
move (including four leap years)
Cunard’s first
ship Britannia, would fit into QE2’s
Grand Lounge
One gallon of
fuel moves QE2 49.5 feet; with the
previous steam turbine engines, one gallon of
fuel moved the ship 36 feet
The diesel
electric system produces 130,000 hp, which is
the most powerful propulsion plant of any
merchant ship in the world
QE2 can
sail backwards (full speed astern is 19 knots)
faster than most cruise ships sail forwards
The 95 MV total
power output is enough to light a city the
size of Southampton
QE2 sends
all its used cooking oil ashore for
reconstituting into animal feed
277,000 metres
of cling film is used very year, enough to go
around the Queen Elizabeth 2 nearly 731 times
An estimated one
million turned out to see her when she called
at Liverpool for the first time on Tuesday 24
July 1990
The ship’s fuel
oil tank capacity of 4,381.4 tonnes is
sufficient for 10 days’ sailing at 32.5 knots,
equalling 7,800 miles
QE2
consumes 18.05 tonnes of fuel per hour –
that’s 433 tonnes per day
Heineken and
Becks together account for almost 50% of the
beer consumed
Her rudder
weighs 80 tons
Pound for pound,
the most expensive food item on board is
saffron (2.5 times the value of Beluga caviar)
The number of
tea bags used each day would supply a family
for an entire year
To eat QE2’s
daily consumption of breakfast cereal, one
person would have to eat at least two packets
a day for more than a year
Enough fruit
juice is used in one year to fill up QE2’s
swimming pools nearly 8 times
Approximately
600,000 litres of beverage are consumed
annually
The kitchens and dining rooms have:
glassware 51000
items
crockery /
dishes 64000 items
cutlery 35850
items
kitchenware 7921
items
tableware 64531
items
Linen consumption on a transatlantic
voyage:
tablecloths 2932
oven cloths 1000
pillow cases
3100
laundry bags
3250
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