Can the historic Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship be saved?
Calls to save the historic Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship have been intensifying amid revelations that the stunning and historic ocean liner is currently residing in a state of disrepair in Dubai.
The QE2 was operated by Cunard from 1969 to 2008 as a transatlantic liner and cruise ship and was one of the standard bearers of the emerging cruise ship industry at the time.
The served as the flagship of Cunard until she was eventually succeeded by the RMS Queen Mary 2.
When the ship was retired after 40 years of service it was sold to UAE government conglomerate Dubai World for 64 million pounds in 2008, who had originally intended to convert the historic, iconic cruise ship into a luxury hotel. But due to the economic downturn in 2013 plans to make this stalled dramatically and the QE2 remained languished in Port Rashid.
As the engine was turns off in 2013 the ship has suffered under pressure from the country’s hot, humid conditions leading to significant mould outbreaks. Concerned campaigners feel that if this sort of thing continues without any restorative work being done, the future of this iconic cruise ship could unfortunately the scrapheap, which would be a tragedy for such a beautiful iconic ship.
“Its scrap value is decreasing, and weighted against the cost of decontaminating the ship – as it’s got asbestos – it could probably be bought for about £3million,” said Rob Lightbody, a member of online campaign group The QE2 Story told The Telegraph. “The options now are to scrap it – but clearing it out would cost millions and millions – or just leave it somewhere. It’s just sitting in Dubai. Nothing has happened to it in the last two and a half years. There’s no power. There’s no air. She’s filthy."
And Mr Lightbody is not the only person concerned with the fate of the historic ship.
Louis De Sousa worked on the QE2 between 1990 and 1999 and told the Telegraph the situation regarding the ship was confusing and disheartening, “Her future most likely will be the scrapyard. Of course it is sad. But I truly don’t believe in hotel ships. If you are going to save a ship then have her as such. Dubai just wanted to rip her apart and turn her to into something like Las Vegas.”
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