The 10 Largest Ocean Liners Ever Built
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- Опубликовано: 21 сен 2024
- Ocean liners gained significant renown during the 1900s. Ocean liners and cruise ships differ in terms of their speed, manoeuvrability, and hull strength. The primary function of ocean liners is to transport individuals between continents, necessitating the use of streamlined deep V-hulls capable of withstanding inclement weather conditions. While cruise ships are capable of performing that function, it is not their primary purpose. Modern cruise ships are structurally sound, although they primarily resemble stationary hotels rather than swift transportation vessels. The initial vessels of several prominent cruise lines were originally ocean liners that were subsequently converted into cruise ships. Which ten ocean liners are the largest in the world?
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the Queen Mary 2 used to power across the ditch in 6 days but the fuel burn was huge, by slowing down 6 knots it saved 20% ea way but only added one extra day to the crossing. Over a million quid was earned on ea crossing, a huge operation win.
I'm sorry, but I have to. The SS Auguste Victoria? The RMS Lusitania displaced 31,550 long tons and her sister RMS Mauretania displaced 31,938 long tons. And since you decided to separately mention the SS Vaterland and the RMS Majestic, then you should have included RMS Olympic (45,324 long tons, older sister of the Titanic) and the RMS Berengaria (53,000 tons; originally SS Imperator, sister to the SS Vaterland and SS Bismarck). And what about the RMS Aquitania (49,430 tons), SS Bremen (55,600 tons), SS Europa (55,500 tons), and SS Rex (45,800 tons)? Sure, the RMS Titanic is bigger than the Rex, but certainly not the Auguste Victoria. I can understand that the HMHS Britannic doesn't count since she never served as an ocean liner, but the rest of those ships should have counted.
Queen Mary 2 was built in France, at the Saint Nazaire shipyards, for the records 😊 Also, it is a true ocean liner which can withstand the worst weather conditions in the North Atlantic ocean which is something that cruise ships are not designed to do ....
The RMS Majestic was actually originally the SS Bismarck and was a sister ship of the Vaterland. She was handed over to White Star because RMS Britannic was sunk by a German mine in the Mediterranean.
They are not going to raise the brittanic since it will just topple apart.
Please put Persian subtitles in the videos
good morning excellent the buzz thanks for the morning video
Many ocean liners have been replaced by passenger jets and aircraft
Can you do the 10 Biggest Container Ships in 2023
This video is completely wrong. The ships aren't even ranked properly based off of the figure given. Many ships were left out of this list as well. Titanic isn't even in the top 15 Largest Ocean Liners in all actuality.
nice
The original Queen Elizabeth was in fact larger than the France/Norway. Only the QE’s length was exceeded by the France not her size. They should actually have their positions switched.
Some help for you:
- Cunard (as in, the Cunard Line) is pronounced, "Cue-Nard" or "Kew-Nard", _not_ "Cunn-ard" or "Cuh-nard".
- In spite of being a spot higher on your list, SS Normandie - which had a great rivalry with RMS _Queen Mary_ especially in the 1930's - was not always successful in the contest for the Blue Riband, against RMS _Queen Mary_ in some years. The Normandie came along with French baroque interiors and lavish decor, though the literal Art Decor period interiors on the RMS _Queen Mary_ were very impressive in their own right and she was considered highly. The French prided themselves on lavishness and opulence whereas the British prided themselves on the experience and the classiness of the experience.
- The Blue Riband 🏁🔷 was a Westbound race to cross the Atlantic the fastest (as an ocean liner) which ran from, well, there are different ways of looking at it, with the official term unofficially beginning to be used (a term, borrowed from horse racing in the 19th century, and used to describe ships racing for the accolade of being the fastest across the ocean) In one sense, the unofficial origins of the unofficial 'ship race', was in the 1830's (e.g. 1838), way back then. Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS _Great Western_ in 1838, is one of the earliest examples of this becoming more recognised.
However, _Sirius_ was the ship used in 1838, for the then record breaking voyage, as SS _Great Western_ still needed her engines (her construction, delayed and running overschedule, due to the scale of Brunel's ambition; in many ways, she was oversized and ahead of her time, in those early days) It was the Scottish steamer _Sirius_ which was used in the Irish Sea mostly prior to that, to cross the Atlantic in record speed. Odious Scottish shipping merchant, Macgregor Laird, had suggested SS _Sirius_ be used instead, which the official, 'British and American Steam Navigation Company', took seriously (no pun intended) and went ahead with.
SS _Sirius_ left from Cork, Ireland. It must be said, though, that Brunel's SS _Great Western_ had not only left Avonmouth (Bristol), England, some _four days later_ (Brunel, frantically rushing her into service and making sure it's engines were working), but was merely _one day_ behind SS _Sirius_ when she arrived in New York. In other words, SS _Great Western_ had a 4 day delay, set off from a point much further to the East (Bristol is about ~255 miles/410.38 km/221.59 nautical miles to the East of Cork) And SS _Great Western_ was also much heavier than SS _Sirius_ at 2,300 tons displacement, against 1,990 tons displacement.
It took SS _Sirius_ 18 days, 4 hours and 22 minutes, at ~8.03 knots (or ~14.87 km/h, or ~9.2397 mph), to cross from Cork to New York. Cork is on the South-East Coast of Ireland. However, it took SS _Great Western_ leaving from Bristol, just a day longer. Quite impressive really for the year 1838. Keep in mind that the normal voyage across the Atlantic was 35-40 days plus, in that era (and in previous eras, had been even longer than that sometimes, up to or over 50-60 days if the winds were bad)
Technically, SS _Sirius_ did 'win' the race, though only really held the title for a single day, because SS _Great Western_ had crossed the Atlantic at ~8.66 knots (or ~16.04 km/h, or ~9.9667 mph) in a time which must have been about 19 days and some change. Also note that SS _Sirius_ had only even managed to do what it did, by overloading itself with coal and keeping passenger numbers down to just 45.
They winged it a bit, and SS _Sirius_ was a rather small ship for such massive voyages. She wouldn't be in that role for long. SS _Great Western_ was clearly the superior ship. Beating SS _Great Western_ to New York, proved very little, because Brunel's great ship would very clearly have won had they both set off from the same port at the same time, as anyone with common sense could see.
When she arrived in New York in 1838, she still had 200 tons of coal (whereas SS _Sirius_ had been reduced to just 15 tons of coal and that, after overloading herself dangerously with a lot more coal than she normally would, as well as burning boxes of resin to preserve her coal in the middle of the voyage) SS _Great Western_ would eventually cross the Atlantic faster, in between 1838 and 1840, as she settled into the role. The average speed she was achieving, was about 7.95-8.0 knots to New York (westwards) and some 9.5-9.55 knots homeward bound (eastward)
This meant she could cross the Atlantic westwards in 16 days, and eastwards in 13 days 9 hours. For the time, this was a remarkable achievement. She served with distinction and laid the foundations for many later ships to follow. In 1843, SS _Great Western_ laid down a record by her own standards, of some ~10.03 knots (or ~18.58 km/h, or ~11.5450 mph) This, later on in her career, which doesn't always guarantee faster speeds due to ageing effects.
This was a time (in the mid-19th century) more specifically, when various iterations of paddle-steamers were crossing the Atlantic, not quite yet the great steamships and advanced ocean liners of the late 19th century onward. The term, 'Blue Riband', really didn't come into common use until about the 1910's. Before then, it was more of an informal competition between rival shipping forms and postal ships, trying to outdo each other in size, opulence and speed.
By the time we see the state of play in the 1890's, whereby a great rivalry existed between some countries, it had really begun to take shape (particularly in terms of a contest between Britain and Germany; though the rivalry between Britain and France was also a thing slightly later on) By which point, it became more of an unwritten rule that ship captains - and the companies they were representing - of the best ships wanted to try and win the honour of being the 'Blue Riband' winner.
I explained the _Sirius_ VS _Great Western_ thing, because it contextualises some of the early origins of the concept of the 'Blue Riband'. Although the term itself did not yet exist in the time of these two examples in rivalry, the point is, there you go; there was a rivalry. And so, _technically_ SS _Sirius_ was the first unofficial, retrospectively viewed, 'spiritual Blue Riband holder', in a way. Even so, SS _Great Western_ beat her speed record after literally just 1 day. And had they raced fairly, from the same port and at the same sort of time (at least within an hour of each other leaving the same port) then it's very obvious SS _Great Western_ would have beaten her to get to New York, probably 2-3 days earlier.
Over time, after further generations of steamships came and went, the 1890's saw the Germans become a major rival to the British in terms of the transatlantic crossing records. This _still_ wasn't formally called the 'Blue Riband', and wouldn't be, until the 1910's officially speaking. But the rivalry was already there. The story of the _Sirius_ VS _Great Western_ was repeated with other famous rivalries across the 19th and 20th centuries. With each generation, the ships became faster and faster, as they competed to be the best. Eventually, the generation of ships SS _Great Western_ had belonged to, were made to look very slow indeed. Such is the way of things.
In the end, the SS Normandie won the Blue Riband 3 times versus the 2 times RMS _Queen Mary_ won. However, the Normandie's first win had been when she was the new challenger on the scene, taking the crown from the competition. All told, the British built ships won the Blue Riband, officially, 25 times. This was the most wins of any country while such a thing as a Blue Riband race even mattered to anyone. This golden age, as it were, of transatlantic ocean liners competing to be the fastest, was literally overshadowed and overflown by the rise of commercial airlines in the 1950's (about the time when most people really stopped caring for the most part, about the Blue Riband) If aircraft could take people back and forth across the Atlantic so much faster, why would most people care?
Well, the allure of the ocean liners, and their legacy from Victorian and Edwardian times, of being increasingly lavish and luxurious, is that during their peak of power, they were the envy of the world and a symbol of national technological and industrial achievement. They were moving works of art, beloved of their passengers, captains and crews. There is a great deal of love around the likes of SS Normandie, and RMS _Queen Mary_ for a reason. Now, the RMS _Queen Mary II_ is flying the flag for Cunard and will continue to do so for years to come. Cunard, one of the great survivors in terms of the old companies. In the old days, Cunard was just one of the many competing companies. Their ships - such as the famous _Mauretania_ - would hold the Blue Riband for long periods (e.g. _Mauretania_ held it for about 20 years until the German ship Bremen took the Blue Riband off them; only for the British and Americans to clap back again, and so on, and so forth)
[part 1 of 4]
[part 2 of 3] It began mainly as a British VS British company competition, then it evolved into the Germans, French, Italians and Americans getting involved as well. The last 'official' winner of the old Blue Riband competition, was the SS _United States_ which was very fast at 38.32 knots or about 44 mph (or 70.97 km/h) This enabled SS _United States_ to cross the Atlantic in 3 days, 10 hours and 42 minutes going flat out. By comparison, the fastest RMS _Queen Mary_ managed to cross the Atlantic, was 3 days, 22 hours and 42 minutes, for an average speed of 32 knots. In fairness, RMS _Queen Mary_ was an older generation of ocean liner/super ocean liner (RMS _Queen Mary_ was launched in 1934, SS _United States_ was launched in 1951)
RMS _Queen Mary_ transported over 2 million people across the Atlantic, back and forth, in her long service career, and that included over 840,000 soldiers during WWII (when she was turned over to the Ministry of War - aka Ministry of Defence as it became post-war - to be gutted out, having most of her luxurious interiors stripped out to fit more soldiers in, and having her repainted 'ship grey' in the manner of the Royal Navy) At her size and scale, this made her a colossal, silver-grey leviathan shimmering in the Sun. Yet if it was an overcast day, and she was moving apace, against grey skies, she was quite difficult to see, even for her sheer size. In WWII, She served as a troop transport ship. In her capacity in that role, she had her portholes blacked out, and she was a grey or grey-silver colour instead of her usual, resplendent black and red livery as a luxury Cunard ocean liner.
She could transport up to 15,000 soldiers from the United States at a time, in a single trip; albeit, at that point, packed to the rafters and not enjoying the same luxury that the pre-war and post-war passengers would enjoy (before and after the 'War Years' phase of RMS _Queen Mary_ occurred) While she was a metallic looking leviathan ferrying soldiers to Britain, she was nicknamed, 'the Grey Ghost', for obvious reasons. She'd appear as a gigantic silver-grey beast out of the horizon, carrying well over a division's worth of soldiers. And she was fast.
The main reason for that nickname, besides being repainted to look grey or silvery-grey, was the fact she was running the gauntlet of U-boats back and forth across the Atlantic, often at top speed or a high speed beyond normal cruising speed. She was making very good time and usually took a little under 4 days to make a single crossing (so 7-8 days total there and back, not including any time in port in New York in the USA or Halifax in Canada) Earlier on she'd normally carry about 5,500 troops, as she did from Australia. However, this number grew and grew as the war continued, to the point that by February-March 1942 she could carry >8,400 troops plus >900 crew; and this keep rising. 10,000 by May 1942, and then >15,000 plus 863 crew by August 1942.
Impressively, between 11th May and the 16th May, RMS _Queen Mary_ became the first ship _ever_ in human history to carry a complete division across the ocean; the First Armoured Infantry Division (15,125 troops, not including the 863 crew and officers of RMS _Queen Mary_ herself) A staggering feat. And even so heavily laden with soldiers, she would have obviously been making the best possible speed to Britain, because of the fact that U-boats were around and the best defence for a ship like this, was travelling fast or quite fast in large convoys. AKA, faster than U-boats could normally keep up with or engage with torpedoes. Her speed was her salvation.
This sometimes came at a terrible cost, though; on the 2nd October 1942, RMS _Queen Mary_ ran headlong into the British Light Cruiser, HMS _Curacoa_ (D41) This 4,190 ton C-class light cruiser, launched in the previous World War, in 1917, was no match for the gigantic 'Grey Ghost' of over 81,237 tonnes. Tragically, HMS _Curacoa_ was providing escort to the ocean liner, on the way into the Western Approaches, as the ocean liner drew closer to Britain. RMS _Queen Mary_ was, at that time, carrying some 10,000 American troops, from the US 29th Division.
A curious trick the RMS _Queen Mary_ used to evade and confuse German submarines, was using a gigantic zig-zag pattern, as she sailed. This somewhat added more time to the voyage, though it made her a more difficult target. This manoeuvre was called, 'Zig-Zag Pattern No 8'; entirely carried out to evade potential submarine attacks. U-boats prowled the oceans and many millions of tonnes of shipping were lost in that war. So she had a very good reason to be taking these precautions.
However, it could go wrong. Badly, fatally wrong. Being quite elderly by October 1942, the WWI vintage light cruiser HMS _Curacoa_ had rendezvoused with RMS _Queen Mary_ to the North of Ireland, and remained on a straight course at her _own_ top speed of 25 knots. She was slower, then, than RMS _Queen Mary_ in speed of the vast displacement differential and light cruisers by their very design, being light and nimble. This demonstrates just how powerful RMS _Queen Mary_ was in her day. One of the true thoroughbred ocean liners of her day, outpacing light cruisers trying to escort and protect her into British waters.
Tragically, there was a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of whom had Right of Way. They both misread the nautical guidance in, 'The Rule of the Road'. The Captain and Commodore of RMS _Queen Mary_ named Commodore Sir Cyril Gordon Illingworth, thought that he had Right of Way and assumed the light cruiser would give way, as he continued to steer the ocean liner on an evasive manoeuvre zig-zag pattern. At different points the light cruiser - also trying to dodge potential enemy aircraft and submarines as a standard procedure - was also zig-zagging but it maintained the linear, mean course for the time being. RMS _Queen Mary_ even while zig-zagging and not technically at full-speed, was hitting over 28.5 knots (52.8 km/h; 32.8 mph), outpacing the old light cruiser by about 3.5 knots and inevitably overtaking her.
Sadly, the Captain of HMS _Curacoa_ named John Wilfred Boutwood, didn't understand this, and maintained his speed in a straight line, which meant that when RMS _Queen Mary_ inevitably overtook him (even while zig-zagging) the two were not steaming on parallel lines anymore, and instead, collided at zig-zagging intercept angles, with a horrendous inevitability. As eye witness Alfred Johnson said in a later interview with the BBC News:
"We could see our escort zig-zagging in front of us - it was common for the ships and cruisers to zig-zag to confuse the U-boats. In this particular case however the escort was very, very close to us. I said to my mate "You know she's zig-zigging all over the place in front of us, I'm sure we're going to hit her."
And sure enough, the Queen Mary sliced the cruiser in two like a piece of butter, straight through the six-inch armoured plating".
By 13:32 the officer of the watch on board RMS _Queen Mary_ had already perceived the danger and was ordering the zig-zag course to be interrupted to try and avoid HMS _Curacoa_ as best they could. However, upon hearing this command from his subordinate officer, Illingworth was reported to have said: "Carry on with the zig-zag. These chaps are used to escorting; they will keep out of your way and won't interfere with you". Unfortunately, this was not what happened. Boutwood saw the danger and tried to turn hard but it was too late. RMS _Queen Mary_ and all 81,000 plus tonnes of her, rammed clean through HMS _Curacoa_ at roughly 5 minutes past 2 pm. The ocean liner slammed right into the light cruiser amidships, slicing her clean in half.
HMS _Curacoa_ had her aft (rear) end sink almost immediately, though what remained otherwise, did so for a few minutes longer. She was to soon to be completely sunk and hundreds of her crew were in the water. How many exactly were killed by the impact outright will never be known, though it's likely that most of them may have been alive at that point (albeit, having had a terrible shock and likely being disoriented in the water) Some would have died immediately, others probably drowned in the aft section which sank so rapidly after being ripped away near instantly. A real nightmare situation.
And because they were acting under orders from the top brass to never stop in case of U-boats waiting and taking advantage, to cause a far more horrendous loss of life in that scenario, it was the case that RMS _Queen Mary_ steamed on, leaving the survivors of HMS _Curacoa_ in the cold North Atlantic waters. It must have been a horrific decision but had they stopped and been torpedoed, a tragedy far greater in scale than what happened to RMS _Titanic_ in 1912, in terms of numbers at least, could probably have occurred. And although there probably _wasn't_ a U-boat in the immediate vicinity, and they probably _could_ have stopped to rescue survivors, the risks were simply deemed too great, and they would not stop. It must have been heartbreaking for all involved.
[part 3 of 3] Consequently, many men of the Royal Navy were left to drift for hours in the water, which must have rapidly felt freezing to them. RMS _Queen Mary_ had damaged her bow, crumpling it in the collision like a crashed car, but she otherwise made best possible speed back to port. However, she did radio the other warships in the wider perimetre of escort that the Royal Navy had provisioned for RMS _Queen Mary_ in her voyage. Although HMS _Curacoa_ was tragically far too close to RMS _Queen Mary_ and with terrible consequences in being so, the Royal Navy also operated with escorts further out (several miles further out) in a broader screen, to protect against U-boats and aircraft. As such, this meant some hope of rescue did remain for survivors in the sea.
Roughly 7 nautical miles (or 13 km, or 8.1 standard miles) away, HMS _Bramham_ (L51), a Type II Hunt-class Destroyer, and HMS _Cowdray_ (L52), another Type II Hunt-class Destroyer, were providing escort in a wider screening role. HMS _Curacoa_ had been more the visual, close-support escort training anti-aircraft guns to the skies in case of German aircraft and ready to do whatever it could against submarines (though she was primarily, literally designated as serving in the role of 'anti-aircraft cruiser')
In other words, the destroyers were out there to keep an eye out for prowling U-boats, and the light cruiser was there to throw up a hail of AA fire if the Germans sent dive-bombers to attack, as they so often did to many British ships (civilian, merchant and military/naval) These two (Bramham and Cowdray) were not the only ships in the convoy, besides Curacoa, though they were the ones picking up survivors.
Sadly, it would still take hours for the convoy warships led by HMS _Bramham_ and HMS _Cowdray_ to find the site, and this likely added a lot of fatalities to those killed earlier on in the immediate moment of the collision. 101 survivors, including Captain Boutwood, were pulled from the sea. HMS _Curacoa_ originally had a crew of roughly ~460 at most points in her career prior. It is unknown exactly how many were on board HMS _Curacoa_ at the time of her sinking, as there has been some variation in suggested figures ever since it happened, in the intervening 4/5 of a century. It is likely the crew numbers ranged between about ~430-460, though this is hard to say. I've seen some sources which claim the crew was 337 but that was the total fatality number, so clearly some sources have it confused.
Approximately 337 of her officers and crew, were drowned or died of other reasons, including the impact of the collision and the freezing water perhaps being the reason some of them died after hours in the sea. May they liveth forever-more. Adding to the already dire tragedy, some of those whom died, were amongst those whom were rescued and had survived hours in the water, only to apparently die (of hypothermia and/or pneumonia perhaps?) later while on board HMS _Bramham_ and/or HMS _Cowdray_ (or perhaps there were some whom were physically, 'alive' but non-responsive or about to die, whom had seawater in their lungs; it's very difficult to tell and we'll probably never know at this point, nearly a century afterwards)
It might seem cruel for RMS _Queen Mary_ to not stop for survivors herself, when she could more than fit them on board, though if she did get attacked by a U-boat the death toll of that day may have been 10 or 20 plus times worse. Hindsight is easy, foresight is hard. And making it even more macabre, is the fact that onboard RMS _Queen Mary_ herself, the American soldiers and the British crew, mostly didn't know about it away from the top deck and the bridge; they felt a small bump, and were none the wiser (that was because the sheer momentum and mass of the ocean liner, far exceeded the unfortunate victim HMS _Curacoa_ by orders of magnitude, and although it badly damaged the bow, that was it)
It was ultimately >81,000 tons slicing through 4,190 tons of metal. And it barely slowed her down at all. That's the long and short of it. Other than to say, the witnesses were sworn to secrecy due to wartime propaganda purposes and morale, and only after the war, were they allowed to save anything. The Admiralty (of the Royal Navy) took it to court after the war, though the judge and court ruled that the blame was 2/3's HMS _Curacoa_ and it's officers, and 1/3 RMS _Queen Mary_ and it's crew, and that there would be no legal action against Cunard-White Star. They appealed this court decision to the House of Lords, though this went nowhere and the decision was upheld, and no there was nothing more done about it, ever.
Ultimately, RMS _Queen Mary_ would go on to ferry troops back and forth across the Atlantic, until the war ended (and post-war, someone had to take those soldiers home, and the venerable 'Grey Ghost' was one of the ships taking American soldiers back home again after it was over) And yes, that nickname, 'Grey Ghost', took on a slightly more sinister aspect if one even had the awareness of the collision with HMS _Curacoa_ (and even more darkly, the irony was, almost nobody did, so people using the nickname, wouldn't have realised the potential other interpretation of that nickname, because nearly nobody outside of High Command even knew about it)
Probably all of the 10,000 soldiers on board her did not have any idea what happened, and even the survivors of HMS _Curacoa_ and the men of HMS _Bamham_ and HMS _Cowdray_ were sworn to secrecy and not allowed to say anything about it, facing very serious charges and imprisonment if they did. It must have been a slightly more ominous nickname, 'Grey Ghost', for those who _did_ know. The fact they didn't stop, would have only added to that obliviousness, because they were just in their cramped compartments for the voyage, and chilling, talking etc and to them it would have felt like they hit a bit of rough waves or bad weather or something, for a few seconds. Really grim when you think about it like that. Those poor souls on HMS _Curacoa_ :(
Anyhow, RMS _Queen Mary_ would break her own troop transport record in between the 25th and the 30th of July 1943, when she carried a staggering 15,740 troops as well as 943 crew, for a total of 16,683 people; the greatest number of people on a vessel afloat, ever, at that time. She really did contribute a great deal to the war effort. The nightmarish business with HMS _Curacoa_ was a tragic accident, during that wartime career, though she made many perilous voyages in U-boat infested waters, and had been spotted by many a U-boat captain, only, for them to never stand much of a chance with engaging her, due to the speed and zig-zagging she was maintaining. One gets an idea of how impressive she must have been, the 'Grey Ghost'.
That said, after transporting tens of thousands more men to Europe, Victory in Europe finally came, and after that point (VE Day; on 7th May 1945), she was well on the way to returning to civilian operations. Her funnels were repainted in Cunard's colours (red, capped by a band of black at the top of the funnels) on 29th August 1945. As much as SS Normandie and SS _United States_ won other accolades, and achieved different things in their own right, the majesty and service record of RMS _Queen Mary_ always makes one wonder in awe. She eventually wasn't the biggest or fastest anymore. But so was this the case and the fate of so many of those that had been beloved before her in turn. But she, in my view, was the greatest of them all, on balance.
Although RMS _Queen Mary II_ today (and since 2004) is clearly far larger and grander in a lot of ways, she'll never quite have the story of her namesake launched 70 years before her, RMS _Queen Mary_ (and that is hardly the fault RMS _Queen Mary II_ as the Second World War was obviously a particularly dramatic and dangerous time) Although by volume of passengers per year and by popularity, the modern cruise ships will have far more people buying tickets, they simply are not the same as true ocean liners. They are carbon fibre tower block milk cartons floating about relatively safe seas (and sometimes they can't even manage that) while the true ocean liners are like sleek greyhounds of the sea. They are the real inheritors of centuries of transatlantic technological races between rival firms. They are the inheritors of the grand tradition of the White Star Line and Cunard, amongst others.
And although the Edwardian Era, Gilded Age vintage Olympic-class - RMS _Olympic_ /RMS _Titanic_ & RMS/HMHS _Britannic_ - became considered infamously 'cursed' for two of them having foul fates, the amalgamation between Cunard and White Star allowed their legacy to live on through Cunard, their former rival. And Cunard would be the great survivor, still around today in 2023. And for that, we should all be grateful. They survived competition, world wars and the inevitable rise of commercial airlines and package holidays. They are _still_ going strong, in their own right. It's definitely something I'd love to do, to travel in style on RMS _Queen Mary II_ one day. There is something special about them. All the power to them, I say. RMS _Queen Mary II_ the last of the great greyhounds of the sea. Pure class. Golden.
P.S. - (or 'part 4') The all-time winners of the Blue Riband went like this (of the 35 Atlantic ocean liners to hold the Blue Riband):
Great Britain: 25 times.
Germany: 5 times.
USA: 3 times.
France: 1 time.
Italy: 1 time.
Of these:
- 13 were Cunarders (plus Queen Mary of Cunard-White Star)
- 5 were White Star (pre-merger with Cunard)
- 4 were owned by Norddeutscher Lloyd
- 2 were owned by by Collins.
- 2 were owned by Inman.
- 2 were owned by Guion.
Then there was 1 _each_ by British American, Great Western, Hamburg-America, the Italian Line, Compagnie Générale Transatlantique and finally the United States Lines (so, another 6 between them)
The record set by United States in 1952 remains unbroken by any passenger liner. However, this is mainly, only because Cunard focused on luxury over speed, because in the jet age, there was little to no point competing for the Blue Riband anymore anyway (the competition technically still 'exists' but it is not quite what it used to be or taken as seriously as it was, say, in the 1930's or 1950's etc)
The next-longest period through which the Blue Riband was retained was ~19 years, held from 1909 to 1929 by Mauretania. The shortest period = 6 weeks, by Bremen from July to August 1933. The chances are, if Cunard _really_ wanted to, they could have taken the Blue Riband back decades ago if they designed RMS _Queen Mary 2_ in favour of being speedy, rather than super luxurious. Instead, they catered to the (often rather wealthy) passengers instead of chasing some arbitrary and ultimately needless Blue Riband.
Also note: RMS _Queen Mary 2_ has a top speed of about ~30 knots (56 km/h or ~35 mph), and a usual service/cruising speed of 26 knots (48 km/h or ~30 mph) However, her tonnage is some 149,215 GT, much larger of a vessel than her namesake (or SS _United States_ for that matter) while being only a bit slower in the grand scheme of things. It really doesn't matter, especially if the whole point is to have a good time on the ship which most people on board it would presumably want to last longer, not be over faster.
Again, if Cunard really _wanted to_ they could probably have made a ship fitting the description of 'ocean liner' which beat the top-speed SS _United States_ managed in the 1950's, decades ago. But they didn't, mostly because they weren't interested in doing so because they wanted to make more money and win more hearts with the luxury side of things. Makes sense.
Note: Edit: just remembered the format of expressing 'Queen Mary Two' is 'Queen Mary 2' (as in, RMS _Queen Mary 2_ not RMS _Queen Mary II_ though I had used that latter expression mostly in my comments) The correct form is RMS _Queen Mary 2_ officially. I'm just used to using the Roman Numerals version though it really is RMS _Queen Mary 2_ nothing else.
Ur voice so cute mam
An even bigger ship was completed this year. Oasis of the Seas larger that Queen Mary 2. The ship completed in 2009 was once the largest ship of all time.Osasis has a tonnage of 225,282 gross tons, and the ship has room for 5,600 passengers.
thats a cruise ship dude not a liner
Beautiful video thank you so much