QE2 to sail for final time

I have see huge ships being towed at sea, and had no problems. The huge aircraft carrier ,Intrepid was recently towed from berth on the Hudson river

and not a hitch.

I agree with glojo, that towing a ship a normal , safe process

Towing such a big ship halfway around the world is a very dangerous operation. If they get her there under her own power, it will be a much safer option.

Hi Lanky,

 

This is the carrier that was towed from Russia, all the way to China and weighs in at approximately 60,000 tons

 

 

QE2 on the other hand weighs in at approximately 48000 and is of course a much sleeker vessel.

 

I did a quick bit of research regarding biggest or heaviest vessels that are towed long distances and the figures are mind blowing.. We are talking oil rigs\platforms and 600,000 tons is nothing to write home about. 900,000 tons plus are considered amongst the biggest, so my question still very much stands.

 

This alleged trip by the QE2 is supposed to be a one off. I dread to think of how much rust and corrosion there will be on that ship, especially on all the salt water piping. If those engines ever run again I can envisage huge chunks of rust being flushed through these pipes which will be so badly corroded that the only thing preventing them from leaking will be the immaculate paintwork.. Start up those engines and I can see the water pressure blasting through these weaened areas and creating even more havoc.

 

No doubt they will pressure test everything before daring to start her main engines, but you cannot, cannot prevent corrosion, especially on steel pipes that are designed to carry high pressure salt water and have been left standing for several years!!. Valves that have not been operated will have seized, seized as solidly as if theyu were actually welded.

 

I hope I am wrong but leaving a ship dead in the water is simply not conducive to a long life and low maintenance. She has been in dry dock to be painted and why not simply make that hull watertight and tow the thing?

 

In that picture I posted, you will see a tug at the stern of the carrier.. That vessel has the task of preventing the tow from overtaking, or damaging the lead tug, and of course it assists in controlling the towed ship making sure the stern of the carrier behaves itself :) (the wind would otherwise have a huge effect on that carrier)

This alleged trip by the QE2 is supposed to be a one off. I dread to think of how much rust and corrosion there will be on that ship, especially on all the salt water piping. If those engines ever run again I can envisage huge chunks of rust being flushed through these pipes which will be so badly corroded that the only thing preventing them from leaking will be the immaculate paintwork.. Start up those engines and I can see the water pressure blasting through these weaened areas and creating even more havoc.

 

)

 

At 1700 BST on 18 May 2002, the large passenger cruise ship Queen Elizabeth 2, left Southampton for a trans-Atlantic passage to New York. She had 1457 passengers and 973 crew on board.

At approximately 0200 UTC on 21 May, the senior watchkeeping engineer discovered a large sea water leak in the aft engine room. This was found to be caused by the perforation of a 250mm diameter sea water inlet pipe serving an evaporator used for producing fresh water.

Because the position of failure was between the isolating valve and the vessel’s skin, the ingress of sea water could not be stopped by closing this valve. After several efforts at effecting emergency repairs, the ingress of sea water was stopped using an ingenious arrangement of a flexible bladder, inserted into the failed pipe and then filled with compressed air. This allowed the vessel to reach New York safely, where permanent repairs were made.

During the emergency repairs, large quantities of sea water entered the aft engine room. Although some of this water was pumped into the vessel’s oily-water holding tanks, these were soon filled and several hundred tonnes were pumped directly overboard using the bilge injection system. In view of the direct risk to the vessel’s safety caused by flooding, this was in accordance with the provisions of anti-pollution regulations.

The pipe’s failure was found to have been caused by simple sea water corrosion. Although the pipe had been examined 21⁄2 years previously, as part of an approved five-year survey cycle, the degree of corrosion was difficult to assess because of the presence of a welded flange. Thorough internal cleaning and examination was also difficult because of the length and relatively small diameter of the pipe.

Recommendations have been addressed to MCA, Cunard and Lloyd’s Register of Shipping which, if implemented, should help to prevent a similar accident in the future

 

This happened when she was in service. I think you are correct.

 

David.

And there are literally hundreds of inaccessible or hard to access pipes, fittings, welds, etc. on any ship.

Thank you both and I recall the last HMS Ark Royal deploying for her last commission. She had not got far out to sea when water was discovered in places where sea water should not be!! :eek:;)

 

I am not sure but I believe emergency repairs were carried out and the ship beat a hasty return back to Portsmouth.

 

Emergency repairs are usually some type of damage control shoring\coffer dam and good old fashioned, very quick drying cement.

 

Just done a quick Google and whilst we do not see the temporary repair, we can have a very brief glimpse of a small and insignificant area below decks. Just imagine how much piping there would be on the QE2 and all their piping would have been left standing for quite literally years and years.

 

HMS Ark Royal

 

It is claimed the QE2 will do this last journey under her own power and who am I to disbelief that claim. I just find it needs clarification as it defies normal logic regarding how that ship will do this one, single, one off journey to a dockyard in Singapore? (Sambawang certainly brings back the odd memory or three!!!) :cool::o

Of course you all might be missing what is blindingly obvious to me

allowing who is involved :rolleyes:

 

Think "The World 2"

Edited November 27, 2013 by joysav

Hi Lanky,

 

This is the carrier that was towed from Russia, all the way to China and weighs in at approximately 60,000 tons

 

 

QE2 on the other hand weighs in at approximately 48000 and is of course a much sleeker vessel.

 

 

hi glojo….curious to find where you found the QE2 came in at 48000 tons, this by a quick wiki google on the interwebby thingy

 

Tonnage: 70,327 GT

 

sorry…part from that, Im not getting dragged into speculative supposition , ill leave it to much more experienced at it than me… :-)

Edited November 27, 2013 by roscoe39

So how come we recently saw a large aircraft carrier towed from Russia to China!

 

This was over a decade ago. It took four months, cost $5million, (plus how many millions more if it were present day?) and the life of one sailor after the carrier broke her lines and was adrift for four days.

 

The liner SS Constitution sank north of Hawaii while under tow in 1997.

 

The liner former SS America/Australis was destroyed on the coast of Fuerteventura, Canary Islands while under tow in 1994.

 

The liner former SS Montery/Matsonia/Lurline/Britanis sank near Cape Town, South Africa while under tow in 2000.

 

The Cunarder RMS Caronia (the Green Goddess) was destroyed on the coast of Guam while under tow in 1974.

Edited November 27, 2013 by stowaway2k

hi glojo….curious to find where you found the QE2 came in at 48000 tons, this by a quick wiki google on the interwebby thingy Tonnage: 70,327 GT

I suspect you're talking GT whilst another is talking Displacment, or Net, or another unit of measurement, Tonnage. The clue is in the words "weighs in", one should never, of course, talk about a merchant ship "weighing" "XX,000 tons" (as in gt), but TV reporters (and some books) do this all the time.

 

Speaking personally, I don't fancy the chances of QE2 surviving a long tow, too many old ships have been lost that way (stowaway2k points out a few). I imagine balancing the relative insurance costs (tow v own power) will dictate what happens next.

 

(why are they using a huge carrier to tow a small tug to the breakers in that photo? ;) :D :rolleyes: )

Edited November 27, 2013 by pepperrn

Hi Roscoe,

Pepper has as usual hit the head on the nail ;) and yes I had to do comparative weights. Warships are referred to by their displacement weight, these yer cruise ships\liners are measured much to my costs... by their gross tonnage, so I simply used the displacement weight of that liner, as opposed to her gross weight.

 

Another good point was insurance coverage vs cost of ship!! Way outside my pay-grade and not something I had really thought about. I was simply looking at this evolution on a costing basis of moving the ship from 'a' to 'b'

 

To highlight what has been said about unseen costs regarding towing...

 

Last year we had an incident where a Greek registered tug that was towing a derelict hulk (ex German Naval training ship) from Germany to Turkey. The master of the tug decided he wanted to check out his tow so he heaved to in the sheltered waters of Torbay.

 

The problem with this evolution is that you can bring the tug to a halt quite easily, stopping the towed vessel is not quite as easy!!! :eek: I am guessing that folks have already guessed what I am going to say next. Yup the tug was rammed and holed below her waterline, the hulk was also damaged, but not quite as bad.

 

Thankfully for all concerned, two Royal Navy vessels responded to the distress call, as did the local RNLI lifeboat that immediately launched and made best speed to the site and took off the tug's crew.

 

Thanks to the efforts of a damage control team from I believe HMS Lancaster, who managed to slow the ingress of water, the tug remained afloat and then a salvage tug arrived which then managed to finish off the job of sealing the hole and then its equipment pumped out the tons of water that had entered this unfortunate ship.

 

This on site salvage tug saved the tug which no doubt was well insured but.... The hulk had no real salvageable value apart from its worth in rusty scrap metal, no engines, no bronze, just a rusty hulk. The salvage companies were not interested in making any effort to save this hunk of rust and after fifteen hours this thing sank in the shallow waters of Torbay..

 

I am not going to speculate on the abilities of that Greek master, but yes, I do believe there are risks to towing the QE2 but she is a high value hull with a lot of value (she still has her main engines and of course those very expensive propellers. I posted that video of how a well maintained ship can suffer from the 'death watch beetle'..

 

I go along with those that believe it will cost a fortune to get QE2 fit to sail again under her own power. I have no idea how genuine the owners are, I simply did not believe their claims about getting the ship repaired and sailing to the Far East by the end of November.

 

Just found a brief reference to the 'Incredible Hulk saga' click

 

This is an up todate image of the aircraft carrier I highlighted being towed to China:

 

 

HMS Leviathan being towed off to that great dry-dock in the sky!

 

 

Bit of light hearted relief and could this happen if they attempt to tow the QE2?

 

Hi Roscoe,

Pepper has as usual hit the head on the nail ;) and yes I had to do comparative weights. Warships are referred to by their displacement weight, these yer cruise ships\liners are measured much to my costs... by their gross tonnage, so I simply used the displacement weight of that liner, as opposed to her gross weight.

 

 

Bit of light hearted relief and could this happen if they attempt to tow the QE2?

 

 

ahhhhhh now i get it…the weight without all us fat passengers on board…that sounds about right…. :-)

Edited November 27, 2013 by roscoe39

The last time a liner bearing the name Queen Elizabeth was sold to Hong Kong (a potential buyer in this case too) she ended up scathing fire, then sinking, and appearing in a successful James Bond film.

 

Isn't there a new Bond film due in 2015?

 

This made me laugh very hard. I am glad that she is going to be turned into a hotel I was getting a little nervous just watching her in Dubai sitting empty. (Without passengers)

FWIW, her arrival in Singapore has been updated to March 25, 2014.

Edited December 5, 2013 by BlueRiband

If QE2 does indeed sail for Singapore as announced those on the QM2 world voyage may have a chance to say "goodbye". March 19-25 QM2 is sailing from Caines, Australia to Kota Kinabalu, Malayasia. I don't know what route she takes but she will be in proximity to Singapore.

We are on the Queen Elizabeth and will be at Singapore AFTER the QE2 is due to arrive so as the saying goes...

 

Seeing will be believing

 

I have made very brief search using Mr Google, but I failed miserably to find any information regarding this latest date. Lots of recerences to broken promises, but nothing confirming that new date.

 

I am certainly not suggesting this is another speculative guesstimate, as I have no kinowledge, just an interest in the mechanics of getting this iconic ship to Singapore.

 

Does anyone know if it will be Sembawang? Certainly a big enough dockyard

A local report states that QE2 is in cold lay up. There is no smoke from her stack. Crew laundry and security vests draped over some stateroom railings appear to be the only signs of life on board.

A local report states that QE2 is in cold lay up. There is no smoke from her stack. Crew laundry and security vests draped over some stateroom railings appear to be the only signs of life on board.

Wasn't the professional team that were looking after her laid off last Christmas?

 

I am asking as I thought I read that this firm that was laid off were at least regularly runniong at least one main engine, but last year they were laid off (or the beginning of this year) Since then I understood that there were allegedly just 36 people employed to maintain the ship??

 

AsI keep saying I have no evidence that this trip is not going to take place... I just fail to understand how it can having been laid up for so long.

Just read a report from Saga about the retirement of Saga Ruby (ex Cunard Caronia) she is to be sold for conversion to.........a floating hotel in Asia.

 

David.

Until recently MarineTraffic had reported QE2's destination as Singapore with arrival on March 25th. The destination now reads Odessa with arrival July 7th. A quick Yahoo search didn't reveal anything new. :confused:

Edited February 19, 2014 by BlueRiband

Until recently MarineTraffic had reported QE2's destination as Singapore with arrival on March 25th. The destination now reads Odessa with arrival July 7th. A quick Yahoo search didn't reveal anything new. :confused:

 

Curiouser and curiouser.:eek::D

Until recently MarineTraffic had reported QE2's destination as Singapore with arrival on March 25th. The destination now reads Odessa with arrival July 7th. A quick Yahoo search didn't reveal anything new. :confused:

 

Is Odessa famous for scrapping ships?

Is Odessa famous for scrapping ships?

 

Not sure about that but it is a cruise port served by many mainline ships including Seabourn. How is this for a rumour: QE2 sold to Ukraine to become a Ukrainian cruise liner? The Ukrainians tell Mickey to stick his three or four times removed contract in his ear.:eek::D:D

Not sure about that but it is a cruise port served by many mainline ships including Seabourn. How is this for a rumour: QE2 sold to Ukraine to become a Ukrainian cruise liner? The Ukrainians tell Mickey to stick his three or four times removed contract in his ear.:eek::D:D

Do you read the news or Internet ?

There is a Revolution in the Ukraine . Not a place

For a cruise ship.:confused:

Do you read the news or Internet ?

There is a Revolution in the Ukraine . Not a place

For a cruise ship.:confused:

 

Yes, I do. Check out the cruise lines that call at Odessa. On the internet.:eek:

With the latest news from the Crimea I think we can expect another change of destination.