The seriousness of the issue wasn't known until further investigation after she docked late Saturday night around 22:00 (I was down at the docks to watch her in). The crossing being cancelled at around 10:00 on Sunday morning.
Contrary to the likes of the Daily Echo (our local inaccurate rag) she wasn't towed in by the two tugs she took having sailed up the Solent and Southampton Water as if everything was normal. She took the two tugs as it was pretty windy down at the docks and they are extra insurance and it's something she has done many times before, such as when I went down to the docks to watch her arrival back in January just before she set off on this world cruise. Some of the speculation on social media is absolutely crazy! She also made a maximum speed of 24 knots between her previous port of call (Tenerife from memory) and Southampton, mostly going 22 to 23 knots.
I suspect it is her pods given her well known long running issues with them (not to mention Captain Andrew Hall announcing the problem as a mechanical/technical issue when saying she'd be arriving back here early), and being contacted the other day by a former deck officer who said they were frequently overheating and the steerable pair were frequently jamming in place when he served on her in 2019. Another source referred to 2 "engines" being broken which seems to imply this too given her diesels are the most reliable part of her propulsion plant although her gas turbines have had their share of issues over the years such as a fire in their compartment when my Dad was onboard in 2015 in Lisbon.
If it is a pod issue, I also think the high speed (for her these days at least) passage she made to get back here can be explained by the fact she has redundancy with her pods (operating with 3 for a number of months after 1 was damaged docking back around 2007) and by the fact that pods cannot be inspected properly while underway and at sea so the extent of any damage or a fault will not necessarily be known - a good example of this being the pod failure and pod damage Anthem Of The Seas experienced while in very heavy weather back in 2016.
I have been wondering if she'll imminently depart for a shipyard given we no longer have the infrastructure here in Southampton to drydock her and the problem seems to be serious enough for this unless her engineers are able to work a miracle. Her usual drydock at Blohm+Voss is occupied for the forseeable future by Mein Schiff 1 so I have been hoping Harland & Wolff might step up which would be nice given their "what if" connection to QM2. It would be a shorter, quicker, and perhaps less risky passage there than going to the likes of Damen or Navantia down in France and Spain. One of the sources has said she'll take 10 to 12 days to repair (to be taken with a pinch of salt however given it's not confirmed/official information) which made me wonder if her 3 week October refit could be brought forwards at short notice although I gather that would be wishful thinking!
She would not have sped across the Atlantic with or without passengers on account of the bean counters at Carnival House to say the very the least!
The crew have been getting it in the neck on some social media, which makes my blood boil. They have been criticised for the last minute cancellation of her crossing as some people say they must've known how serious her problem was some time before the cancellation, whereas as mentioned above they probably didn't know the extent of the problem until the last minute. They will be equally if not more disappointed and frustrated than the passengers who had their crossing cancelled and some of the passengers and other people on social media that are now throwing their toys out of the pram.
Furthermore, I'd much rather be safe than sorry on a transatlantic crossing at any time of year. Also, you know the people on social media throwing their toys out of the pram and taking it out on the crew would be the first to criticise if she had sailed not fully seaworthy and had suffered a major propulsion failure mid Atlantic in rough weather and people had been knocked about or worse. The levels of ignorance displayed in such throwing toys out of the pram behaviour and elsewhere has been a reminder of how much sea blindness there is now and the worst aspects of social media.
Finally, Cunard were very quick to give a full refund etc etc as detailed in one of the photos below. It's not good they haven't organised charter flights though, maybe they will sort that out now?
Topic: QUEEN MARY 2 Engine Issues -23 April 2023 Transatlantic Crossing Cancelled (Read 1557 times)
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Jul 05, 2020, 04:05 PM
