Not RMS!

[holynougat]

I am always quite surprised by the number of people who prefix Queen Elizabeth 2 with ‘RMS’. After the diesel engines were fitted she was MV.

I’m not sure why Cunard did not go for RMS when she was launched, I suppose back then there was no nostalgic connection with the prefix?

[Rob Lightbody]

I'm told that the reason that QE2 was never an RMS (!) is because 'ships had been boring long enough' and they were trying to break many connections with the past.   Documents exist proving that the ship was not an RMS, and recording the decision made, by whom, when and why - all before the ship entered service.

I look forward to correcting this in Wikipedia amongst other places, once I've had time to get the facts straight with documented proof!

[RMS Queen Elizabeth 2]

I've always fixed her as RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 as many people have said that about her. She must have been made RMS after Queens Mary and Elizabeth retired?

[Rob Lightbody]

Everybody just thought she was, because she was the last British transatlantic liner.

[RMS Queen Elizabeth 2]

Yeah I must admit I thought she was. QE2 was the only Liner Cunard had when she first entered service. Thats to what I know of but I think later on other vessels began coming in but QE2 was the only main ship they had then.

[Matt]

Wasnt she placed with RMS, simply for the fact that she carried mail for the British Postal Service, 'Royal Mail'?

This is what i thought she did, like Queen Mary 2? Or is she not an RMS aswell?

Matt

[holynougat]

QM2 is RMS, complete with Royal Mail post box.

QE2 was SS (steam ship) when she came into service and was redesignated MV after the new engines were fitted.

Having looked at the certificate of registry, that does not record the prefix of the ship - I could take a more detailed look, I suppose it is written somewhere.

[Peter Mugridge]

I had always thought the same as Beepers; that holding a Royal Mail surface mail contract automatically bestowed "RMS" upon any ship, at least for the crossings on which the mail contract was valid?

She did carry the surface mail when doing an Altantic crossing, did she not?

[Chris]

I believe that 'technically', after the re-engine QE2 was T.S.M.V - Twin Screw Motor Vessel - although MV was the most common prefix to her name.

[holynougat]

You need a Royal Mail contract in order to use the title RMS.

Can't comment on her early years, but she never used to carry mail towards the end of her life - I doubt the post office would have worked around her crusing / crossing schedule.

[highlander0108]

She did carry the mail back to the UK after 9-11.

[Stowaway2k]

Looking forward to Rob's documentation of the RMS question.
Cunard did indeed make a very strong effort to remove QE2 from Cunard's past, even to the point of implying that the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were "boring", as Rob mentioned, and thus Cunard's entire "Heritage".
Ironic that in recent years Cunard did a complete about-face on that very point, by turning to and relying on that boring past to sell QE2 and then QM2,and now QV and QE.
The press, probably by habit, from the very start reported on QE2 as "RMS", and as a result so did the public, up to the present day. A Google News archive search brings up example after example.
 Looking through all of my early QE2 material, I cannot find a single reference to QE2 by Cunard as RMS, and I think the Potter & Frost book doesn't mention the RMS question at all. 

[Peter Mugridge]

Would she have carried the surface mail on her Atlantic crossings, though, right up to the last one ( being the fastest vessel around )?

[jdl]

To the best of my knowledge the RMS pre-fix only refers to Royal Mail Ship

ie as others above have pointed out this is only supposed to be use by ships that carry mail in any format from the British Royal Mail.  The classification of the ships powerplant be it SS or MV is of no significance to the RMS - the ship can be an RMS regardless of its powerplant, in essence it is an extra prefix to the ships name.

jdl

[Jem]

Here is one vessel that we know for sure is RMS St Helena http://www.rms-st-helena.com/abouttheship.html

Is the only other vessel QM2 ?