I thought of one today. Living in Manhattan half the year, I pass by the West Side piers at least once a week or so. And every time I go past them, whether I'm cycling down the Hudson or on my way to ship geek with a lesser vessel than QE2, I can still remember the first time.
Coming downtown from the Bronx in our old Land Rover, my parents, brother, and two cousins crammed in with me and a lot of winter gear. 21 December 2003. I look ahead out the windscreen, waiting to see it...and then...there it is...that glorious red funnel! Peeking out past the blue stacks of Norwegian Dawn, suggesting power, might, and glory tied up to New York City.
"Bribing" the security people to let us park up top. The six of us, heading down into the terminal to watch the lucky people boarding the great ship, for Christmas in the Caribbean. The great name, "QUEEN ELIZABETH 2," peeking through the window in glorious Helvetica.
We watched her off from the top deck of the pier that day, listening to that glorious whistle and returning it with the horn of the old Discovery. Yelling "Bon Voyage" and "Happy Trails" to the people lining Boat Deck as the commentary whirred on the tannoy. I had fulfilled half of a 13-year-long-life's wish: to see QE2 in the steel. The other half? To sail on her. And I had to make that day come.
And so many other memories. Seeing that terminal and that ship from across the great and mighty Hudson a few months later, the last time she called as flagship with the ship that would become my #2, Queen Mary 2. Suddenly, the huge QE2 didn't look so huge anymore...but still, oh so glorious.
The last time I thought she'd leave from Manhattan in 2006, after the Brooklyn piers were opened, I begged my dad to drive me to Weehawken to see her off. I thought I was a rare spectator to maritime history. If only I knew that two-and-a-half years later, I'd be there again for a final (?) farewell.
Then the 2008 calls. The January call, comparing the grace and beauty of QE2 to Queen Victoria (still a ship dear to me).
Then April 2008, when I finally fulfilled the other half of 2003's wish, stepping into the glorious Midships Lobby...at least I think I did, since everything between getting on the gangplank and getting to my cabin is a complete blur. And then, for the first time, her whistle blows above me on Sun Deck, and the lines are cast. We edge backwards with the help of the Moran tugs, and for the first time in 18 years, 2 months, and 15 days, I leave the confines of the United States of America in the best of style, sailing to Europe on the Greatest Ship in the World. I watched those piers recede into the distance from the ship, instead of the reverse.
Two more times. 16 September 2008, when I "broke in" to Pier 90 as QE2 sailed away from Pier 88. Yelling bon voyages again, this time to a friend on Signal Deck. Watching her receding in the distance, knowing that there would be one more time, and one more only, of this great ship in this great city.
And finally, 16 October 2008, as I rush uptown with a fellow ship geek from seeing the two ships in from the Battery, seeing the final moments of QE2's arrival in Manhattan for the last time ever. The red nightvision-friendly lights on the bridge aglow, the dawn not yet broken. Friends reuniting on the pier side, then breaking in to the top deck to see the dawn arrive with our great ship in the background.
Since I saw her off that day from the Battery, that's the last time I saw QE2 in Manhattan. Nothing else especially exciting called after that. But every time I went down the West Side, or looked across as I left the Lincoln Tunnel on the Helix in New Jersey, I could see her there once again, red funnel lit and proud, ready to cast off again.
In September 2009, I went back to see Queen Victoria at the piers, having booked the 2010 Winter Crossing on her and eager to check her out again. But it was different now. The old chain link fence was replaced by a fortresslike fence, with a beautiful wave pattern that prevented photos. There was no way I was going to get into the forecourt to photograph the ship, as I had for QE2 and so many other ships in the "old days." The security rent-a-cop told me it was a 9/11 thing. Yet I had done it every time since that horrible day.
Maybe it's for the best. I have some shots of some ships through the grating of the new fence, but I'll probably never go inside them again unless I'm a paying passenger (as I did in January). My ship geeking days on the top of Pier 90 are done.
But that makes it even more special...as every time I pass by, I can see the funnel again, feel the whistle running through my bones...and for a moment, even if she sits alone in Dubai, she's once again in New York waiting to head across the ocean.
Topic: Something that's a reminder of QE2...? (Read 24184 times)
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Mar 25, 2014, 02:01 PM