The Queen at the Naming of Queen Mary 2

[Michael Gallagher]

Her tour before the Naming

[Michael Gallagher]

And performing the Naming

[Andy Holloway]

And performing the Naming

Pam - 'Where did you get that hat, where did you get that hat.....'

[Andy Holloway]

I had the 'privilege' of being 'seconded' to QM2 for 10 days as additional Security Officer to allow the Chief Security Officer - Phil - to concentrate on getting the ship ready for service. A really interesting time and one i wouldn't have missed for the world, despite my legs aching every night after spending 10 hours a day stood on the gangway 'meeting & greeting'!

It was a manic last week with Travel Agents & journalists onboard each evening, then as soon as they had 'checked out' - gone - in the morning the school children of Southampton 7 district started to arrive for their tours. Come 3pm the school children were gone and it was embarkation for the next group of Travel Agents & Journos!!!

However, as our 'reward', on Naming Day Phil & I were required to stand at the gangway as HM arrived onboard and 'clear the route' for her tour.
Then we had to do the same when she went from the ship to the tent for the actual naming and again as she left to return to London.
We did have a joke between ourselves when she looked at us as she was leaving, post naming, and imagined her saying to her Aides; 'those two are stalking me!'
I was also lucky to have been able to invite my wife down for a few days and get her a ticket for the naming ceremony, but i'm not saying where the ticket came from!

After the ceremony my wife and i went for a walk around to the Red Funnel jetty and it was very interesting to hear what the locals were saying about QM2! We resisted the temptation to tel them we were onboard her, but just smiled to ourselves and thought how lucky we were. 

[Michael Gallagher]

Pam Conover's QM2 Naming Speech:

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Other Distinguished Guests, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Today, together, we are making history.

Today is the first time in 37 years that Cunard or any other shipping line, has been able to welcome guests to the naming ceremony of a true transatlantic liner.

We are the fortunate few; the first for more than a generation to bear witness to such a significant event in the history of a maritime nation.

I am particularly grateful to Her Majesty who launched our last transatlantic liner, the Queen Elizabeth 2 and who has so kindly consented to be here again today.  On behalf of all of you, I welcome Her Majesty and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh to this momentous event made more momentous by their presence.

Transatlantic liners are the thread which runs through Cunard history. We were the first company to offer scheduled transatlantic crossings; and though many others have come and gone, we alone continue to do so.

Every year since 1840, without fail, in peace and in war, Cunard liners have crossed and recrossed the wide Atlantic, weaving together the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.

And that thread has been a part of the fabric of British history:

They were Cunard ships that in the nineteenth century carried millions of people to a new life in the New World;

It was a Cunard ship, the little Carpathia, which sped through icefields in the dark to rescue all the survivors of the Titanic;

They were Cunard ships that carried to Crimea all the horses that charged with the Light Brigade;

They were Cunard ships, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth, which in the last world war carried American GIs to Europe – 15 thousand at a time, and afterwards took them home.

And it was Cunard’s QE2 that, with others, dashed to the South Atlantic when her services were needed in the Falklands War.

The heartbeat of Cunard, for 165 years, has been as one with the heartbeat of the nation.

When Sir Samuel Cunard formed his company in 1839 it was principally to carry the Royal Mail to North America.

Cunard Line carried the mail continuously for over 130 years. And we were proud to prefix the names of our ships with the letters RMS: Royal Mail Ship.

Therefore it gives me particular pleasure to announce that today the Royal Mail designated our new ship a Royal Mail ship, and so when she leaves for America next Monday the Royal Mail pennant will again fly proudly from a Cunard mast.

When the original Queen Mary was launched in 1934 the Poet Laureate John Masefield described her as ‘a rampart of a ship, long as a street and lofty as a tower’; King George V movingly said she was ‘the stateliest ship now in being’.

If they could be with us here today, I’m sure their feelings would be just the same for the magnificent vessel Her Majesty is about to name.

This ship is a splendid contradiction; she is a transatlantic liner with all the dignity and grace of the liners of the past; but she is a transatlantic liner of the future, a contemporary ‘rampart of a ship’ with comforts and technology undreamt of when the last liner, Queen Elizabeth 2 , was launched.

She is the creation of five years of vision, technical skill, engineering excellence and teamwork uniting 19 nations.

To all those who made any contribution, however modest, I offer my heartfelt thanks for their part in making the vision a reality.

To all the workers of the shipyard in St Nazaire who nurtured her for two long years, I offer my immense gratitude for such a magnificent ship.

To the City of Southampton, I offer - the ship herself; this is Southampton’s ship, and she renews a bond between Cunard and the city which began over 80 years ago.

To our friends in the travel industry, some of whom have journeyed thousands of miles to be with us here today, I offer my profound appreciation for their continuing support.

And to Commodore Warwick, his officers and his crew, I offer my best wishes as they begin now to introduce this new ambassador for Britain to the world.

Just as the original Queen Mary was the herald of an earlier golden age of ocean travel, so this ship heralds the new golden age; she represents no less than the triumph of a great tradition, a great British tradition of which we can all be proud.

[Michael Gallagher]

And the last key word "Proud" led into Heather Small singing a specially-produced for QM2 rendition  of her hit song 'Proud' which built up at the end leading to the unveiling of QM2 when the curtain dropped and she was revealed to all in the auditorium. It was spine tingling!

[Andy Holloway]

Not JUST spine tingling, but spectacular and, even though I knew what was coming, it still sent shivers down my spine when it 'really' happened!
One of those events in your life that will truly live forever in my memory!

[Trevor Harris]

And performing the Naming

Amazing. Another iconic moment in Cunard history.

[Andy Holloway]

These are just the sort of events that Mickie Arrison bought Cunard for, the kudos and the ultimate 'one up man ship' for Carnival over any of their rivals.