QE2 Slides preserved and researched by Brian Price, Cruise Director.

[Lynda Bradford]

Today's photos and commentary from Brian Price:



"The radar on the left was a sophisticated system for its time. It could plot the course of several other targets in crowded seaways and warn of any potential close encounters. Very handy when sailing in fog from Southampton to Cherbourg across the channel north to south when everyone else is going from east to west or vice versa."

Radar screen:



"The long dotted line is the course of QE2 from the centre of the screen sailing NNE.

The small round circle on the left is another ship and the line projecting from it in a SSE direction is it’s potential course.

The small white dots around the centre of the screen is ‘clutter’ which is a signal picked up by the radar from wave crests."
 

[June Ingram]

Wonderful photos and commentary ! Many thanks to Brian and Lynda ! 

[Lynda Bradford]

The Clydebank Post still intends to run an article about the Brian Price and QE2 collection pictures where there are faces of the workmen, so as to ask readers if they know the names of the people in the photos at John Brown's shipyard. 

I was tidying my QE2 memorabilia and noticed the newspaper pull out reporting on the conference had an interview with Ronnie Keir.  One of Brian Price's photos is shown with a name Richard Walker, so it looks like we have one of the names. 

[skilly56]

For those who may be wondering how things have changed, the large wheel with '736' chalked on it is the turbine wheel, set up in a very large lathe for machining.

The two newspaper captions on the right hand photos were reversed, as the lower photo shows him standing under the propeller.

Skilly

[Lynda Bradford]

Thanks Skilly

So that would mean that Richard Walker is the person in the lower picture and we haven't found the name of the person in the picture with 736. 

[Lynda Bradford]

Brian Price has sent the last four pictures from his collection for forum members and guests to enjoy.

The first two with Brian's commentary are below:

The Bridge Wing controls



"During the process of docking and sailing, the Captain, Officer of the Watch and others including of course the local pilot could move out to the wing of the bridge which gave them access to repeat controls of bow thrusters and also various communications into the bridge and elsewhere, such as the bow and stern."


The Magnavox Satellite Navigator



"This navigation system was originally for the Royal Navy’s warships, and QE2 was one of the first commercial ships to be supplied with the system. It was extremely accurate at its time, but only provided a very basic quantity of information including latitude and longitude (of the receiver), time, speed and drift and set, but in the 60’s it was ‘state of the art’. As well as a readout on the Bridge, every senior officer had access to the information on the tv in his / her cabin, and I remember being on my way to bed on the night of 11 Sept 1995 (I think), and I happened to glance at the satnav screen in my dayroom as the ship rose onto the top of a 95 foot wave and crashed over the top of it into a second rogue wave following right behind. The ship was already on much reduced speed, which was instantly knocked down to almost zero by the force of the sea. Capt. Ron Warwick was in command (and I believe on the bridge at the time) and was allegedly the last person to hit the carpet as the sea water hit the bridge windows."
 

Enjoy these photos and look forward to the last two pictures that will be posted tomorrow. 


 

[Lynda Bradford]

The last two photos and information from Brian Price's collection:

The Chart Room

"Located just aft of the bridge, the Chart Room was not only a place where charts for most of the globe were kept, but it was also a complete weather station reporting to both sides of the Atlantic as she crossed.
The Chart Room was also the place where ‘logging matches’ took place. If and when a crew member misbehaved, he would be brought before the Staff Captain in this room where the case for and against would be heard just as in a magistrates court, along with witnesses and representatives. On the odd occasion these would number quite a few and the logging match would be moved into The Barn (the deck storage area aft of the Chart Room)."



And last but by no means least.....on sea trial, which in itself is an entire saga especially regarding the turbine failures which caused a delay in the date of acceptance and of course the Maiden Voyage, all of which have been well chronicled elsewhere on this fantastic site.



Thanks to Brian we have had the opportunity to view his slides on the forum and they are saved in the Gallery for us all to enjoy.

Brian sent this message to the forum:

I hope you have enjoyed these slides. I joined the ship late in 1969 as Deputy Cruise Director, but it wasn’t until I returned to the ship as Cruise Director that these slides came into my possession (dropped on my desk by Terry Conroy) with the exception of some which I took myself. The information regarding each slide was researched with QE2’s engineers and navigators.
 
My first ship was Queen Elizabeth, followed by Queen Mary, All in all I served for 22 years on QE2, and retired from QM2 in 2006.
 
There is no copyright on the slides....so if you wish to use them....be my guest. I must have presented them in talks onboard QE2 and ashore over a thousand times.
 
Best regards to all.......
 
Brian R Price
Cruise Director (retired), Cunard Adventurer, Cunard Countess, QE2, QM2. (and many other ships with Holland America and Princess)

[June Ingram]

Thank you so much, Brian, for sharing your slides and providing the accompanying commentary ! Thank you, Lynda, for posting them for us all to see !