Queens of the ocean and Qantas

Cunard's queens of the ocean - fingers crossed they won't sink

On 22 February this year, two of the Cunard line’s modern ocean liners will be in Sydney for a brief rendezvous on their separate voyages around the globe. The Queen Mary 2 (QM2), the flagship of the Cunard line, had her maiden voyage in 2004, and the Queen Elizabeth (QE), who is the baby of the fleet, having been launched in October 2010.

I have previously written of my inexplicable obsession with sunken ocean liners, particularly the Titanic and others from her era. The early twentieth century was a period of incredible, majestic ocean liners, all with a fascinating tale to tell; whether it be a tragic sinking, heroic efforts during the war, or a long life cruising the Transatlantic route as a passenger ship.

My interest began in 2004, when I chose to research sunken ocean liners for a university project. Visiting the Titanic in a yellow submarine is on my bucket list, but I can’t see it happening unless I befriend James Cameron. Apart from his unfortunate habit of being a left wing windbag, he is passionate about the wreck and has travelled down to view and film the Titanic and other sunken liners on many occasions. Perhaps I’ll just make my own billion dollar movie and buy my own fleet of submarines.

The history of Cunard and the White Star Line, another maker of ocean liners, is an interesting tale as well. In 1912, they were busily competing to produce the biggest, fastest, most luxurious ocean liners ever built. Reputations were at stake, and no other company in the world was coming close for the unofficial title of being the best across the prestigious Transatlantic route between Europe and the Americas. The story ended tragically for the White Star Line, when the Titanic, the jewel in their crown, sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic on her maiden voyage after being fatally damaged by an iceberg. The quest to be fastest tore the company apart, and brought an end to a great era.

Cunard’s fleet did not fair well either. Their (posthomously) famous Lusitania was scuttled by a submarine in World War 1, as were many of their other liners. Carpathia, the ship that came for the survivors of Titanic, was sunk by a German u-boat four years after the rescue.

While the QM2 and QE do not rival the impressiveness of their predecessors, at least they have lifeboats and the Germans don’t sink things anymore.


Qantas - fingers crossed they won't fall out of the sky
Speaking of ocean-faring transport, I think I’d rather spend six months on a leaking plastic raft or a Siev-X than take my chances with Qantas at the moment, Australia’s only decent international airline. Clearly it’s all too hard for Rolls Royce to install a working engine onto a jet, so why not save time and money and send it to the mechanics at ‘Plane Engines R Us’? They’d probably throw in a lube check and wheel alignment. Do the engineers need to paid more? What the heck is going on? And why is everyone so blasé about it? Ah, another engine failure, I’m sure it won’t happen again. It’s happened again? Oh well...

What happened to the good old days, when Qantas’ worst skeleton was news of a randy British actor on a long haul flight who decided to take first class hospitality quite literally? I'm sure Qantas are desperate for controversy that doesn't involve in-flight engine failure and parts falling off their planes. At least you can sack humans when they stop working mid-flight and start doing things that aren't exactly written into their contract. Where’s Ralph Fiennes when you need him.