Queen Mary 2

[tdw]

Feb 20 0630 Tuesday Sydney Harbour. Brittania may no longer rule the waves but the old dear can still put on a pretty impressive show. Unbelievable how many other boats were out there. Everything from kayaks to the vilest stink boats imaginable. Sadly we had to return to mooring and off to work but what a lovely way to start the day.
Queen Elizabeth 2 comes in this evening around 1900. I believe only the second time these two lovelies have been in port together although their predecessors were in Sydney Harbour together during WWII.





These are not my pics. Camera has decided it doesn't want to talk to computer today so I've nicked the QM2 from the ABC web site and the QM of old is a tad before my time. Old Fart I may be, just not quite THAT old. My mother however, remembers the QM anchored in Sydney Harbour in the 1940s.

[camaraderie]

Wow...kewl pics TDW...my dad was there about the same time as that last photo...something to do with the Japanese I think!

[I-33]

I look at those modern cruise ships and wonder what their limit of positive stability is. I'm sure it must be an optical illusion, because to me it looks like they would topple right over the first time they made a turn--but they don't.

[sailaway21]

Passenger ships do not need as much initial stability as other ships due to their very high freeboard. And they are Very concerned with the "ride". A stiff ship tends to make for sick passengers.

[tdw]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

Wow...kewl pics TDW...my dad was there about the same time as that last photo...something to do with the Japanese I think!

Thanks Cam.
'41 might have been a little bit early for your lot .
Obviously there were some Japs hangin' around Sydney though and they must have got a taste for our beer, oysters, beaches and wimmin. Guess that's why they were so keen to come back after '42. Persistent little buggers they were too. !! Both my dad and my stepdad played "no aussie beer or sheilas for you lot games " with 'em in New Guinea and the Solomons.

Both the Queens were used as troop ships during that war. On one occasion they were both in Sydney waiting to join a convoy. I believe that this was not a success as they were both more than capable of outrunning even their destoyer escorts and in the end they were given free rein to travel unescorted. The original Queen Mary was actually converted to a troop ship in Sydney and her entire original interior was stored in Sydney somewhere for the course of the war. Apparently most of it got nicked. Bloody Australians, cannot trust the bastards.

They used to moor the suckers off Sydney Zoo, in full view of Sydney Town but "officially" it was denied that they ever came to Sydney at all. At least until the war was done.

Those two pictures, by the way, are taken from almost the same spot but the old Queen was on her way out.

[poopdeckpappy]

My Dad was down there around 1943, he piloted B-24's with the 380th bomb group out of Fenton Field, heard some pretty amazing stories about those days

[tdw]

A very minor side line to the WWII stories, my stepdad bought and drove for many years a black Ford Lincoln Zephyr V12 Sedan. It appears that it was one of three that Douglas MacArthur had shipped to Australia, converted to right hand drive, and used then as his staff cars while based in Australia. Damn I loved that car. Sitting in the back seat while we drove around the place in that big black limo, Lord Muck himself. Sadly we were unaware of the cars history until forty years later when I happened to see a doco on MacArthur in which he arrives at Sydney Town Hall in our bloody car. That's when I did the research. Lincolns it seems were never officially imported into Australia and sure enough it WAS our bloody car. Be worth a fortune today. Christ this is off topic but , oh , what the hell.

(pic removed, too far off topic. my decision, wasn't asked to do so.)

Not ours, this one is in the US judging by the left hand drive.

[tdw]

One last piece of trivia. Mary apparently came straight from San Francisco to Sydney. Anyone know when she left SF ? Seems like a mighty fast passage.

[camaraderie]

TDW...yep...41 would have ben early...he was there in 43 then moved north to the island paradise that was New Guinea too.

[sailortjk1]

Originally Posted by tdw

One last piece of trivia. Mary apparently came straight from San Francisco to Sydney. Anyone know when she left SF ? Seems like a mighty fast passage.

Don't know when she left SF, but she arrived on the 4th of Feb.
These photo's are from her arrival. Found them on the same link as from the tread with the Tanker in heavy seas.

She barely made it under the Golden Gate Bridge, I guess 30 feet to spare is plenty of room???!!!

http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/07/0204/