Before we all get too jacked up about what, like the QE2, are basically a bunch of worn out ships that have long since exceeded their designed for economic life it might be good to reflect upon how SOLAS and other maritime safety legislation evolved to this point.
Most safety requirements as well as construction requirements have grown out of maritime disasters. US built ships have, since WWII, looked decidedly institutional within their accomodations compared to many foreign built ships and that can mostly be ascribed to more stringent building requirements. For many years all internal bulkheads had to be Class A bulkheads which meant that they had to be able to withstand flame, of a temperature I forget, for one hour. Pretty much rules out the use of wood. Contrast that with the the ships that Carnival Cruise
Lines started out with. They were old, sometimes very old, ships with interior bulkheads made of little more than composite board. A fire on board one of them would have almost certainly resulted in massive loss of life. I spent the better part of a decade encouraging friends to not take a cruise on such a ship.
The first article makes the point that the QE2 has made much of her living plying the North Atlantic. Most non-tankers are built on the basis of a twenty year economic life. I'd rather not be on board when the QE2 suffers structural failure in the winter North Atlantic.
The old Queen Mary resides alongside in Long Beach, CA and that's right where she belongs. You'd have to be very foolish to think that she is suitable for sea duty based soley on the fact that she spent so many years at sea. The answer to those ships not preserved in such fashion is the photograph, not endangering innocent lives. SOLAS exists because you as a consumer don't have the foggiest notion of what makes for a safe ship. I've sailed on both safe and manifestly unsafe ships, some of the latter actually owned by the US government (ex-fleet oilers) and 25 years is plenty long enough a lifespan for a ship in commercial service. Naval vessels spend not nearly the amount of time at sea and are maintained generally better than commercial ships.
I'll miss many of them as much as the next guy but it's the right thing to do. As sailors it might be easiest to equate their condition to those boats that are populary raced and raced hard. Is that the boat you want to own? Likewise, would you like to take a cruise on a ship that had been granfathered and so was not required to have
radar? Just a hypothetical example.
And there are some ships that may be in decent condition but not really worth doing all of the upgrades on. Any of us is free to buy one of them and drop a few million into her. If Cam ever sells his Tayana he'll probably be in a position to buy two or three. (g)
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