Shipyard: Alstom Chantiers
de l’Atlantique
Saint-Nazaire,
France
Registry: Great Britain
Christened January 8,
2004—Southampton, England
Tonnage 151,400 gt
Length 1,132 feet
Beam 135 feet
Beam/Bridge Wings 164 feet
Draft 32 feet,
8 inches
Height 236.2 feet
(keel to funnel)
Passenger Decks 14
Speed 28.5 knots
(maximum 30)
Passengers 2,620 (3,090
upper and lower berths)
Crew 1,253
Officers British and
International
Crew International
Social Staff British and
America
Staterooms 1,310 (78% Outside;
22% Inside)
Technology
The
QM2 is five times longer than Cunard’s first ship, Britannia
(230 feet) and 113 feet longer than the original Queen Mary
(1,019 feet). Her 14 passenger decks tower 200 feet above the
waterline, equal to the height of a 23-story building.
The Queen Mary 2 was built by using 300,000
steel sections, which were cut and welded into blocks in specialized
workshops and weigh a total of 52,000 tons. The hull is made
up of 94 steel blocks—made from 580 panels that involved some
932 miles of welding. She has 1,550 miles of electric cable,
310 miles of ducts, mains and pipes, and 80,000 lighting points.
The QM2’s size prohibits her from transiting
the Panama Canal.
The 151,400 gross ton ship has a maximum
speed of 28.5 knots (30 plus maximum) that is
obtained from both the four diesels and two gas turbines installed
on the liner. Her normal cruising speed is between 24 and 26
knots, powered by the four diesels.
The ship is powered by an advanced eco-friendly
operating plant with electricity generated by four diesel engines
and two gas turbines that provide enough power for a city of
200,000 inhabitants.
The General Electric LM2500 plus turbines,
located below and behind the ship’s funnel, generate 25MW of
electricity. They run at 3,600 rpm and turn a generator through
a reduction gearbox. The turbines burn marine gas fuel and are
generally only used when the ship needs to achieve higher speeds.
The four diesel engines, built
by Wartsila and are V engines with 16 cylinders, generate electricity
and are located way down in bowels of the ship because of their
size and weight. Each engine is 12.5 meters long, 4.4 meters
wide, 5.5 meters high and weighs 217 tons. They have a bore
of 460mm and a stroke of 580 mm. Each engine runs at 514 rpm
and produces 16.8 MW of power. Although the engines run on conventional
heavy fuel oil, they were designed to use common-rail technology
that utilizes water injection into the chambers to reduce noxious
emissions.
The QM2 is the first ship to be driven by
four Mermaid pods, which were built by Rolls Royce-owned
Kamewa and Alstom Powers Motors. The forward two pods are fixed
in place while the two in aft are able to turn 360 degrees to
steer and maneuver the ship. The 250-ton pods are the most powerful
ever made at 21.5 MW each. This gives a total propulsion power
of 86MW. The pods are hydrodynamically shaped to help attain
the speeds required of QM2. The propellers are stainless steel
and have a highly skewed fixed pitch.
The ship’s three thrusters of
3.2MW each allow the ship to turn in her own length in port
without the use of tugs. These operate with fingertip touch
by an officer on the Bridge, the control center of the ship.
The total plant is capable of conventional cruise ship.
There are four ‘VM Series’ folding
fin stabilizers built by Brown Brothers of Edinburgh.
They are a one-piece, passive-type design (they do not have
flaps) and when combined can reduce the ship’s roll by 90 percent.
The 70-ton stabilizers are 8.2 feet wide with a surface area
of 168 square feet. They extend beyond the ship’s side by 20.5
feet, provide 1070kN lift and take about half a minute to extend
or retract.
There are three 23-ton anchors—two
working and one spare—the latter mounted on top of the forward
end of the breakwater. The U3-anchor chains are collectively
843 yards long of 4.5-inch section, two weigh 273 tons and have
a breaking strain of 9300kN.
The
command center of the ship is the Bridge, which
is almost 164 feet wide on Deck 12. In the area, flat screens
are used to show radar, navigation displays, safety-management
systems, maneuvering systems, power-management displays, water
consumption, ballast transfer and weather systems. All the screens
can be inter-switched if necessary. Located here is the single
joystick that maneuvers the ship sideways, or at an
angle, or even keep the vessel stationary over a fixed spot
at sea by use of satellite and wind gauges. The system involves
the pods at the rear or the ship and the bow thrusters.
There are two traditional ‘Typhon’
style whistles located at the forward end of the funnel.
The starboard side whistle is an original from the first Queen
Mary, now a floating hotel in Long Beach, California, where
it was stored. On permanent loan to Cunard, the whistle was
reconditioned by its original manufacturers, Kockums Ab of Sweden.
A replica of this whistle was also produced and is mounted along
with the original on small platforms on the funnel. When sounded,
the whistles emit a deep bass 'A' note that can be heard up
to ten miles away.
Safety On Board
Cunard has gone all out to ensure safety
on board. Its safety policy recognizes that “safe ships and
a clean and healthy marine environment are essential for Cunard’s
success and the passenger’s enjoyment. In addition, Cunard complied
with Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) regulations, which will be
enforced on all ships in 2010, that only non-flammable materials
can be used in modern ship construction. As a result all furnishings
on the ship and the mahogany interiors in public areas are faux
The ship has 5,000 fire detectors, 1,100
fire doors and 8,350 automatic extinguishers as well as an additional
300 feet of hoses.
Should the need arise for ship evacuation,
the newest motorized lifeboats are available to each carry 150
passengers. The tenders, placed above the Promenade Deck on
7, are higher than on most ships because of the heavy North
Atlantic seas.
