Comment: Ocean giant a welcome visitor

Apr 11 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

THE Cunard Line has always had close ties with the city of Liverpool and its people. The shipping company was founded in Liverpool in 1839, and the city was home to its head office for nearly 130 years.

So it is wholly appropriate that Cunard’s colossal flagship, Queen Mary 2, will be paying a historic visit to the line’s birthplace next year, as part of a week-long, round-the-UK cruise to mark the luxurious ocean liner’s first five years in service.

The visit of the 151,000-ton vessel is expected to attract thousands of spectators to the banks of the River Mersey, who will be able to marvel at the sight of the largest, longest, widest, tallest and – at more than £400m– most expensive ocean liner ever built.

It will also tie in with the 170th anniversary of the founding of the Cunard Line.

The arrival of the ocean liner follows on from the successful visit last September of Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth 2 at the opening of the new £19m City of Liverpool Cruise Liner Terminal.

However, when QM2 berths alongside the Cruise Liner Terminal next year, the world-famous vessel will provide a spectacular focal point on the city’s revamped waterfront.

Current construction work at Pier Head, including the new canal link which passes in front of the Cunard Building and the new Mersey Ferry Terminal, is due to be completed well before the QM2 visit, allowing closer public access to the World Heritage Site waterfront.

The visit of the world’s largest and most iconic ocean liner at the revamped waterfront is likely to generate huge interest from around the world.

But it will also have a wider benefit for the new cruise liner terminal, as the successful handling of such a huge logistical operation as the arrival of QM2 and her 3,000 passengers will help to win more business for the port.