Recollections of the QE2 & Her Early Years: Part Ⅱ

摘要

BY 1967, MUCH LIKE LAUNDRY detergent or aerosol deodorant, Cunard wanted a new image, a new look -something different from the staid, dowdy, stuffy Cunard associated with the wood-paneled era of the 1930s-style Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. It was the "new Britain," the age of Carnaby Street, Twiggy, James Bond and Formica. Cunard had to be like, well, London - it had to swing. After all, it was the new age of floating hotels, classless ships and a different kind of competition with the immensely successful airlines. Due to be launched on September 20, 1967, at the John Brown Shipyard at Clydebank in Scotland, and to be royally baptized by none other than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the ship's actual name was still top secret. There had been all sorts of rumors: British Queen, Princess Anne, Britannia, even Winston Churchill, William Shakespeare and John F Kennedy.