Cunard's Queen Elizabeth 2 gets a royal farewell

[mercedes]

It's been another one of those magical days at the port of Southampton, England, which is preparing for the final departure of Cunard's soon-to-retire Queen Elizabeth 2.

No less an eminence than the United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth II, who launched the ship more than 40 years ago, turned out to bid farewell to the last of the 20th century's great ocean liners.

Britain's Telegraph reports that former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who famously commandeered the vessel to serve as a troop carrier during the Falklands War, also was among the 300 invited guests on board for the bittersweet event along with dozens of officers, crewmembers and Cunard managers past and present.

The Telegraph says the Queen visited the bridge, decorated with photographs of her last visit in 1990, and was escorted by Captain Ian McNaught, the last master of the vessel. She had been the first to sign the ship's visitors' book ahead of its maiden voyage and became the last to do so on her farewell visit, the paper says.

The BBC reports that the Queen met some crewmembers who had served on the ship since it entered service in 1969.

Despite the long connection between the ship and the monarch, the vessel is not named after Queen Elizabeth II. The "2" in the ship's name refers to the fact that it is the second Cunard vessel to carry the name Queen Elizabeth. That ship, in turn, was named after Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen consort of George VI.

The Queen Elizabeth 2's final voyage will occur in October, after which the vessel will become a floating hotel in Dubai.