QE2 Ocean Liner Cruise Ship Birthday / Blank Greetings Card by Marine Artist John Stewart
Despite the reduction in sea-travel Cunard took an enormous gamble in the mid 1960s and ordered a refined luxury-liner that could also double as a cruise ship. This gamble undoubtedly paid off as the Queen Elizabeth 2, more commonly called Q E 2 was the result. Being smaller than the previous Queen’s and able to make port in places previously off limits went a good way to making her more cost-effective than her predecessors.
Upper Clyde Shipbuilders built the ship, with her maiden voyage taking place on 2nd May 1968. Carrying on in the tradition of her forebears, Q E 2 made at least one crossing of the North Atlantic each year and again followed in their footsteps when she transported 3000 troops to the Falkland Islands. Following continued trouble with her steam turbine engines, these were replaced with MAN diesels in the 1990s, serving as the flagship of the fleet until 2004 when Queen Mary 2 joined the fleet.
John Stewart’s painting shows her leaving Manhattan for the winter cruising season around the West Indies.
