Queen Mary dear old lady to last

Press, 21 February 1978, Page 21

Queen Mary dear old lady to last

Cantankerous old ladies can prove quite a handful, as the City of Long Beach found when it put in a successful bid for the ageing belle of the Cunard fleet, the Queen Mary. The tale of the city’s tribulations was retold in Christchurch yesterday by Mr H. E. Ridings, Jnr, vicepresident of the Long Beach Board of Harbour Commissioners. ( Mr Ridings said that thej Queen Mary’s delivery trip, round the “Horn” in 19671 was made on only two of! her four engines. The Queen Mary was essentially a trans-Atlantic ship, he said. “She simply did not have the fuel or water capacity to make the trip round from Rio de Janeiro to Valparaiso, Chile. “Besides, with four engines going, we would have had to sign on an extra 160 men in the engine room; that is how labour-intensive she was.” Then, when mored at Long Beach as a sort of floating Disneyland. and ranked as Southern California’s eighth-biggest tourist attraction, the Queen Mary proved difficult to live with. She was bought for 53.45 M and, it was estimated at the time, would cost between SIOM ... ~ ' " to renovate. However, like the Sydney 1 Opera House, inflated costs kept one step ahead, and the 1

city ended up investing S6OM in her. City administrations rose and fell, with the Queen Mary’s costs being the centre of the-political row. But the effort had eventually proved worth while, said Mr Riding. The ship’s upper decks had been turned into 400 first-class hotel rooms, and a maritime museum now occupied the lower decks and engine room. ARRIVALS Coastal Trader (7.30 a.m.), 2500, Capt. J. Sutherland, Auckland (S.C.N.Z.). DEPARTURES Kotuku (5.25 a.m.), 16,221. Capt. F. A. Kelner, Dunedin (U.S.S.). Coastal Trader (5 p.m.), Capt. Sutherland, Dunedin. EXPECTED ARRIVALS Union Melbourne, Wellington, today. Toyu Maru Auckland February 22. Union Lyttelton, Wellington, February 22. Coastal Trader Dunedin February 22. Straat Clement, sea. February 22. Eastern Academy, from sea. February 22. Heina, New Plymouth, February 22. Union Melbourne, Wellington, February 23. Hero.j Paic, Dunedin, February 23. PROJECTED DEPARTURES Union Melbourne. Wellington, today. Torrens. Europe, today. Coastal Trader Auckland. February 22. Union Lyttelton, Wellington, February 23. Union Melbourne, Dunedin, February 23. VESSELS IN PORT Torrens, Cashin Quay, No. 1. [Coastal Ranger, No. 2 West. Townsville Star, No. 7 West.