01.09.04
Making big waves
Not making big waves yesterday, despite its size, was the Queen Mary II, as of yesterday the largest cruise liner on the water.
It demonstrates just how much Britain has changed that this ship, twice the size of the QEII, barely registered on the news reports. Yes, it’s only a cruise ship, plying the Southampton-New York route for holidaymakers not travellers. Nevertheless the launch of a monster of engineering like this would, fifty years ago, have been the prompt for a round of chest-puffing around the country.
Is industry so dissociated now from our sense of national identity? With the constant decline in the numbers of people working in traditional industries, perhaps there’s a corresponding decline in industrial achievements. I wonder what would today receive acclaim corresponding to, say, the launch of the QEII? A British winner on World Idol?
Laura-Ann said,
January 9, 2004 at 9:09 pm
The ship is French built, and American owned…perhaps that’s why it didn’t get the news coverage?
I’ve worked on Cruise Liners. Admittedly, none that big, but the larger the ship, the more impersonal it is.
Just my personal observation.