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ackground-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.5em;"> The Queen Elizabeth 2, often referred to simply as QE2, is a retired ocean liner built for the Cunard Line which was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic liner and a cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. She was designed for the transatlantic service from her home port of Southampton, UK, to New York, and was named after the earlier Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth. She served as the flagship of the line from 1969 until succeeded by RMS Queen Mary 2 in 2004. Designed in Cunard's then headquarters and regional offices in Liverpool and Southampton respectively, and built in Clydebank, Scotland, QE2 was considered the last of the great transatlantic ocean liners until Queen Mary 2 entered service.

The Cunarder also the last oil-fired passenger steamship to cross the Atlantic in scheduled liner service until she was refitted with a modern diesel powerplant in 1986/1987. During almost forty years of service, Queen Elizabeth 2 undertook regular world cruises and later operated predominantly as a cruise ship, sailing out of Southampton, England. QE2 had no running mate and never ran a year-round weekly transatlantic express service to New York. QE2 did, however, continue the Cunard tradition of regular scheduled transatlantic crossings every year of her service life. QE2 was never given a Royal Mail Ship designation, instead carrying the SS and later MV or MS prefixes in official documents.

QE2 was retired from active Cunard service on 27 November 2008. She had been acquired by Istithmar the year before by the private equity arm of Dubai World, which planned to begin conversion of the vessel to a 500-room floating hotel moored at the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai.^[3][4] The 2008 financial crisis however intervened and the ship remains laid up at Port Rashid.^[5] Subsequent conversion plans were announced by Istithmar in 2012^[6] and by the Oceanic Group in 2013^[7] but these both stalled. As of January 2016 the ship remains laid up in Dubai while the port operator claimed that there were future plans for the ship and no intent to scrap her.

By the mid 1960s transatlantic travel was dominated by air travel due to its speed and low cost relative to the sea route, and expansion of air travel showed no signs of slowing down. Conversely, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were becoming increasingly expensive to operate, and both internally and externally were relics of the pre-war years. Cunard did not want to give up the business of passenger service, and so gambled $80 million on a new ocean liner to replace the original ageing Queens.

Realising the decline of transatlantic trade, and the rising costs of fuel and labour, Cunard decided their new ship had to be smaller and cheaper to operate than her predecessors. The new ship was designed to run at the same service speed of 28.5 knots (52.8 km/h) as the previous Queens, using half the fuel. Staff was also reduced from the levels on the older vessels. QE2 would also be able to transit the Panama Canal and her draught was seven feet less than her predecessors, allowing her to enter ports that the old Queens could not, and compete with the new generation of cruise ships.

The interior and superstructure for the QE2 was designed by James Gardner. His design for the ocean liner was described by The Council of Industrial Design as that of a "very big yacht" and with a "look [that was] sleek, modern and purposeful".Originally designated Q4 (a previous ship design Q3 had been abandoned due to falling passenger revenues on the North Atlantic),^[13] she was to be a three-class liner. However, looking to France, designs were changed to make Q4 a two-class liner that could be modified into a single-class cruise ship; transatlantic line voyages in the summer would be two-class, while warmer water cruises in the winter would be single-class.

Queen Elizabeth 2 was built by the John Brown Shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland. The keel was laid down on 5 July 1965, as hull number 736 on the same plot where iconic liners such as Lusitania, Aquitania, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth had been constructed. She was launched and named on 20 September 1967 by Queen Elizabeth II, using the same pair of gold scissors her mother and grandmother used to launch Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary, respectively.^[14] On 19 November 1968 she left John Brown's fitting out berth,^[15] and travelled down the River Clyde to the Firth of Clyde Dry Dock at Inchgreen, Port Glasgow, for final trials and commissioning.^[16] After sea trials in the Irish Sea a "shakedown cruise" to Las Palmas set out on 22 April 1969.

Queen Elizabeth 2's maiden voyage, from Southampton to New York, commenced on 2 May 1969,^[15] taking 4 days, 16 hours, and 35 minutes.^[17] Moving with modern times the company decided to have the scoop at the base of the funnel painted in the Cunard red and the rest was black and white. Another change was the decoration of the public rooms, parquet flooring, wood panelling and majestic decoration of the public rooms on the earlier Queens was replaced with glass, stainless steel, dark carpeting and sea green leather.^[18]Prince Charles was the first "civilian" passenger to board the ship,^[13] on her voyage from the shipyard in Clydebank to drydock in Port Glasgow.^{[citation needed]} On board for the short journey was her Master Designate and first captain, William (Bil) Warwick. In 1971, she participated in the rescue of some 500 passengers from the burning French Line ship Antilles.

On 17 May 1972, while travelling from New York to Southampton, she was the subject of a bomb threat.^[13] She was searched by her crew, and a combined Special Air Service and Special Boat Service team which parachuted into the sea to conduct a search of the ship. No bomb was found, but the hoaxer was arrested by the FBI.

The following year QE2 undertook two chartered cruises through the Mediterranean to Israel in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the state's founding. The ship's Columbia Restaurant was koshered for Passover, and Jewish passengers were able to celebrate Passover on the ship. According to the book "The Angel" by Uri Bar-Joseph, Muammar Gaddafi ordered a submarine to torpedo her during one of the chartered cruises in relaliation for Israel's downing of Libyan Flight 114, but Anwar Sadat intervened secretly to foil the attack.

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