1 EAGLETON NOTES: Small World, Big Ship

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Thursday 11 July 2019

Small World, Big Ship

On my way into Stornoway today I saw the towering presence of MS Queen Victoria.

The last time I saw her was in Sydney. The first time I saw her was in Napier on the 1 March 2008. 


Launched in 2007 she is a fairly impressive 294 metres long although the current largest cruise ship, Symphony of The Seas is 361 metres. 




It made me realise, yet again, just how small a world we live in. I've tried to find out how many nautical miles she must have travelled in her life so far but I've not been successful. Nevertheless it is a slightly strange feeling to have seen this ship as far away from my present home as she could have been.

Coincidentally on this day 10 years ago I also posted about a cruise ship far from home here.

28 comments:

  1. Very impressive. I suspect the sun loungers are a little optimistic.

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    1. They certainly would have been here on Monday. The weather was gruesome: heavy mist, rain and no wind which meant a plague of midges.

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  2. Wow! A beautiful ship, amazing how big they are.

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    1. Maywyn by today's standards she almost a tiddler.

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  3. We saw a couple of huge cruise ships berthed at the Dockyard in Bermuda when we were there a couple of years ago. They looked like enormous apartment blocks at the end of the quay. Quite daunting close up.

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    1. JayCee they are daunting. One ploughed into a berth in Venice recently - that was scary.

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  4. That's one impressive ship. I've never seen one close up.

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    1. Jules, she has a presence close up that many cruise ships do not. She is quite regal. I've been on board a 6 Star cruise ship although not, I hasten to add, as a passenger. I was being shown around. It was luxuriously impressive. However the idea of going on a cruise is about as anathema to me as having my toenails pulled out. I'd rather be on top of Blencathra in the autumn any day.

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  5. These ships certainly are monsters aren't they?! When I went on my son's ship while it was in NZ, I thought that was huge (I think it is 330 m)

    It is quite incredible to have seen this one in different places over a course of a few years. But then they certainly get around and cover some miles.

    Would be too much like going on holiday in a city for my liking - far too many people!

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    1. Serenata, 330 metres is pretty huge! I read that some can carry 5000 passengers. Together with crew that's an unthinkable number of people in such a small place for my liking.

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  6. That is an impressive ship. In Summer, very large cruise ships dock here in Portland, Maine, and they always take me by surprise. They look so surreal. I have never taken a cruise on these large ships and so far haven't had the desire. I do enjoy riding the ferries and the small cruises off the Maine coast to see seabirds and whales, though.

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    1. Joanne, living on an island as I do I have to travel by ferry for 2'30" to get here with a car. Our ferry is just over 100m long but is minuscule beside these giants.

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  7. I recognise the scene at the top - Napier harbour - with plenty of logs - in fact a worrying amount of logs ready for export. I wonder if Queen Victoria would be "amused" if she knew that a floating hotel had been named after her.

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    1. YP, you are absolutely correct. The photo was taken in 2008 from the Bluff Hill outlook. I think if Queen Victoria saw a ship that size she'd have been delighted to have had it named after her. The Titanic was only 269 m long.

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  8. It does hold one in awe. I'm in the process of bingeing on a documentary, streaming on Netflix, about the development of The West..."Ken Burns Presents - "The West"; having, a few weeks ago watched another documentary.."Robert Redford's The West". Both are brilliant documentaries; and both consist of eight episodes.

    How goods, chattels, people, building materials were transported across the land and oceans to build "the new world" is beyond comprehension.

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    1. Yes, Lee, and nowadays the huge tankers and container ships make it look so easy.

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  9. Another quick question. How much money has it made?

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    1. Well, Red, it will certainly be a pretty significant sum.

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  10. She certainly is a fine looking cruise ship.

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    1. Rachel, one of her Captains described her as a liner and not just a cruise ship and in a way that's correct. She's built with a strengthened bow to race across the Atlantic and she maintains the old 'class system' on board whereby passengers in different cabin classes dine in different restaurants and have some reserved areas on board too.

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  11. I've never been on a ship as big as that, and like some others here have said, I don't think I'd want to take a cruise on one of them, no matter how luxurious. Still, a cruise has its appeal - you pack and unpack only once and still get moving around, seeing different places.

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    1. Meike, the only cruise I would ever contemplate would be on one of the river cruises on the Rhine or similar.

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  12. She is better looking than many a cruise ship, but I have to admit to a soft spot for the old liners. I saw a wonderful TV programme about them not so long ago. I must be getting old, I liked it because it brought my own memories back of going to Australia on one when I was a small child! It was so utterly wonderful and different from my ordinary life, that I have remembered it remarkably clearly!

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    1. Jenny, I love the history and the theory but not the practice!

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    2. I suspect I might feel the same now thmt i am allowed to go round the pkace by myself :)

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  13. Looks like a nice place to stay, I don't know if I could handle a cruise to be honest, I'd probably want to step foot on land after a few days.

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    1. Amy, I couldn't handle a cruise on a boat like that: too many people for a start.

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  14. Seems that ship and you have a lot in common then - even if your long travels have been more by air than by sea ;)

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