[Leica] Queen Elizabeth in town

[cummer at netvigator.com (H&ECummer)]

> Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 22:59:05 -0800
> From: Richard Man <richard at imagecraft.com>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Queen Elizabeth in town
> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Cc: H&ECummer <cummer at netvigator.com>
>
> Isn't this QE III or QE IV or something? I remember QE I burned  
> while I was
> growing up in HK. Big news!!!

The first RMS Queen Elizabeth liner sailed the Atlantic with its  
sister ship the Queen Mary from the 1946 to 1969 when both ships were  
retired.
The RMS Queen Mary went to Long Beach to be a hotel and the Queen  
Elizabeth was bought by Hong Kong shipping tycoon Tung Chao Yung   
(father of the first Chief Executive of Hong Kong after the  
territory's return to China). The ship was to be turned into a  
floating university.
During the refit in 1972 it  mysteriously caught fire and sank in Hong  
Kong harbour. Parts of the hull are still there. The site was used as  
the imaginary Hong Kong office of MI 6 in the James Bond movie "The  
Man with the Golden Gun". That was the first RMS Queen Elizabeth.
The liner was replaced by the QE II in 1969 and that vessel was  
replaced in 2010 by the new RMS Queen Elizabeth pictured in my photos.  
As aviation fuel becomes more expensive and less available - who knows  
- maybe passenger liners will come back into favour.
Cheers
Howard