QE2 to be in New Orleans

I just realized that was today, so I went to the webcams. If you archive to any afternoon time, you'll see a smaller Carnival ship, FANTASY, I believe. But to the far left of the shot is the bow of the QE2, is it not? At this dark hour, the Carnival ship is gone, but the QE2 remains. 6:45PM...

I posted last year on Steamboats.Org that the QUEEN ELIZABETH 2 was going to make her innaugural arrival in New Orleans today. Is it here already?;-)

Observed the river cam at 11:48PM, precisely, and the best view, unfortunately not a very good one, of the QE2's departure from NOLA. Departure started at 11:34PM. Observed the whole departure as it was happening, and I have never been on the computer at this time of day. Anyone else catch it?

Yes, it was yesterday.

Port of New Orleans had a press release on its website

http://www.portno.com/headline.pdf

Lexie, now I know why my cat woke me up at 4:47 am (German time, 10:47 pm NOLA time). She wanted to remind me to watch the webcam :-). I didn´t but I tired anyway.

Here´s a link to the picture

http://www.nola.com/cgi-bin/nph-cachecam.cgi?camid=oleman&ols=nolalive&ts=20061128004807&ct=600

Carmen

Steamboating colleagues:
Thanks to Judy and Carmen for providing the 'links' and photos to Frank Prudent and me of the QE-2 during her visit to New Orleans. Though not 'steamboats' the QE-2 was at the time one very big, fast 'steamboat.' During ensuing renovations she has been converted from pure steam to diesel electric drive for the sake of economy and modernization. Her visit to New Orleans is a testimony to the recovery of a great city following the events of KATRINA and the emergence of the port for mega class ships. This is good.

The QE-2, launched in 1968, officially entered service in 1969 following steam turbine troubles from her builder the John Brown Co. Brown had been sold and she was the last of the great ships from their ways. When she slid down and hit the water from the ways, the workers took off their hats and held them over their hearts. I crossed from New York to Le Havre, France and then to Southampton, July, 1970. It was a memorable crossing with a storm at sea and the rescue of an ill crew member aboard a German freighter at sea. We knew something was going on as that one evening she changed course at sea and increased speed--a lot. The ship was met and the man brought over in a boat aboard the QE-2 about 1:00 AM. She met and equaled her 32.5 knots and you could feel the turbines working and the superstructure vibrating. Nothing was said over the ship's PA system and I later read about her speed run in a London newspaper the following week. CUNARD and the British are like that--low keyed with no fuss.

Off the coast of France a storm hit and it was rough with rolling and pitching. At one point the ship took an alarming list to port with glasses, dishes etc. sliding. I watched the crew members run to the rail and windows to see what was going on. Frank Prudent will agree that's a sure sign something is amiss. Directly ahead a large oil tanker was drifting with no power and the QE-2 threw a hard helm to avoid any calamity.

Until these photos from Judy today I'd not laid eyes on the QE-2 but twice since 1970. Once passing at sea from another ship and another time docked in New York. Has it been that long ago? Sorry for the 'non steamboat' rambling.

Cheers,
R. Dale Flick

Is it not REALLY unusual for the QE2 to visit New Orleans? During my days working on the DQ, I would have thought that a visit by that ship to NOLA would have been nothing short of miraculous, and would have expended a roll of film on it if I had been there.

As far as I know, this was her first ever visit to NOLA, and it was covered in the business section of the TP on Tuesday, with a couple of photos online. I don't know how extensive the coverage was in the printed paper nor on the TV news. Doc was still up in Baltimore at that time, so he won't be able to fill us in much. I tried to post Debbie's pix which she emailed me, but it said "invalid file tiff"...so I'm stumped on that. As Dale said, this is a big thing to me, as it is a real lift for the city to have that esteemed vessel in port, and they need all the good press and business that must have generated. I looked in Debbie's pix for the MQ and DQ, but they weren't in sight. I've heard they were already enroute to Mobile, but don't know that for sure. The QE2 was docked at Berth 2 of Julia St., which is next to the Riverwalk Mall and Hilton Hotel, just above the old Poydras St. Wharf. This is where the Brightfield ended up several years ago, if that gives anybody an idea of her location for the day...

Article from Tuesday's newspaper

http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/money-0/1164696315124640.xml?MBIZT&coll=1

Article from Tuesday's newspaper

Here's the article from Tuesday's newspaper: http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/money-0/1164696315124640.xml?MBIZT&coll=1

An aside about the QE2's economic impact: I talked to our house foundation's manager last night. She said 7 or 8 of the QE2 passengers toured on their own, but the final 2 arrived after closing. They gave them the tour anyway, and the people bought over $200 worth of merchandise in our gift shop. So you can imagine what the bigger tourist facilities reaped from that brief one day stop.... A couple of non-Carnival ships are in port this week and each is sending over 100 to tour the BK House, a pleasant bonanza in these tough times! As has been reported in business news, the port of NOLA is back at 100% of pre-Katrina capacity and business, and the cruise ships are starting up their regular visits with the winter repositionings. So the river is the brightest spot in the NOLA recovery.