Cunard's fleet marks 175th Anniversary at its spiritual home in spectacular fashion - PART 1
Photographs on this page with thanks to Cunard.

LIVERPOOL'S greatest export came home to celebrate its 175th Anniversary of its formation and the lines maiden voyage. To celebrate the City came alive in what was to become 5 days of fantastic nautical and cultural history. It started on Thursday, 21 May 2015, with the rehearsal of 'Amazing Graces'; a show that was to run for 3 nights, starting on Saturday, 23 May and ending on Monday, 25 May. The show was a 30 minute visual feast, as state of the art 3D projections, mixed with audio and ending with a further 10 minutes of pyrotechnics, set off mid river, by Fuse Fireworks.  Apart from that, it also included a section entitled:- 'Sea of Faces' in which 175 faces of Liverpool people were projected on to the buildings. The 175 people selected were chosen from more than 700 submissions from the City. As one of the Three Graces was The Cunard Building, a purpose built building that once housed the Lines Head Quarters, it was oddly fitting that it was coincidently built in the middle of them, the others being the iconic The Liver Building and the often overlooked Port of Liverpool Building, and this show made them centre stage over the celebrations, well if you don't include the 3 new Cunard Liners that is. The main action started in the early hours of Sunday, 24 May 2015, when the largest and grandest Ocean Liner ever built sailed into the Mersey. Cunard's 150,000 ton flagship, the Queen Mary 2, dazzled onlookers as she toward over them; sail past of the City's historic waterfront. She then executed an elegant turn in the middle of the river and tying up at the berth, just down from company's former head quarters, the Cunard Building. She then waited the City played hosts as her passengers and guests were treated to a stunning view of the celebrations both on the water and on the banks of the river. But this grand arrival was to be dwarfed by what was to follow on the Bank Holiday Monday. Sadly, in true Bank Holiday style, the weather was not that amazing as the Queen Mary (QM2) cast off Her lines and pulled away from the Liverpool Curse Liner birth to sail down the river and meet Her counterparts, the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria. Turning at what is the narrowest part of the river, mid-channel, with sand banks all around, on the river Mersey's Mouth, towering above the cranes of the Freeport Dock in Bootle and in full view of the thousands of locals and tourists alike, both on New Brighten beach and Crosby Beach, it was a highly risky maneuver. But Her Captain, Chris Booker, a member of the Liverpool Pilotage Service, along with its crew pulled it off in style. Then facing back up river, she was met by both of the other Queens, who has emerged from the gray horizon to form up in convoy. The fleet then maneuvered, in close single file, themselves up river in order to pull level with the Three Graces. Then hours of simulation play became real for all 3 of the Queen's Captains and they preformed, what Cunard dubbed:- 'river dance' in order to form to an arrowhead formation. With huge risk of grounding on the many sand banks, in what was a dazzling display of skill, the 3 gigantic vessels elegantly swung around a full 180', just approximately 400 meters apart, in a perfectly synchronized turn to starboard. As they swung around, they made all the other vessels on the river look like kids bath toys. Even if you do not know anything about ships, or the way the rivers tide and currents affect them, this was a breathtaking site to watch. Following that the fleet completed its other synchronized manoeuvres in order to get them a line, facing down river, next to one another, with the 150,000 ton Queen Mary 2 in the middle of the 2 consort ships. With hoots they came to a dead stop and awaited the finishing torch to what was an extraordinary, spectacular, and extremely historic site, that has never been seen before and will very likely never to be seen again. As the Queen Mary 2 sound:- '175' on her ship's whistle (foghorn); 1st 1, then 7 short blasts, then 5 more. Finishing off the salute, where the Red Arrows, who performed a fly past over head, as they headed off to Blackpool to do a show. The salute was ended with a blast of horns the fleet started to move again and Cunard flagship along with its 2,600 passengers then sailed away into the Mersey River Estuary and out into the Irish Sea. Her departure left the other 2, 90,000 ton Sister Ships in the river. The Queen Elizabeth then powered over to the Cruise Liner Terminal to allow her passengers to disembark and experience the City with the Queen Victoria moving up the river to anchor just off the historic ship year, Cammell Laird. On an interesting point, Cammell Laird, 1 of the famous names in British shipbuilding during the 19th and 20th centuries, and is still operating today, 191 years on. The yard has built more than 1350 ships including many famous and innovative vessels, which included Cunard's RMS Samaria, launched in November of 1920. It produced The Cunard White Star passenger liner Mauretania. She was the largest ship ever built in an English shipyard and was launch in 1938. Her Sister ship was the well known RMS Lusitania! It even made the ill fated Titanic's boilers and engines. Just like the previous night, passengers on the Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Victoria, both got to see the fireworks and the projections. The night ended with the Queen Elizabeth pulling out in to the river and sailing off into the night, leaving Queen Victoria to motor over to the birth where she stayed until late afternoon on Tuesday. On Tuesday, She slipped away with hundreds of people watching. We headed to a vantage point just between Hightown and the former Coastguard Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre, at Crosby. She made a stunning impression on everyone who watched Her as She slipped away over the horizon, like a shrinking mountain.

To see our time laps of Her sailing off, please visit our Facebook Page and also you can see it along with highlights of the events that took place on in our video on this site, that is currently being  overhauled  Southport.TV very soon!

Please also enjoy the many photographs we have taken, along with some sent to us via Cunard and our readers, in this week's and next week's editions.  If you want to know more about Cunard and its history, please visit our mobile phone section via this link.  (A non-mobile page will be added soon to the History Section on Mersey Reporter).