RMS Queen Mary 2

About Queen Mary 2

The RMS Queen Mary 2 is a Cunard Line passenger ship named after the earlier Cunard liner Queen Mary, which was in turn named after Mary of Teck. At the time of RMS Queen Mary 2 's construction in 2003, the Queen Mary 2 was in every dimension the largest passenger ship ever built. However, the Queen Mary II will lose this title to Royal Caribbean International's Freedom of the Seas in May 2006. The Queen Mary 2's  luxuries include 15 restaurants and bars, five swimming pools, a casino, a ballroom, and a planetarium.

Why was the Queen Mary 2 built?

The Queen Mary 2 (QM2) is the current Cunard flagship and makes regular transatlantic crossings. The Queen Mary 2 Ship was constructed to replace the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2. The RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 was the Cunard flagship from 1969 to 2004. The first RMS Queen Mary ship sailed the Atlantic from 1936 to 1967.

What is RMS? What does RMS stand for?

The Queen Mary 2 ship prefix "RMS" is affixed to the QM2, which originally stood for "Royal Mail Steamer," but which now stands for "Royal Mail Ship." The Queen Mary 2 Ship or QM2 is not a steamship like her predecessors, but is powered by General Electric gas turbines and diesel generators which produce the power to drive her four Rolls-Royce Mermaid electric podded azimuth propulsors. In addition, as with the Queen Mary 2 Ship's predecessors, she is a transatlantic ocean liner, as opposed to a cruise ship.

While the Queen Mary 2 Ship or QM2 is the largest passenger ship, there are larger ships than the Queen Mary ships. Many supertankers, carrying crude oil in bulk, are of larger displacement when fully loaded (with the largest, built in the 1970s displacing 400,000 to 500,000 tons, far larger than any other ships). Their structural steel frames, however, are a much lower component of their total laden mass than in other ships and they are of relatively simple construction.