QE2 Transatlantic from Southampton to New York Documentary film

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hi everybody hi come aboard 3103 if you'd like to go through to the stairs there you go down one floor you know where to find your cabin hello welcome I'm the social director of the qe2 and as such my job is looking after many of the VIPs that come on board spend a lot of time with the actual passengers on board I call bingo and I and do the horse racing hey how you doing welcome home see how long since you've been on board I don't ever have to smile I just enjoy my job I love the people and the difficult ones are just as much fun to work with as the the happy ones and I never smile if I don't want to I like the job so much that I smile all the time [Music] [Music] [Music] three cows with 35 on board if I get to BTS thank you ever find out that I found this [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] my primary function on here is a watch keeping officer I'm responsible for the safe navigation in the ship for eight hours a day the captain is in command but when he's not on the bridge the officer the watch is in charge of the ship we have a hundred and twenty six officers on the ship we have in total 1022 crew so 900 crew members are being managed by 126 offices [Music] [Music] 20 [Music] [Music] my prime concern is to get all the passengers and crew safely on a voyage and also keep the ship's privileged to welcome you on board for this transatlantic voyage sometimes that does conflict with the the social side enjoying these crossings we've had a lot of fog that's potentially a danger so I would never leave the bridge while there's fog and accordingly any social events that are already pre-planned will have to continue without my presidency to make your stay more enjoyable please don't hesitate to get in touch [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] we have nine children in the family and it was very poor existence I can't even remember if I had choose before I was about ten years old you should now be at your emergency muster station this is where you would come and so we had rather a very poor start at the age of 14 I left school and started to work and then at the age of 26 both my mum and dad died and the three youngest children in the family had nobody to look after them they took on the responsibility of being their mother and father from there I just concentrated on my dancing full-time but I was the Australian dance champion in 1981 I enjoyed the dancing right through until I was 37 but it was time to get my financial life into order in fact I have eight homes now and things are looking rather good for my future we have a whistle for attracting attention and whistle we blow just to attract the attention of any passers-by we don't envy wealthy people who have been wealthy from all of their life and I feel that rather the opposite I feel that I'm the lucky one because I have earned everything that I have and now that I have a little bit more I really do appreciate it I don't believe in luck I believe that you certainly do make your own luck and I think you can take your own destiny in hand and you can be whatever you want to be sometimes we have a feeling like you miss something you're doing the Philippines you miss your family friends normally happen to everybody some people most relation British they they don't like to be in a group Filipinos in a group but when it comes to you are working together sometimes that they go here and you're limited this year you have no feelings Jaime any ideas just a little get out of has nothing about 1250 rights and update your computer okay [Music] I don't think I'd want to fly even if I could if I could have go on a ship like this I mean this is so much fun if you can afford the luxury of time certainly this is the loveliest way to travel [Music] yes yeah sure [Music] when we first began to travel it was very structured it was very carefully kept to each class was in a certain area of this ship now you no longer have that you had no sense of any pressure you took ten days to get across the Atlantic and you just had absolute peace there wasn't any sense of hurry the 1937 there were some many ships crossing the ocean even on the ship there were so few people in the ship because there's so many ships going back and forth I mean we had a table for two and you couldn't possibly talk to anybody next to you unless you shout at the top of your lungs and they'd wonder what you're shouting about what would you say all the other difference in the old days there was no entertainment provided for you you had to amuse yourselves that a ping-pong table on the deck that we played ping-pong you walked you read you did things yourselves rather than having entertainment provided for you and also the valet service you got in your stateroom they would draw the bath for you and make sure the temperature is right now you have to draw your own bathroom when you get rusty water it's really sweet there's nobody unistream take a little bit well it doesn't cost anything it's great [Music] [Music] we went to a birthday party together and they're engaged to be married to somebody else apparently something happened and three months later we were engaged so that's really quite a record isn't it especially when she was engaged to somebody else and I was told it was absolutely hopeless to ever try to get a date with her fortunately the biggest thing that ever happened with my life was when she went out with me and I told her the first night you know something someday you're gonna marry me because she thought I was off my rocker but at least were married in three months so my father heard we were getting married and of course he was delighted with my wife just as much as I was he said do you think your wife would like a trip to Europe well then you take and you know we were so young and so innocent we didn't realize that what we had was an absolutely wonderful thing we were just living in the lap of luxury we had a marvelous time but we didn't realize that that time I meant wonderful it was [Music] see if we were able to look what we want I mean we have pretty much full access to the ship so what's harder is 90% of it crew members are the public's nice I mean they very complimentary to the shows I mean they love the show they fly and they don't expect to see what they're doing and so a lot of shows they they really enjoy into us to them we're like stars so that most time they just say I think one thing that is weird though is that you don't have any privacy because you can't get away from your audience like living with your audience is very strange [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we have the responsibility of being in command or being in control of the most famous liner left in the world we're keeping a lookout for other ships I suppose there's many things to look for sea life fishing boats of a ship of succession so it's definitely not boring or lonely if you like it's a very important job with the only pair of eyes looking out of the window ahead of the ship now and there's somebody here 24 hours a day so we don't rely on electronic navigation equipment all the time it's it's still the old method of looking and watching and listening and everything the passengers listen to announcements from the bridge every day and we like to put a bit of variety into them I used to give them weather forecasts to the passengers of the morning I used to do the morning navigators talk on the on the speaker system and if it was going to be a wet day rainy day I would tell passengers that we do not expect any rain between the showers so I used to get a few phone calls after that what do you mean what you mean there has always been in the British Merchant Navy a friendly rivalry between deck officers and engineers and many years ago the chief engineer would draw an imaginary line on the deck and say you are my engineers over there are the deck officers you will never mix with them the only engineer and officer was speaking with a captain and the chief engineer they have a business agreement and they called this situation oil and water and oil and water never mixes now in this day and age it's impossible to run a ship with that setup engineers and deck officers their areas or responsibilities intermingle all the time [Music] [Music] things are coming up which he wanted to scare and he's getting old and he got a little bit of money certainly so I thought let's go and spend it and see our youngest son that's right I was one of these kids that didn't really know what what I wanted to do my father he used to go away for months on end so I never really saw a lot of him as a as a youngster but then when I was around about 12 and 13 my dad started asking me what I wanted to do and I used to come up with the odd ideas that kids usually do like being a train driver or something like that and then in the end I ran out of ideas and I said well I'll go to see and he just said well that's it's not a bad life and it started from there I don't regard it as the the last transatlantic liner I think it probably will be the last one but I like to be optimistic and I think that there would always be a ship on the transatlantic liner I've always had an affinity for the queen elizabeth ii when it was being built 25 years ago i remember seeing it and thinking that would be a really nice ship to to be in command of my father was here in the very early stages as well he's sailing across as a holiday with my mother and he's going to visit my brother who lives in the USA i asked him to come along here with me because it was very special for us because he he sail with the ship when it first came out when it was first launched he was the first captain of the qe2 and now 20 years later he comes aboard again with me his son as the master so it's a very very special for him and for myself of course he was very very close to the ship when it was being built and it's always been my favorite ship and I'm feel very very proud to have him here on board with me I wouldn't say it's a difficult job but it's a job that has many hidden requirements because there's no one to lean on you have to make all the decisions yourself and when the time comes to make a decision and all your senior staff are looking at you waiting for you to make an announcement of what you're going to do then it becomes quite lonely [Music] good afternoon ladies and gentlemen welcome to theater our guest is a Nigerian writer whose resident in London England he's published five books including two volumes of stories he won England's most prestigious literary award the Booker Prize in 1991 please welcome Ben Opry I'm sort of the pleased that one is doing this event today rather than yesterday because yesterday was very rocky and so was I I was born in the middle of Nigeria and a place called Mina 1959 was brought to England the age of two went back to Nigeria on the eve of the Civil War came back to England to study literature and to write which I've been doing I don't believe in raising artists or writers to a level of priests or sages artists only as wise and as good as the fact that their works have on people and so one is struck by the humility of the figure of William Shakespeare we don't know anything about him but his influence and his power has been greater than the power of Empires it's the work that is valuable the person comes and goes every piece of work is dead two human beings unlock their own imagination and their own internal response and imbue these things with life when scorpions don't make the wind change directions and words on a page you most certainly don't leap out and become Don Quixote accosted to tell someone about this boat I would tell them there's nothing greater than the humility of water and yet there is more awesome than the power and the rage of what it is the great Bearer in terms of the early myths of the journeys of heroes on this plane of consciousness to other planes of consciousness [Music] the question is do we allow for being an hour late if the ship is really run like a small business in fact we even have on board what we call the business group and that consisted of me as the head of the group and then the staff captain who's in charge of all the operational side the hotel manager that looks after the the hotel and catering side and then the chief engineer who looks after the or the engineering and services [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I was happy before I came here but because my wife asked for divorce I wanted to go where I wanted to disappear and I've been here nearly five years five years in October is the Portuguese dream you know we always go away from home with two things in mind is to own something to build a house and to own the business that is probably have to stay here another two or three years to achieve that is the wonderful feeling when a guest comes here and say hello Henry oh nice to see you again I'm very pleased to see you and I repeated the same was very pleased to see you too mother man it's wonderful to have you again on the ship you become attached to people to stay with my husband he's controlling all the prices and food and beverage at coming and going being in a restaurant you have to be able to smile and to make sure the guest looks at you and they know you're happy even being unhappy you have to make sure all the time you are happy he is very positive man and he's very fair to his I like to come with him I think three months a year the family can go with that crew member our officer I don't know we put about six pieces of that in which place about 90 grams and then once that's finished we arrange them as it is and then we put some cream over it as between some cream over it and to bring the color contrast out a little bit a touch of caviar that's what you do this is during the world cruise this particular lady she is very funny because she complains about everything until to a stage that she cannot complain anymore she started picking on the forks the tablecloth the napkins the glasses one particular night she ordered this trout so we make her the trout cook it a la minute for her and everything nicely presented so she just taste a little bit of the child and she started plating that she says that the fish is placing fishy I don't know why and I do not like it so take it back the company I was working with charted curative in Japan for three months three years ago and I was in that project to have wedding party on both curative when I met my husband now if I can tell you that what are you get to do you should see the fish is to fish [Music] we can't really compare the traveling because this is takes five days to do it so it's an experience in itself you get to where you want to go but also you do this you think you experience all this if you go on a plane you just get made to be you don't count the hours that you travel with as any experience just like the group we've got onboard the moments called the Cure and my job is to spend time with them they're very different to the other passengers because they're a lot younger and they only wear black clothes and they live only in the night time and sleep in the daytime I think a lot of the passengers that see them on board to get rather confused that these sort of people wouldn't want to travel on a ship as classy as the qe2 it it's like being stuck up the height makes you not relaxed and nice I mostly date well I mean you can't you can't if you want to pretend that you can't walk out on the wing on a plane [Music] yes I will call it electorate ask me that song bye I am working every day in the morning I start at 7:30 and I have room service for breakfast or tea orders I'm working because because they still work and I can't work in my name have a 14 cabin and I'm making this cabin I have work on afternoon with the same aroma series and in the evening I start to seven o'clock and I can make cabins again [Music] I'm dreaming last night in the day before tonight and today afternoon I dream all times my town how I'm walking I've been in my house and after that I'm going in Old Town and after that and one place up there is the fighting [Music] [Music] [Music] the major part of my job on the ship is of course to keep the propellers turning to keep the ship running as as efficiently and as safely as I'm able to do I was a lot of our passengers have absolutely no concept whatsoever about what makes this ship take well the people come here with this misconception that they're actually joining a hotel well the qe2 is not a hotel and never will be a hotel for example qe2 can do a top speed of 32 and a half knots okay there's not many hotels that can do that some people come on here and say there's a bit of a vibration what's gone wrong you know I mean the amount of horsepower and energy required to push a vest along a decibel speed is it's quite incredible there's 96 megawatts of installed power on qe2 to push her along with that speed and a certain amount of vibration and movement will occur as indeed when we're in a Seaway if there's a heavy swell running even though we aren't fully stabilized the ship will move the first time I ever went on the ship is when I was five years old and that was a long sea voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to Central America with my mother and father and as on a cargo passenger ship and that experience at a very young age I think put the sea into my veins I'm a great believer in predestination if you were to stay at home in order to survive your life you would never do anything you're supposed to leave this life in a certain year you will depart this life in a certain year the actual happening to yourself whether it's flying or sailing in a ship is pretty remote [Music] when I was six years of age I had polio and the part of me that was paralyzed where my vocal cords it's a very unusual thing to not be able to speak and not to be able to make any noise at all so with great joy when the paralysis left my vocal cords I could probably tell you I can never stop speaking singing and poetry I'd like to sing for you a song by Robert Burns Harding our days and hours [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when we roll out when we're on the bridge then we can be a little bit more informal the captain will call us by our Christian names we of course we call him captain or sir you must always have that level of respect for the man who's in command there's nobody about him he's on his own he's the buck stopped there he's it's a very lonely position it must be like a lot of professions which you have an image of of a person or a position but until you're actually in it you never really know what it's like when the time comes that you actually take over the reins and become a captain then the reality of the situation becomes apparent [Music] [Music] let's go sir Mike this is Queen Elizabeth - yeah 44 degrees north 41 degrees west [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] New York New York Queen Elizabeth to channel one soon hi this is Hanna browse pilots back to Queen Elizabeth two zero eight seven thanks for the call pilot on your arrival yeah understood will slaughter behind the attacker and the container city if we see them up dredger within the next few minutes on the port side [Music] not good [Music] [Music] maritime from the qe2 Aquino's returnest I ride you have the Maryland Health Department one boys we bound for the north where ever followed by the Tusker off 228 boys wouldn't be bound for a North River [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] stop [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: dcbrit2003

Views: 715,198

Keywords: QE2, Queen, Elizabeth, Transatlantic, Southampton, New York, Documentary, film

Id: 5cYm_zaY7Fc

Length: 57min 36sec (3456 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 08 2017