The transatlantic on board the Queen Elizabeth 2 (Documentary, Discovery, History)

you [Music] the Vikings were the first navigators to achieve the dream of crossing the Atlantic sailing from Scandinavia to one island to another from Iceland to Greenland they finally reached the coasts of Labrador about a t-1000 their exploits remained unknown to their contemporaries and Christopher Columbus was generally accepted as the discoverer of the Americas in 1492 in 1620 the Mayflower left Europe carrying about a hundred Dutch and English people this was the beginning of three centuries of immigration from Europe to the new world in the mid 19th century the first steam ships took command of the Atlantic in the early 20th century despite the Titanic disaster Atlantic crossings increased ocean liners were built bigger and faster and were more luxuriously equipped highlighting the 30s the Golden Age of transatlantic travel were liners such as the Normandy in the famous Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth but in the early 60s jet airliners became the leading means of transportation the queen elizabeth ii the last in a long line of passenger ships tirelessly continues to play a part in the transatlantic legend [Music] Southampton 7:00 a.m. the Queen Elizabeth 2 nicknamed the qe2 arrives from New York the sight of this huge vessel slowly emerging out of the blue tinge tonight conjures up images of the Titanic or the Queen Mary to name a few of the legendary grand ocean liners which many recognize from engravings or photographs and remember [Music] the Southampton dock workers have no idle time to stand and gaze nostalgically at the ship the qe2 will be here for just a few hours before leaving for New York [Music] [Applause] [Music] I think the biggest transition we've had is in the 50s and 60s in the heyday of the older super Linus was that was the mode of transport that was the only way to travel New York's have Hampton the ships five six thousand passengers per week sailing from Southampton alone but now the air is the prominent way to travel so the loss as you can see of all the luxury liners is gone launched in 1934 the Queen Mary reigned supreme on the North Atlantic for years in 1936 she won the Atlantic Blue Ribbon for the fastest crossing between Southampton and New York this 990 foot long passenger liner the first commercial ship to be christened by a member of the royal family Queen Mary retired in 1967 she was sold to the city of Long Beach in California and was converted into a marital museum and floating hotel [Music] [Applause] Southampton holds a special place in the history of England in 1620 the Mayflower departed here for America at a much later date during the transatlantic era the city often welcomed members of the royal family returning from a sea voyage you know we are traditionally monitors they the royal family and we do criticize at times but they were building the qe2 and there wasn't a name for the ship and the Queen Elizabeth was going and when they renamed really Kui to again it was a tradition to follow on the royalty the names of royalty queen elizabeth ii and while she has got that name on the bail she will always attract the passengers because it's nostalgia again it is royalty [Music] far from the hustle and bustle of the 30s Southampton today is a peaceful typically English country town [Music] at the Maritime Museum models and photographs Chronicle the town's glory days for the few people who stopped to visit [Music] I think people are astounding about the period of the liners because they see it as a great loss the vessels were sunk jurists the food was magnificent they had style they had elegance these days can't be recaptured even in the modern cruise market we've got plastic furniture and boxes just with a pointed end they haven't got the qualities of those old vessels and I think that's what people miss more than anything else it's well they can't really be recaptured but we can help a little bit to remind them before the days of the Queen Mary the gigantic White Star Line ships had already assured in a new era in transatlantic passage [Music] on April 10th 1912 one of their ships the Titanic left Southampton on its maiden voyage [Music] when the tragic news broke of course the impact on Southampton was that so many of the crew 600 out of 850 of the crew of the ship were Southampton residents so it had a tremendous impact for years to come whole streets had lost members of their families and so on and that's why we commemorate the Titanic here [Music] it's almost time for the Queen Elizabeth 2 to depart I think the qe2 has got a lot of nostalgia she is carried over the tradition and I'm afraid she's the only one willing to carry on that tradition the New York to celebrity service now is only serviced by the qe2 and that's infrequently during the course of the year [Music] [Music] [Music] the qe2 moves slowly away from the southampton pier [Music] the passengers stand on the bridge of the ship as it slowly moves down the itchin the river linking Southampton to the sea [Music] to watch the shore grow further and further away is an emotional moment [Music] deep inside they know the transatlantic crossing has already begun and that land will soon disappear from the horizon [Music] land will not be cited until six days later when they arrive in New York after crossing 6,000 kilometers of the North Atlantic [Music] yeah fire extinguisher there is no special treatment when it comes to safety at the start of every passage crew members are split up into small groups to review the emergency drills ok this is a small fire you will deal with it yourself ok what side of when Coast Guard what we ask you what's behind here each passenger has his or her own way of spending the first hours on board [Music] while tea time devotees sit in the grand salon several decks below the ship's old crew members take inventory of the merchandise loaded on board in Southampton for the crossing 12 people working in the department on the normals on a normal day and that's supplemented about 69 store and a they all weigh forward down on 7 decks which are actually two and a half decks below the water line from Southampton will take on an average of about between 30 and 40,000 pounds of fresh bodies beverage will take on in the region about about 50 pallets and various stops from the soft drinks through the wine sort of bed from there to be in different stores this is what we call a beverage store and this is our main liquor store if you carry all the beer and soft drinks and spirits then we have two other fridges would take the water commissary wine you like - champagnes there we have another four boxes for the fresh produce and another six for all the only meat products - the fish are about eight for various groceries and two-thirds ok we're just approaching the caviar storeroom Kavya progress couples we have your locker as on the double of the key [Music] they have young people board etc but we actually only carry two which is a bluebird in the Beluga bred more will be carrying three which is a golden Osetra the special requests the redline in concert bridge a wide variety of red wines one of our oldest if not the oldest so 1947 there's some more of a more select wines the 19th century Chateau Petrus [Music] night falls on the qe2 and the passengers prepare for their first night on board [Music] the qe2 measures about 960 feet in length and her extensive promenade decks are ideal for avid joggers or walkers [Music] the crew members however get a completely different type of exercise mostly in the passageways we are in a part of England on both qe2 so many traditions with regard to qe2 which are very British and people enjoy that of course Cunard Line has a tremendous history a tremendous heritage we have the old Queens Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mary them famous mauritania so many famous ships in the past and we on board the qe2 try and uphold that tradition and people you know have been sailing with with Cunard for maybe 40 years and would never travel any other way but also the the people who are coming to us for the first time or the second time still loved the tradition of the of the qe2 which is part of the heritage of Cunard Line and the pictures that you see on the wall yes there's a there's a lots of pictures of the royalty around to who have all graced us with their presence on board [Applause] on day two the obviously experienced players take their turns at shuffleboard the traditional ship deck game or at ping-pong on board the qe2 tiny piece of England in the middle of the North Atlantic the passengers act as they would in their own homes are at their Club [Music] we are celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and this was a surprise organized by my husband I believe is a very romantic setting so far we're thoroughly enjoying the cruise you have everything here that you could possibly need it's like a little town on water I've been on the qe2 3 or 4 times before on business and I think there's something special about the qe2 it's like the supersonic airliner the Concorde is both French and British and I'm sure that whenever a French person sees Air France Concorde takes off a very proud and I think the British people feel the same about the qe2 the Queen Elizabeth - it's a very special thing and so it's a mixture of the romance of being aboard the Queen Elizabeth - and the fact that she is the flagship for the British who are a seafaring nation the unusual atmosphere raining on the qe2 can be explained by a desire to uphold England's traditions the captain's Welcome Reception held today on all cruise ships around the world has a particularly formal ambience on the qe2 the passengers respect the protocol and dress up for the ceremony where they will have the privilege of greeting the commander [Music] now that the commander has shaken several hundred hands could he possibly be a little bored only passengers in certain cabin grades are invited to the evening event drinks in hand they chat and wait for the captain to give his welcoming speech in the meanwhile the qe2 s gentleman hosts invite the female passengers to dance the moment everyone has been waiting for finally arrives this westbound transatlantic voyage and before I say Bon Appetit and ask you to go off and they have you want dinner in the restaurant there are a thousand crew on this ship as you know many many managers on board but I thought it might be an idea to introduce you to four of the more principled managers of the shufflin first of all we have dr. Michael B Neil is the principal medical officer Tom Duffy who looks on after nearly all your needs the hotel manager the chief engineer Martinez with giveth Steven Hanna they say last but not least the staff captain aboard David Hawkins thank you for coming down [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Britannia launched in 1840 was the company's first steamship display cases here and there on the qe2 recount The Adventures of Samuel Connard who made his fortune with his famous packet boats designed for mail service sambuca rod was the Canadian who founded Cunard Line a hundred and fifty odd years ago he like a lot of the companies then was involved in the transport of mail and people cargo really wasn't an interest in those days and a lot of the people in the United States their grandparents their great-grandparents were originally travelling Cunard ships to their new home and they could be from Europe and from Great Britain his instructions to his captains were safety first always one of the other things he did ask us to watch was that the sailors didn't bring too much rum and we've tried to do that too but he was a an entrepreneur and established the name of Cunard which is still a name to to conjure with sadly the a lot of the other companies that were running at the same time as him have gone and we are the last one left [Applause] [Music] the finest model on board the qe2 is the Mauretania although speed was not the colored lines main concern the Mauritania launched in 1907 kept the famous blue ribbon until 1929 during World War one she served as a troop transport and hospital ship [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah the laundry now yeah well I got a goodie me ever 17 stop and we do about 14 and 15 hours a day we produce about 30 to 35 thousand pieces per day normally we speak only to to tire language to type Chinese language the ones dialogue and what is the man doing we've got the Singapore Malaysia Indonesia and China they only work here you can go to the day never is not allowed why you're because this is a what a passenger area is only for the passenger where you work where you work where you stay you can't move anywhere around a tip as the ship sails further westward each day they progressively change time zones at noon the qe2 siren signals when it's time to move watches ahead one hour and we believe that Christ is abundantly blessed is love he has already consecrated you in Baptism and he has enriched you and spent ages to the sacrament of marriage there's never a dull moment on board in the grand salon were a fashion show a lecture and a bingo game took place several hours earlier a priest is now celebrating the renewal of marriage for several couples say after me please continue to wear this ring in the group is a French couple on their maiden voyage aboard the Queen I like to travel I cannot help myself it's like an addiction mode but obviously it's a good one I bring her along and try to convert her have you been convergent yes but to now I've been on all the trips he's wanted me to I was mostly into material things the house the yard and all that but now that's over the house has been built and before I really enjoy traveling with him they got everything you need here all kinds of activities dancing on board meals all the time Blanche's and all I like to eat so I can appreciate all the fine cuisine on board I enjoying the dances in the evenings and all the shows it's been an unforgettable experience [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we reached the middle of the Atlantic after three days at sea we are a transatlantic liner we spend half of our life in this ocean and half of our life cruising the ship is ageless I think when she was built there was a lot of the ideas of the old Queens built into this show and she's very strong very fast and there's an atmosphere onboard which is different to the normal cruise ship although this particular crossing we will have averaged about 25 knots for the schedule and this means that we've been running at about 70% power there's a summon reserve the ship is propelled by diesel electric engines she was originally a steam turbine ship but ten years ago we were converted to diesel electric power and as such she's a very fast ship [Music] we have a television constant monitoring system so we can actually look into spaces and it's constant surveillance so if the if we have an alarm in the particular area around the engineer him to go out there he can just call up the particular space and just have a look for himself and see if there's anything that's not quite right there and we also have a view which looks at the ship's funnel so we can see what our exhaust gases are like the Commodore rarely comes down to my empire occasionally if I have something interesting to show him I'll bring him down here but otherwise no he doesn't come down here the queen elizabeth ii is not just a ship with officers and sailors it's also a hotel employing several hundred individuals most of them look after the cabins are working the five restaurants on board in the corona are the largest restaurant seeking nearly 500 the metro d inspects his crew once during every crossing the captain invites several carefully chosen passengers to sit at his table very very quickly about the lady who came on board the ship in New York and she had never sailed on the qe2 before but she they needed another person for the captain's table so the maitre d said to her madam have had a lovely seat for you in the restaurant so sitting at the captain's table and the lady turned round the maitre d and said young man I didn't pay all this money to sit with the crew [Music] [Music] the leader restaurant located in the stern hosts the traditional fabulous buffet which is actually more of a staged production than a dinner throughout the crossing grande cuisine holds a place of honor on the qe2 the passengers hurry into this midnight buffet are mainly interested in admiring the elaborate display [Music] several hours earlier the Lido may have staged a fabulous midnight buffet but the morning afterwards everything is back to normal [Music] there are new meals and different uniforms the service has to be tip-top here just like in all the restaurants [Music] on day 4 the weather suddenly changes and the ocean starts to swell the qe2 is entering a turbulent zone caused by hurricane Erika as the weather report had predicted however work goes on in the galleys thanks to the ship's stabilizers what do you see here so all the appetizers are just cream being prepared for for lunch for transatlantic rows we need every day up to 900 men on the plates I have exactly 107 chefs which reflect about 25 countries and and I have 70 Filipinos which doing cleaning work and utility work from my point of view being executive chef on qe2 it is also very special because I have like five restaurants here and each restaurant is different character and also the quality of the food and the menus are completely foreign so for me it is like I am being chef on 40 friendships aside from the ship pitching slightly there's no indication that the sports and fitness center is located on one of the lowest decks below the water line [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] is she seasick because of the storm or not well for some other reason this passenger is the only patient in the ship's hospital and is getting the doctors full attention a total number of nearly 3,000 people a thousand crew and sometimes nearly 2,000 passengers we have a 10 bedded Hospital 10 beds which has piped oxygen all the way through and one one special area which has two beds we use as a coronary care facility sort of simple coronary care facility many people ask for this question whether we do any operations at sea and perhaps they did in the old days but these days it's not really that easier thing to do and because we are always in port we usually try and hold people who need an operation hold them stabilize them until we get them ashore only in the structure of the hospital we do have a quite well we have a fridge a deep freeze fridge which everybody wants to know about and that's not for keeping milk or food stores it it's for keeping two bodies we have we have two two spaces for two bodies [Music] the Golden Lion pub is open it's time to have one last drink before bedtime problem now of course y'all [Music] [Music] the Queen's library is probably the largest on board any cruise ship among the thousands of books in English for the most part are a large number devoted to transatlantic crossings as a young boy of eighteen I joined Cunard back in 1949 50 and as a purser at junior purser and my first ship in those days was the old Queen Elizabeth and then I moved over to the Queen Mary which was a beautiful stately lady they were in three classes very very tight three classes and there were gates between those classes and the passengers were never able to go from one to another and we had masters at arms in uniform patrolling the ships but if they saw a passenger that they thought shouldn't be in first class or didn't belong in first class they would ask them the cabin number and escort them back to the class this huge display catches the passengers attention they spend some time making out the celebrities who have traveled on the former Queen's royalty heads of state industrialists and showbiz stars [Music] [Applause] [Music] about what he used to invite passengers to do some of the entertainment in the evenings didn't you you didn't have the organized entertainment that there is now and didn't the crew used to do it yes the only entertainment on the old Queen Mary in the old Queen Elizabeth in the evening was one night there would be bingo house he houses it was cold or bingo the other night would be horse racing and they would alternate and then after that there would be dancing if we were carrying people such as Gracie Fields maurice chevalier I remember him he what the purser would ask him if he were prepared to just give a concert to the passengers in the evening with donations to seaman's charities the 40s in World War two come back to life on some evenings on the Queen [Music] the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth were used for transporting Allied troops Winston Churchill credited these two ships for shortening the war by a year [Music] 1 million six hundred thousand soldiers traveled in safety during the war [Music] first time that a queen liner had been into New York on her maiden voyage since 1939 really and so that was tremendous we were met by 300 small craft in the Hudson River a fleet of nine police helicopters led us up the river a spectacular sight a fantastic welcome [Music] after sailing for six days at sea and covering nearly 6,000 kilometers across the North Atlantic the qe2 arrives in the United States [Music] after passing the Verrazano Bridge New York's symbols come into view in the early dawn [Music] the tip of Manhattan spiked with its famous skyscrapers looms before the ship [Music] the qe2 sails down the Hudson River alongside the Manhattan Peninsula up to the piers were other transatlantic liners once docked [Music] one of the most exciting thoughts to arrive in New York anywhere in the world I just love coming back here I mean look at that sunrise over the Empire State Building it's beautiful just a little sad to see all these empty piers there because of course in my seagoing days they were all full of transatlantic liners and all activity [Music] [Music] [Music] New York is truly a symbol of the American melting pot some of the city's neighborhoods such as Harlem recall the migrations of blacks from the south the Asian community Chinatown is situated at the tip of Manhattan in the 19th century New York alone opened its doors to three-quarters of the immigrants arriving in the United States at this time they naturally came by ship at the very spot where the ferries today discharged a flood of employees headed to work the immigrants waited anxiously to see the Statue of Liberty because it meant they had reached the end of a long turbulent journey and that a new life was about to begin however before setting foot on the soil of their new home they had to successfully pass inspection at the Ellis Island immigration station today the island has been converted into a museum and many Americans come searching for their ancestors this is the immigrants that came to this country and these are the families the names in that and of course we're interested in our families which these people came in are like 1892 and they came from Ireland Ireland and England were looking back in to be like her great-great grandma my mom's father he immigrated from Sweden [Music] Ellis Island is truly an American symbol from 1892 to 1954 some 12 million people disembarked here European immigrants fleeing hardships came to the United States in search of freedom [Music] as the ships arrived from Europe with the immigrants as well as first and second class passengers they were stopped outside the harbor first and second class passengers were given a quick examination then the boats sailed into the harbor first and second class passengers were allowed to disembark and start their life there was only those people in the bottom of the boat called the steerage section of the boat that had to be processed at Ellis Island they were then ferried back here to Ellis Island where they're processing began as they entered the main building they first were asked to leave those bags that they could not carry through the inspection [Music] today Ellis Island is a Museum and was placed under the care of the National Park Service on May 11th 1965 over 30 galleries display simple everyday artifacts which belonged to the millions of immigrants from all over Europe [Music] [Music] legal questions were how much money do you have because by law you had to have $25 to enter the country other questions that dealt with the legal end where if you are polygamist or if you are an anarchist well that was actually the second part of their examination as they ascended their stairs the medical inspection had already started unbeknownst to the immigrant because medical officers were standing at the top of the stairs observing how you walked up those stairs based on that observation they made a diagnosis they then used a piece of chalk to mark out your outer clothing so if you came up huffing and puffing that was an H if you came up limping that was an L and for about nine percent of the people that came up gazing around the room the Magnificent Great Hall with their mouth wide open that was enough to receive an X for mental incompetency [Music] beauty and height of New York's skyscrapers evolved the same way the steamships did at the turn of the century we had the Titanic and neo-gothic structures like the war worth building while the 30s assured in the glamorous ocean liners and Art Deco skyscrapers the 1920s were a very happy period that caused great enthusiasm and although we moved into the 30s and there was a depression there was a feeling to reach for great heights bigger grander more fabulous than ever in New York City behind me we built the Empire State Building in 1931 behind it the Chrysler Building 1929 these are among the most fabulous office buildings ever built with beautiful lobbies it was an age where over the edge was better more was not enough it was bigger and better than ever and the great ships past the great buildings New York was vibrant Radio City movies trains it was an era of unbelievable proportions which sadly now has passed [Music] the era of the great passenger liners is past the old port of New York is now a museum with permanently moored empty boats only a modest rusted plaque commemorates the Titanic shipwreck the day the Queen Elizabeth ends her crossings between Europe and the United States the era of transatlantic sea travel will definitely be over [Music]

Channel: Stop Over - Documentary, Discovery, History

Views: 309,550

Rating: 4.7790055 out of 5

Keywords: travel, adventure, boat, sail, trip, ocean, sea, river, sailboat, cruise, stopover, stop, over, Queen Elizabeth 2, Royal Clipper, Le France, Le Norway, Sun Boat II, Classica, Vat Phou, Bolero, Wind Song, Grigoriy Mikheev icebreaker, Silver Cloud, destination, voyage, Stopovertv, Discover, Travel, travels, explore, Stop Over, History

Id: udkOtD38xaU

Length: 54min 28sec (3268 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 16 2013