SCRAPPED |

Dubai may sell QE2 to tackle debt crisis The high-profile “trophy asset” of Dubai’s boom years may have to be sold to pay off the emirate’s mounting debts.

November 27, 2009 By Michael L. Grace Leave a Comment

Is QE2 doomed to the scrap heap in India? Bring out the worry beads!

Cruise Ship History: Dubai may sell former Cunard Line QE2 to tackle debt crisis – The high-profile “trophy asset” of Dubai’s boom years may have to be sold to pay off the emirate’s mounting debts. The QE2 competes with the RMS Titanic for media attention.

From The Daily Telegraph:

The QE2 arrives at Port Rashid in Dubai. The Gulf state may have to sell the high profile asset acquired during the boom years.

Dubai World, the state-run company at the heart of a default crisis that has sent shock waves through the global financial system, bought a string of prestige stakes and properties as the city grew. The team of auditors brought in by the government, led by one of Britain’s leading experts in restructuring troubled firms, is to trawl through all the company assets with no options ruled out, a spokesman confirmed on Friday.

The dream that will never happen. Dubai goes broke and where will the most famous cruise liner in the world end up?

The Daily Telegraph also understands that Abu Dhabi is giving close scrutiny to ‘non-core’ assets like the QE2 in the Dubai World portfolio.

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Filed Under: Cruise History, CUNARD LINE Tagged With: cunard lines, Cunard White Star, Dubai, QE2, SCRAPPED, Titanic

Cruise History: Is the QE2 headed for the Dubai scrapyard? Rumors are floating around the former Cunard Line ship is going to be scrapped because the Dubai economic bubble has gone bust.

March 26, 2009 By Michael L. Grace Leave a Comment

Cruise History: Is the QE2 headed for the Dubai scrapyard? Rumors are floating around the former Cunard Line ship is going to be scrapped because the Dubai economic bubble has gone bust.

The QE 2 on her last voyage.

The Business Insider website is reporting the QE 2 is being scrapped.

Last year, once the world’s fastest liner in the world, the Queen Elizabeth 2 was sold by Cunard Lines to Dubai investors. On her last cruise, she sailed to the Middle East for Dubai and arrived in a grand procession
In classic Dubai style, the plan was to turn the famous ship into a floating hotel.

Fast forward to now and according to Business Insider editor Joe Weisenthal the dream is dead. His insider mole in Dubai states the QE 2 is being dismantled. He claims there’s no business for the hotel, and the idled ship is just sitting there, costing money and polluting the water. Hence, workers are actively pulling it apart, a sad end for such a grand ship.

A youtube video of Brits saying their final goodbyes to the possibly now doomed liner QE2.

Business Insider is looking for pictures of the dismantling.

Problems with Weisenthal’s story it could be just the beginning of the conversion.

But, it true, the QE 2 will end up like her predecessor. The first RMS Queen Elizabeth is seen below being hacked apart in Hong Kong harbor following a devastating fire.

1970s – Workmen with cutting torches have begun dissecting the great iron corpse of what had once been the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth, now a rusting hulk in the shallow waters of Hong Kong harbor.