Queen Elizabeth 2

Today was the last day the QE2 cruise ship would ever be in North America. The 40 year old oceanliner is being retired and will survive on as a floating hotel in Dubai. To honor the end of the line(er), a fellow Cunard ship, the Queen Mary 2, joined the old QE2 in New York Harbor and started on a joint trip across the Atlantic. This would be the 806th and final trip and across the Atlantic by the QE2.

I happened to be in a business meeting in a lower Manhattan skyscraper at the time of the engagement of the two ships. I knew that our 37th floor conference room was well positioned to see the event unfold during the 5pm-6pm meeting. I alerted the participants and we would grab peaks out the window as we anticipated the arrival of the ships while we spoke about technology.

First the Queen Mary 2 (above) came into view appearing between the buildings as it approached from the Brooklyn piers. It waited for the QE2 to come down the Hudson for the rendezvous and then head past the Statue of Liberty and out to sea.

While it waited, the Queen Mary 2 spun around in a section of the river that seemingly didn't have room for its size. And, it waited some more. After about 20 minutes, the QE2 appeared between the buildings. Dwarfed in size by the Queen Mary, which a few years ago was temporarily the largest ship in the world, the QE2 pulled up alongside and together they made their way through the approaching darkness and out towards the Verrazano Bridge and to the Atlantic.