Topic: World's largest cruise ship docks in England

[Jack Morris]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060429/ts_nm/transport_britain_liner_dc

How times fly eh Stephen? I remember when I was in OK and we were talking about the Q.M. 2, except the price for a cabin on the maiden voyage was a wee tad high, 42k average!

I still think Cunard has the best ships, it seems that American cruise ships want to stuff as many people on board as they can, and unless you are ultra rich, you will feel like a sardine. Whereas look at the Q.M. 2, and the Q.E. 2, they still have that ages old glamorous look without the crowds. Now if only the Italians would build some more queens of the seas. Yes, we had the fastest cruise ship at one time, but nothing could match the style and grace of the British and Italian liners. IMHO.

[Jack Morris]

OTT: Posiendon Adventure is coming out this summer. 

[Just plain old Punisher]

I believe White Star/Cunard is an American company Jack.

[Jack Morris]

  What a bunch of sell outs. At least Carnival is not stupid. It is sort of like comparing Toyota and Lexus, there is no comparison, IMHO.

[Just plain old Punisher]

I believe Cunnard is the only company that offers regular trans-atlantic passenger ship service. For the money you're going to plunk down, I'd rather fly first class on Brittsh Airways or Virgin Atlantic.

Now that's what I call first class.

[Mackie]

And its also Finnish built 

[Jack Morris]

Your shipyard is only one in five in the world, IIRC that can build the darn things.

[Mackie]

Yeah and were in the progress of making even a bigger one, Genesis class cruiser, 220 000 tons. Propably will be done in 09 

[Jack Morris]

Will we have a planet by then?  We seem to be on edge lately with the nukes.

[kmelew]

IIRC Cunard is supposed to put the Queen Victoria into service in the next year or two.  It is supposed to be larger than the QE2, but smaller than the QM2.  The Queen Victoria and QM2 will handle the transatlantic/Caribbean routes while the QE2 will be based in Europe and the Mediterranean.

[kmelew]

OTT: Posiendon Adventure is coming out this summer. 

The original S.S. Poseidon was supposed to be the based on the Queen Mary.  Her captain was played by Leslie Nielsen.

Looking forward to the new version.

[Jack Morris]

Same here bro, and I know the black actor paying the captain well, he has a very outstanding acting career.

[Sirgod]

Man I had forgot about that Conversation. Re: the QM2. Hey do you guys watch those Science channels? There was one that showed Cargo ships that would blow your mind. One was 76' deep Re: the hull, another was Very wide, and yet anoth was was very tall. Nothing on the length, But When they where docking, Man.

They offloaded for example a Deep sea oil rig, they had to offset the ballest , and basicly sink the ship. Drive under it, and leave it in the water.

Stephen

[kmelew]

Freedom of the Seas arrives in Bayonne, NJ

[Jack Morris]

I bet passage is a very pretty penny indeed. I wish the airships would take to the skies. They could beat the airlines into the ground nowadays!

[Dracho]

That scow looks awful top-heavy.

[Just plain old Punisher]

That scow looks awful top-heavy.

I knew we shouldn't have put the jenny criag jazzercise gym on the top deck!!

[Jack Morris]

They should call it the S.S. Sardines!

[J. Carney]

That scow looks awful top-heavy.

All cruise ships are, unfortunately, more top-heavy than an old IJN Fuso-class battleship.

One reason I don't trust 'em...

[Jack Morris]

That scow looks awful top-heavy.

All cruise ships are, unfortunately, more top-heavy than an old IJN Fuso-class battleship.

One reason I don't trust 'em...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Fuso

That was one badarse ship to have to have one half of the vessel to be sunk by an American cruiser!

Sir, we are engaging.

What are you engaging?

The half of the Fuso, it is still afloat! 

[Just plain old Punisher]

Eh, it was slow, under armoured, and built in 1912 =P

[J. Carney]

Eh, it was slow, under armoured, and built in 1912 =P

Actually, the Fuso was a VERY good design- dispite the poor placement of the #3 and #4 turrets, which gave them VERY limited firing arcs. They were well protected armor-wise for their time, were capable of almost 26 knots after their modernization, and had very decent main guns. Now, they were kinda weak on secondary armament (a common weakness of WWI BB's) and were almost totally devoid of any AA armament; but taken as a whole, they were pretty decent fighting ships.

[Jack Morris]

Displacement: 39,154 tons
Length: 698 ft (213 m)
Beam: 100 ft 5 in (30.61 m)
Draught: 31 ft 9 in (9.68 m)
Propulsion: 
Speed: 25 knots (46 km/h)
Range: 
Complement: 1,400
Armament: 12 × 14 inch (360 mm) guns,
16 × 6 inch (200 mm),
8 × 5 inch (100 mm) DP,
up to 37 × 25 mm AA

That's pretty impressive AA firepower

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Alabama_(BB-60)

The Bama only had slightly more AA, though they had some 40MMs in the mix vs straight 25MMs. Fuso actually had more secondary firepower.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Bismarck

[Just plain old Punisher]

Eh, it was slow, under armoured, and built in 1912 =P

Actually, the Fuso was a VERY good design- dispite the poor placement of the #3 and #4 turrets, which gave them VERY limited firing arcs. They were well protected armor-wise for their time, were capable of almost 26 knots after their modernization, and had very decent main guns. Now, they were kinda weak on secondary armament (a common weakness of WWI BB's) and were almost totally devoid of any AA armament; but taken as a whole, they were pretty decent fighting ships.

I disagree. It had the armour of a battlecruiser for the most part, and we all know how much of a failure most battlecruiser designs were. It's poor top speed meant that it couldn't dictate the range in any gunnery duel, something that essential for a under-armoured warship.