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NewYorkology tells us of the first / last ever meeting of its three grand ships;

Cunard’s one-time-only royal rendezvous of its three queens — the QE2, QM2 and recently christened Queen Victoria — will be celebrated at 7 p.m. on January 13 with a harbor fireworks show as the three grand cruise liners meet near the Statue of Liberty.

The QE2 and Queen Victoria will arrive in tandem (likely pre-sunrise) from Southampton, England. During the day, the QE2 will be docked at Manhattan’s Pier 92 and the Queen Victoria nearby at Pier 88. The Queen Mary 2 will arrive separately (also early morning,) and dock in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

All three have bridge cams (Queen Victoria, QM2 and QE2) and Cruise Critic Ben Lyons is blogging the voyage.

UPDATE:

Henny Ray Abrams/Associated Press

The New York Times has reported on the festivities. They write:

In the annals of maritime history, the Queens’ sailing was momentous. It was the first time in the 168-year history of the Cunard Line, the owner of the liners, that it had three ships named after British queens in the same port at the same time. The company arranged the ships’ schedules so that they departed from New York City ports simultaneously.

The Queens’ meeting, witnessed by thousands on shore and on board, will also be their last, company officials said.

“They are not programmed to meet in any other port,” Cunard’s president, Carol Marlow, said during an afternoon news conference at Pier 88 in Manhattan, with the docked Queen Victoria visible in background. “This is a spine-tingling time.”

The Queen Elizabeth 2, Cunard’s longest-serving ship, left Manhattan for its 26th and final around-the-world journey — a farewell tour that will usher in its retirement in November, when the liner will become a floating hotel in Dubai. The Queen Victoria, which came into service last month, embarked on its maiden world cruise. And the Queen Mary 2, the largest trans-Atlantic liner ever built, weighing about 151,400 gross tons, sailed to the Caribbean from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.

Click HERE to continue reading.

After a brief hiatus we return to a popular gCaptain feature “Incident Photo Of The Week“. This weeks photo is the aftermath of a 2002 fire aboard the M/V Hanjin Pennsylvania. The reason for the damage? A container filled with fireworks! CargoLAw.com tells us;

Hanjin Pennsylvania fire “has gutted accommodation & engine room” At least 6 rows of containers on deck & under deck have been effected by the blaze, which is understood to have started in a container carrying fireworks & spread to engulf the area immediately forward of the superstructure. But as the ship continues to burn, and salvage crews are still hampered in their attempts to board the vessel to carry out firefighting operations, experts are already suggesting the likely cause of the explosion was not a container full of fireworks.

CLICK HERE for the dramatic photo of the actual explosion then visit the newly redesigned CargoLaw website for the details; Page 1, Page 2, Page 3

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