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Captain Paul Wright, a Cornishman, is a kind of latter day Henry VIII - a master and commander who moves from one queen to the next in quick succession.

He is the first person to command all three Queens in the Cunard fleet - Queen Elizabeth 2, Queen Mary 2 and their “younger sister” Queen Victoria.

His first appointment with Cunard was to Cunard Countess, since when he has served on Cunard Princess, Sagafjord and Cunard Dynasty. In 1999 Captain Wright was promoted to Captain of Cunard’s flagship Queen Elizabeth 2 where he served until construction of the largest liner ever built, Queen Mary 2. He oversaw construction of the ship in St. Nazaire prior to commission, and in 2004 was appointed Master of Queen Mary 2, alternating with the recently retired Commodore Ron Warwick.

Asked what his most memorable moments at sea have been, Captain Wright cites two: when he brought QE2 into New York for the first time after the 11 September attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, and bringing Queen Mary 2 into Hamburg on her maiden call when half a million people turned out to greet the ship.

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This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd of the net.

Photo by AurelioZen

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.

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