Posted on 01/29/2010 8:31:44 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
QE II will probably disagree.
I don’t expect to have the honor so doesn’t matter to me. My great-uncle is on a postcard but he was gone before it was issued.
When does the US commission a warship? Is it before or after its sea trials?
When is it entitled to be referred to as "USS" and/or using its pendant number?
From the article, I infer that the practice is different than that for HM ships or HMC ships.
The QE2 was named after QEI (1533-1603), it was built as a replacement for the original QE that was scrapped in Hong Kong in 1975.
Prince Philip met with Cunard people when they were deciding on the name for the replacement for the QEI. They told him they were going to name it after
Queen Elizabeth but they meant “the First”. He replied “Oh, I’ll tell her. She’ll be so pleased.” or words to that effect. Cunard was caught and couldn’t very well dis the Queen by not naming the new ship after her.
QEI was destroyed by a suspicious fire in Hong Kong while being converted to a floating University. Rumor had it the guy funding the project ran out of money.
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