Review of Queen Mary 2: The Greatest Ocean Liner Of Our Time by John Maxtone-Graham
Leafing through the pages of this coffee table book --- which, by the way, you should keep on your coffee table for your family and guests to peruse ---- reminds me of our trip to Europe last summer. We boarded the Queen Mary 2 on July 6 in Brooklyn and participated in the sailaway party while we sailed under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. We snapped photos of the disappearing harbor, the New York City skyline beyond, and our minivan in the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal Parking Lot where it was to remain for the next month. The front cover pictures the ship as it slices through the North Atlantic. I can pick out the window in the library on deck eight where I spent many an afternoon on my return voyage that departed Hamburg on July 25 and arrived back in Brooklyn on August 3.I can also pick out the sheltered balconies on deck 4, the lowest passenger deck, where we stayed on the voyage to Europe. Inside I find a full-page color photo of the Britannia Restaurant on deck 2 where we reserved a table for 3 on our voyage to Southampton and Hamburg beyond. There's another full-page color photo of Todd English on deck 8 where we ate lunch during our return voyage sailing across the North Sea on a balmy afternoon and listening to Captain Christopher Well's 12:00 noon report.They also include photos of places we didn't go such as the Bridge. You can study the deck plan on a several other pages.
In the back section of the book concerns the history of the Cunard Line from the time of Samuel Cunard who started the whole thing in the nineteenth century. There's even a fascinating couple of pages on the first Queen Mary that became famous during World War 2 as the Gray Ghost, ferrying soldiers back and forth to Europe. The authors include a two-page spread on the doomed Lusitania that was torpedoed by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915, eventually drawing America into the war. The authors describe in detail how the QM2, the only ocean liner afloat nowadays, was built. The magnificent book gives the reader as very good idea of the grand Cunard tradition.
P.S. If you book a passage on Queen Mary 2 you can see the cup presented to Samuel Cunard by the residents of Boston. It's displayed in the Grand Lobby, the central atrium of the ship on decks 2 and 3.
P.S.S. If you like this book, I would also recommend that you read The Only Way To Cross by John Maxtone-Graham.The Only Way to Cross: The Golden Era of the great Atlantic express liners---from the Mauretania to the France and the Queen Elizabeth 2 These books are sold on the ship in the bookshop on deck 8 next to the library, but believe me you won't want to carry them off during disembarkation. You will want to buy them on Amazon.com when you get back.