Cruise liner Queen Mary 2 makes big splash in Sydney

Feb 20, 2007, 1:43 GMT

Sydney - The world's grandest cruise ship left traffic gridlock in its wake Tuesday when tens of thousands of spectators flocked to the Sydney Harbour foreshore to witness the dawn arrival of Cunard's top-of-the-line Queen Mary 2.

The 151,000-ton QM2, the largest moving object ever to visit Australia, drew a welcoming party of hundreds of tinier vessels keen to get alongside a suburb-sized vessel halfway through its maiden round-the-world voyage.

At 23 storeys and 345 metres, it's too big to dock at the berths set aside for cruise liners in Circular Quay next to the famous bridge.

After a stately pirouette - the QM2 can turn in its own length thanks to propellers that rotate 360 degrees - the 2,600 passengers were set down at the nearby naval base on the other side of the Opera House.

'It was an impressive sight this morning coming through the heads in the dark, with that spectator fleet, lit up with its navigation lights,' maritime safety officer Neil Patchett said. 'It looked like a genuine Christmas tree on the water.'

The QM2 will be followed into the harbour by the QE2, half its size and small enough for a spot at Circular Quay.

Cunard's original Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth were frequent visitors to Sydney in the war years. They were too big for any of the berths available at that time and had to ride at anchor in the harbour - so big, in fact, that the harbour could only accommodate them one at a time.

Cunard plans to mark the occasion of both new-generation queens being together in the harbour with a firework display.

'These two vessels will be back in Sydney Harbour again, and we're absolutely delighted to be here,' Cunard president Carol Marlow said.

The last time Cunard liners named after British monarchs were in Sydney together was April 9, 1941, during their war service as troopships.

The two modern behemoths will berth together for three hours, after which the larger vessel will sail for Hong Kong. To mark the passage of two ships in the night, the QM2 will sound its fog horn three times - blasts so loud that they can be heard 16 kilometres away.

One of QM2's horns was formerly mounted on the Queen Mary.

Launched in 1934 and a tourist attraction for the last 37 years in Long Beach, California, the Queen Mary was the subject of a bankruptcy application this week after its operator fell 3.4-million- US-dollars behind with berthing fees.