Queen Mary 2 - A new breed of super-liner
Created | Updated Feb 23, 2005
During the winter of 1990, Cunard, part of the world's largest cruise line company - the American Carnival group, placed an order with a French shipyard in St. Nazaire for what was to be the largest passenger vessel ever constructed.
The Queen Mary 2
Nearly 350 metres long and weighing in at 150,000 tonnes, the QM2 is far larger than any other passenger vessel currently afloat. Here are a few comparative figures to help you visualise just how big she really is:
| QM2 | QE21 | USS John C. Stennis2 | |
| Weight | 150,000 | 70,327 | 97,000 |
| Length | 345m | 293.53 | 332m |
| Crew | 1,253 | 1,015 | 5,000 |
| Passengers | 2600 | 1,900 | N/A |
| Speed | 30kts | 32kts | 30kts |
| Cost | £30 million | £2.3 billion | |
| Power consumption | X x Diesel Generators 116MW/h | 9 x Diesel Generators 396MW/h | 2 x Nuclear reactors 380MW/h4 | =
1QE2 - The Queen Elizabeth 2 - Currently the flagship of the Cunard fleet and arguably the most famous liner afloat today2The newest of the US Navy's nuclear powered aircraft carriers3The QE2 is a 'PANAMAX' vessel - meaning that she was built to be as large as possible whilst still being able to transit the Panama Canal.4This figure is an estimate based on publically available data - the actual power output of the vessel's reactors being classified.
