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»	Cruise Talk » Ocean Liners and Classic Cruise Ships » Cunard 'red"?

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Topic: Cunard 'red"?

billee
First Class Passenger
Member # 1133

posted 05-20-2004 02:37 PM

In all the paintings and pictures you see of Cunard ships, including QE2 & QM2 the funnels are red and black. If I remember to way back when, when it was possible to visit the ships on sailing day in NY for 50 cents, the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary had orange an black stacks. They weren't a red orange, but almost pumpkin orange. Am I correct?

Posts: 159 | From: Baltimore, MD USA | Registered: Mar 2000 | IP: Logged

Maasdam
First Class Passenger
Member # 3858

posted 05-20-2004 03:15 PM

[ 05-20-2004: Message edited by: Maasdam ]

Posts: 4695 | From: Rotterdam home of the tss. Rotterdam. | Registered: May 2003 | IP: Logged

Maasdam
First Class Passenger
Member # 3858

posted 05-20-2004 03:16 PM

Yes you are right. The paint was what i believe a anti rust paint. I remember that a view years ago the Queen Elizabeth 2 was in Rotterdam and the funnel color was almost deep red. Iff you look at old color pictures you see that the funnel is more (as you write) pumpking orange than red.

Posts: 4695 | From: Rotterdam home of the tss. Rotterdam. | Registered: May 2003 | IP: Logged

lasuvidaboy
First Class Passenger
Member # 4527

posted 05-20-2004 03:24 PM

I read once that the paint was mixed with other products that made it heat resistant. On the original Cunard Steamers in the mid 19th century the boilers were so close to the stack, the heat made the paint peel. The added ingredients gave the red paint a orange-red color. The color we see today can look very different depending on the light. In some photos of QM2, her stack looks orange-red and in others it looks dark red. The color is not quite orange as you can compare QM2's stack to te top of the lifeboats which are a true bright orange.

Posts: 7654 | From: Hollywood Hills/L.A. | Registered: Mar 2004 | IP: Logged

lasuvidaboy
First Class Passenger
Member # 4527

posted 05-20-2004 03:31 PM

P.S.: When it comes to paint, there is always the problem of 'dye lots'. Dye lots are the different batches paint is mixed in. The 'lots' can vary quite a bit from batch to batch. Just look at Rotterdam V when she had the original pebble gray hull. When she was touched up in port, she always had sections that were of a very different shade of gray. Many people are color blind (mostly men) and also I am sure that different people see certain shades of color differently-even the people mixing the 'Cunard Red' paint. Cunard red has been historically a cross between red and orange (or pumpkin color).

Posts: 7654 | From: Hollywood Hills/L.A. | Registered: Mar 2004 | IP: Logged

Cambodge
First Class Passenger
Member # 906

posted 05-20-2004 05:04 PM

Both the French Line (CGT) and Cunard used almost identical red-and-black stack colors in the 1960s and '70s. Anyone know why, given the options available?

Posts: 2149 | From: St. Michaels MD USA , the town that fooled the British! | Registered: Nov 1999 | IP: Logged

linerguy
First Class Passenger
Member # 4289

posted 05-20-2004 05:21 PM

Cunard red was originally a mixture of ocher, a red form of ferric oxide, and, of all things, milk. The longer it, I suppose, cooked on the funnels, the darker it would get. My guess is that today's Cunard red is pretty close to what it originally was.

Cambodge:

Respectfully, I must disagree that Cunard's orange-red was similar to the CGT's funnel color. To me at least, there's no confusing the color of the stacks of FRANCE of '62 with that of the original Queens.

Russ

Posts: 1486 | From: Bright, Indiana | Registered: Dec 2003 | IP: Logged

lasuvidaboy
First Class Passenger
Member # 4527

posted 05-20-2004 09:25 PM

French line stacks were more of a 'crimson' red or dark rich red. Cunards are a much lighter orange-red.

Posts: 7654 | From: Hollywood Hills/L.A. | Registered: Mar 2004 | IP: Logged

Cambodge
First Class Passenger
Member # 906

posted 05-21-2004 08:58 PM

I agree that they were different --- I said "almost identical" I should have said that I found it passing strange that both lines would operate with "similar" color schemes.

But they indeed were similar. I assume both used their then-current colors ever since they operated ships with funnels.

Just curious.

Posts: 2149 | From: St. Michaels MD USA , the town that fooled the British! | Registered: Nov 1999 | IP: Logged

lasuvidaboy
First Class Passenger
Member # 4527

posted 05-22-2004 03:30 PM

There were other smaller lines that had the same color as the French Line. New Zealand Shipping had colors almost identical to Cunard. P&O had all black stacks early on and some may have copied that. Cunard and the French line funnel colors were very different when the sunlight changed and Cunard's signature orange-red came through. There was a photo (on this site) taken of QE2 at night when she departed NYC for her tandem crossing with QM2, and her funnel looks more orange than red. As I stated earlier, many people are color blind and see greens and reds completely differently.

Posts: 7654 | From: Hollywood Hills/L.A. | Registered: Mar 2004 | IP: Logged

Thad
First Class Passenger
Member # 1224

posted 05-24-2004 02:41 PM

I think that the color is definitely more orange red than pure red, but it depends on the lighting, and also how much it had faded. Here are two pics, one showing the Queen Mary's stacks and another showing the QE2 and QM2. It is interesting to see that the stacks of the two most recent queen do not look exactly the same color, most likely since the QE2's stack has faded some.

Posts: 1967 | From: Boston, MA | Registered: Apr 2000 | IP: Logged

Cambodge
First Class Passenger
Member # 906

posted 05-24-2004 05:25 PM

Not to put too fine a point on it....but........

On both QE2 and QM2 we are really discussing the colors applied to the wind-deflectors surrounding the funnels.

The honest-to-god funnels are black!! Look at the most recent photos here.

But the old Queen Mary had some really impressive funnels, as shown in this great photo.

Posts: 2149 | From: St. Michaels MD USA , the town that fooled the British! | Registered: Nov 1999 | IP: Logged

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