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Tony
Best,
Raoul
Some great pictures of QE 2 at Gibraltar today.
Many thanks.
On the interviews with the Captain, before she sailed from Southampton, he said that they were giving the paying off pendant with a painting of the ship to the Mayor of Southampton !
This must be one of the very few occasions when a British passenger / cruise ship has not flown a paying off pendant on her final voyage.
Thanks for the comments. I must admit to being disappointed that QE2 was not flying her paying-off pennant when she arrived here! I thought it would have been better to keep it flying until her arrival at Dubai and then present it to Southampton after that.
Mind you, the wind here today is non-existent and it would have looked very limp indeed!!
All the best
Tony, fabulous. Funnily enough I had a postcard this morning from the previous visit. I had to do a double take because they only got there today.
It was only flown as you approached a port and while in port, along with the other flags !
The QE 2 Captain, in his broadcast at Southampton, said the penant was a foot long for each year of service for the QE 2 !.
On most other companies they are a fathom long for each year of service.
When ss Strathmore made her final voyage for P & O, the ship's sail maker made the paying off pendant using a P & O house flag with plain white bunting stitched to the flag.
Overall it was 168 feet long but had a cord attached to the end, and tied to a railing, so it did not billow out to far from the ship when flying !
Sometime ago I did see a picture, on one of the shipping websites, of her flying the pendant when she called at Palma on her final cruise.
It's a Naval tradition & the pennants were the length of the vessels plus some if any vessel was late back from exercise. Often held aloft with balloons. Nowadays though they are kept short for convenience and I don't think there is a standard length for each year in service.. just something several times larger than the norm perhaps to stand out?
Pam
We also never had Godmothers naming ships in the UK before they came on the scene !
It seems they have no respect for any British nautical traditions !
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