I was less enthused with Tom Brokaw's report on NBC this evening. Too many references to TITANIC and ice bergs. They were really appealing to the lowest common denominator.

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Originally posted by eroller:
I enjoyed the segment tonight on ET. It was interesting and certainly projected the excitement onboard.

I was less enthused with Tom Brokaw's report on NBC this evening. Too many references to TITANIC and ice bergs. They were really appealing to the lowest common denominator.

Ernie

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Originally posted by VDK:
Of course...because you and I both know, CGT, ships have "whisltes"...trucks and buses have "horns"..lol

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Originally posted by CGT:

Well VDK, at least ONE of QM2's whistles definitely seems to be blowing STEAM!

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I was wondering about that - is it real steam or possibly just artificial smoke released to make it appear to be steam.

Here's a blurb about the whistle from back in May of 2002:

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The whistle is just over 7 feet long, 2½ feet wide and nearly 3 feet high and weighs 1,400 pounds. It originally sounded a Bass A note, two octaves and two notes below middle C. Attuned so as not to disturb the passengers on deck, it could still be heard 10 miles away. Originally powered by steam, Cunard plans to convert the whistle to air power for use on board QM2.

According to Gerry Ellis, Cunard new builds manager, "We’re all quite excited that our extraordinary Queen Mary 2 will feature this splendid original whistle so that her famous predecessor’s voice will once more be heard on the world’s oceans." The whistle is on loan to Cunard Line from the City of Long Beach and Queen’s Seaport Development, Inc.

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In ANY case, ships have whistles, and not horns!

[ 01-07-2004: Message edited by: CGT ]

I can't imagine that they would create fake steam, either. It would be a waste of time to go to the trouble of obtaining the whistle if they were going to rebuild it. Why not just build two replicas and tune them to the QM's note.
What convinced me that it was "real" steam is that someone (on this board, I believe) discribed seeing steam fisrt and THEN hearing the sound. That's how a real steam whistle works as far as I have ever seen. I have seen this many many times when the Fairsea and Fairwind used to sail from Los Angeles. As a matter of fact, one of my favorite photos is one of the Fairsea belching out a beautiful cloud of white with the afternoon sun reflecting off the funnel. I remember the day because it was the last time they allowed streamers to be thrown at the old Matson Line piers. Ah, the good old days

Steam or not, I would still love to hear that horn again!

Here's to a New Year of more cruising for all of us and LESS SCRAPPING of our loved ones!...I mean the ships.

I was just thinking... Perhaps I was wrong in assuming that there would be no reason to produce fake steam for the original whistle!

It could be that someone thought of the number of people that would ask the crew, "Which one is the whistle from the Queen Mary?"
Fake steam would cut down on the countless times the question would be asked!

Scott

This made-for-TV movie was made shortly after Festivale (ex-SA Vaal, ex-Transvaal Castle) made her debut as Carnival Cruises' 3rd ship in October 1978. When first shown on tv in the USA, the movie ended with a postcript indicating that Festivale had not really been blown up but was alive and well, sailing for Carnival in the Caribbean. Has that somewhat out-of-date postscript been removed?

A little bit off-topic, but I am curious about that one little point.

Brian

[ 01-08-2004: Message edited by: Brian_O ]

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Originally posted by ScottQE2:
Hi Brian,

The copy I have still has the postscript.

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Thanks, Scott.

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I wish she was still there, and not slaughtered on the shores of Alang.

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You are not alone. I always liked the ship. I was in Southampton on Oct 10 1977, the day SA Vaal arrived from Cape Town for the last time. The next time I saw her was in December 1978 as she sailed into San Juan, Puerto Rico as Festivale looking brand new.

Brian

[ 01-08-2004: Message edited by: Brian_O ]

Two: - the NBC/Brokcaw coverage was poor. If we Americans would get over comparing everything to a "football field" (OK UK "Pitch") we would have been spared the footage of the correspondent running up and down a football field to show the ship's size! A few more pictures of the ship rather than those of a football field would have been handy.

I know a steam locomotive whistle will operate in the 100 psi and up range, but the size of the pipes is relatively small. I would assume that a humongous volume of steam would be required for the ship's whistles, as they are so much larger. But then I also remember the whistles on steam riverboats and lake steamers (of my youth) which were large, but operated on the modest psi generated by the boilers aboard.

Of course, steam is used for the evaporators, but somehow I felt that waste heat as a source was insufficient for the generation of serious steam...but more likely I did not think the whole cycle thru!