Suffering in and of itself will not make you enlightened. It is with that bit of salve soothing my conscience that I am able to to dive headfirst into the deep end of my dinner at Todd English on the Queen Mary 2.
Maine Crab cake followed by a rack of lamb and the masterpice to end it all: the Chocolate Fallen Cake, Todd English's trademark. I thrust my spoon into the cake breaking the shell and hot, sticky chocolate sauce squirt forth to mix with the sweet, scarlet raspberry sauce. It should be called Chocolate Orgasm®. I shall never hear the three words of "Chocolate Fallen Cake" in that sequence again without it bringing a tear to my eye. It is THAT good.
I really did not want to enjoy this trip, a goal that was mightily advanced by Cunard's clueless reservations personnel during the planning. Billing errors, misinformation and general surliness had me convinced that I made a mistake in believing the hype.
The Queen Mary 2 (QM2) deserves her reputation. It is not a "ship" or a "boat". Call it that and in true British style the staff will pummel you smartly about the neck and shoulders as you deserve. The liner is 1132 feet long and 148 feet wide with the height of the funnel above the waterline at 204 feet. To give you an idea of how tall that is, I was standing on the observation deck when we passed under the Verrazano Narrows bride and the clearance was an alarming 10 feet! Horsepower? 150,000 ponies under the hood. It is truly the queen bee of the seas.
The most interesting thing on this day is not the QM2 but the 20 elderly people that have gathered in the chart room around me during the hour. They all shared one common thread: they were passengers of the original Queen Mary (QM1). The original QM sailed the seas from 1936 to 1967 and one by one these folks were telling their stories of the years when it was utility not pleasure that had them on the liner. During World War 2 the QM was pressed into service as a troop carrier ferrying over 20,000 troops at a time. Rooms intended for two people would be outfitted with bunks and be crammed to capacity with an astounding 16 bodies.
When the rooms would fill up, men would sleep in hammocks strung in the swimming pools. When the hammocks were full they would sleep on the deck. If it was raining they still slept on the decks. The only consolation (and I am stretching the limits of euphemistic device when I say that) was the alternation of sleeping arrangements. Men who slept on deck were able to sleep the next night in the sweltering staterooms (stretching again).
One by one the stories brought a smile to my face and I was torn whether to stay or not. At the same time these good people were dredging their psychic depths we passed right above where the Titanic perished on April 14, 1912.
Still I could not move.
The stories of life, love and laughter insured that I would never be able to say that I gazed upon the waters under which the Titanic lay. It was indeed the greatest ocean liner of it's time, but no more. Impermanence in this life is all that we can count on. You, me and "unsinkable" liners. Water is just water sometimes and taking time to gawk at a grave serves no purpose especially when there's so much life, adventure and comedy relief here! Right now ladies and gentlemen!
A woman holding the microphone pointed out that the QM didn't have stabilizers in the beginning. This was something that the fates of comedy and romance would slap high fives over later when the ship lurched and the lady fell right into the arms of Kirk Douglas. The QM did get stabilizers later but the speaker said she never enjoyed it as much again. She smiled, laughed a little and and it was obvious that she just mined a vein of immense joy.
I began to wonder if I would someday be on the QM3, which will be the
greatest liner of her time,
talking about the time that I was on the
greatest liner of my time,
listening to people and tales of the
greatest liner of their time,
while passing over the
greatest liner of it's time.
The only liner of the four that would have no language in it's lungs.
