I felt a twinge of sadness the other day when I read that the last of the great trans-Atlantic passenger ships, the Queen Elizabeth II, is going to be retired and sent to Dubai to become a floating hotel. By the time that the QE 2 went into service around 1970 (when I was still in high school), the jet plane had already killed off most of the demand for three-day voyages from New York to London or Paris. But God bless those British folk at Cunard for building one last great “liner”, nonetheless.

The Queen kept up the old tradition for another three decades, although toward the end it was doing more cruise business than cross-Atlantic trade. I never rode the Queen, but I once worked in Manhattan and had a view of the Hudson River dock where the Queen would hold court every month or two. I always kept an eye out for her. Sometimes she’d be docking as I was getting to my desk in the morning, and once or twice I was there late enough to watch her heading downriver for the open seas. Well, I doubt if I’ll have reason to visit Dubai anytime soon, so perhaps I’ll never see the old girl again. But here’s a pic I managed to get of her from my office. A nice little memory of some British pomp and circumstance on the west side. New York, and the world in general, is not a better place now that the Queen 2 no longer flies the Union Jack proudly over the briny seas. Hail Britannia, erstwhile ruler of the waves!