Bon Voyage to the Queen Elizabeth 2

Launched by Cunard in 1967 from Glasgow, Scotland, the <span style='font-style: italic'>Queen Elizabeth 2</span> was initially conceived as a way to compete with the growing popularity of air travel.
Hulton-Deutsch Collection / Corbis

Ocean Royalty
Launched by Cunard in 1967 from Glasgow, Scotland, the Queen Elizabeth 2 was initially conceived as a way to compete with the growing popularity of air travel. She was designed to be smaller and less expensive than her predecessors, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. And with seven feet less of draft, she would be able to pass through the Panama Canal and enter ports that the old Queens could not.

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