Word: qe2
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Meanwhile, top priority for British antisubmarine aircraft and frigates last week was to locate Argentina's diesel-powered Santiago del Estero. The World War II sub, built by the U.S., has a 12,000-mile range and poses an unnerving threat to the liners Canberra and QE2...
...carry a substantial number of troops, who must be kept fit and ready for operations should they be required." Few people, even among the 1,700 would-be passengers whose 13-day cruise from Southampton to the Mediterranean had been abruptly canceled, quarreled with that as sertion. The QE2 can make the 8,000-mile voyage to the Falklands in about ten days at a speed of 28.5 knots (or 32.8 land miles per hour). Its speed gives it the capability of escaping from an attack by a conventional diesel-powered submarine, which can do 19 knots on the surface...
...units, a force that would probably become the nucleus of a permanent garrison in the Falklands if the British proved able to recapture the islands from the Argentines. Like its legendary predecessors, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth, which served as troop transports during World War II, the QE2 thus became a symbol of British resolve in a moment of national crisis...
Conversion of the QE2, a floating luxury hotel with seven cocktail bars, four swimming pools and a casino, was a some what more complicated task. Most of the luxurious furniture and fittings from the public rooms were removed. Cunard decided to store ashore the bone china, the crystal glassware, the potted plants, the 17,000 bottles of champagne and the half-ton of caviar. Passengers had hardly disembarked at Southampton before vases and linens, cycling machines and weight-lifting equipment from the ship's gymnasium, and countless other items were packed in crates and hauled away. The paintings were...
According to some unofficial estimates, the price of Britain's war in the South Atlantic has gone past the $1 billion mark-a huge expense currently covered by a $4.5 billion defense contingency fund. The QE2 alone is costing the British government $225,000 a day to operate, while the Uganda and the Canberra are running about $175,000 apiece. Cunard lost $3.5 million in revenues from the Mediterranean cruise it was forced to cancel but, like the other ship owners, expects to be fully compensated for whatever losses it incurs. Says an aide to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...