ON a storm ridden Monday morning Mags set off from Sheffield to witness the start of the Queen Mary 2’s maiden voyage from 38/9 berth at Dock head in Southampton. It was an emotional moment for her when the most famous ships horn in history blasted its note into the cold night. Mags had last heard the ‘voice’ of the Queen Mary on Oct 14th 1965 in New York after sailing transatlantic aboard her from Southampton only two years before the great liner was retired to California.
The new Queen Mary, shares not only the same name but also the same voice. The original Queen Mary had three ‘tyfon’ steam whistles to create a massive noise two octaves below middle C and audible ten miles away. Only one of the original whistles survived in anything like working condition and that one has been restored and installed aboard QM2. The other two whistles were copied from the original designs and so, at 18:20 on Jan 12th 2004, the mighty voice spoke again to announce the departure of the Largest Ocean Liner ever built.
Earlier that evening the tension mounted, as on board Enigma, Skipper, Stan and Mags heard the voice of the ships Master, Capt Ronald Warwick, announce to Southampton VTS that the “RMS Queen Mary 2 would be sailing at 17:30”.
However the Cunard lines new flagship was actually 90 minutes late departing, due to problems loading passengers baggage. Thankfully Skipper, Stan and Mags were not too cold waiting aboard ‘Enigma’ as the storm 10 gale that had passed earlier in the day had left a serene windless calm and clear sky to the river Test.
Boats jostled for positions as the wait continued. A Wightlink ferry, the entire Blue Funnel fleet, two Red Funnel ferries, various other passenger craft, three tugs, a sprinkling of yachts and power boats, a couple of RIB’s, a poorly lit dinghy (man holding a dying torch), and the ‘SS Sheildhall’ in steam for the occasion, all waited with decks crammed with onlookers. Finally at 18:15 the Pilots voice was heard telling VTS that the QM2 would be “going to stations in 5 minutes”, The bowlines dropped away and from the seaward side it took an age to decide if she was actually moving at all. The radio crackled again “VTS this is RMS Queen Mary 2. We have now broke away and going up to Mayflower Park, Draft 10.2 meters, 2,620 passengers and 1,253 crew on board”.

LARGE LINER GOES BACKWARDS
As the liner serenely made her way stern first up the river Test, ‘Enigma’ stayed on the edge of the channel in the shallows out of the way of the larger boats. The crew could clearly hear ‘Land of hope and Glory’ being piped from the Mary’s PA system, adding atmosphere to the magnificent sight of the ship illuminated from stem to stern.
As she came to a stop opposite Southampton’s Mayflower park, Skipper decided to draw back to be just under the Mary’s Starboard bow to get a good view of the fireworks. The firework barge had been positioned between the Mary and the shore and as the horn sounded, resonating off every building, dockside and set of teeth in a ten mile radius, and to a chorus of cheers from passengers, onlookers, landlubbers and sailors, the sky lit up with an impressive display and ‘Enigma’ was privileged to get one of the best views possible, the graceful prow silhouetted against the reds, golds and silvers of the fireworks.

All this time the 150,000 ton vessel remained perfectly still. 1,132 feet of steel held in position against wind and tide without assistance from tugs. A combination of Azimuthing pods, bow thrusters and fixed pod thrusters allow the largest passenger ship ever built to be moved in any direction (or held in position) by a three inch joystick.
The same environmentally friendly gas turbine and diesel electric plant that can provide such precise control, is also capable of generating a massive157,000 Horsepower to propel the ship along at 30knots in the worst conditions the North Atlantic can throw at her.

As the display came to a conclusion the air was ripped apart again by the massive whistle of the QM2, the spent compressed air forming a plume of white steam from the whistle on the top of the funnel.
Replies came from every vessel, including Enigma. Cheers, fog horns, claxons and the roar of engines as the fleet began accelerating towards the sea. Enigma crossed to the shore side of the river to join the procession, streamers streamed from the Mary’s decks as her lucky occupants waved from every balcony, the shore line responded with camera flashes, cheers and waves as the mighty ocean liner effortlessly got underway.
As the fleet moved aside to let the Mary pass Enigma was banging along at full throttle twenty yards from the stern of a red funnel ferry, twenty yards behind was the bow of another Red funnel ferry. The Skipper was getting decidedly nervous at the close proximity of the melee, and the backwash from wakes bouncing off the dock wall was starting to give Enigma quite a roll. He decided it was time to move out of the way and as Mags and Stan cheered and waved Skipper looked over his shoulder to see the great ship towering above. Only 40 yards off Enigmas starboard Quarter, the black bow rose from the water to the white superstructure above, and upward and upward and upward. 55 feet taller than the first ‘Queen Mary’ and 61 feet taller than the ‘Titanic’ there she was, the tallest, widest, longest liner in the world. 236.2 feet from keel to masthead, superstructure lit in electric blue, lights in every window, balcony and porthole, streamers streaming, passengers waving and topped with the graceful Cunard red funnel and a plume of blue grey smoke. As she passed by Enigma at Dockhead she sounded her horn once again. Tugs with fire monitors blasting jets of water high in the air were waiting at the lower swinging ground, and the air was once again filled with horns and cheers. Once free of the River Test the fleet fanned out and the liner steamed for the Solent and Enigma gave up the chase at the Weston Shelf Bouy.
From the shoreline at Hythe and along the sea front at Weston and Netley cameras flashed from the thousands of spectators lined up to witness the historic spectacle as the ‘RMS Queen Mary 2’ made her way down Southampton Water and out to sea.