Big Ship, Tiny Funnel: Why Queen Mary 2 HAD to have a short Funnel?

When Cunard announced their plans to build Queen Mary 2, the first renditions of the ship showed a vessel with a large Cunard funnel of similar design to that found aboard the older QE2. But fast forward to today and it’s pretty easy to see that QM2’s funnel is much shorter than QE2’s, and much shorter than the original renditions of the ship. So let’s investigate why this is. — 🚢 My Cunard History Website: https://www.chriscunard.com/ 📚 Buy my books: https://www.chrisframe.com.au/books 👕 Buy cruise merch: https://chrisframeofficial.Teemill.com/ 🎶 Listen to The Big Cruise Podcast: https://thebigcruisepodcast.com/ 🛳️ Learn more about cruising at my Blog: https://www.chrisframe.com.au/ — Chapters: 00:00 QM2’s concept art funnel 00:26 Chris Frame Intro 00:49 QE2 funnel design 02:00 QM2 design origins 02:37 World’s Largest Liner 03:17 New York Harbor 03:55 Design Changes 5:18 Conclusion — The QM2’s predecessor, QE2, introduced a funnel that was the first among the Cunard fleet to incorporate the distinctive design we know and love today – with the black smoke stack, the red cowling and the white scoop – designed to direct air up and over the structure and push the smoke and soot away from the aft decks. In 1987 the design was supersized on QE2 to make it thick enough to accommodate an array of exhaust and heat exchangers for 9 brand new diesel engines. It was bold, and powerful looking and made QE2 even more recognisable. So it’s no surprise that when Carnival announced their plans to build the first true ocean liner in a generation, a big, tall, thick QE2 style funnel was included in the artists renditions. In fact, QM2’s designer Stephen Payne noted in a 2020 interview with me that he took inspiration from QE2 for a number of design elements – including the funnel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2uinSNslXo QM2 was the first ocean liner designed in a generation. As such, passenger expectations had changed. QM2 needed to be a larger ship to accommodate an extensive selection of balcony cabins. The ship is powered by both diesel engines – and gas turbines, the latter of which were positioned atop the vessel, adding extra height to her funnel-casing area. What resulted is the largest ocean liner yet built. But despite her size, QM2’s purpose was to replace QE2 on the transatlantic run between England and America. At the entry to New York Harbour sits the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. All traffic entering the harbour needs to pass under this critical roadway. At high tide, the bridge has a clearance of 69m or 228 feet, and this posed a problem for QM2, as designers had to contend with a air-draught limit of 62m or 203ft from the waterline to the highest point on the ship. When those original renderings were drawn, the extra height for the gas turbine casing had yet to be included in the design, but with a like-for-like QE2 style funnel, the much taller QM2 would be unable to pass under the bridge, and this would make her primary purpose redundant. So designers shortened the funnel to allow QM2 a clearance of 3m or 9.8 ft at high water in the mid point of the arch of the bridge! A huge thank you to Stephen Payne for providing some insight into this for the creation of this video. -- Image thanks: Peter Knego: @midshipcinema Gavin Harper Epic Aug 2023 Thumbnail: Andrew Sassoli-Walker https://solentphotographer.com/ Luke Morrison: @Boeing_Luke Henry Farnam and Perry Poussard @luxevagabonds Image References: QE2 Funnel in Bremerhaven: Dashers, CC BY SA 3.0 - https://tinyurl.com/qm2-01 Verrezzano Bridge: Gian Castillo, CC BY SA 2.0 - https://tinyurl.com/qm2-0023 QM2 Renderings: Cunard Line (2003) - https://www.cunardline.com/ Tags: #QM2 #queenmary2 #cunard #cruisenews #oceanliner