English: Fuss and nonsense dear old Queen - QE2 Lots of little boats fuss hurriedly around the QE2 desperate to get that closest last look at her.

And rightly so, this is the last time that Scotland will get to caress the ship she bore in 1967. It was in Govan that the waters were first broken at her stern. To the smack of champagne and cry of Glasgow voices she pushed on down and out of the slipway so adored by her father, John Brown, and his shipyard workers.

Now Cunard's QE2 is here, near Edinburgh, shortly before her retirement from active duty as a transatlantic superliner and cruise ship. Here she sits at deep anchor to the east of the Forth Bridge on her final fling with Scotland before heading once more back to Southampton and a final visit to New York before making the journey to the Middle East where she is destined to become a floating hotel in Dubai.

Some tugs, armed with water cannon, put on a choreographed display with twirls and swirls for the benefit of the onlookers who came to wave off the forty year old ship. Moments earlier, easily heard but largely hidden by low cloud, a formation of Tornados from RAF Leuchars made a flypast to bid the old girl goodbye.

The 'Maid of the Forth' Incholm cruise boat (blue/white) is dwarfed by the superliner as she inches along her hull.

Whitehouse Point and Peatdraught Bay near Hound Point on the Midlothian coast can be seen in the background.

The 70,000-tonne vessel, launched by the Queen in 1967, has been sold to the Dubai World firm by Carnival, the world's largest cruise operator. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6762901.stm

The ship boasts some impressive facts. She is the longest serving Cunard ship ever (a feat achieved in 2005) and, with a service to Cunard spanning five decades, she has earned her retirement. She has carried 2.5 million passengers (I wonder if that figure includes a certain Beatrice Muller once or a thousand times? http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4082961.ece. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/7719605.stm ) She will have travelled nearly 6 million nautical miles. She will have crossed the Atlantic 806 times. The Forth Bridge and the QE2 are two true Scottish-built icons that will never be seen together again. Here are two of the last pictures ever taken together: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1002169 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1002178 I wonder what Beatrice Muller is doing now?

More on QE2: Official site: http://www.qe2.org.uk/ RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 RMS_Queen_Elizabeth_2

More pics: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1002437 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1002434 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1002425 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1002424 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1002320 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1002292 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1002195 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1002162 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1002148 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1002142

Liverpool: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/993150 Belfast: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/992558 Glasgow: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/996576 Newcastle: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/567402 (previous visit in 2007) Southampton: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/942615 (in August 2008 prior to her farewell UK voyage).

Oops. Fleeting embarrassment for the old queen: she ran into a sandbank on her final voyage back to Southampton (11th November 2008) before she leaves for Dubai. http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/nov/11/cruises-transport http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/7720966.stm

Video of the QE2 leaving the Forth and Edinburgh as she lets rip with a few blasts of that ear-splitting horn - tremendous sound - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqqwyzu8KtI Coldplay's music while you watch is complementary and fitting.

Other pics of the farewell voyage from around the UK: 3865824 Her big sister: QM2 - RMS Queen Mary 2 - https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/967700 https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/733559 Her other sister MS Queen Victoria: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/855233 Tandem Crossing QE2 and QM2 http://www.qm2.org.uk/tandem.html At sea with QM2 in the Caribbean http://www.qm2.org.uk/qe2qm2_28dec2004.html Superb photos of QE2 in Transatlantic surf action and in comparison with MS Queen Victoria http://www.roblightbody.com/liners/qe-2/news/2008/qe2_qv_tandem_pics.htm

Last but not least: A terrific resource with many pics of the Cunard Fleet and all the great Transatlantic liners can be found here at Rob Lightbody's site: http://www.roblightbody.com/liners/index.htm