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heavily from both the 'old Queen Mary' and from the QE2 herself, the result being more of a hybrid than a thoroughbred. But the true power of the QE2 is as an icon and it has been an almost 'religious' search by cruise ship designers and architects to rediscover this mysterious power which has continued ever since.

By 1966 vessels like Norwegian Caribbean

Line's Sunward represented the start of the boom period in Florida-based cruising and cruise business, a trend still going strong almost forty years later. For me the modern era really began with Royal Caribbean and the building of

Sovereign of the Seas, not just because we were lucky enough to be involved with the project, but more because this was the building of a major vessel with one idea firmly in mind - the cruise experience. Described at the time as a "hotel at sea", her creation was to set the scene for the future. It was almost like the firing of a starting pistol: the race was on and everybody wanted a piece of the action. This 'Klondike' of the cruise building industry was great news for

Western European shipyards as the boom in building exceeded all predictions. Sovereign of the Seas broke all the rules, or rather re-invent- ed some of them. The famous atrium, a shipping innovation in its own right, had no precedent, and at the time I recall the debate that raged around Njell Aides' concept. In the end, creativ- ity and market drivers won the day and 'atrium envy' began. No ship could be built without one, and Njell excelled himself as a master in their creation, outperforming his previous creation every time. Since those early days in modern cruising the industry has moved a long way buoyed up not just by the burgeoning number of new large cruise ships rolling off the stocks in

European shipyards and arriving on station in

Miami or New York but also by the steady increase in passenger numbers globally. 32 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News 2005

YEARBOOK ... TO LEADERS of TOMORROW, including the world’s largest (for now) Queen Mary 2. Pictured is a Queen Mary 2 Lifeboat Drill.

This concludes Part I of a two-part story. Please see the July 2005 edition of Maritime Reporter for Part II.

About the Author

Mark Hilferty is owner and manag- ing director of

SPACE the design practice, a consul- tancy renowned for innovation in marine and other leisure, transport and workplace proj- ects. Trained as a designer, Mark is a frequent contributor to marine and other busi- ness sector events and publications, and a keen advocate of new thinking and technology in the design of work and leisure experiences and spaces.

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