Saint-Nazaire (France), Sept 26: The Queen Mary II, the biggest and most luxurious passenger ship ever built, left port for the first time today for a series of tests ahead of its maiden transatlantic voyage in January. Thousands of spectators applauded as the liner, the first Cunard ship assembled outside of Britain, left the western French port of Saint-Nazaire under sunny skies for a weekend of several off-shore trial runs. The 150,000-tonne vessel -- which is 345 metres long, 41 metres wide and stands as high as a 23-story building -- cut a majestic blue and white silhouette, save for a few unpainted steel panels and its red chimney. French shipbuilder Chantiers de L'atlantique -- a subsidiary of troubled engineering giant Alstom, which was saved from near-bankruptcy this week by a state-backed 3.7 billion dollar rescue plan -- is counting on the Queen Mary II to stand as a shining example of its technical expertise.
The liner will be able to accommodate some 2,600 passengers and 1,250 crew members, and the power it generates would be enough to provide electricity for a city of about 300,000 residents.
The ship will include a 1,000-seat theatre, a planetarium, a spa, a ballroom, five swimming pools, 2,000 bathrooms, 3,000 telephones, 4,500 steps and hundreds of works of art. Bureau Report