Things that fire my imagination…1.Ocean Liners.

The Reina Del Mar

Ocean Liners have figured large in the lives of myself and my family. The launching of possibly the most famous liner in the world The Queen Mary features in my novel Julia Sleeps, and captures the imagination of my heroine, Evie. Later in the story another of Cunard White Star Line's ships the Scythia also plays her part in the tale.

I was fortunate enough to spend a lot of time on the QE2 when I was a child and felt deep sadness when her days of sailing were over and she took up residence in Dubai, leaving her home port of Southampton forever. On reflection, she is lucky to have found such a home; the ultimate fate of retired ocean liners is hardly ever a happy one.

We all know the story of the Titanic whose destiny was to make her end on the Atlantic Ocean's floor, her artefacts now either being plundered or recovered for conservation depending on your point of view.

In particular, my heart goes out to what was once the pride of America, the SS United States. She has sat rusting in a dock in Philadelphia for nearly thirty years, various schemes to find a use for her falling through time and again, her interiors stripped to pay debts in the mid 80's. She is now a sad relic of a bygone era when these giants of the sea ruled the waves, waves which it now seems she is to end up underneath when she is eventually towed to Florida and sunk off the coast to become an artificial reef. Can you imagine it? Where is the pride of America to let this happen? Oh happy Cunard Queens to have found homes in Long Island and Dubai.

My husband and I have lived in rural France for eleven years now, but even here, an hour and a half's drive from the west coast an Ocean Liner found its way into my life again in a small way. L'Aquitane, a liner which started life as the Norwegian ship Normannia has made her presence known to me here in the form of a small object found in our old house which inspired me to write a short story about her, now entered into a writing competition. If we were ever to leave this house I would be torn between wanting to take this object with me as I am very attached to it, and leaving it here where it surely belongs.

I am loath to criticize the new style of cruise ship; to quote Miss Jean Brodie, 'for those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.' Let these modern creations be grateful that we loosely afford them the title of 'ship', but they are not like the liners of old.

I hope that I will be lucky enough to encounter more Ocean Liners in my life, and have the good fortune to sail on one again.

You can follow the fate of The SS United States here SS United States Conservancy

Thanks for reading!