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The QE2 is to return to the seas after a troubled five-year stay in Dubai.
The former pride of the Cunard Line and Falklands War veteran was bought by Dubai for $100 million and arrived there amid much fanfare in November 2008.
There were ambitious plans to convert her into a luxury hotel docked at the Palm Jumeirah, a tree-shaped artificial island that was a symbol of Dubais helter-skelter development.
Back to the seas: The QE2 is to set sail again after a troubled five-year stay in Dubai
However the project was cancelled amid the financial meltdown that saw property prices in the Gulf city plummet.
The iconic liners voyage from her home port of Southampton to Dubai in 2008 was expected to be her last ever. Today, however, it was announced in Dubai that she will take to the waves once more.
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On October 18 she will be given a gala send-off as she departs for China, stopping off at Singapore and Hong Kong on the way.
The liner, which was built on the Clyde and launched in 1967, will be converted at a Chinese shipyard into a luxury 400-suite floating hotel at a cost of US$90 million.
Historic: An aerial view of the QE2 pulling into Southampton harbour after the Falklands War
The work is expected to be completed by the end of 2014, and she will then travel to her final destination, a yet-to-be-named city in Asia.
The vessel has been readied for the voyage at Dubais drydocks, where seven of her nine engines have been renewed. A captain and crew have been recruited, and the liner will sail under the flag of Vanuatu, the Pacific island nation where she is registered.
Ownership of the ship has been transferred to a new Dubai company called QE2 Shipping.*
Chairman Khamis Juma Buamim said: Over the last few months we have put a lot of effort and work into this project in planning and negotiation and our overall plans for the QE2 are well on track.
'We will deliver an iconic project for the world to romance and talk about for many many years to come.'
The worlds best-loved liner criss-crossed the Atlantic with the biggest celebrities of the day on board for nearly 40 years, and in 1982 carried 3,000 troops to the Falklands.
However she has been in the doldrums since the scrapping of the Dubai hotel project.
She had been bought by Dubai World, the conglomerate behind the Palm islands and other mega-projects that has since been engulfed in debt.
Initial plans: The QE2 was going to become a luxury hotel docked at the Palm Jumeirah, a tree-shaped artificial island, but it was cancelled when Dubai's economy nose-dived
A ceremony was held on deck to mark the purchase, and Sultan bin Sulayem, the then-chairman of Dubai World, said: 'The QE2 has come to a home that will cherish and protect her. Her future has been assured.'
However there was outcry in Britain when it was reported that plans to refurbish the vessel would involve destroying its distinctive outline by removing its funnel.
After the scheme was scrapped a number of other proposals came to nothing. There were reports that she would sail to Cape Town to serve as a floating hotel during the 2010 World Cup, and rumours that Dubai would sell her back to Britain.
Last December it was reported that she was being sold to China for scrap. The reports were denied, and the plans to convert her into a hotel to be based in Asia were revealed.
Yesterdays announcement that the QE2 is to leave Dubai appeared to confirm that she is about to enter a new era.
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...na-conversion-luxury-hotel.html#ixzz2eiIglFA2
) and of course she's gone entirely now (well apart from a small section of her bow).