Queens of seas salute their spiritual home
starboard turn marked by deafening blasts of their horns. The ships themselves then took a salute with a flypast by the RAF’s Red Arrows.
The 300,000- ton nautical masterpiece was performed against the backdrop of the World Heritage sites of the Pier Head with its Three Graces – the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building. Nearly a million people lined both banks of the Mersey to see the event.
Some had camped out overnight to get a good view.
Liverpool was Cunard’s home port from 1840 when Samuel Cunard launched his transatlantic mail service until the company’s headquarters were moved to Southampton in 1967. Angus Struthers of Cunard said: “There is simply nowhere else in the world that has the connection to Cunard that Liverpool does.”
Mother- of- two Pat Williamson, 53, of Nelson, Lancs, said of the ships’ river dance: “It was a magnificent sight. They all went into perfect formation. It was a great atmosphere and a once in a lifetime experience.”