Cunard Line has announced that its new 85,000-ton cruise ship, which is scheduled to enter service in 2005, will be named Queen Victoria. Dedicated to the British cruise market, Queen Victoria will be the second largest Cunarder ever built. Together with the current flagship, Queen Elizabeth 2, and Queen Mary 2, the biggest passenger liner ever, the Cunard fleet will include three Queens for the first time – truly the most famous ocean liners in the world.

Queen Victoria will enter service in the company’s 165th anniversary and will operate cruises to and from Southampton to the Mediterranean, the Canaries, Northern Europe and the Caribbean. The 1,968-passenger vessel will feature a covered wraparound promenade deck, a forward-facing observation lounge, a large Lido pool with a retractable magrodome, and ten of the twelve passenger decks will be served by exterior glass-walled lifts. Like QE2 and QM2, the liner will have a Queens Grill, offering single-seating gourmet dining. Queen Victoria will offer a wide range of accommodation, large standard outside cabins (170 sq ft) and a high percentage of balcony cabins (67%) -bringing new levels of luxury and choice to the British passenger.

The on-board menus, entertainment and lecture programme will be geared to British tastes and the currency will be sterling. Queen Victoria will fly the red ensign; she will have the name of her home port, Southampton, on her stern and she will have a British Captain and Officers.

In design terms she will have an undeniably British feel with two British design teams being responsible for her interiors.

Pamela Conover, Cunard’s President and Chief Operating Officer, says:

“Cunard Line was founded just after Queen Victoria came to the throne, and her reign saw the company develop hugely in every sense. Throughout her reign Cunard built more and even better ships, we embraced radical new technology and we carried more passengers in greater comfort. Today, with more capacity than we have had for 40 years, Cunard is entering a new phase of expansion commensurate with that experienced under Queen Victoria, so it seems entirely appropriate for the new ship to bear the name. It is also fitting that the second largest Cunarder ever should also bear a Queen name!”

Queen Victoria will be built at Italy’s Fincantieri shipyard near Venice with her keel scheduled to be laid in July this year.