DOWN the slip with a rattle of chains rolled the queen of the seas as 30,000 spectators cheered. Fifty years ago yesterday, Queen Elizabeth launched the QE2 from John Brown’s shipyard in Clydebank. While the monarch modestly named the vessel “Queen Elizabeth the Second”, the ship became known as the QE2 (the numerical 2 rather than royal II said by some to have assuaged sensibilities in the nation that built her – where the reigning monarch is, as it were, QE1).

Sensibilities aside, there was enormous pride on the Clyde that day. The skilled workforce had created a nautical goddess. Stately and stylish she graced the waves, sailing 5.6 million miles, carrying a total of 2.5 million passengers, and making more than 800 Atlantic crossings. She was the last word in seagoing luxury. Her passengers got through 70,000 bottles of champagne a year (and – befitting a British ship – 2,500 teabags a day).

Alas, all good ships must come to an end, at least as far as faring forth is concerned. The Royal Yacht Britannia has spent a happy retirement as a tourist attraction in Leith. But, alas, the QE2 has languished in Dubai, where plans to turn her into a hotel have stalled.

By all accounts, she is gathering mould and decay along with her memories. Some locals say she is haunted. But she would always be welcome back on the Clyde, ghosts and all.