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| The Queen Mary 2’s Library |
It might seem somewhat high-falootin’ and hotty-toddy to say that one of the best ways to spend time on the Queen Mary 2 is to attend a lecture. Almost every conversation we’ve had about our ride home on this grand ship has produced a question or comment along the lines of, “What’s there to do for seven days?” or “I can’t imagine being stuck on a ship for a week.” And somewhere in the list that is our response is always found the curious statement, “And there are lecturers onboard.”
At that point eyes roll and you can read their minds: well, lah-dee-dah.
Cunard calls this activity their Insights Programme (Cunard is British, so that spelling is correct). On each cruise they have a handful of noteworthy experts in their field who give three or four 45-minute presentations over the course of the week. Cunard obviously puts a good bit of thought into picking a set of presenters to cover a wide range of interests. On our cruise the topics ranged from American politics to Arab culture to New York City art to meteorology to aviation. And from the crowd at each presentation, they are a wildly popular way to spend time on the Queen Mary 2.
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| A Presentation by Ken Walsh Entitled “The Presidency of Barack Obama” |
Two presenters looked particularly interesting on our cruise, so I donned my smoking jacket, poured a snifter of warm brandy, and lit my pipe before proceeding to the lecture hall at the appointed times (just kidding: I don’t have a pipe). One of the lecturers on our cruise was Ken Walsh, the Chief White House Correspondent for US News and World Report. Mr. Walsh has been at the White House since the Reagan presidency and gave a fascinating series of talks on the American presidency, including an insider’s view of the Obama White House. Another of his talks was a fascinating look at how American presidents get away from the White House (Camp David, Hawaii, Key West, etc.)
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| Eamonn Gearon’s Presentation on Napoleon’s Campaigns in North Africa |
Another favorite lecturer on our cruise was Eamonn Gearon. Mr. Gearon is an Arabist, an expert on Arab culture and language, and a card-carrying member of the Royal Geographic Society, now employed by the American government to bring perspective on Arab and Muslim society. His topics ranged from his take on the current state of affairs in the Muslim world to a presentation on Napoleon’s campaigns in North Africa, to (my favorite) a presentation on British exploration of the Sahara between the World Wars, including the development of British spying and sabotage capability during WWII. It is because of Mr. Gearon that I now have a fascination with one Ralph Bagnold, desert explorer extraordinaire and founder of the British Long Range Desert Group (LRDG).
With the abundance of activities to command your attention, it’s not likely that you would attend every presentation. With that in mind, Cunard records every lecture and airs them again each evening on the on-ship television system. It should also be pointed out that, while there are 4,000 or so passengers and crew on the QM2, that’s not really that large a community: so you see the same faces here and there about the ship over the course of the week, including the lecturers. Every morning (that I managed to brave the cold, wet, and wind) I saw Eamonn Gearon out taking a power-walk on the deck. I would have loved to stopped and chatted with him about Ralph Bagnold and British spies and Arab politics, but it seemed impolite to interrupt his walk. I spotted him in one of the lounges one afternoon, but he was engaged in conversation with another passenger so I didn’t interrupt.
My point is that the lecturers, while (I imagine) paid by Cunard to be there, were enjoying their transatlantic crossing as much as we were and were wonderfully approachable, though I didn’t manage to have any such one-on-one chats. There’s always next time.
