Queen Mary 2 -- Staying Ship Shape

* The ship's whistle is an original from the Queen Mary and is audible for 10 miles.

* For the construction of the QM2, some 300,000 pieces of steel were cut and welded into blocks in specialized workshops. The ship's hull is made up of 94 steel blocks (made from 580 panels), some of which weigh more than 600 tons, involving some 932 miles of welding. Her hull alone weighs 50,000 tons (more than a school of 330 blue whales).