Queen Mary’s exterior is set to be repainted for the first time in over 15 years. The multi-million dollar project aims to restore the faded historic liner to her original color scheme.
The first ceremonial brush strokes came on Monday, 10 July, when Long Beach, California, Mayor Robert Garcia and John Jenkins, an executive with Queen Mary leaseholder Urban Commons, dipped gold-handled brushes into a tray of white paint and applied a fresh coat to an area below the ship’s three iconic funnels.
Queen Mary’s exterior is currently in a sorry state. Her funnels are badly faded and large sections of white paint are flaking off of the ex-Cunard liner’s superstructure, revealing bare metal underneath. Patches and streams of rust are also easily visible on the ship’s hull, which has faded to a dark gray over the past several years.
Recognizing the ship’s cultural and historic significance, city leaders and the firm managing the Queen Mary have recently committed to the monumental task of repairing years of neglect and deterioration on board the ship, to the tune of over $200 million worth of work, according to the Long Beach Press Telegram.
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