MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

QE2 returns to Mediterranean cruise after mechanical fault

Queen Elizabeth delay at port of Dubrovnik

The QE2 set sail again on Saturday after breaking down off Croatia during a Mediterranean cruise. The liner's 1,750 passengers were delayed 24 hours after she suffered a mechanical fault in the Croatian port of Dubrovnik on Friday.

A Cunard spokesman said the Southampton-based luxury ship had lifted anchor for Trieste in Italy after replacements were flown in. The QE2 is midway through a two-week cruise, having set off from Southampton last Saturday. The QE2 is timetabled to start her 40th anniversary cruise from Southampton next Saturday. Earlier this year, more than 300 passengers and crew on board the ship suffered from a bug which caused vomiting and diarrhea. The liner has only just over a year left at sea before she sails to Dubai to become a floating hotel. The 70,000-tonne vessel, launched by the Queen in 1967, was sold to a firm called Dubai World for £ 50 million. She will be berthed from 2009 at a specially-constructed pier at The Palm Jumeira development in Dubai The eight-day voyage around Britain, commemorating her launch in September 20, 1967, by the Queen at Clydebank, includes her first visit to Newcastle (September 16) and return visit to the Clyde on September 20. The 70,000-ton QE2 is 964ft long and 105ft wide and can carry up to 1,900 passengers and over 1.000 crewmembers. In 2004, the QE2 handed over its position as Cunard's flagship to the new 150,000-ton QM2.