Retirement
Waverley survived and prospered, but with the shift to diesel car ferries and cost pressures the TS Queen Mary was retired after a last evening showboat cruise from Largs to Rothesay on 27 September 1977. She was then laid up in the East India Harbour, Greenock.
In 1981 the ship was bought by the Lau family and taken south to London to become a floating restaurant but unfortunately it did not end well until 1987 where it was sold to the Bass PLC. She underwent a £2.5m refurbishment in 1997 and was moored at Victoria Embankment. Facilities included two bars and two function rooms. The top deck of the ship was used as an open air venue with bar facilities.
In November 2009, the ship was towed out of London. She was purchased by Samuel Boudon who had plans for her renovation and mooring in La Rochelle, France, as a floating restaurant and fitness centre. However, she is still moored in Tilbury Docks as of August 2011. She was auctioned by Capital Marine Services on 24 August 2011, but failed to reach the reserve. A subsequent sale was agreed.
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Famous quotes containing the word retirement:
“He who comes into Assemblies only to gratifie his Curiosity, and not to make a Figure, enjoys the Pleasures of Retirement in a[n] ...exquisite Degree.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)
“The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Douglas. Now remains a sweet reversion—
We may boldly spend, upon the hope
Of what is to come in.
A comfort of retirement lives in this.
Hotspur. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)