Will We See Queen Camilla in 2022?

The big news in cruise this week is that Cunard have announced that they have commissioned a new ship to arrive in 2022, bringing the total number of ships in the fleet to 4 for the first time since 1998 (according to Wikipedia).

I do think this will be a great move for Cunard, it’s just that 2022, well it’s a long way off yet isn’t it?

But let us look at the most important question on everybody’s lips, what will she be called?

In Cunard’s 171-year history there have been a lot of ships that have come and gone, approximately 124 (again thank you Wikipedia), yet not all of them have been Queen’s, but that is one thing that we have been told, that the new ship will be a queen in her own right.  From what I have seen when looking at the history of Cunard they have used the same three queens for naming their ships, Queen Mary, Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth, with all those names currently in use, where do they go from here?

Well there has been no official announcement on her name as yet, which is to be expected, as I wouldn’t expect them to release details on this for another few year (Sigh!), so in the meantime I have looked at some of the possibilities below, so let’s have a look at what I have come up with.

If we look at the trend of the three previous queens they have used, they have Cunard have always used the names of Queen’s who have ruled in their own right (where there was no king who is traditionally more senior), and looking some research there haven’t been too many of these queens, which could narrow down our search.

The first queen they could name her after is apparently Empress Matilda of the English who ruled in 1141 but was never crowned.  My thoughts that to name her this would be highly unlikely as the name Empress Matilda wouldn’t be in keeping with the Cunard brand as such.

We also have the Lady Jane Gray who is known as the 9-day queen who ruled in 1553 before she was usurped by her cousin Queen Mary I and then later beheaded by her.  Again, I don’t see Jane as a likely choice of name for the new ship.  Although her tale is a famous one, a 9-day queen doesn’t inspire the iconic brand that Cunard are famous for.

We then have Queen Anne who ruled in 1707 – 1714.  I think The Queen Anne could be a likely choice for them.  She ruled for several years in her own right and my personal opinion is that the name would slot in quite nicely with the other three they have in the fleet and I think Cunard’s customers would adopt this name easily (I could be totally off the mark here).

Could Cunard go totally off piste, could we see a Queen Camilla sailing out of Southampton in 2022 in honour of the Duchess of Cornwall?  I have heard this name bounded about.  Unlikely, as this could open a whole can of worms that I don’t even want to start on.  Or what about Queen Catherine in honour of Princess Kate, maybe, again unlikely as she is yet to be queen.  And I don’t want to tempt fate, but it could be a tad awkward if they were to ever divorce and she never became queen.  One of my colleagues said that we could even keep with Cunard tradition and see the Queen Elizabeth 2 sailing in 2022.  My opinion on this is that is possible but unlikely as this could cause a whole amount of confusion with the current Queen Elizabeth sailing, and there are no plans to retire her.

Well there we have my suggestions for the new queen and her name.  Let me know what you think and if you have any that you think would be fitting for a Cunard.