Bone china set and steamer blanket from Cunard's Queen Elizabeth given to QE2 owners for its heritage museum
Dubai, 22 February 2009: Nakheel Hotels - the owners of the world's best loved ocean liner QE2 - last week received the generous gift of a royal cup and saucer and steamer blanket from QE2's predecessor, Cunard's RMS Queen Elizabeth.
The gifts, which will form part of the heritage collection at the QE2 museum on Palm Jumeirah, were given to Nakheel Hotels' CEO Joe Sita at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York last week by US technology entrepreneur and CEO of EntreLearn, Inc., John Patrick Moldt, and his sister Karen Moldt, a sales and marketing executive. The Moldts' father, Edward M. Moldt, was one of a group of Philadelphia businessmen who purchased the Queen Elizabeth from Cunard in 1968 before reselling the vessel to a Hong Kong investor in 1970.
The cup and saucer are part of the set of "Royalty" or "VIP" china which was made exclusively for the suites on board both Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. The pattern was used for a relatively short time after both ships were launched. The originals were made by Plant of Staffordshire in Tuscan bone china - known for its hardwearing properties, which made it ideally suited to a life at sea. The black wool steamer blanket, which bears the insignia 'Cunard Line D658' in gold lettering, would have been used by guests on board as a wrap in inclement weather.
Joe Sita, CEO of Nakheel Hotels said:
"The gift is a touching gesture from the Moldt family and I am honoured to be able to receive it on behalf of Nakheel Hotels. The cup and saucer and steamer blanket - which date from the golden age of the ocean liner - are exactly the type of artefacts that allow people to connect with those travellers of by-gone days, and will add a valuable human dimension for visitors to the QE2 heritage museum."
John (Patrick) Moldt added:
"We wanted to find a suitable home for the cup and saucer set and steamer blanket from Queen Elizabeth. They deserve to be seen and appreciated by a wider audience, and a place in the QE2 Museum on Palm Jumeirah will allow them to be admired by thousands of people for many years to come."
Built in the 1930's, RMS Queen Elizabeth was the largest passenger liner ever built -- a record that was not exceeded for fifty-six years. She first entered service as a troopship in the Second World War, before taking up her intended role as an ocean liner for the Cunard Line (then the Cunard White Star Line) until her retirement in 1968. Together with Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth maintained a two-ship weekly transatlantic service from Southampton to Cherbourg to New York for over twenty years.
QE2 arrived in Dubai on 26 November last year at the end of her ultimate voyage, and is now undergoing refurbishment (including the restoration of key historical areas) that will see her become the focal point of an extensive, multi-faceted luxury precinct off the trunk of Palm Jumeirah where cultural and entertainment experiences will combine to re-create an authentic luxury ocean liner ambience and lifestyle. A heritage museum displaying artefacts from QE2 and of local maritime history is a key feature of the precinct.
-Ends-
About Nakheel
Nakheel is one of the world's largest privately held real estate developers, and a key player in realising the vision of Dubai for the 21st century: creating a world class destination for living, business and tourism.
Nakheel is developing an iconic portfolio of innovative landmark projects in Dubai, and now in key markets around the globe, across a range of sectors - residential, commercial, hotels, retail, and leisure. Nakheel's projects are conservatively estimated to be worth US$80 billion. Upon completion, Nakheel's waterfront projects will have added more than 1,000km of shoreline to Dubai's coastline.
Nakheel's Dubai portfolio includes Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali, Palm Deira, The World, Waterfront, The Universe, Nakheel Harbour & Tower, Jumeirah Islands, Jumeirah Village, Jumeirah Park, Jumeirah Heights, The Gardens, Discovery Gardens, Ibn Battuta Mall, Al Furjan, International City and Dragon Mart.
Nakheel is a key entity within Dubai World. Dubai World is one of the world's largest holding companies and supervises a portfolio of businesses and projects for the Dubai Government across five continents and more than 100 countries.
About Nakheel Hotels
Within two years Nakheel Hotels has accumulated an impressive global hotel property portfolio valued at over USD$4 billion which includes; the W Hotel Union Square and the Mandarin Oriental hotels in New York City; W Hotel Washington in Washington DC; the One & Only Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico; the Fontainebleau, Miami Beach; Corinthia Metropole, London; and significant equity stakes in Kerzner International Holdings Limited, operator of the Atlantis and One&Only brands; and International Hotel Investments plc, the owner and operator of the five-star Corinthia Hotel brand including hotels in Malta, St Petersburg, Lisbon, Tripoli, Budapest and Prague; and the franchise for easyHotels in the Middle East, Levant, North Africa
Additional investments of Nakheel Hotels include the development of W Bangkok and W Retreat and Residences Koh Samui, Thailand; investment in a fund that will be rolling out 30 Tune Hotels in South East Asia; a 33% stake in the London Metropole Building which will be converted to a Corinthia Hotel in partnership with IGI; QE2 Enterprises including the QE2; and a 9.4% stake in Singapore listed CDL Hospitality Trusts which owns six hotels in Singapore and New Zealand operated under the Copthorne and Millennium brands.
About EntreLearn, Inc.
EntreLearn.com is being developed as a resource to provide entrepreneurs with learning resources, professional networking opportunities and a customizable, web-based framework that will allow the entrepreneur to make more confident and well-informed business decisions, positively impacting the lifecycle of their business. EntreLearn, Inc is a North Carolina corporation.
Further information can be found at www.nakheelmediacentre.com
For more information please contact:
Four Communications
Margaret Flanagan or Becki Willis at Four Communications
Nakheel@fourcommunications.com
tel: +971 55 985 3378/+971 55 980 1125
Nakheel
Lashley Pulsipher,
Senior PR and Communications Executive
+971 4 375 3797 / +971 (0)50 658 2052
lashley.pulsipher@nakheel.com
EntreLearn, Inc
Patrick Moldt, CEO
1 919 303 4939
Patrick.moldt@entrelearn.com
© Press Release 2009
