RMS Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth to safely rest on the bed of the Intracoastal Waterway in Ft. Lauderdale harbour (Port Everglades) and remain open, but instead the vessel was towed out of the harbour to Asia to become a floating university. Losing money and forced to close after being declared a fire hazard, this was due to the ship being sold at auction in 1970 to Hong Kong tycoon Tung Chao Yung. Tung, the head of the Orient Overseas Line, intended to convert the vessel into a university for the World Campus Afloat program (later reformed and renamed as Semester at Sea). Following
Queen Elizabeth 2 also Master of both "QE2" and later the first captain of "QM2", supports the account that the Queen initiated the surprise move of naming the liner after herself rather than simply Queen Elizabeth as had originally been planned (the name having been made vacant by the retirement of the current liner before the new one was commissioned). The name had been given to the Queen in a sealed envelope which she didn't open. The book, referencing his autobiography, states that the Cunard chairman Sir Basil was delighted with this development, it being in keeping with the previous Queen liners, and