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
RMS Queen Elizabeth called The Queen Corporation (which was 85% owned by Cunard and 15% by them). The new company intended to operate the ship as a hotel and tourist attraction in Port Everglades, Florida, similar to the planned use of "Queen Mary" in Long Beach, California. "Elizabeth", as she was now called, actually opened to tourists before "Queen Mary" (which opened in 1971) but it was not to last. The climate of southern Florida was much harder on "Queen Elizabeth" than the climate of southern California was on "Queen Mary". There was some talk of permanently flooding the bilge and allowing the