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 modern accounts continue to publish that the "QE2" was named after the reigning monarch, in 2001 and 2008. Cunard continued the two-suffix naming practice introduced with "QE2" with the launch of the new ocean liner in 2003, named after the previous "Queen Mary"; however, the suffix '2' was required because of the continued existence of the TS "Queen Mary". The TS "Queen Mary" too had for a period been known as the TS "Queen Mary II" in a deal with Cunard that allowed Cunard to use 'Queen Mary' without suffix for their ocean liner. However, when Cunard announced that its