1.
GV Queen Elizabeth in Hong Kong Harbour
0.08

2.
SV PAN DOWN side of liner TO tug
0.16

3.
LV PAN DOWN FROM lifeboats to funnel of liner
0.22

4.
GTV Workers coming aboard from ferry (2 shots)
0.35

5.
SV TILT UP FROM wreckage on deck
0.40

6.
LV Men working near funnel
0.45

7.
SV Men working (5 shots)
1.04

8.
TV PAN FROM bow TO workmen repairing side of ship (4 shots)
1.20

9.
LV PAN TO man painting side of ship & other workers
1.31

10.
LV PAN FROM mast TO foredeck
1.41

11.
GV Liner
1.47



Initials SGM/1200 SGM/1155


This film has natural sound.

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The old British liner Queen Elizabeth (83,00 tons) is having a ten-million dollar (4.1 million sterling) facelift in Hong Kong Harbour before starting her new career as a floating university and cruise ship.

The 31-year-old former Cunard flagship has already been renamed Seawise University - a pun on the initials of her owner, Hong Kong shipping magnate C.Y. Tung.

More than a thousand workers are refurbishing the interior and scraping away the rust the liner gathered during two unhappy years as an unsuccessful tourist attraction in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.A.

SYNOPSIS: In Hong Kong Harbour, the former British liner Queen Elizabeth is having a ten-million dollar facelift before starting a new life as a cruise ship and floating university. The liner has already been renamed Seawise University, after the initials of her new owner, shipping magnate C.Y. Tung, and will soon be losing her red-and-black Cunard colours.

14-hundred workers are currently employed in the massive task of refitting the 83-thousand ton liner.

One of the first jobs is to clear away the rust and rubbish the Queen Elizabeth collected in two unhappy years in the United States as an unsuccessful tourist attraction in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Workers are chipping away old paint and tearing out old wiring; welders are fitting new metal parts.

Inside, upholsterers are repadding the luxurious chairs, mechanics are renovating the lifts, and engineers are overhauling the four engines, which gave trouble on the journey to Hong Kong.

When the Seawise University sails in March, it will be under the colours of Mr Tung's Orient Overseas Line. One of her first passenger groups will be 15-hundred members of the Japanese Stop-smoking Society. The educational programme is due to start in September, with 400 students from Chapman College in California.