To celebrate the Queen Mary 2 10th birthday last Friday, Cunard’s three newest ships – Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary 2 – were photographed side-by-side at sea for the first time ever. Queen Mary 2 was on the final leg of a world cruise and her sister ships escorted her back to Southampton ahead of a visit by The Duke of Edinburgh.

The only true ocean liner in service, the Queen Mary 2 remains the world’s fastest passenger ship, ten years after she was launched by the Queen in 2004. Here are some more fascinating facts about her.

30 knots – Queen Mary 2’s maximum speed is just over 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph), considerably faster than other contemporary cruise ships.

1,132 feet – If stood on her stern the QM2 would be the same height (1,132 feet) as the Empire State Building, taller than the Shard and over three times the height of St Paul’s Cathedral

9,000,000 hours – She took 1,000,000 man-hours to design and 8,000,000 to build.

19,000 London Buses – Her 151,400 gross tonnage is equivalent to nearly 19,000 London buses.

3 moon visits  – In ten years of service she has sailed the equivalent of three times to the moon and back.

2,620 capacity on board – The world’s largest cruise ship – Allure of the Seas – has room for 5,400 passengers.

5 x longer – Queen Mary 2 is five times longer than Cunard’s first ship, Britannia.

2,000 dogs – Over 2,000 dogs have travelled on Queen Mary 2 (five times as many as there are in Battersea Dogs Home).

58,000,000 meals – Over the past decade, the crew have served over 58 million meals, sufficient to feed the combined population of Hong Kong, Sydney, Cape Town, Rio and Dubai for an entire weekend. That includes over 25 million litres of milk; 21.9 million cups of tea and 2.7 million scones.

1,400,000 bottles – One and a quarter million bottles of champagne drunk since her launch.

171 years – When, on October 19, 2011, Queen Mary 2 had her registry changed to Hamilton, Bermuda (supposedly to allow the ship to host on-board weddings) it was the first time in 171 years that Cunard did not had a ship registered within the UK.

10 miles – Queen Mary 2’s whistle is audible for 10 miles.

Not a lot of people know that!