The 41-year-old Queen Elizabeth 2, the world's best-known passenger ship, cruised majestically down the Hudson River for the final time on Oct. 16 as it embarked on its 806th and final transatlantic crossing.

A flotilla of Coast Guard, New York City fire boats and pleasure craft escorted the graceful QE2 from its Manhattan pier to the Statute of Liberty, where it rendezvoused with the four-year-old Queen Mary 2 which is accompanying it on the six-night crossing.

“It is most fitting that QE2’s farewell to America be celebrated in New York, the city Cunard has called our North America homeport since 1847 and the setting for so much of the Line’s history,” said Carol Marlow, Cunard Line president.

Since the QE2 was launched in 1969, she has sailed more than 6 million nautical miles carrying more than 2.5 million passegers, including wounded British troops during a brief stint when she was pressed into service as a troop ship during the 1982 Falklands War.

While the QE2, after some 20 round-the-world cruises, still has a loyal cadre of followers, many of whom are making this final transatlantic crossing, the ship would have required many millions of dollars in safety upgrades to remain in service beyond 2010.

The QE2 is scheduled to make several additional voyages before arriving in late November in Dubai, where she will be retired from cruising, extensively refurbished and then reopened as a hotel and attraction.