Dr. Stephen Payne on Building the Queen Mary 2 | A Naval Architect's Dream

At 38 years old, Dr. Stephen Payne was offered $1 billion to design his dream project: The Queen Mary 2. In this captivating lecture at Webb, he shares his journey to creating the world's greatest ocean liner. From childhood dreams inspired by classic Cunard ships, he shares his personal journey and the challenges he overcame.
Although Dr. Payne talks about his lifelong passion and the complexities of shipbuilding, he also gives an inspirational message in this speech- conveying perseverance, teamwork, and the importance of giving back.

[@Andygarrett357]

Very interesting lecture with lots of great advice for students and those starting their careers.

[@iPoriel]

Thanks for this vid. I was passionate about ocean liners when I was younger, and the QM2 still fascinates me with its incredible elegance. Life didn’t give me a heads-up that I would eventually end up in the cockpit of an Airbus A320, but... the QM2 remains the QM2! And the work of a naval architect... wow! What an amazing job. Thanks for this video.

[@TheLongislandlimey]

I grew up in the UK at the same time as Stephen and was addicted to Blue Peter. Nice to see he finally got the gold badge. We are traveling from Southampton to NYC on the QM2 in June 2025 and are really looking forward to the crossing.

[@stevebass3992]

A brilliant interesting lecture by Stephen who we met several years ago and have travelled on QM2 several times

[@JosephWoolf-ct4bt]

I heard Dr. Payne give a very similar lecture aboard the Queen Mary 2 during a crossing from Southampton to New York that was at the end of October.

[@dl11950]

Did you attend the Q&A session in G32?

[@JosephWoolf-ct4bt]

@@dl11950 Yes I did. Were you on that crossing also?

[@dl11950]

@@JosephWoolf-ct4bt yes, our fourth round trip transatlantic sailing

[@jscotty349]

It seems that the human drive to achieve greatness is always to prove someone else wrong. Some random article said great ocean liners would never be built again, this guy read it, and made it his lifelong goal to build another bigger and better one. Someone should have told him "faster than light travel is impossible" back then, then today we would have been to the Andromeda Galaxy already, LOL