THE famous collection of Middle Eastern fairy tales and legends One Thousand and One Nights is full of charming make believe, but for one, former Southampton legend it is more a horror story.

In this particular Arabian story there is chapter after chapter of sorrow, faded glory, and uncertainty.

For almost 40 years the distinctive, world famous outline of the Cunard liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, adorned the Southampton skyline, but now, 1,001 days after she said her last, sad farewell to her home port of Southampton she swelters beneath the blazing Dubai sun, a victim of the global, economic crash.

Where the pounding waves, gale tossed seas, and stormforce winds made little difference to this sublime example of British shipbuilding, the harsh reality of plunging stock markets, dire trade balances, and the international downturn in trade, have as good as, run this magnificent vessel aground.

From the outside, QE2 looks as she always did; an elegant liner, with a powerful heart, able to criss-cross the oceans of the world, but, brush aside this veneer, she is a sad sight, unglamorously draped in disappointment on a remote berth in Dubai.

For months on end, QE2 has not moved an inch, a skeleton crew, of a handful of workers, undertake the minimum amount of maintenance to keep the liner ticking over, while ambitious plans to turn the old Cunarder into a luxury floating hotel, have been postponed.

Thousands crammed every vantage point along Southampton Water and the Solent on the evening of Tuesday, November 11, 2008, to see QE2 sail away forever, as an armada of boats bobbed about in her wake, escorting her away from her home port for the last time.

Launched in 1967, QE2 became the longest-serving ship in Cunard’s history, crossing the Atlantic more than 800 times and carrying more than 2.5 million passengers.

Throughout her long life, QE2 was never far from the headlines as she served her country in times of war and peace.

She was the target for an extortionist’s bomb hoax, a part of the South Atlantic Task Force sent to recapture the Falkland Islands in 1982, while her graceful decks played host to royalty, film stars, world leaders, and sporting heroes.

As her graceful outline disappeared into the autumn darkness, QE2, which had been sold to Dubai for about £50m, was set to be the dramatic centrepiece of the huge manmade, Palm Jumeirah Island.

QE2 would be radically changed, and rumours abounded; her iconic funnel might be replaced a by a towering glass structure, new decks added, a retail complex constructed on board, and her ageing cabins refurbished as fivestar, hotel accommodation.

However, once QE2 arrived in Dubai information about her future became increasingly scarce, and the developers, behind the proposed scheme, became vague about a timescale for the project.

Stories concerning QE2, which should have opened as a world-class tourist attraction in 2009, surfaced and then sank without trace.

At one time it was suggested she would sail to South Africa to be used as a floating hotel for football’s World Cup, and, on another occasion, it was even mooted, inquiries had been made about the possibility of her returning to Southampton for a visit.

But in reality, QE2 was going nowhere, as international money markets imploded, banks went bust, and a cold wind of recession blew into Dubai putting many high-profile developments “on hold’’.

Among the list was QE2, which, today, remains moored alongside her berth in Dubai waiting to learn her eventual fate, although publicly the developers maintain a bullish position, confirming she is “still a central part of our plans’’.

In the far recesses of the Internet, in chat-rooms and forums populated by shipping enthusiasts and an army of QE2 fans, the great Cunarder has not been forgotten, and some even talk, optimistically, that one day she might even return to Great Britain.