Captain Paul Wright, a 26 year veteran of Cunard Line, has been appointed master of Queen Victoria, the company`s newest ocean liner currently under construction in Venice that will enter service in December 2007.

Captain Wright first went to sea in 1965 as a cadet with Shell Tankers, and quickly progressed to passenger ships in 1969 when he joined Canadian Pacific. His first appointment with Cunard was to Cunard Countess in 1980 and since then he has served on Cunard Princess, Sagafjord and Cunard Dynasty. In 1999, Captain Wright was promoted to Captain of Cunard`s flagship Queen Elizabeth 2 where he served until construction began on Queen Mary 2, the largest ocean liner ever built. He oversaw construction of QM2 in St. Nazaire prior to commission, and in 2004 was appointed Master of Queen Mary 2, rotating with the recently retired Commodore Ronald Warwick.

Having sailed to all seven continents, when asked what his most memorable moments at sea have been, Captain Wright cites two: meeting Astronaut Neil Armstrong who was lecturing onboard in the early 1990`s and sailing Queen Mary 2 into Hamburg on her maiden call when half a million people lined the shore to greet her.

In commenting on his appointment, Captain Wright says: I fully expect that sailing Queen Victoria into Southampton for the first time will give me a third most memorable event - and I have no doubt it will be equally memorable for those who turn out to greet us; nothing stirs the imagination quite as much as a new Cunarder arriving in port for the first time. She will be a magnificent vessel built in true Cunard style.