Watch on HDtoday. In 1998 Carnival, the largest cruise company in the world, bought the Cunard Line. A few people inside it dared to propose a new liner in the Cunard tradition, for an American market always looking for something new: the longest, largest and most expensive ship ever built. Micky Arison, the architect Stephen Payne, the interior designer Andrew Collier and Commodore Ronald W. Warwick take up the challenge, and at Saint-Nazaire the Queen Mary 2 takes shape.