Only two ships in the world are entitled to bear the initials RMS, denoting that they carry Royal Mail. One is the RMS St Helena, which carries 1,800 tons of cargo and up to 128 passengers and is an essential part of the supply line for the remote island of the same name in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
The other is the RMS Queen Mary 2, at 1,132 ft more than three times as long, and carrying up to 3.056 passengers.
The two ships met this week when QM2 sailed past the island during her 2011 world voyage. After exchanging salutes, QM2 continued on her way to Cape Town. St Helena faces an uncertain future, if the development of a runway on the island makes her redundant.
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