LONDON–Undaunted – and, apparently, undented – the glittering luxury liner Queen Elizabeth II survived a close call with a sandbank yesterday, adding one final treacherous twist to a remarkably storied career as it said goodbye to Britain forever.

Blown off course by heavy winds, the QE2 ran aground on the approach to its home port at Southhampton, where a regal farewell reception awaited before the ship sails onward to its afterlife as a floating hotel in Dubai.

Five tugboats raced to free the stranded vessel, which carried 1,700 passengers returning from the Cunard Line flagship's final Mediterranean cruise. The ship was refloated and sailed into harbour on its own power.

"She didn't want to come in," pensioner Shirley Newcombe, who was on her 10th voyage aboard the QE2, told Agence France Presse. "That's the opinion of quite a few of us on board. She doesn't want to go to Dubai and we don't want her to go."

The bittersweet festivities at Southhampton, led by the Duke of Edinburgh, included the airdrop of one million poppies on the 70,000-tonne liner, in remembrance of the QE2's role as a hospital ship during the 1982 Falklands war.

The next photo is Britain's Prince Philip reacts to a blast from the ship's fog horn, as he is driven away following a visit to the liner Queen Elizabeth 2, in Southampton

The fireworks were one of the best I have seen