In April 1973 the iconic Cunard cruise liner ‘Queen Elizabeth 2’ (QE2) steamed out of Southampton docks on a private chartered cruise. Its role was to operate in plain clothes, but the MOD and Cunard agreed that if challenged, they would admit to being members of “MOD security”. The first team therefore had a clearly defined mission and role and were reasonably visible as a security deterrent. However both the Force Commander and the Master of the QE2 are much in favour of operating covertly if possible. In 1976 another cruise occurred onboard to Israel, where the SBS was again reportedly deployed, again without incident.