SOUTHAMPTON'S 151,400-ton luxury megaliner, Queen Mary 2 is definitely first class and she even has a Royal Mail stamp to prove it.

The world's biggest passenger liner that arrives back in Southampton on Monday, is to set sail across the front of millions of letters as the magnificent vessel is pictured on the latest first-class stamp on sale next week.

Royal Mail has produced a series of six different stamps all featuring famous passenger liners, including four ships forever linked with Southampton Docks.

As well as Cunard's QM2, the stamps highlight paintings of RMS Mauretania, the earlier Queen Mary, thought by many to be the pinnacle of British shipbuilding, and the Great White Whale herself, P&O's legendary Canberra, which left on her voyage to the scrapyard in 1997.

Collectors from around the world have already been clamouring to be among the first to own the stamps as well as special envelopes which will also be franked with a commemorative Southampton first day of issue postmark.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "When it comes to opulence and innovation Britannia has always ruled the waves, and to underline this, Royal Mail is issuing a glittering reminder featuring these wonderful liners old and new.''

The ship stamps will be available from next Tuesday, the day after QM2 begins her maiden westbound Atlantic crossing from Southampton to New York.

Royal Mail commissioned Edward D Walker, one of today's finest maritime artists, to capture the powerful likeness of QM2, which sits imperiously on the first-class stamp, and despite working only from drawing board impressions, owners Cunard were amazed by the accuracy of his work.

Mauretania, built in 1906 for Cunard and the holder of the Blue Riband for 22 years, steams into view on the 47p stamp.

She survived the First World War during which she was converted to a troopship, hospital vessel and back to a troopship again, before returning to the role of a passenger liner until withdrawn from service in 1935.

On the day she left Southampton for the breaker's yard in Rosyth thousands of people lined the docks and waterfront in a final salute to a great ship.

Probably Southampton's best-loved passenger liner, the former Queen Mary takes her place on the front of the 42p stamp.

Following her maiden voyage in May 1936, she soon became THE way to cross the Atlantic and her passengers included all the great, rich and famous of the time. During the Second World War the Cunarder saw valiant service transporting more than 750,000 military personnel around the world.

Her sailing days ended in 1967 when she retired to the sun and palm trees of Long Beach, California, where she remains to this day as a floating hotel, museum and tourist attraction.

It was the troops fighting the Falkland's War that gave Canberra the nickname, the Great White Whale in 1982 and it remained with her until she was withdrawn 15 years later.

Canberra emerged from Harland and Wolff's Belfast shipyard in 1961 and immediately she was hailed as "the ship of the century.''

The biggest liner built in Britain since Queen Elizabeth in 1940, Canberra incorporated a stepped and streamlined bridge and superstructure together with twin slim funnels placed well aft.

Canberra, which appears on the European basic letter rate stamp, spent most of the 1960s sailing between Britain and Australia, but when passengers took to the skies for such lengthy journeys, she switched roles and enjoyed a new lease of life as a cruise ship.

Her finest hour came as part of the Falkland Island Task Force but her aged decks finally succumbed to the scrapyard seven years ago.

Other ships featured on the stamps include City of New York, that sailed in the late 1880s and Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western, which was the first steamship specifically built for the Atlantic service.