2007 Entries

01 January 2007
With barely hours to go before the New Year it was my good fortune to receive 2 positive responses to requests for permission to use scans I had seen on the Web. So my first entry for 2007 says thank-you to Reiner Pachauer from Hamburg in Germany.

Having narrowly missed winning an eBay auction of his for some period transfers, I wrote and asked if I could use his scans of these treasures. Not only did he say “Yes”, but with his reply came another scan bearing a whole lot more. The first images appear on the Shoreside Hotel Labels & Decals page.

Within the hour came another positive response, this time from Rich Turnwald in the USA. A deceased friend and mentor of his had given him some photos taken around the upper decks of the Caronia. You may not think there's anything special in that, however, his friend Victor Scrivens had taken colour slides as a passenger on either the 2nd or 3rd of the first series of Caribbean & South America cruises that Caronia ever made, in 1949!

My thanks to Rich for providing the final impetus to transform the current information held on Caronia's very first cruise into the Virtual Caribbean Cruise. All of the Virtual Cruises have differing styles and content, and this one focusses on a popular feature of “Green Goddess” daily programmes on cruises - the deck hike.

Well, I guess that's the first week's work of 2007 settled. Have you got the Timeline book-marked yet?

09 January 2007
Another very interesting photograph has been provided by Pete Jelley, who has spent a while attempting to identify the December 1954 Balmoral Restaurant staff

February 2007

My thanks to Gordon Wright for providing more crew photographs. Although not directly related to the Timeline, I'd also like to record my appreciation for his thorough background work in preparing for the presentation to Pete Jelley.

Thanks also to Pete Read for access to 4 interesting photographs, the major one of which is of Caronia at Valletta, Malta. Another is of the crew “chain-gang” atop the North Cape in July 1955.

One of my regular contributors, Brian Hawley, has provided a manufacturer's image of an “old friend”. Another reminder of a beastly thing we had to polish daily. More photos have arrived from Brian which will be posted soon.

Pleased to add 2 more photographs from Sean O'Bierne to Crew Quarters - Assorted pictures page 5

My sincere thanks to Robin Chalmers and George Peterson for their invaluable help in assembling the Below Decks Virtual Tour, especially with information about the Engine Room

March 2007

10 March 2007
My thanks to Reginald Gabbe, a former deck pantryman from Australia, for sending through some very interesting scans. These include an image of the cloth badge used by the swimming club and a copy of the 1957 Crew Christmas Dinner menu. Reginald also belonged to the R.A.O.B. Lodge and is probably now its oldest surviving member.

April 2007

01 April 2007
Thanks to Peter Heath we now have sight of some of the shows put on by the crew for the passengers. Peter either co-wrote or co-produced several shows with John Alcock. Peter has provided 4 programmes from these shows, though unfortunately 3 of them have no performance dates.

Peter Heath has also supplied photographs of the two restaurant teams to play at the first Wareham & Bergen Trophy match in 1955

My thanks to Robin Chalmers and George Peterson for more photographs, menus and information snippets.

May 2007

Two photographs added from Dave Gregory, one showing the 1958 World Cruise silver gang.

My thanks to Mike Sutcliffe for his recollections of the Shannon air-crash of August 1958

June 2007

My thanks go to several people who have helped identify a few more crew members depicted in the Crew Quarters pages and to Peter Davison for his photo scans of Caronia crew ashore on North Cape Cruises.

Two more unique pictures of Caronia at Algiers have come courtesy of Tony Hunton, via Pete Jelley. Tony was doing his National Service aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Glory and snapped these pictures as they were sailing out. Caronia was near the end of her 1st major outing, the Great African Cruise

Again my thanks are due to Peter Heath for sending in some photographs that reveal some vital details. Page 1 of Wareham & Bergen Trophy now has a much better picture of Cyril Wareham and also of the trophy he specially commissioned, based upon the “beef wagon”, used to carve in the restaurants.

Peter has also sent in some photographs of the the Crossing the Line ceremony of 1952. One detail of which is “Dr. Hackem” who appears on the Neptune party feature page. I wonder if there's anyone who can throw light on who Dr. Hackem was, and tell us the story.

Another story that's needing to be told is of when a shark was caught at Bali and hung on the aft crew deck during the 1955 Great World Cruise.

July 2007

The biggest contribution of photographs and information this month has come from Pete Davison. He has forwarded several scans of both his own photographs and those of Billy Flaherty, mostly taken in the 1962 to 1964 period.

Most of these now feature in the Crew Quarters pages but there are also some interesting shots of Caronia in the Suez Canal and yet another of her at Valletta, Malta in September 1964.

Pete's contributions have also helped to fill a few information gaps in the story of the Wareham & Bergen Trophy.

My thanks also to Richard I. Weiss for permitting me to use his photographs of Caronia's maiden arrival in New York, two of which appear on Maiden Voyage Tour Part 1 - Page 4

August 2007

As I sit here working on documents like the Caronia Passenger Lists of the early 1950s, I often wonder if anyone who was on board will ever make contact, even all these years later. Well, that's exactly how it turned out.

However, contact came from a most unexpected person - none other than the Staff Purser, Brenton Jenkins, the very guy who, in 1954, had originally compiled the list I was currently working on! How about that for a co-incidence? Even at nearly 84 years of age, his excitement at finding the Timeline is very evident!

True to his word on providing us with several pictures, Brenton has begun sending some very good scans from his vast collection of photographs taken on the 1954 Japan & South Pacific Cruise and the 1959 Great World Cruise. From his first batch I've been able to add an extra Crossing the Line page where Brenton has been able to identify several of the people depicted.

As always, keep an eye on the What's New / Regular Visitors page for more updates.

September 2007

My thanks to Graham Heuber in the USA for sourcing two Caronia Cruise folders. The first of these was for the 1961 Great World Cruise followed by another for the 1961 North Cape Cruise

Several people have been in touch with more names being identified within Crew Quarters pages.

October 2007

Another regular contributor to the Timeline has come up trumps with several more interesting ephemeral items. Ron Burn has provided some correspondence which shows some of the behind the scenes activities, including an advertising postcard used by Thos. Cook in Boston, Mass. and a copy of an order for Malayan stamps.

Receipt of crew photographs continues on a fairly regular basis, the latest batch coming from John Redhead. John was aboard Caronia in the early 1950s, so more photographs of crew ashore in exotic places around the world at that time will be added to the Crew Quarters. I was amazed when this section had reached 50 pages, but with some photographs of the Caronia Reunions in the 1990s, it won't be long before there are 60 pages.

November & December 2007

My thanks to Ron Burn for allowing access to some Japanese stamps of 1959. Caronia's visit there that year co-incided with the wedding of Prince Akihito and Princess Michiko in Tokyo.

Ron Burn has also donated several period travel pamphlets which has provided the opportunity to add yet another slide show - this time of Hong Kong. These also provided several other pictures that illustrate various parts of the World as it was in the mid-1960s.

Dated pictures of the “Green Goddess” are always valuable, so I'm indebted to Robin Almond for the picture of Caronia at New York in February 1960. Robin has several more photographs that will be added in the New Year.