Lowiepete

At the time, Caronia II was not known as the Green Goddess! The reason being that this moniker had already been fondly ascribed to the British Army fire engines, painted green rather than red, and fairly frequently called upon to fight domestic fires. Caronia at the time was much better known as "The Millionnaire's Yacht". The later moniker is today used only as a marketing term. It's curious that such a gift of an idiom was never used in any Cunard / Amex or Thos. Cook cruise brochure of the period, bar a single leaflet hastily put together in Liverpool late in her career. The "Green Goddess" was an affectionate term used almost exclusively by Caronia's crew, not even widely in the Merchant Navy. It was in fact a colloquial Scouse term that had travelled South. The full story is recorded here... Regards, Steve

I have a sneaking suspicion that this isn't a Caronia item. Speaking of the Franconia, both her and Carmania of the 1960s were re-purposed and painted in Cunard Cruising Green, along with a brief period for the RMS Mauretania. The straighter prow and domed funnel of this piece associates more closely with the two smaller sisters. The foredeck clutter also tends to rule out Caronia. Whilst there's mention of these ships, I spent the worst 5 months of my sea-career on board Carmania. That was _not_ a happy ship! I cannot put into words the amount of hate carried by a substantial number of her crew. You had to pick who you spoke to as associates very carefully; it was scary! Apparently, by comparison, Franconia was like chalk and cheese and a very much calmer place to live. In May 1965, just 3 days from home, the Carmania sailed over 8 hours later than booked from Barcelona, while overnight more than a dozen men were flown home in disgrace, their sea-going days over. A junior catering officer was left behind, being hospitalised after being launched backwards and head-first down a companionway he was climbing to investigate a disturbance at the aft end of the galley. At that moment, I was Staff-Captain's Commis clearing up after luncheon service. I quickly ducked-down twixt the port-side galley exit and aft restaurant entrance when a very drunk and angry crowd came back on board. I've never been more scared by any situation before or since and the dreadful sounds of that commotion will never leave me! I'm aware that I'm digressing away from the Caronia, but I need to record this properly. All this was at the height of "the troubles"; the one thing that was rarely conveyed by any commentator of this difficult period of history was the extreme levels of hate. There were so many factions that for many people, me included, the whole thing was just too confusing. This to the point where I cannot for certain confirm whether it came from just one side or was shared. All I fervently hope for is that such situations never return! Regards, Steve

Hello Folks, I am remiss! Somehow, Ross has posted this amazing review about the Caronia Timeline and I've only today got to find it, quite by accident. I spent almost 3 years on board the RMS Caronia, in two stints. I got diverted by Cunard's shore office at the last moment ahead of the 1965 Great World Cruise. Caronia was my "university", not only carrying me around far-flung places I'd only seen on maps, but making an adult of a very wet-behind-the-ears young lad. For many years I had kept a range of Caronia meal menus, mostly from the 1964 North Cape Cruise. I'd occasionally look through them, with memories flooding back on how we served many of the wonderful dishes on offer. I wonder how many people today know how to properly "silver service" a complete Dover Sole? The Caronia was all about the "detail", from the moment you stepped aboard. Cunard might have employed us and almost paid us too. What mattered was looking after those who properly employed and generously paid us! The result being that we cleaned and polished that ship half to death. I can absolutely claim that there was not a cleaner working-alleyway aboard any other ship, British or foreign. Anyway, a couple of my saved menus got rather foxed as they aged and then I found a world-wide auction Web site. A whole world of Caronia memorabilia kind of fell at my feet, with information I was totally unaware of. Things like menus and daily programmes I knew all about, but original cruise brochures and shore-tour programmes, they were a complete revelation. One of my bidding competitors, unbeknown to one another at this stage, was a certain CGTNormandie, so I can vouch for his assiduous bidding! Oh boy, did he cause me grief... Nevertheless, as my bank-balance dwindled, I was still slowly amassing quite an archive of material which was making the avoidance of buying duplicates rather difficult. At that time I was also busy making dBase III do its stuff, so it became very tempting to record my material into a database. Also, I was in the throes of learning about building Web sites. Now, that brought with it some excitement but also a few particular challenges. When I searched through the Web for sites about Caronia the results were very disappointing. Don't get me wrong, they were indeed factual and illustrated, but they were only telling the story of the metal and wood. There was very little of a human interest element. Also, it became very clear that "history" had not been kind to this ship after her Cunard demise. All that aside, I then had to consider my approach. The big advantage of building the site was that others could contribute their stories too. No doubt, I could probably trace where in World this grand cruising ship was on any particular day so building a timeline seemed logical. However, the biggest question was whether I had enough information to not only bring life to this ship but also do proper justice to all my fellow travellers, passengers, officers and crew. At the back of my mind was that any Web site with such a far-reaching ambition was going to be very closely scrutinised and I wasn't going to let it be found wanting! The resulting 20 year journey has been an absolutely joyful experience with all and sundry "adopting" the timeline as their own. The outcome is a site that I have "edited", with so much information and original content coming from enthusiastic contributors. If ever I need a lift, I only need to look back through my feedback archive. Some of the emotions expressed by visitors will have me welling-up As time progressed and major internet outfits just got greedier and greedier, so access to items from America got more difficult and more or less dried-up. The huge increase in postage costs and the artificial "duty" on non-taxable items made it impossible to justify any purchase. This is where my old bidding adversary stepped in and really saved the day. As the amount of Caronia material has inevitably dwindled, I now have an avid ally ready to mop up what are quite often exceedingly rare items. While I'm obviously going to thank Ross for his very kind words, I really want to pay tribute to his absolute and unstinting generosity. There are many, many pages on the Timeline where you'll see images that come from the "Blouin Collection". Just try and imagine how dull those pages would be without them. Job, jobbed! Ross' contributions have acted as wonderful aide-memoires and enabled me to add further information relevant to the moment. While I'm obviously happy to accept any plaudits, I do want to emphasise that the Timeline is not all my own work and could have never achieved its current status without the many, many contributions by fellow travellers. My gratitude is complete and heartfelt! After 20 years I'm now stepping back a little, though once you get this collecting bug there is no antidote. There will no doubt be additions here and there when the rarest items are gathered or a new story emerges. Meanwhile, there are over 1,000 pages for everyone to explore, all written in homage to a much-loved ship. Please step aboard and allow yourself to be transported into an age of travel unlikely to ever be repeated... Regards, Steve (Peter S.)

...however, the point I'm trying to make is that there is nothing better than the recollections of 1st-hand experience. Whether it is books or websites, observations from 3rd parties simply do not convey the realities and their impacts upon real people, even if some of those are seen or related through "rose-tinted" spectacles. The loss of the SS Canberra site should not be underestimated! It is a severe blow to anyone who may want to do some "proper" research about that ship in the future. The recollections of so many people about what life was _really_ like on board such a vessel is beyond priceless. Bear in mind one of its principal functions was to carry people, not only to the other side of the World, but also to a life of infinite new discoveries, quite unlike travellers enjoying their brief sojourns aboard Caronia. The description of a 1st-hand impact of any event, by the person who experienced it, goes way beyond any other kind of story-telling. The recording of history is already under attack from people who want to erase it as something incidental, or even as part of a rewriting agenda. The problem comes from the same way that photography is going. How many of today's "selfies" are going to end up in grandad's "album" to be looked at in 20, 30 or even 40 years time? I would hazard: not many! Probably, it'll be in inverse proportion to how easy it was to take the photos in the first place. This because no-one prints their photos to hard-copy these days and if they do, the paper it was printed on will have totally disintegrated because of the chemicals detrimental to keeping anything long-term. I know for a fact that I could never have attempted to build the TL without such a solid foundation of ephemera as a starting point. Regards, Steve

...and just months later, there it was, gone! As the webmaster for the Caronia Timeline I was a regular visitor too and just thrilled that there was so much "original" feedback of memories being freely shared. Really wonderful stuff, maybe the greater majority of it had been posted by former travellers no longer with us. That's what really emphasises the loss, it just disappeared, without warning. I too feature masses of information provided by both crew and passengers now in the great forever dry-dock. I recently had an interesting face-to-face conversation, about websites which feature similar famous ships of that era, with someone who found the Timeline as valuable research for his work. You should have seen expression on his face when I told him that the same fate could befall the Timeline. His reaction, and belief, was that because it was an extensive site published on the Internet, it was there more or less as a resource forever, just like a reference work in a library. I can't believe that it's now 20 years since I started the Caronia adventure, much less that I'm having to seriously try to ensure some longevity for it past my own demise. However, that's the reality. Each time I do a links-check on my Maritime Sites page, I dread to see what comes up next as another tremendous loss. The transience of Web content means that there is already a permanent loss of this value and it looks like this is set to continue. With so many contributors to the Canberra site, does anyone know whether or not it could be re-instated at some point? Regards, Steve