Post card from the high seas
by Published on 27th June 2016 07:14 AM
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Sun Jun 19th Cartagena (Spain): Been here six years ago, but much more appealing & delightful than I remember. Glorious architecture including lots of Spanish Nouveau, a long walking street-mall of polished tile, charming back streets, little churches and tree-lined marina with wide promenade as the harbor front. And the Spanish themselves: Sunday strollers, grandmothers meeting for morning coffee and grandfathers chatting in the square, many smoking cigarettes and just as many with dogs, all sorts of dogs, but all Spanish dogs.
Delay for the Queen! Heard amidst shipboard scuttlebutt here on the Queen Victoria: On her last visit to New York, the Queen Mary 2 was delayed and here's why: "Two ladies disembarking the QM2 insisted on having their limousines stationed in front with chauffeurs standing at attention exactly when they exited the port building."
Mon Jun 20th Gibraltar: Last stop: A short morning visit, arriving at 8 in the morning and off to sea at lunch, by 1pm. Ships galore in the port & outer harbor – no less than 3 Maersk Line containerships underway at the same time (two sailing, one arriving) and then a fourth at dock (this one being one of the massive 18,000-container capacity class), plus over a dozen tankers & bulkers at anchor, small coastal freighters & tankers coming and going, and several fast, all-white ferries heading to and from North Africa. It is the busiest port on this trip for watching ships – but then just imagine watching ships of all types come & go & sit at anchor!
Tidbits from the purser's desk: While ashore, one guest had a heart attack, two ladies fell & broke limbs and later no less than 5 passengers missed the ship & had to be flown home later in the day (and at their own expense) to the UK (thoughtfully, Cunard will forward their luggage from Southampton to their homes).
Nordic memories: Sonja was born in Norway, but her family migrated to America in the 1950s. They settled first in Bay Ridge-Brooklyn, the big Norwegian community for New York City. After my talks on the great liners, Sonja came forth and recalled: "My family and myself, then a small child, sailed to New York for the first time on the Stavangerfjord. It was an old, but very famous ship in Norway. I seem to recall it dated from World War I. We landed at Pier 42 in Lower Manhattan, in Greenwich Village I think. We returned to Norway a few years later on a sort of family reunion trip. We went over to Bergen on the Oslofjord and then returned on the Bergensfjord. They seemed like very big ships then, very luxurious and very exciting. I have kept post cards from those three Norwegian liners. They are part of family history."
Champagne & nibbles: Officers' Party tonight and a few words with Captain Peter Philpot, who comes from Kent in England, and who started his seafaring days with France's Louis Dreyfus Line and then switched to P&O and Princess, serving aboard the likes of the Sea Princess, Oceana, Pacific Sun, Ocean Village Two, Artemis and Arcadia. Also present the charming James Cusick, from Northern Ireland and the ship's very competent Hotel Director, and also Jacquie Hodgson, longtime Cunard Hotel Director, but now retired and so traveling sort of incognito as a mere guest.
Tue Jun 21st at sea in the Bay of Biscay: Fellow passengers! I just love the British. And here onboard, we have a large majority of retirees, over 60 and who see their island country much changed in ways over, say, the past fifty years. They like travel, all but insist on tea every afternoon, often go ashore on their own and log miles walking about – and just adore the sun. They all but "bake" and for long hours in deck chairs and around the pools. Many of them have a curious fascination with America and Americans themselves. They are often intrigued by what they see as the great wealth, the power and the inner dynamics of America. And the vastness, the cultural & ethnic diversity and the violence. They watch Law & Order, Madame Secretary, reruns of Seinfeld and just love Yankee reality shows. And, much on their minds, tapping their interest, is Donald Trump and his bid for the US presidency. Some are polite and call him a "colorful character'. They barely mention Hilary Clinton. Some refer almost adoringly of Margaret Thatcher; others dislike her. Almost all have a huge respect and deep admiration for the Queen. They all seem to mention how she has never, ever "put a foot wrong". And of course, they have great regard for Elizabeth II's hardworking, thoroughly and deeply conscientious 64 years as monarch. Here onboard, this retired generation of Brits are, as example, traveling more than ever and certainly cruising more (the UK is the 3rd biggest market on earth following the US and Germany). Yes, connected by a common language, they are to me very interesting. Last winter, the New York Times summed-up Britain and the British: "Castles, lush countryside, a long history of kings and queens and throw in the QE2 & Concorde, but still a country where a modest cup of tea is still a common remedy for anything that ails you. A country where a surprising number of people become genuinely excited when presented with that hot beverage and a small plain biscuit!"
Stormy weather: During his chat session in the Royal Court Theatre, Captain Philpot recalled a mid-Atlantic storm (in Jan 2014) aboard the Queen Victoria. It was the worst weather he has ever experienced – 75-ft high waves, 85-mph winds, mid-ocean waves higher than the bridge and even sprays of water over the ship's towering funnel!
Replies in the mail: A friend in Costa Rica wrote in response to the previous Scribblings: I'd have loved to be on the Aquitania in the '20s, my all-time favorite Cunarder, traveling in one of her in lovely period first class cabins, and dressing for dinner every night in my tuxedo and pondering whether to have Chateaubriand or a game-hen for my main course, and then dancing the foxtrot afterwards until the wee hours. Now people travel like they are going to the beach or doing the gardening!
And that photo of the elegant Giulio Cesare rather reminds me of a bigger version of Furness's Ocean Monarch also of 1951. As a kid I watched her arrival in Hamilton [Bermuda] in May of that year. A pretty vessel, but nicknamed the "Ocean Motion" for her rolling in the Gulf Stream between NYC & Hamilton."
Wed Jun 22nd at sea in the Bay of Biscay: Another last day: a different mood, my 5th & final talk and soon farewell to the beautiful, always wonderful Queen Victoria.
Memories from the Mersey: A man comes forward and tells me, "My father & his father opened a pub in Liverpool just before Christmas in 1960. They bought lots of secondhand dishes, cups, glasses & silver marked Cunard as well as White Star Line. I seem to remember that they bought it from a sale from a recently retired Cunard passenger ship, which I think was called the Britannic." (In fact, the Britannic, built in 1930, was retired in the fall of 1960 and at Liverpool before going to ship breakers up in Scotland. By then, she was the very last White Star liner that came over to Cunard in the 1934 Cunard-White Star merger.)
And tales from Latin America: Ted comes forward as well and to tell me, "I worked for PSNC [the Pacific Steam Navigation Co] in the 1950s, aboard their two luxury liners, the Reina del Pacifico and the Reina Del Mar. They were beautiful ships, but had a long run all the way from Liverpool over to the Caribbean, then the Panama Canal and down to the bottom of Chile. A roundtrip took over two months. I remember a storm off Bermuda when the Reina del Mar was thrown about, her twin propellers lifted out of the water and when we all but ran out plates. There was lots of breakage. My job onboard one voyage was to train waiters. I had worked for Cunard before and I had the most experience. In the late Fifties, PSNC was finding it difficult to get waiters on that long South American run and so had to hire lots of inexperienced staff."
On stage: One of our guest lecturers is noted British actor Robert Powell. He has lots to tell – plays, films & his recent tour in a production as King Charles III, when Prince Charles succeeds his mother. He has been acting for over fifty years and mentioned something I found interesting: As we get older, we tend to forget the past, the early days, even childhood and so we create, invent, even embellish details. Childhoods sometimes become better, even more fanciful and romantic; fathers as well as mothers have altered personalities and are often idealized; school days & school records are refined; and the start of a career, that first play or first book or first job, is often told in a "new, fixed version". He adds, "By sixty-five or thereabouts, the mind begins to become crowded, crammed, even clouded with personal memories & recollections. And so, we often become our very own editors and script writers."
Thu Jun 23rd Southampton (England) Early morning arrival at 6:00am along with the two other Cunard Queens. Smooth transition: We transfer from the Queen Victoria to Queen Mary 2 – and depart Southampton at 7:00pm and so back to sea. Eight days across the North Atlantic homeward to New York. Lots of friends & familiar faces onboard.
Festivity! It is an usually busy day aboard the Queen Mary 2 – the Cunard flagship has just emerged from a three-week, $125 million facelift, which Cunard has dubbed a "remastering". All of Cunardom and then some seem to be aboard (top management, office staff, legions of travel writers, TV people & travel agents and "celebrities" associated with the ship and its owners such as Commodore Ron Warwick, Stephen Payne, Robert Lloyd & Douglas Ward). There's a sort of "re-commissioning" ceremony in the elegant Queens Room and then a gala luncheon in the Britannia Restaurant. Myself, I saw so many friendly faces and some new ones.
Our very good friend, the brilliantly skilled Robert Lloyd has done – and in record time! – another splendid painting for the QM2. This one is of the ship being refitted at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg.
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Glowing: The 148,000-ton Queen Mary 2 seems to be gleaming, even shining, and especially as she has had a full repainting of her hull and superstructure. Inside, the ship smells almost everywhere of new carpeting.
Fri Jun 24th at sea off England: Morning at sea busy with lectures including my own first talk but other speakers on films, aviation history, comedy writing & criminology.
Walking shoes: But time to explore & have a look at the re-mastered Queen. The Winter Garden on Deck 7 forward is gone and without trace, replaced by the superb, totally new Carinthia Lounge. Used for light breakfasts and lunches as well as afternoon teas, it is a splendid addition in my opinion to the ship: grand decor, beautiful furniture & inviting colors. The remainder of Deck 7, the Kings Court Buffet, has also been completely rebuilt: Far better flow for the guests, far better seating and far better display of foods. Then, aft on Deck 7, the Queens as well as Princess Grills have been thoroughly redecorated. They are much more elegant. Up top, the kennels have a new pet lounge complete with New York City fire hydrant and Liverpool street post plus 10 more kennels. Sir Samuels Bar on Deck 3 has restyled as a partial Godiva Chocolate Shop. There are new cabins high up on Deck 13 as well as along Deck 3, replacing the photo shop, which has been relocated. The Main Lobby is now larger, more spacious in feel, with those twin glass elevators (connecting to Deck 7) now gone. Several of the shops have been restyled and rearranged. In many areas, the ship's carpeting has been replaced. The only disappointment, but by no means a slight one, has been the remaking of the former Ocean Bookshop. It is now a gift shop selling glassware, mugs, an assortment of paperbacks, but barely a maritime title anywhere to be seen. This is, I feel, a huge loss to the Queen Mary 2 and the two other Cunard Queens. Cunard is the most famous, most historic shipping line on all the seas. Cunard and its ships are in themselves maritime history. An array of maritime books, especially about liners and especially the glorious cast of Cunard liners, should be, in fact must be, made available to the guests. Quite frankly, The loss of selling maritime books aboard the Cunard Queens, and especially the crossings of the last Atlantic liner, the Queen Mary 2, is like a huge cavity in a mouth of otherwise gold-filled teeth.
And if you need further statistics & facts about the QM2 refit: Over one million man hours has gone in to the refurbishment over a 25-day period, 594,000 square feet of luxurious new carpet has been laid, 4,000 new framed pictures have been brought on board and nearly 4,000 gallons of paint have been applied to the ship’s hull. .
Last edited by Doc Vernon; 27th June 2016 at 07:15 AM.
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