The Southern Cross

[Brian Probetts (Site Admin)]

The Southern Cross

1 Comments by Brian Probetts (Site Admin) Published on 5th January 2016 12:44 PM

How passenger ships have grown and the passenger ship business expanded!

Sixty years ago, in the winter of 1955, workers at the Harland & Wolff shipyard at Belfast were adding the finishing touches to the 20,000-ton Southern Cross, the innovative flagship of Britain's Shaw Shaw Line.
The new liner had aroused and intrigued the press, the shjipping industry and ocean travelers across the globe.
In many ways, the 20-knot, twin-screw vessel would be a "ship for tomorrow".
She would be the first major liner to have her engines and therefore her funnel placed aft -- and creating a design style that became increasingly popular.
She was also one of the first all-one class, all-tourist class passenger ships (meaning a passenger in a top-deck suite would share, say, the public areas used by migrants in an inside six-berth down on D Deck).
Indeed, it was the beginning of a new social age at sea! The 604-ft long Southern Cross was also the first passenger liner of size and note that carried no cargo (other than passengers' baggage) whatsoever and so earned her keep exclusively from passenger fares.
She was also designed for a unique service: continuous 76-night around-the-world voyages out of Southampton.

The Southern Cross went on to a long and varied career -- later becoming the Calypso, then Azure Seas and finally Ocean Breeze -- before meeting the scrappers in faraway Bangladesh in 2003.
Photo: As the Ocean Breeze, the former Southern Cross is seen above at Nassau and moored alongside the far newer and larger, 102,000-ton Carnival Triumph, a new generation, 3,500-passenger ship that is in fact five times the size of the older liner. Times on the high seas had changed!

PS: If you have any stories to share about the Southern Cross and her long career, kindly forward them on. We enjoy hearing from others.

[happy daze john in oz]

Yes Rob, free for all officers and officers stewards. Not normal practice but we got away with it.
However senior second engineer, Murphy, who else you may ask, wanted a clean white monkey jacket each night but as he only had two it was difficult for the steam queens to keep up.
Think it was at this time I figured out how bribery worked.

[Peter F Chard]

#61 Did Senior second engineer Murphy have a first name of Gerry ( Jerry ) ? Regards Peter in NZ.

[Bill Morrison]

Gerry Murphy. Now that is a blast from the past. A sad case went down hill rather rapidly. He was standing by the building of the Cairn boats in Holland and had to be moved out causing mayhem.
I don't know if it is true or not but a rumour had it he committed suicide in Canada.

[Peter F Chard]

Thanks for your post Bill, Gerry certainly liked his drink, I am not surprised to hear it may have accelerated his death but did hear he had been fired from SS&A and was working for the London Greeks. Regards Peter in NZ.

[Lewis McColl]

From posts #61/#64 ref: Murphy how sad. I sailed with a second mate a Tasmanian lad, for a year or two. We joined in Barcelona twice. He had a bad skin condition. Poor bugger used to just weep from boils and pimples on his face, (Psoriasis)(Googled). We were in Japan discharging and during the pre- discharge meeting the Japanese port pilot (Cargo ops translator) said the guy with the spotty face, cannot be in the CCR while there are Japanese GENTLEMEN in the CCR.
These same cun-s 10 minutes later were nearly kissing my ars- as I was one of 10 crew who said we did not have a problem going back to Tokyo after the melt down at Fukushima nuclear plant after the tsunami ( we had radio active monitors) in the CCR, readings were ok !!!!?
Anyway on our run down to Aussie to load back for Japan word comes through that (I will call him John ) will pay off in OZ, 6 weeks in to his 3 month trip. No reason given. He left in Karratha. I got a couple of hours up the road so we shared the agents car. We had a few beers and he told me he was getting his mates job and this was why he signed off early. Made up for the lad. He never made it to the airport. He had a night in a hotel in Kaarrtha before his flight. He topped himself, no note nothing. Heard later on he was actually told due to his appearance that perhaps it was best he looked for employment elsewhere. Bastar-s

[happy daze john in oz]

#61 Did Senior second engineer Murphy have a first name of Gerry ( Jerry ) ? Regards Peter in NZ.

This one was a Joseph, known as Joe, Murphy.

[Keith Tindell]

Lewis 65, My youngest son, now 47 years old has had chronic psoriasis all his life, apart from his first 4 years. He was absolutely smothered in it, all over his face, in his hair, completely covered his body. You can imagine what sort of life he had at school, where they called him the leper, school absolutely destroyed him. Today he has to go to the hospital on a quarterly basis for an infusion of a certain drug which cost the the good old NHS £10000 per year. This drug keeps it at bay, and at the end of 3 months is beginning to show again. He now works as a qualified nurse caring for people with learning difficulties. Psoriasis, for anyone who does not know, means that you shed your skin every 24 hrs, which leaves raw patches everywhere, and itches like mad, plus of course is very unsightly, kt

[Ian Whitehead]

In July 1956, my first ship Mataroa, on her penultimate voyage to New Zealand before being scrapped, had the good fortune to meet the Southern Cross returning from a round trip as she exited the Panama Canal. Alongside in Colon, ancient and modern were a striking contrast. As 16 year old 2nd Radio Officer, I was shepherded by the ship's doctor and junior Pursers to the joys of the Copacabana Night Club, where I was fascinated by the wondrous beauty of Peruvian Dancers in exotic cabaret costumes straight from the Paris Lido, (topless)! I secretly fell in love with a dancer who was one of a group who joined our table at the behest of the Doctor. This fatuation was short lived however, when I heard them negotiating the cost of a "short time". The following morning we entered the Gatun Locks to find that several of our catering staff had found their way on to the Southhern Cross for a quick return to UK, courtesy of the Panamanian Police and their places had been taken by Southern Cross stewards adding another ten weeks to their journey home.

[UweErik Feldt]

Hi Fred. R525985,

what do you mean in regards to your statememt "before going to the Beaver Boats for another 3 Years"? Are you talking about the CPL Beaver ships? -
To me, it would be of interest if you had served an SS "Beaverford" and SS "Beaverlodge", the boats I was on in 1959.

Cheers,

Erik.

[Frederick Lacey]

Hi UweEric did 7 trips on the "Beaverglen" and 14 trips on the "Beaverdell" between Oct'56 and May'59..
Got stuck in the ice one trip and released by an Ice Breaker photo taken by a newspaper plane of us
steaming past Quebec after being released, am i right in saying that the "Beaverford didn't make it out of
Montreal in time and had to stay the winter we on the Dell just mad it out.Beaverdell.jpg