Coronation June 2nd 1953.

[Frederick Lacey]

Hi everyone, tomorrow June 2nd is the 60th anniversary of the Queens coronation, can any of you remember

where you were on that date, I was on the "Port Adelaide" homeward bound through the Suez Canal, those

that had radio's and were able to, were listening to the ceremony whenever they could. Fred.

[Captain Kong]

I was home on leave just paid off the Egyptian. I was doing a tour of all the pubs in town.
Brian

[Tony Wilding]

i was only 14, still at school, first passenger plane flight that year, BEA, to Jersey, a Douglas DC3 Dakota.

[Neville Roberts]

I was just about to start my first job , HE Moss tanker company , in the liverpool office exchangs bldgs ,behind the town hall .dont remember the coronation . and could not care less .

[Richard Quartermaine]

On Tuesday, 2nd June 1953 I was one month into a new job that would be my working career and retirees website operator for the next 60 years. Having paid off the SS&A SS Gothic in London I had immigrated to Canada and in the Jobs on offer in the Toronto Globe and Mail was for a young person in the advertiser's automobile section. Wow! I thought - motor cars - just up my alley. Only when I sat down in the personnel manager's office (of the Canadian Western Assurance Company) that I was being hired as a clerk in the Auto Department. My job was to put a sticky tab on endorsements and changing the dollar amounts to binary 0's and 1's. These were sent up to the punch card operators so the punched cards could be read into a COMPUTER which occupied a great big room and clattered with lights flashing in valves and enormous reels twirling around. That monster had nowhere the capacity of the box attached to the keyboard I am typing on now.

That day was also significant to me in as much as 16 month's earlier on 6th February 1952, the day King George VI passed away, we in the Gothic were in Mombasa preparing for the embarkation of his eldest daughter and son-in-law. The rest is history. I probably would have spent more than my 6 plus years at sea had SS&A Commodore AV (Dickie) Richardson not retired. I was also skipper's Tiger to his predecessor for one trip and I didn't want that sort of boss again.

Finallly - if you've got this far - Sir Edmond Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest on 31st May,1953. Little did I imagine that between these two dates ten years later I'd be tearing up the hill in Suva with all the windows in the car wide open singing my heart out "I wonder what he'll think of me? I guess he'll call me The Old Man". Margaret presented me with our son Rick. He has lived near Greenville, South Carolina since 1959, had his 50th birthday on Wednesday and the only 'carousel' we see these days is at the airport on his infrequent visits to Australia.

Eh Fred - did you start all this - I was going to have an early night.

Cheers! Richard

[Frederick Lacey]

Hi Richard, sorry about that, you should be in the land of Nod about now, sweet dreams.!!!! Chuckle.

Couple of coincidences here, Feb 6th was my mothers birthday, and she always said what did he have
to do that on my birthday for. Also was in Suva a couple of days ahead of the Gothic with the Queen
on board, we left just before she arrived, and went onto Auckland and was there for the start of her tour,
I did see her when she went to the Cinema for a Command Performance Film. "The Million Pound Note"
with Gregory Peck, couldn't move for the crowds, was on my 3rd trip out of 4 on the Adelaide.

Fred.

[E.Martin]

Was loading newspaper rolls at Norkoping Sweden for Manchester.
I think the company did give us a couple of cans of beer to celebrate the occasion.

[Richard Quartermaine]

Couple of coincidences here, Feb 6th was my mothers birthday, and she always said what did he have
to do that on my birthday for. Also was in Suva a couple of days ahead of the Gothic with the Queen on board,

Thanks Fred. My daughter Estelle was born at the Colonial War Memorial, Suva on 7th February 1962 in the Oriental Year of the Tiger. Appropriate for a skipper's Tiger! As Ratu Edward C(Th)ako(m)bau, the brother of the then future Governor of Fiji, Ratu George replied when I asked him if my new little girl was a Fijian "Well Richard, look at it this way. If a cat has kittens in a banana box, are they bananas"?

Here are some pictures I took of the Gothic in Mombasa at the time and for the royal visit to Fiji in 1964. The Fijians in those days were very patriotic. They asked Britain for help when the were having trouble with the King of Tonga who kept raiding the eastern Lau group of islands. No help was forthcoming so he went to the Kaiser who had Western Samoa and then United States drawing blanks. He then went back to Queen Victoria and negotiated a Deed of Cession ceding the Monarchy of Fiji to Great Britain. Edward Cakobau - who had a great sense of humour - told the story of the time of his great? grandfather King Cakobau went by ship to Britain. "When the steward showed grandad the menu he waved it away and asked for the passenger list". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Fiji

Richard

Mombasa 6 Feb 52.jpgrygothic.jpgeandpfji.jpg

[Charlie Hannah]

Arrived in bermuda on first trip the S.S. Flamenco!

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Fred.
Anywhere between the Persian Gulf and New Zealand on the British Piper, but probably unawhere of all the hullabaloo.

Cheers Des