Preserved Memory Project:
RMS CARONIA - by Ken Mugridge, Radio Officer
R.M.S. CARONIA, in cruising green. (postcard Martin Cox collection)
Ken Mugridge, Radio Officer:
At the end of 1961, I left the QUEEN MARY and transferred to RMS CARONIA, in preparation for a South Pacific cruise. In fact, I was to serve on the ship continuously for almost four years. Changing from QUEEN MARY to CARONIA also meant incurring a lot more personal expense. It was possible on QUEEN MARY to get by with only my daytime "blues" uniform. The Radio Officers dined in Cabin Class, so it was not necessary to dress for dinner. However, on CARONIA, it was a First Class only ship, so this meant purchasing all sorts of new uniforms. Blue evening mess dress for Atlantic and cool water cruising. White mess jackets for tropical waters. We also had to kit ourselves out with several sets of those high button-neck daytime tropical uniforms, with white long trousers. Wearing uniform white shorts was absolutely not allowed with Cunard. However, we were allowed to wear short sleeved shirts whilst on watch in the Radio Room. We found ourselves changing uniform several times a day, as we always had to be correctly dressed on deck or in the restaurant at all times.
There were five Radio Officers on RMS CARONIA. A chief and 2nd R/O, who did most of the accounts and technical work. This left three watchkeepers who did most of the actual radio operating. I was 3rd R/O. My watch duty as is common at sea, was split into two parts. Midnight to 4am and Noon to 4pm. We also relieved each other for meals. On the midnight watch, I had to type most of the incoming press broadcasts. These morse code broadcasts went on for nearly four hours and formed the basis of the daily newspaper, "Ocean Times" printed aboard and delivered to all passengers first thing in the morning. Most of the passengers were quite elderly and retired early, so I rarely saw any passengers on that watch. However, the afternoon four hour watch was quite different. This was the time when the passengers were most active and wanted to send their telegrams or make ocean phone calls. Making an ocean phone call in the 60's was quite an operation. To make a call to New York, we first had to raise the radio station via morse code. Then we would switch transmitters and give the control technician in New York our latitude and longitude. This enabled him to rotate his huge directional beam antennas to our direction. After perhaps a couple of tries on different frequencies to get a clear circuit, we were then patched through to the operators to start the phone call. All this time the passenger was waiting patiently (and sometimes not) in his cabin for us to "put him through". Sometimes it would take over two hours to make one 3 minute call.
The ship cruised continuously throughout the year, always from New York. A 90 day World or South Pacific cruise started in January. Then a spring Mediterranean, followed by a North Cape cruise. The last two cruises were Mediterranean cruises, the final one being almost 60 days long (too long!). We went up into the Black Sea and visited the Soviet ports of Yalta and Odessa. It is ironical that the CARONIA found itself stuck in Yalta in October 1962, right at the height of the Cuban missile crisis, with lots of very upset passengers.
CARONIA also carried, depending on which cruise, a full staff of American Express or Thomas Cook representatives. They managed all the shore tours from aboard and we R/O's got to know them quite well as they made considerable use of our radio services. They were very generous to us in the way of complimentary tickets, if any particular tour group was not full. It gave us the opportunity to see and experience many places that otherwise would have proved prohibitively expensive. The only drawback, for me, was that I usually had to do the midnight watch, as the ship often travelled overnight to the next port, then get up at 7am to start the tour. At a young age, this was really no problem. I'm not so sure I could do it now!
The sixties saw the demise of the Cunard fleet. Gradually, with the elimination of their ships,I could see my career with Cunard rapidly fading as I did not have much seniority. (One of my chiefs actually sailed on the BERENGARIA). I left Cunard in 1965 and for the next few years sailed with the Jamaica Banana Producers Company on their cargo/passenger liner "Jamaica Producer", running from London to Jamaica - a genuine banana boat. Not quite Cunard and I still can't remember what I did with all those unwanted uniforms.
added 2001
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