'CANBERRA - A Berth In History'

Sunday 11 July 1982 Southampton's most unlikely warrior Britten is closing in on a place in

history

. Rusty stripes, intact, proud Canberra, the great white whale, returns home from the war in the Falklands. There has never been a day like this and there will never be another ship like this or a story. like yours so they can tell this is an ocean liner that became a cruise ship a cruise ship that went to war this is a ship that once fooled the breakers and then was taken seriously by a nation this is Canberra the ship that introduced a generation to sea holidays for thousands of people, this is the way Canberra will be remembered since its builders departed.

Canberra has traveled more than three million miles, but not all of them were like that. Canberra was never built as a cruise ship; the requirement in the mid-1950s decided that she was for an ocean liner, which would be larger and faster than any of the company's existing ships. Her role was to develop the profitable passenger service to Australia and open new routes to the eastern Pacific. The £16 million contract went to Harland & Wolff in Belfast, then the largest shipyard in the world from the beginning, job number one, six, two, one was to break new ground in ship design.

Bill Harrison was a member of the design team for the Dursley lifeboats, for example, which were normally on the upper deck for the I think this is the first time they've been on a boat, both on and below the promenade deck, which was new and, in fact, has set a pattern for passing ships to this day. Well, she was built for the comfort of passengers, the design changed radically. The engines were shut down, allowing much more space on the ship for passenger use. The public rooms were also better located. Mike Bradford was one of Kamberis' midwives and was assigned to the shipyard for construction.

The start of an extraordinary 28 year association with the ship which culminated in him becoming its captain, but getting back to the shot part of the ship which had cabins on board with which everyone could see the sea from a small window, this was a design completely new and of course we were allowed to build a much larger boat. by the fact that everything above the promenade deck was made of aluminum now, if for us it had been weak, it was breaking some new ground because with no experience, in fact, no shipbuilder at that time The decision to power the ship with steam-generated electricity was a surprise to some, even in the late 1950s Bill Harrison was a heavy machinery plant, it was expensive to run and was much more expensive when it was because of its fear costs but the most radical design feature was placing the engines in the stern had only been done once before the theory was solid the best part of the boat the wider squares the more spacious the center of the boat is obviously Why put the engines and the best part of this boat?

Why not use them for passengers, especially for things like restaurants and large public rooms? Basically, that was the main reason why there is an added advantage with the stern gear that you are carrying. The noise and vibration further away from the grunting passengers causes the engines to run beneath them, but the Burrus engines were too far aft, making their stern heavy to help compensate. It was planned that she would carry a thousand tons of cargo. The idea was quickly thwarted. Captain Whale. The first ship's captain arrived in Belfast just before delivery and said, Oh, we're not carrying 1,000 tons of cargo, so we immediately had a major problem on his hands as a temporary measure due to the lack of cargo for the first ship.

On one or two trips we put cast iron ballast in the cargo hold and that helped make the trim more permanent than at the end. We converted all spaces in the cargo hold into bunkers and tanks so that forward oil and sometimes water ballast were added with the oil. We were able to cope with fitting the ship, the cast iron was removed from the first two voyages, although a consequence of this uneven weight distribution was to remain on the ship for the rest of its life, the draft design was 32:56 but due to the machinery requested and other things in the design, it was designed with a 4 foot edge at the stern, which effectively means that after draft it would be in the order of 34 36 Canberra only had one problem which was very deep. draft, so we were limited to various parts of the world where we could safely go, a bit of a difficult turn, but once you knew the boat well of course, in rough seas where you couldn't get a better boat, Canberra had other important qualities in The first place where it was fast, the purpose of the speed was to enable us to reach Australia and probably the best time known to date around the Pacific and the entire trip had been completed in just over three months.

I think our test speed was. approximately twenty nine point two three which was a considerable speed and the service speed required was 26 and a half 27 considering that passenger ships had not done this for a large number of years, apart from the Atlantic, it was quite a movement forward for the piano bill Harrison's voice is another impression of Canberra that was to grow over the years for me as a naval architect, novice and specialist, it seemed like a ship and frankly I think that is one of the reasons why Canberra has lasted so long in public popularity that people know that they are going to get on a boat for a cruise, if they want to go to a hotel for a holiday, go to the Canberra Hotel.

The standard of the hotel is as good as any fruit nowadays but it has the advantage of being a ship and it looks like a ship means some of the modern passenger ships, not all but some of the modern ones look like office wheel blocks for Harland and Wolff, Britain's largest passenger ship since the Second World War, it represented good news and bad news. which lost money not much but a significant amount in those days and it really was the beginning of loss-making shipbuilding, we had competition from the Far East and not just for harnesses of course, for the British, and overall it was probably in the post-war area, which is all I know, the best ship Hana built, Noah, although they are larger and perhaps in some ways more difficult, but Canberra to me was the epitome of the British ship and 45,000 tons of ocean .

The liner is ready to put to sea at Harland and Wolff's Belfast Yard, the largest shipyard in the world. He has a long tradition of building boats for the PNR life, so just nine years after primary menstruation named the Canberra a nuisance, his wife Dame Pattie doesn't care. name to the lineup I named this boat Canberra may God protect Han and all who sail on her the pause while the launching team takes charge of the Australian wine to wish her well and the last piano Lana moves majestically on the waves from the day it was launched in March 1960 Canberra has always been special to Belfast as far as Belfast is concerned, today Canberra was launched, it was almost a national event.

Although it is a very small nation, 1/2 million people, it was something big and even today there is a new concert hall. of the suite being built in Belfast and one of the rooms is a counter, a suite, well that's about 35 years since the ship was built. I think that's the answer, she's very much a Belfast ship. Canberra opened a brilliant new chapter in shipbuilding when it stayed away from Gerak, the 45,000 ton liner commanded by Captain Geoffrey Wild took a cruise around the coast to show off the luxury ship to the thousands of tourists between there and more john west 33 deputy director of piano designed

canberra

some of the amenities will come to prominence Meanwhile, in the tropics, some brave spirits try them out, it quickly became apparent that Canberra possessed something that captured the public's imagination and affection even on the shakedown cruise and it was a fantastic experience.

We traveled the coast from the Firth of Clyde to Southampton and very, very close and very close, it would be a huge trip and would go around the coast of the British Isles Scotland England Wales and particularly the south coast, the cliffs, the shore with the people on the We went on the tour of the Bay, if I remember correctly, it was Pentecost Sunday. and the amount of small boats that Tim Ryan can bestow upon our baby was something he had never experienced before or since and that shaped me and it was a great experience on the maiden voyage.

Captain Wild' was commanded by Mike Bradford, one of the senior officers of the The three-month itinerary took them to Australia, New Zealand and San Francisco. Of the 2,238 journeys they undertook, 870 were emigrants over the years. Thousands of emigrants would begin their new lives aboard Canberra traveling on £10 piano-assisted fares. The maiden voyage is an important opportunity to fly flags, it is estimated that we had 50,000 visitors in the different ports we went to. My biggest memories would be entering ports like Sydney, Vancouver or Auckland and seeing what amounted to hundreds of thousands of people waiting to see this magnificent ship arrive.

As she ascended majestically through Canberra Harbour, she was watched by thousands of Sydney people. She was also a curiosity, a ship with a new appearance that can shorten the passage to Australia by three weeks. By the way, the magnificence of Canberra was matched by the modernity of the Sydney overseas terminal. where she was born is the largest ocean liner built in Britain since the Second World War one of the passengers on the maiden voyage was Alice, lovely, they threw streamers without problems to the streamers, it was wonderful that Sydney those people, there were hundreds and hundreds of people there now 94 lovely lady Particularly remember your reception in Australia Oh wonderful Oh wonderful you she is soldier she looked beautiful she really did it and there were crowds who came and they always do, even today you will find crowds of people who always come and you see it yourself.

I remember seeing it all. The lovely ladies in Australia all dressed up to greet the ship with her hat and gloves and it was quite a social event the day a ship like Canberra arrived. These were the first in Canberra, as in its heyday it was doing the job it was there for. designed to transport passengers around the world in relaxed luxury her only competition from rival liners in those days was a two class ship the first class section was amidships the meridian lounge the crows nest bar and the pretty club were all First class canned passengers were twin sets and in the Tweedy days when it seemed like the only time you took off your tie was to go swimming despite the divisions, the two classes managed to fraternize while Alice Lovely remembers that first class passengers class used to arrive first.

A separate door was completely divided and I wasn't. I don't realize what it was for, but one of the gentlemen sent me first class, but we preferred to go through Canberra. The life of the liner continued more or less without interruption, although in 1962 she was temporarily crippled by a fire in her engine room. she was injured and the ship was able to limp safely to Malta. The most significant part of that incident was the fact that almost 2,000 passengers completed their journey to Australia by air. It was almost another ten years before the full implications were recognised. the seductive, swift pace of sea travel seemed destined to last forever Lord's Cricket Ground The home of English cricket has also played a role in Canberra's

history

MCC teams traveled to Australia at the Canberra circle in Calgary took part in the design from Canberra who was invited to collect the cricket memorabilia that decorates the cricketers' tavern, the caps, stumps and pads are displayed on the walls, which in turn are lined with willows, the wood with which bats are made, when one dastardly player made the trip to Australia three times, where, like a dream come true, the thrill really was. on a trip anyway and there were long trips when I talked to my son about it for example and they said you weren't actually on the ship for 23 days, if your dad there was a daily routine we would meet around 10 I.

I think actually in 1011 we met in a special living room signing autograph sheets like we used to do. I think we all had to sign between 15 and 20,000 of these before we got there, it was quite embarrassing and we hurt her in training after that. It wasn't too difficult by today's standards, but we had a stomp on the deck of the boat and some exercises, then unfortunately on this trip, much to the disappointment of the class, Gordon Peary was on board the great British athlete and Ted Dexter, it was a tremendousperfectionist, he suddenly thought. Wow, this was sent to us, we should use Gordon Perry, he started training us a lot harder, we shouldn't go down and bowl our bowlers who heard it not only last summer but the winter before, you know they had come to put their feet how they didn't like Gordon Peary's tactics at all bringing the MCC touring team to Fremantle the Canberra liner Ted Dexter and his players are ready for a summer of cricket as Britain prepares for winter at a press conference said the Duke of Norfolk Australia, we intend to play the cricket you want us to play, which means following the attractive playing policy on board, obviously, we too much, you may have had too much to drink, confer to those who socialize continually most of their group's lunch time, who would have to. you see some of the flares and you have the night we are in the cabin saying please come and join us before dinner and a very good dinner so obviously we were going to live like that with his litter but it was very nice it was A very nice vacation arrest.

I mean, those trips were part of my life. I will never forget you. Live with that style. Well kept. Have time. I think it's time to read and talk. But now there was a clear cloud on the horizon. In January 1970 the first jumbo jet crossed the Atlantic and from that moment everything was clear for the long-distance liner: six Jumbos could transport as many people in one day to Australia as Canberra transported in a three-week trip Mike Bradford disappeared With the passenger ships had arrived the big planes.and we went back to sailing and we considered that the ship was never built to cross transport cargo to Australia and the Pacific, so we switched to cruising and I think we adapted extremely well, probably better than many other ships would have done in New York Harbor first sailed on the liner Canberra, impressing knowledgeable people on the famous waterfront.

The last Queen of the Seas Canberra was converted into a one-class cruise ship, but in 1973, due to a downturn in the UK market, she was shipped to the United States. operating out of New York was almost the end of her Richard, as Dale was then in the piano marketing department, we had very few passengers. They recruited me and some colleagues to go there in January of their year to try to rescue the marketing department. situation because we were unfortunately few in number, there were some operational problems because Canberra had never faced the freezing weather that is experienced in New York clicking on the port in January and February, so there were some problems with pipes etc., but The main situation was that we had not had enough time to make an impact on the American market and find passengers in time for the first cruises and, in fact, during their entire short season there, we would never be close to capacity, no matter how hard we tried. try, Canberra was taken. out of commission, while London was debating whether it should be scrapped, we in the UK marketing scene were desperately trying to put together a very compelling case for its retention because we were pretty sure the market would pick up again, which which in fact we did and were very relieved that our case was finally accepted, but it was very much a push and pull situation and in fact I am not sure if with the ship withdrawn the company would ever have been convinced enough in a high-level meeting. management level to invest in cruise ships, which they eventually of course did, would have been a very, very sad decision with their reprieve: Canberra entered another Halcyon period as a cruise ship dove headlong into the British market, top-notch entertainment class in the old variety palace. she became an important ingredient Tom O'Conner, one of the stars who regularly appeared in Canberra, still rates her as her favorite ship, but isn't she a little old-fashioned?

She's old-fashioned, so she doesn't have much to offer. I mean, the stadium theater, which I love. I love this thing. It's really not the best theater in the world. I mean, the ceiling is low. Air conditioning is missing. I always make the joke that you know, sorry about the air conditioning, someone shot it. she bats and she doesn't really have much to offer so it has to be just an atmosphere. The working conditions for a performer are pretty amazing on the ship, particularly on the Great White Whale, because there's no doubt there are changing rooms, but something you wouldn't dress in, you know, unless you were doing a big show and you had You have to change quickly.

The secret to working in Canberra was getting changed in your cabin and then finding a sneaky way to get backstage without anyone seeing you and I used to do that. I have ways to do it because there are rooms and hallways and I'm not happy that it's like the priest holes of the old days, there are routes behind the scenes on the cameras that point out that passengers would never find cameras on a special ship to work because It's like you're talking to a family all the time. I mean, I don't just work on the set, I go around the decks and talk to the passengers and whatever you and the crew have, and it's like there's a way of life on board. that everyone has to follow you instinctively you find this kind of theme when you have to be part of the ship it is an institution that there is a folklore about the ship and it is very easy to work on April 2, 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands Canberra was in Naples approaching the At the end of his round the world cruise his teacher Dennis Scott listened massively to the news on the radio and didn't think much more about it.

The next morning he received a signal telling him that his ship could be requisitioned. It was firmly not to allow anyone on board to whisper this news, so I was summoned to Plymouth, met with a planning group of five other officers from various sections of Her Majesty's Forces and then we flew to Gibraltar here in a sort of cape. and sword. operation and boarded the ship while it was passing through the Strait of Gibraltar and this captain appeared and several of us who are involved realize what I'm saying, yes, men, they had everything except the dagger in their teeth and I remember a little old lady saying, I think It is shameful. that first class passengers have to climb onto the ship via a rope ladder and it was finally announced that she was going to be requisitioned, shortly before we arrived in Southampton.

I did something that we found more unique on a merchant ship. He gathered as many of a ship's crew as could be avoided, explained the situation to them, and gave them until the next day to decide what they would do if their ship was called. All three of them, something really had in Lord, of which about half for the Asians who were not involved in this. although they would have gone down voluntarily, the other 400 British on board volunteered for one man, there was one exception, a young officer who was a genuine conscientious objector, but he was the only one who said he would not come and this included all the girls .

Steiner staff in the hair salon entertaining girls girls people we never even imagined would have to look after many book necks with 1,600 tourists on board at the end of their cruise Canberra returned to its home port early this morning The Canberra arrived in Southampton to become from a luxury liner into a troop transport even before the 1,600 passengers had disembarked, the Ministry of Defense had taken over and preparations were beginning to house the 2,000 soldiers and all the necessary equipment, a shipbuilding and repair company He moved by truck. loads of steel girders with which to build a flight deck capable of housing at least three helicopters and the officers of the parachute regiment and the Royal Marines began to make arrangements for the 2,000 men who will report on their morning, also on board will be 250 members of the camera crew and 30 Royal Navy nurses the ship now had two captains Dennis Scott Mason the piano teacher had overall responsibility for the security of Canberra Captain Christopher Burns senior naval officer in tactical command met at the Fleet Air Arm Inyo volton museum in the Falklands section that Canberra now had To be fitted out for Battle Captain Byrne, the first requirement was to provide facilities for the helicopters to land and take off on the ship and before the ship returned of the Mediterranean cruise, Wasp was in Southampton and received the order and drawing and proceeded with the prefabrication of what would be the center ships for the helicopter flight deck and the main function of the building which took place while we were on the port during those three or four days was the insertion of this flight deck over the pool in the sixty hours that it was in the port of Canberra, it has been equipped with equipment that will allow it to load fuel and provisions at sea, but the Most important work has been done on the helicopter deck, this in front of the funnels is now complete and its special reinforcement over the pool is now ready to take the Sea King helicopters that will transport men to and from ships and other activities when Canberra get south of the landing, but this second helicopter landing pad right on the bridge is still a long way from being completed.

The platform itself and the reinforcement that will go below decks are still being loaded and, as a result, several shipyard colleagues are sailing with the ship. ITN's Jeremy Hands reported on the warships from Canberra and the Falklands. By the way, it was he who memorably nicknamed the ship. the great white whale we thought we would probably be back in a week or so, the app was up to maybe Tenerife we ​​thought and once around the Canaries and back home, well ma'am. Thatcher and Al Hague and the others who are involved in the diplomatic process worked it out without believing for a second that it would actually be more than three months before we, the civilians thrown into this group of soldiers, would return home in three days.

Canberra underwent a whirlwind conversion from a luxury cruise ship to a floating barracks. Interestingly, the actual conversion was relatively small and the carpets were removed from or near the panels, most of the pictures on the bulkheads were left in place, the Steiner salon still had hair dryers. there for the ladies' hair and they just worked with all these objects and as we headed south things changed more and more but initially there were very few physical changes by April 9 the ship was ready to sail two and half a thousand soldiers, mainly paratroopers and Royal Navy commandos, were now on board on the key side.

Those who stayed behind put on a serious face while those who were leaving could not hide their excitement. One dock worker said it was just like in the Second World War, the last time the troops embarked at Southampton, the bands of the Royal Marines and the Parachute Regiment played their regimental marches at 8 o'clock, the last mooring and Canberra was ready to set sail, the crew of the liner, the civilians who volunteered. sailing with her across downstream rivers while the families of those who fight if fighting is necessary waved a patriotic farewell. I think the RISM conveys a reality about this, in fact, the military personnel, rightly so, took it quite seriously to the 14 press men we had at the time.

The time on board just didn't think it was possible for real fights to happen, they thought the era of that kind of thing had passed. Mike Bradford was the deputy captain. I think most of us on board saw the Falklands as just another piano cruise, but it was actually quite funny because we were going to war on a five-star floating hotel, everyone else was trapped on horrible little floating grates and They were jumping up and down in rotten seas and bad weather and we were sitting drinking gin and tonics and enjoying the true cruise ship lifestyle. to war, which was quite strange and strange, some really didn't feel like going to war at all, we still had several ladies on board.

I don't remember how many we had in the ship's crew, at one point it was mentioned that we would take The ladies came out but they made such a fuss that a high ranking naval captain decided he would leave them on board and I think it was a very smart move because they played a role very important, I think, in the operation in the Falklands. There are 13 civilian women on board who work as telephone operators, nurses, stewards and secretaries and in the store where sweets and suntan lotion sell like hotcakes it is Sue Wood her husband on board is a farmer but how does she feel about the new passengers?

Well, it's good, you know everyone. Anyway, they are very nice, it is a real pleasure to serve them, they really are, it was impossible to believe that we were going to war. The atmosphere on that trip to Ascension Island wasvery similar to a cruise. They took care of us because the piano always worked incredibly well. They treated us like passengers, not like clients or soldiers. They took extremely good care of us. The mood was obviously one of some kind of anticipation, a bit of excitement, but never any real belief that a real fight would come and it was a bit of a party atmosphere to be honest on the bridge it's the P&O navigation officers who They are in charge although they act under naval direction and work alongside naval personnel the relationship between the crew and the troops is good the soldiers or civilians provide an air of normality and that for many of them is an unreal situation for the piano crew it is a cruise the difference after all it is not very common that that passenger counting a bar of chocolate with a rifle under his arm I don't know maybe I would describe the ship at that moment except that we were a very developed military unit, they were something of the order and I don't remember the exact figures now that the mm tapes on board we had machine guns bristling everywhere and we were practically around a warship, we also had all the facilities on board and We had hospital facilities, but we were fully trained and trained as a combat ship to As we got closer to each mile, things got a little more serious, a little more effort was put into the training, we had to go through the exact same training routines. and physical conditioning campaigns like the soldiers themselves, we were going to disembark with them and they said they can only come with us if they prove that they are fit to fight, so we had to get involved in all their PT and so on, and we wanted We didn't want to be the usual type of journalists, drunks and smokers that we really were.

I mean, we had to be as fit as them and we did, but that didn't start until later, that's when we really started to think about good. I'm right, we could really go to war here, there was excellent Spri decor and morale was extremely high. The Naval Discipline Act we underwent when we left Ascension Island was never used against the Merchant Navy crew, so it is a great test of discipline. that existed and the code of conduct that existed between her Merchant Navy and the piano crew, since Canberra was likely to spend long periods at sea, it was essential to demonstrate that she could be resupplied by the deed auxiliaries who accompanied her in her resupply. of fuel at sea.

It was not a normal maneuver for a cruise ship and even stranger was effecting a blackout on a ship that was designed to be illuminated like seaside illuminations. The biggest problem we actually had were senior officers, senior military officers, I might add, who often called from dinner to come over. to their cabins to tidy up their blackout and I think probably the worst jobs on the ship the junior military officers who were designated to ensure that the blackout was effective, the Task Force sailed on 20 April. Canberra arrived off Ascension Island, where final preparations were to be made, but while she was there, her size proved to be an unexpected advantage.

The system's wireless director came to see me one day. and he said that even at the top of the bridge he realized that she was a merchant ship that had been on the horizon for several days. This of course was visible from Canberra and its bridge, which is much higher than any other ship, Antelope was immediately sent to investigate and it turned out to be an Argentine merchant ship which while sitting on the horizon observing the operations being carried out out in essence was chased now the mood changed otama reached the ascension the various reasons became evident and we would probably have to go through with the operation of the ship in ascension there was a moment when we really realized that we were probably going until the end at that time I was wearing my cameraman Bob Hanlon saw another warship crossing quickly towards Canberra and he is an expert in shortwave radio and knows all about Morse code. and I said: what are they? and he said 69 to 69 and suddenly Canberra had been given a naval number.

The thing I really think brought people's reality, certainly brought the press to reality, was the fact that Sheffield went down in Belgrano as a thing. that really made people wake up with a start then it got colder, windier and harsher and there's an added bonus to the weather, there was an added bonus to the way people talked to each other, suddenly we realized that we were going to go and end up in the Falklands and it wasn't going to be very pleasant and very shortly after leaving Ascension we realized that that was exactly what was going to happen it got sunny as we stopped a cruise ship it suddenly became a campaign 3,000 people were now going to war on a A 45,000-ton ship, 10 stories high, painted white and with yellow funnels that in its cruising days had been varnished to give them an extra shine.

We feel extremely vulnerable. By far the greatest unit captain at sea and overseas. The white color was actually an advantage because because of the very foggy conditions you're in there, it was probably the best camouflage color one could have and it blended into the background. There were many times, but we could see the gray painted warships long before they saw us. They told us yes. The ship is part of the task force, yes, you are well protected, nothing can go wrong and we wanted to believe that and we believed it, but deep down there is a kind of quite strange feeling that if I really want to sink, we do it if we get a chance. rogue missile or a torpedo or whatever and as the heart starts pounding and the mind starts playing silly games, we tended to spend more time on deck or as high up in the ship as possible and we weren't just because Some of these brave fighting macho men suddenly behaved exactly the same way as us.

Burrus's task was to land his troops from San Carlos, but it was not thought that he would have to go directly in to begin with. Alysha, there have been ideas, but this would be done long distance using helicopter networks, but the invasion has parents and that number of people and the number of helicopters available would have taken so long that there was no way the ship would have to land in In fact , the troops in Japan and I think it was on Ascension Island that it was finally confirmed that we would, in fact, be needed to enter Solaria.

I think if we had stayed outside we could have gone in on the first attack with Arden which was the first ship to go down as Arden was outside going in, at least we had protection from the ships around us and eventually of course The military took the report, brought their missiles to the ground and, if you want, bring the entire area with defense as if it were innocent. Carlos felt considerably safer there in many ways than being at sea because he knew he was sunk and Carlos was at least slightly above the water, whereas the prospects would not have been so good, so on 21 May, Canberra entered Saint Charles.

In the water, everyone was extremely tense, so of course when we entered the water of San Carlos, which was just before sunrise, we had no idea what the day would bring, it was quite dramatic to say the least, I want That is, one realized that it had always been taught in military circles. We will never do an amphibious landing unless one has complete air superiority. Here we were doing an amphibious landing when we had no wait to talk and one was aware that the frigates and particularly those off the Sol were having a very difficult time and this is indeed poor without a tank.

Even more so when our boot, which actually had a higher death toll than any other unit in the Falklands War, was sunk as we bombarded the screen from outside the south and embarked after the survivors, dawn broke and very soon after we saw , I think it was a prosecutor's plane and staff from one of the naval escort ships in the sound of their real offices, you know, until then, we, the Prince, thought that nothing would ever happen, but it was real gunshots that they shot themselves in anger and not at us at that moment, then just the car. again he turned towards us and you know he's going to start shooting at us, he didn't, in fact he turned around on the ground.

I think his bosses at Stanley probably derived that Jeremy Hans, who was now on the ground, had a view from the sound stand and the next morning, which was incredibly scary, amazingly scary, cold, miserable, wet, we didn't know what was passing by, we didn't know where we were going, we thought it was surrounded by Argentinians and suddenly, over the hill, Canberra literally arrived and it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. I started laughing because it seems so incongruous that there she was in a war zone, we were being attacked, we were surrounded by a very fierce enemy who was very happy with the assassins and then our old friend arrived, the cruiser and his parked in front of Canberra was the main target, yes, and now we know that the Argentine certainly one can wonder that the liberals attacked, they hope it really hits the camera of the Argentine planes.

In the attacks over the hills, they didn't see what they were attacking until the last minute and they dropped their bombs and actually came into levels in our office that we had gone to and hit and now the first of those two planes was on the mast of an antelope and therefore was in fact shipwrecked and could not make any report and the other who probably made a report attacked those who had gone inland being hit with shotguns and mentally shut down with bias and they saw Harry and that It was immediately followed by the Argentines announcing the cameras on the radio. had been hit and damaged and in this game it was confirmed that they see that they had done it and when we went to Argentina at the end to disembark prisoners, the Argentinians in general that came on board kept looking around the ship why were they trying to give him coffee saying Where is all the damage?

Where is all the damage? I mean, every day we were in San Carlos we used to look the other way and there she was and we thought thank God they hadn't hit her and she could, it was never anything. We hit it, but did we see the planes flying across the water of San Carlos, the Argentines dropping bombs, the anti-aircraft fire, the missiles fired in all directions? We thought, God, she can't survive this and she did it and she sat there and it was like a bit of a stroke of luck in some ways, I mean obviously we had all fallen in love with the ship on the way down because he did it afterwards. of those weather things and there she was, we said, please, God, don't let her get hurt, you know? it's like the family we were terribly exposed to attacked lament on board, but they didn't go for us, they went for both sides and we witnessed a lot of Skyhawks racing and bombs being dropped, but we were lucky Canberra was withdrawn to safer waters, but It's still important to Jeremy Hands, we certainly use MERIS, that system is difficult, you have to wait in line for this and it will cure outside Radio Shack to do our reports when we can and when we can get transportation, but it will be a helicopter or more often than not standing on a beach waiting for a friendly boat to pass by and say: can you take us to Canberra please?

We have stories to tell, you know, for the BBC and for ITN, but she was always there and always a friendly welcome and more important than a bath or a shower and then it was over. Canberra had been in active service for 13 weeks and had completed a three-month world cruise before her reliability would have been exceptional now that the merchant ship Argentinians would have liked to sink. When I returned home there was a day that I will never forget nor does much make me cry now. I guess when we were down there, when we were down there we dreamed about that day, but no.

I didn't dare think it could ever happen, we didn't know what awaited us, we had no idea it was foggy, it was cold, it was cold, it was wet and there were still people leaning over the railing and we couldn't see much then, like a curtain. The fog lifted when we returned and we could see more of Southampton and perhaps the most surprising thing was that in the middle of the flotilla around us were small boats and large cruise ships and yachts and as Inga was leaving, a group of boy scouts passed by in canoes. I can remember this and then.

You could see what was blurry at first, you could see that it was a sea of ​​faces and there was the welcome in the banners and the cheers and the screams that Whitney saw on television, it was one of those rare occasions when they brought a bulk. to the national throat I must say that I have seen my company grow, they had a baptism of fire and we took our voice, we were like many for a long time, we had to contain something like 2,000 adolescent dogs or we simply won a war, they behaved wonderfully well. I must have one of the things thatworth mentioning.

I think it's a testament to discipline. The entire panel of the caravan was never a case of vandalism. People I had a tremendous amount of time with for really brave tough men, just crying. Totally in tears falling from hugging each other we're home we made it we're back the reception was almost incredible and the people showed up there it was the best thing about candra now she's back she looks disheveled she was a mess and I I don't think I'll ever I can't think of a time when history of this country in which a particular ship has held the affection of the British nation as much as it did at that time.

It was just amazing to see that we were very, very lucky. to get her back safe and sound, the war over Canberra and her captain could go back to their day jobs very quickly went back to the old school after our passengers, who are generally a bit more demanding, just soldiers, could be quite demanding in a way different. I think he very quickly held a very special place in the hearts of those who not only surfed his butt but the entire public. Canberra, once a favourite, was now a hero. Everyone who sailed on it had their own personal reminiscence of it, including the president. from P and O Lord Stirling got to see the first ship, I think I probably won't see it yet, that I ever came on board and it was the first ship that my family and I had a very young daughter on.

It was about two of those days. I once traveled a long time, but they said: I remember the ship, which says a lot about the ship. I remember talking to someone in a bar and he was saying this was the 25th time he was on camera and I ran into him again later. on the cruise and we got to know each other a little, then we had another drink together at the old Crowsnest and there's a matter of interest you'll earn next year on holiday, there's always a bend of course, I said, there, where you're going, I have no idea of what you have.

I lost my wife and that to me said it all, it was the boat they were in love with and where they were. Goering was almost incidental. The rope is present, the captain, the current custodian of the legend is Rory Smith, securing his part, why? and others in the know think Canberra has attracted such a following. She's probably one of the last of her kind. She was built at a time when cruising was in its infancy, if it was considered an industry at all, and she has a great sense of warmth. About it, which over the years has become almost a patina that surrounds the entire ship and is something that passengers comment on over and over again, is the kindness, warmth and intimacy that the camera has.

I like camber because it's all English when I want to go. free for the day I just have to go down to the person's office and they have given me his money and they change my money it's all so easy and so simple one of our great strengths is that Canberra is not a boat for exclusive clubs . It's a people's ship from Britain, it's more of a family ship, if you've been on a bigger ship then you know what I mean, there are plenty of them, but if you get out of your cabin, meet people, chat and after go after eating and sit down and check it out, there is such a big difference that we especially noticed it, we went to Queen the qe2 810 years ago in the first place and there was such a difference that it is too big, let's move Go back to the camera, that's better, there is certain Gentlemen on board the ship that you couldn't restore on land, but certain moments in my mind now, for example, the night on the island, which is usually in the Caribbean or somewhere, and you have the stadium theater company. and all the in-house entertainers in the and old legs like me on the deck, a nice warm breeze, maybe mid 75 80 something like that and it's like you just opened the doors to your house and we're entertaining all the neighbors around the pool, the band plays music from the 40s, people sing about all the backup singers, the dancers, it's impressive, it really is impressive, the classic story of course it has.

It was when the beautiful ship Orianna performed a maiden voyage and I was on it and I always do about a half hour show of my normal routines and jokes and then my second half hour is usually based on what people have said. either I did it or I reacted on board the cruise ship and the most important line that everyone said aboard Orianna on her maiden voyage was that it wasn't like that on camera, hit it on camera, there are rooms you can go to when you feel up to it. different moods. I have different bars and corners and libraries and whatever you have away if I want to write something from my book or I want to sit and just think or if I want to go and have a good time and play the piano and it's like the world under one roof , if you want, and I'm not sure modern ships are going to achieve that sort of thing.

They are beautiful, they are floating palaces. I know, but I'm not sure they'll give it to you. that those are comfortable places like having your own hometown where there is a local pub to drink in the local restaurant you can go and sit quietly and talk there with the guys at the bar and I'm not sure you would be able to build that anymore, all pre-departure checks have been completed satisfactorily and Canberra is about to set sail for Tom if Canberra had developed a personality in its passengers. Minds, she was equally a character for her captain's Commodore Jim Gibbous. her for 17 years what she liked to drive in an idiosyncratic way I think you always had to be alert because she never did the same thing one after the other.

Arriving in Southampton each time was an experience she handled idiosyncratically. I think that's the only way I can say that she had to be watched, she was like a lady gone astray, sometimes she was heavy and she had very powerful engines that fortunately were turboelectric that got us out of many difficult situations, but she only had one rudder and that . It was definitely something to watch out for, when making very tight turns at the entrance to Southampton, the TrueType blows out Cal's shot and the babbling was quite difficult. Heavy. She is a very heavy boat for the size of her, which is one of the reasons why.

She is very good and very heavy, but as for the circumstances of maneuvering the ship, as long as you take it slowly, she reacts mainly as expected and she is very forgiving, she was always extremely good as a sea ship. I think she's probably one of the best boats I've ever been on. She had the length and grace to cut through most of the waves we experienced. She was built to traverse the world in any type of weather. In September 1993 she was hit by a the famous storm Rory Smith was her captain, well the wind currents got to be around four twelve and it gets a little hard to gauge after that, she acted wonderfully, they caught they were high and obviously the wind was also very strong and it was considered for the comfort of the passengers to which we must strive, as we say, so we reduced the speed to the most comfortable speed we could and it was quite an experience to contemplate in Canberra this beautiful and old ship plying this very rough sea at 12 knots while other much more modern and newer ships that had also been forced to sail backwards in the future their speed was reduced to about 23 knots partly to contain 250 tons of oil per day of fuel consumption, but could still turn on the power when I needed Ian to give, he would call very clearly on one occasion when a lady was in the hospital very seriously ill and the doctor wanted to get to a port as quickly as possible where she could be attended to in the most professional manner and we spoke to the boss. engineer and managed to somehow find and we don't know where an extra knot and a half and we were going 25 knots down the Adriatic the woman's purser's assistant in fluent Italian was able to talk to the cardiac surgeon who was waiting at At 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning we put her on the Carabinieri ship and they rushed her to the hospital and he was operating at four and she survived the experience and I don't think many ships would have been able to get that out and it was a 30 year old ship. at that time and, to get a little more mileage out of it, if you think about asking your grandmother to run the hundred metres, you can compare that Canberra, of course, has its own hospital, including a small operating theater from All the dramas that has been witnessed, none was happier than the occasion in 1981, overseen by his sister Allison Ross.

Andru Terry was born on the boat he and his family have sailed in Canberra every year since Yes, the boat made headlines again in 1987 when she was rescued. The Jones family whose round-the-world yacht sank in rough seas off Panama. The Joneses' life raft had been drifting through the Pacific shipping lanes for nearly 18 hours when the camera finally zoomed in for the rescue. family had been forced to abandon ship in In such a hurry that they had no radio and only five flares on board the Canberra executed the rescue maneuver after being called by a Korean ship after arresting some food, the family told how the family themselves The Korean ships' attempt at the complicated rescue almost went disastrously wrong and everything was kind of cool, aureus, a white sight appeared on the horizon and we knew I said "I know God", I think he's one of us, you know, when he graduated close, yes, I could see the boundary, I could see the name, I said, what could be an antenna?

Tell me, the camera really said it very well. Knows? In 1994, Canberra once again found herself at the center of national affairs when she took part in the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of D-Day. It was an occasion Commodore Gibb will never forget. It was Spithead review day and that was pretty indescribable. It was magnificent. The boats were all dressed in overalls. It was a pretty windy day. We had to maneuver into a very narrow anchorage during the hours of darkness. When the sun came up, it was very windy, but we were all there waiting for the royal yacht to be driven by the Patricia, which is the Trinity House boat, around the circuit and after the royal yacht passed, it was a wonderful experience to see all those boats. scattered through the white waters.

Then we raised our anchor, maneuvered away from Anchorage and crossed the channel and during that journey we had the most magnificent of religious services. Today we have with us 1,500 veterans, their widows or families who participated in the D-Day landings in another war. They had found a father who had been on the beaches, the only father left, and he and I took this service with all the old veterans, men and women, a most magnificent group of people, I don't think I ever ran into them. tears in the eyes. into the eyes and then when the Lancaster bomber came up and dropped the poppies, I don't think there was a dry eye in the house, a wonderful experience.

Canberra has been of enormous importance to P and O, Lord Stirling, it has been a real flagship, I mean, it is a term that is often used quite loosely, but I think we are as far as that ship is concerned and that's what it really means and it was probably the first ship that in the public's mind represented a cruise ship in the modern era when you talk about the feeling in the public's mind: we talk about the ship, but the ship is only alive, that is , the crew, and I think possibly the relationship between the ship itself and them, the atmosphere created by the crew, is what people really think about the camera, so you can't.

Separate it from the crew, the friendliness and the atmosphere on board that ship, it's one of the same, you can't really separate the structure from the human factor. No Canberra story would be complete without mentioning our Asian crew, traditionally Stuart's cabin and restaurant. Coming from Goa, the engine room staff and deck crew from Pakistan, several have worked for many years with the piano and often carry on long family traditions. Everyone misses the ship as much as anyone, but why is it being pulled again? Lord Stirling, that must be it, I'm afraid. You get to a stage where the facilities on board a boat are more durable and what you would practically have to spend on that boat considering its age is really not practical and more importantly I think the facilities that many strange people have been prepared to accept.

I mean the back of the boat is not exactly the same as the front if we put it that way and I think the modern versus is that people really want is something that couldn't be provided in the long term so unfortunately it is So. a good party that should not be allowed to reach a point where people start to be dissatisfied, we felt that it was received with a sense of sadness but not complete surprise, so Canberra is approaching its last cruise that Alice Lovely I had booked three years earlier. Thinking everyone would be last this time when her travel agent called, she checked and said: what's with the camera, lovely lady?

Oh, I should have done three years thinking it's the last trip, I said, I'll leave it until it's there, she said it is. the last trip as it is, she actually said yes, it's a farewell trip. Oughthave a book near the end of my life and I am very happy that I am going to make the last trip to say goodbye to it. For her, Captain Bradford has planned his own farewell. I hope to pick up a plane from my flying club in Shopton, which is in Herefordshire, and fly into the waters of Southampton and flap my wings and say hello to the boat it comes on last time.

That's what I would like to say. I don't think I'd want to be there in person. It would be pretty sad if Rory Smith is in command on the final voyage as far as the ship's crew we're going to discuss is concerned. It is not a time to remember but to celebrate all the things the ship has been through in 36 years. We intend to really remember the good things, the wonderful moments and the experiences you have had over 36 years and the emotions. There will come a time when she comes up, so tune into the water one last time, that's when Lee's emotions will suddenly shake, this institution, this home will disappear and it will be a very difficult time for many of us, they knew she was especially when Canberra was.

She launched her design and the look of her ensured that no one could have guessed what she would become. She was the liner that closed one chapter in British maritime history and the cruise ship that opened another. She was a national emblem, especially in 36 years that she has appreciated. about 1 million passengers, but let the last words belong to those who knew her best for me the Falklands were Canberra she was home she was she was based was sanity on a crazy episode in history a very beautiful child my special should always have a special place in my heart a great ship and a great lady she is there she thinks she is the grand old woman she is Caesar's queen mother a wonderful ship one that will probably never be replaced in people's minds no You can beat her I don't think she is a wonderful boat, you will never see one like her again and I am certainly very, very happy and proud to have been able to sail in one of the great British institutions.