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David Cole Recalls- Arcadia
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My deck, outside the hospital on ARCADIA |
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ARCADIA- her 21st Birthday menu. I had a lot to do with this event, which included writing a special piece for her internal newspaper. David Cole |
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MEMORIES OF ARCADIA AND OTHER P&O SHIPS FROM 1973 TO 1975.
I joined Arcadia on 18th June 1973 in San Francisco. We flew out on a TWA Boeing 707 drinking champagne on the way courtesy of the airline stopping at Boston. Arcadia had been based on the west coast of America, and did not return to the UK until May 1975. So all crew changes were by air, which was an experience in itself. Different airlines were used each looking after us but TWA were the best. This was the start of a new era really with an almost complete change of European crew as Acadia began a new adventure and indeed a new market for P&O. We were to set off on 3 month Summertime Great Circle Pacific Cruise heading down to Los Angeles to pick up passengers before heading north again to Vancouver. From there, we sailed further north to Ketchikan, Anchorage and of course Glacier Bay, my first time there. But our call at Anchorage was not only a first for P&O, but the first passenger ship ever to call there. We made the front page of the Anchorage Times, which I still have. We basically set the scene for Alaskan cruising as it is today. From there, we headed for Japan arriving at Yokohama on 23rd July staying overnight. The next day, we headed for Kobe picking up passengers who travelled overland passing Mount Fuji. It was then onto Kagoshima and Hong Kong where we stayed for 3 days. The ship was given a lick of paint, and we stocked ourselves up with everything from stereos to made to measure suits, shirts and shoes. Junks followed us in scaling the side of the ship like ants setting up stalls on the Promenade Deck before we even docked. Taylor’s and shoemakers were soon knocking my cabin door returning with the goods on sailing day. On the dock side in the most amazing passenger terminal in the world, I was having my eyes tested for a new pair of glasses which were dirt cheap there. You could buy anything on the terminal without even going into town. It was a city within itself. Then on sailing day, while we checked our new gear, the ship sported a new coat of paint having the old chipped off. The first night drove us mad as they chipped away like woodpeckers. What a wonderful race of people the Chinese are. It would take others three weeks to do what they did in three days. And the rust would most likely be painted over elsewhere. But the Chinese were very thorough as well as very quick. These people never stopped day or night, hanging on the side of the ship on a plank of wood that looked like it would give way any minute. The entire family turned up from kids to grandparents.
This break gave me time for reflection. Crew seemed to get better very quickly when in port especially Hong Kong, so my hospital was empty. I had left Canberra in the January of 1973 to get married having brought my wife home from Australia on Canberra’s final line voyage. After sorting ourselves out, and telling my wife I had no intentions of leaving the sea, I joined Himalaya on 29th April 1973 for a Med cruise from Southampton to relieve her Hospital Attendant. I soon found out what it was like to work on an older ship. My cabin on Canberra was very modern, good air condition and within the Crew & Isolation Hospital on C Deck aft. My cabin on Himalaya was also within the Crew & Isolation complex, but opened up onto the open deck also within the hospital section. Therefore, unlike Canberra I had to go outside before going inside to the crew and isolation wards. The isolation section which itself had it’s own deck spanning the entire after end had a dividing door before the main door to the wards. It was all outside doors including getting to the passenger section. Also, the air condition on Himalaya was bad with the old fashioned blowers. I put gauze over the blowers in my cabin because black dust was coming out. The gauze was always jet black, so god knows what we were breathing in.
On arriving aboard Arcadia, I found the same layout as Himalaya and same poor air condition. My Crew & Isolation Hospital on C Deck aft would not be so comfortable as Canberra as I looked around me new home. Going onto the outside deck to get to the wards or the rest of the ship was okay in good weather, but not so clever during heavy seas or cold climates such as Alaska. I lost many a meal walking along the narrow deck from passenger accommodation to my hospital. I had to get the meals for my patients, and often for myself as well if I could not bother to go to the Restaurant. But often, while resting the tray on the handrail to open the outside door from passenger accommodation, I would lose the lot overboard as the ship lurched to starboard or port whichever side I used having to return to the galley for more. I usually hung onto the tray, but lost everything else!. My hospital complex took up the entire after end of C Deck, so I could use either side to get to it from passenger accommodation. There was a narrow deck around the entire hospital complex with a wider section outside the crew wards where we performed autopsies on passengers or crew who died burying them overboard there as well. Both sides were separated from passenger accommodation. It made little difference which side I used in heavy seas. But if the wind was blowing into my cabin side, I sometimes had a job even getting out of it into the hospital having to shut the outside heavy door. I had two doors to my cabin, one ordinary door and a weather door. The deck below me, D Deck was under water when we were in a force 12, and the cyclone that destroyed Darwin. We caught the edge of that on our Christmas cruise of 1974 from Sydney. I then wished that I had not got married, and stayed on Canberra. But apart from battling the elements at times, I soon found Arcadia to be a far friendlier ship, and I soon fell in love with her.
After Hong Kong, we headed for the island of Guam before heading south to Rabaul where our fresh water tanks were filled by a submarine as it was on Canberra. I wonder if it is still there?!. After that, we headed for Sydney arriving there on 13th August 1973. I had family and friends in Sydney, so it was like going home. From Sydney we headed to Noumea, Suva and Samoa. But before we arrived at Pago Pago, we anchored off of Niufo’ou Island(Tin Can Island )Tonga. Here, we posted letters in tin cans, which were picked up by natives in crudely made canoes. The next passing ship would pick the cans up taking the mail to Nuku’alofa the capital of Tonga 400 miles away. After Pago Pago it was onto Papeete Tahiti before heading back into the northern hemisphere where autumn had now descended arriving in LA on 2nd September 1973 and San Francisco the day after. We had seen summer, winter, spring and autumn all in the same cruise.
We then did a few cruises to the Hawaiian island from the west coast of America. I hired a car at $15.08 for the day on the main island of Hawaii where the surgeon, two nursing sisters and myself spent the day driving around the island stopping at a pub for lunch. On arriving back in Vancouver, we were anchored in the harbour for two weeks due to fuel problems having to cancel the next Hawaiian cruise. We then went over to Vancouver Island for a refit with most of the crew flying home on leave on KLM stopping in Toronto having taken the ferry from Vancouver Island returning on 3rd December for another 5 month trip. This took us on two Caribbean winter cruises from Vancouver, San Francisco and LA. One was a Christmas Cruise, and the other a Carnival Cruise. After that, we headed off on a Cherry Blossom Circle Pacific Cruise lasting three months leaving the west coast in March 1974 heading for Honolulu where hit the force 12 storm mentioned earlier. The American group, The Platters were on board doing a crew show in the Pop Inn.
We did not have a large enough room in crew quarters like the Goanese Mess on Canberra, so crew used the Pop Inn for crew shows. We then headed for Japan and Hong Kong again, then to Sydney arriving 23rd April 1974. From there we headed north arriving in Vancouver on 15th May 1974 stopping at various ports en-route. I then flew home on leave, but did not rejoin Arcadia until October of 1974. Before arriving back at Vancouver, a special edition of Arcadus, (Arcadia’s internal newspaper) was printed for her 21st Birthday along with a special menu on 14th May 1974. I contributed to Arcadus under the name of Medic reporting on shipping matters.
From May 1974 to rejoining Arcadia in the October, I spent some time in the Seaman’s Hospital Greenwich having my wisdom teeth cut out under GA hence not returning to the Ark at the next crew change. After recovering, I spent some time in P&O Head Office London before doing a cruise on Oriana and Canberra as supernumerary Hospital Attendant sorting their medical records. I also relieved the Hospital Attendant on Canberra for two cruise in the summer of 1974 and stood by Oronsay in Southampton as her only medic while the medical crew were on leave.
Bob Johnston arrived aboard Arcadia the day I left, and left the day I rejoined, so please see his input giving continuity to our stories. Bob flew to Vancouver on the same plane I flew home on as Arcadia continued her cruises from the west coast to Alaska etc. We stopped off at Greenland at an American military base at Sondrestromfjord. The runway was short meaning the plane had to rev up fully with brakes full on, then release them like being slung from a sling sending lose items flying and some of the food came out of the trays in the galley. It was quite scary. Then in the autumn of that year, Arcadia moved to the Australian station cruising from Sydney. But she had paved the way for Alaskan cruising and the birth of Princess Cruises. So I rejoined Arcadia in Sydney on 15th October 1974. Bob left flying home on the Dan Air flight that we flew out on. This was a 30 hour flight stopping off at Bahrain to refuel.
Arcadia took over the cruising programme of Himalaya who was sadly scrapped. So our next 5 months would be cruising from Sydney. This first cruise left on 19th October giving us four days to get over jet lag to Brisbane, Noumea, Suva and Auckland. It was great returning to Auckland having lived there before joining Canberra. After 5 months cruising from Sydney, we arrived home on 21st March 1975 on the Australian Woman’s Weekly world cruise. We did two Med cruises, and a weekender to Amsterdam until May when I left Arcadia and indeed the merchant navy on the request of my wife. It was the end of four wonderful years on Canberra and Arcadia, not forgetting Himalaya, the cruise on Oriana plus standing by Oronsay. Anyone who read my Canberra story will no doubt realise that she holds the most special place in my heart, but Arcadia comes very close. They will both be remembered forever. Modern cruise ships are more luxurious, but they lack the soul of the ships of our era as they creaked along almost speaking to us. And the crew are different to our day using shore side language as opposed to the below deck lingo we used. The days of passenger line voyages, except for the trans-Atlantic are sadly gone, but the memories will never fade. These ships changed from carrying people to specific destinations worldwide to cruising with supreme grace. Their likeness will never be seen again. David Cole Former Hospital Attendant P&O | |
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