Yesteryear -- the United States at Southampton's Ocean Terminal, 1954.​

[Doc Vernon]

Attachment 22129



​Today, I left (by car) the gorgeous rural settings of Shropshire and Howard's impeccable care & embrace, and headed south ( ​2 1/2​hrs) to the great maritime port of Southampton.


A different setting & history here: At night especially, through my hotel window, I could almost ​ hear​the sounds of mighty steam whistles as great ocean liners of the past set off across the world: ​say ​the original Queen Elizabeth for New York as well as the likes of the Andes for Rio, the Athlone Castle for Capetown, the Orcades for Sydney, the Chusan for Hong Kong and the Southern Cross for Auckland.


I sail in two days (Saturday) onboard the current Queen Elizabeth -- 8 nights & 3500 miles across the wintry North Atlantic to New York.


​Photo: Yesteryear -- the United States at Southampton's Ocean Terminal, 1954.​

[Rodney Mills]

I owe a big thankyou to UCL. They included me in as an apprentice, let me sit for my ships cook ticket (B.O.T.), and I passed at 19 years old.

First Class dining was like eating in the finest French restaurant there was. Today all the restaurants have almost the same items on their menu, and don't compare even to the tourist dining on the "Big Ships".

I went from station to station i.e. Fish, Sauce. Cold Larder, Roast, station, Bake Shop. When I was done I was a full qualified cook.

Even the waiters, with the exception of a few hotels dining rooms today couldn't serve using a spoon and fork. It's almost total dish up on a plate and put it down in front of the customer and come back later to pick up the tip.

Today, even in a one-person kitchen the cook is addressed as chef and all that are dished up are hamburgers. What a joke.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Me and my mate Joe Driscoll where sent down from the pool in Swansea to Southampton to join the Queen Mary, Thought at least on that size ship it would be two to a cabin but no show, we didn't even bother to go to th shipping office, just caught the train back to Swansea, ended up on an old tramp great.
Like Ivan and others went through the Suez so many times forget the number and twice through the Panama, to expensive for tramp ships LoL.
Cheers Des

[Bryan Portwig]

all good