RMS Caronia Timeline
Acknowledgements
2006 Entries
Cunard's 'Green Goddess'
Luxurious world ocean travel aboard a famous British cruise liner
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Acknowledging 2006's Contributors
Construction of this site has only been made possible by the willingness of people to make available material mostly created by Cunard's Publicity Department which, in those days, we disposed of without a second thought. Since I launched the Caronia Timeline on 08 January 2004, I have been quite overwhelmed at the response that it's generating, especially from visitors so willing to contribute information. These pages list their efforts in building the site, for which I extend a very hearty thank-you!
2006 Entries
February 2006
added photo and information request about the ship's cat(!) to September 1958 page. My thanks to Len
Danson for providing this interesting photo.
02 March 2006
One ambition has been to build more comprehensive information about the “Caribia”
here. I'm delighted to have finally been contacted by Annette Donner who has sent me some photo
scans to embellish her fine account of Caribia's rendezvous with the rocks of Apra Harbour in Guam.
This was quite a co-incidence, because only days earlier I'd been sent a detailed account of both a private visit to the Caribia in New York in the early 1970's, and the artefacts sale held at Pier 54 after her final departure. This was courtesy of Rob Mason, who has also submitted several scans of his own photographs of Caribia and the artefacts he purchased.
These were supplemented at almost the same time by further surviving artefact pictures sent in by Brad Newell. Thanks to these three people I've been able to extend the once solitary page into a full Timeline section, the Caribia - A Sad Ending story starts here...
22 March 2006
The first passenger to contact me travelled on none other than Caronia's Maiden Voyage. My thanks
go to Sandy Macri for persuading her Mum to write
her recollections of this historic voyage.
25 March 2006
March is turning out to be a very busy month! I was very happy to receive an email from Barry D.
Smith, telling me had details of the special Pullman trains that were laid on for Caronia's
Coronation Cruise in 1953, asking did I want them?
Then later the same day, another email came from Ron Burn, with more offers of material. Images
of the 1960 Spring Mediterranean Cruise
passenger list is the first of his contributions.
Ron has provided me with brochure images and some rather special other scans, which will be added over the course of the next few days. My thanks to both of these gentlemen for helping to add detail that continues to expand the Caronia's history.
01 April 2006
Former Commis Waiter, John Higgins, has sent in some scans of items he has saved from his days on
board in the 1963-64 period. Thanks to him, I can now present a 2nd Crossing the Equator Scroll
image which has been appended to the
Crossing the Line page, and other places. Other photos of his appear in the Crew Photographs section. More, yet to be added, include
some good detail of the Caronia's hull in the background.
03 April 2006
I'm delighted to have received 8 wonderfully photographed images of a silver Caronia tastevin
from Peter G White in California. These appear on the Folio - Silver souvenir items page.
05 April 2006
As I was recently compiling the new pages about the Caribia I was wondering, wouldn't it be good
if I had some pictures to insert of some the events that I've described? Well, as if by magic,
my wonderment has been fulfilled by some great pictures submitted to me by Wayne Morris in Australia.
My thanks to him for providing some more
fascinating detail on the Caronia, Columbia, and on this page, the Caribia.
12 April 2006
I'm now being contacted by travel agents around the world! So it's a pleasure to receive
scans of 1950's Caronia promotional photographs from Dave Chayka of BTI Travel in Syracuse NY. The
first of his pictures can be seen mid-way down the Regular Visitors / What's New page
14 April 2006
It has been a huge pleasure to have been contacted by Robin Chalmers in the USA who still
maintains regular contact with his former shipmates around the world. Amongst these is Neil
Clarke, and both of these former engineer officers have provided me with photographs to enable
me to insert yet another page into the crew photographs section. My thanks to you for expanding
what has so far been a neglected topic - the unseen fellows that made Caronia function.
The first of what will hopefully become several pages on Caronia's Engineers is on this link. Since posting this, Jim Wilson has kindly helped to identify several of his mates on the top photograph of this second page where more of Robin's pictures appear.
24 April 2006
My thanks to John Crozier for images of the 1960
North Cape Cruise brochure, which reduces the missing cruise information to just one!
27 April 2006
To make this listing complete I want to acknowledge the indirect help that I receive in building
these pages. Progress toward success with the latest web technologies was first inspired by
Denny Lancaster, Talking
Hands Award Programme owner. His help in completing the task is much appreciated!
My thanks also to Jeff Cassells for furnishing a photograph of one luxury item that could help satisfy a retail therapy urge on board Caronia.
04 May 2006
When someone popped up offering to tell me a funny and romantic story, how could I resist not
persuading her to tell it for adding to the Timeline? Having heard from only a few lady crew
members and passengers, I feel this presents a vital opportunity. I'm very keen to redress
the dearth of information on the Timeline that describes life on board Caronia from a female
perspective.
What I'm hoping that Caronia transatlantic passenger Kate Wilson's story will do is to prompt other ladies into telling theirs here too. It would be really good to hear about the laundry, the health spa, the hospitals, beauty parlour and the shops.
I'm uncomfortable with the idea that visitors here get an impression that being part of Caronia's history was a male-only preserve - it clearly wasn't! My sincere thanks go to Kate, for getting the ball rolling with her “When Kate Met Jim” love story.
12 May 2006
Acquisition of the Maurice
L. Gaillard Collection completed
29 May 2006
Thanks to Ron Burn for sending in a transatlantic
voyage log image - this has been transcribed on to the August
1949 page and allows me to add another of the popular voyage traces.
Also from Ron comes this image of Caronia at Villefranche.
05 June 2006
I'd like to express my thanks to all the people who have sent me feedback during the transition
from a fixed display to giving visitors a choice. There are too many to mention by name, but
nevertheless, your help is very much appreciated!
10 June 2006
Following the transition to PHP, and thanks to the help of people like Tedd Sperling who publish
helpful code for beginners like me, I've been able to make the display change options browser
independent here. This is the code that works
that magic.
Webmasters, if you use this code, please refer to my update notes placed on the Resources page!
10 July 2006
Added more photographs sent in to me by Ave Quin
12 July 2006
Thrilled to have made contact with Margaret Ittel Walsh, a passenger on the 1965 Summer Mediterranean
Cruise. Her copy of the Cruise Souvenir has helped me to start building the 1965 Virtual Summer Mediterranean Cruise
27 July 2006
Delighted to have made contact with George Peterson and to put him in touch with former colleagues
Robin Chalmers and Neil Clarke. George has so far been instrumental in helping to identify
several people depicted in the crew photographs. I'm looking forward to adding more photos and
information from George in the coming weeks.
04 August 2006
Thanks to Ann Hill-Roth and her friend Ann Sachs, we get an insight on Caronia's crossing from
Southampton to New York during January 1960
07 August 2006
Hot on their heels comes Amanda Ashley with her account and photographs of the same crossing
during January 1960. All this closely
followed by pictures submitted by Bill Wolter, who were regular cruise passengers
in the early 1960's. I'm hoping that posting these photographs will be rewarded by fellow travellers getting
in touch with them.
06 September 2006
I'm thrilled to have received 20 new photographs from Jim Caslake, who worked on board Caronia
for 10 years from 1958 till the end. The first batch of his photographs form two new pages on
the topic of Caronia's
Boxing Teams in the 1960's. Thanks to Jim, I've been made aware of another sport pursued on
board - Rowing, performed by the “Trojans”!
21 September 2006
Also thrilled to receive a whole new batch of photographs through George Peterson, who has sent me
others from Alan Dalton (Printer) and Sean O'Bierne (Baker) and these form the basis of 3 new
pages in the Crew Quarters Section.
25 September 2006
Many times, during the course of assembling the Timeline, I've wondered whether pictures of often
mentioned items will surface. These are mostly pictures of items that I often regret not having
taken myself, especially as I did have the opportunities. So, it's with huge delight that I thank
Dewi Owens for photographs that he originally posted into the Caronia Forum, which he has kindly
allowed me to reproduce within the Timeline pages.
28 September 2006
Another very satisfying moment arrives when unexpected contact is made with Christine Zachary,
grand-daughter of Mr. T.R. Schoonover. Up until now I had been very reticent about transcribing
the full text of his 56 page booklet about the 1952 Africa-India Cruise. My thanks to Christine
for being the impetus behind the latest
Caronia Timeline Special Feature.
October 2006
Once again, similar feelings as on 25th September, when the first batch of superb colour photographs
come through from former AB Roger Birch. My thanks to him for providing clear scans that will
allow me to add more header information in the future. The first of his pictures appear on the
September 1964 page
My thanks to eBay seller Jim Demoski for use of his images of the cards and box for the Cunard Tastevin illustrated in the Folio.
This month saw quite an expansion of the Crew Quarters section with several photographs being sent in by Roger Birch. I'm most grateful to Roger for also providing several photographs that I'd put into the category of “those I wish I'd taken when I had the opportunity”.
November 2006
Over the past few months I've received a great deal of information from George Peterson, who
has a good memory for people and events on board the “Green Goddess”. Access to his
many postcard views of the time, along with several pieces of detail information, has filled in
quite a few gaps. Then Keith Dodson came along with a few more photographs which tell us more about
the judo and wrestling club.
Another page of images has come from Ron Burn, from whose postcard collection comes scans of all those which are missing in mine. They can be seen on Caronia Postcards page 2
December 2006
Pleased to receive some interesting photographs from Brian Hawley who has promised to find more
photographs that try and fill what I haven't already covered. I have also joined
Ancestry.com
which has given me access to confirmation of dates of arrival and sailings from New York. Please
see the Webmaster Resources page for
my usage policy.
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