RMS Caronia Timeline
Virtual Tours Index
Cunard's 'Green Goddess'
Luxurious world ocean travel aboard a famous British cruise liner
Caronia Timeline Virtual Tours Index
- Please note that links in this index panel take you directly to the selected Virtual Tour, whereas those in the introduction below take you to that tour's description on this page
Section 1 - About the Caronia
Section 2 - Caronia Virtual Cruises
Caronia Timeline Virtual Tours
Introduction
The Virtual Tours are divided into two distinct sections.
Section 1 gives a selection of pictorial views of the Caronia within different topics, as follows...
- Caronia's building and launching
- Caronia's Below Decks - Crew Areas
- how the Caronia was marketed by Cunard
- how Caronia was depicted by a leading London Fashion House
- how Caronia was promoted in a period Industry Magazine
Section 2 offers a selection of Caronia's major cruises, as follows...
- Caronia's maiden voyage to New York
- the 1st Great World Cruise of 1951
- the 2nd Africa/India Cruise of 1952
- the 2nd North Cape Cruise of 1952
- the penultimate Spring Mediterranean Cruise of 1966
- the 5th of 7 Summer Mediterranean Cruise of 1965
Section 1
Virtual Tours About the Caronia
Below are the descriptions of the five Virtual Tours that are about the Caronia, her building, crew areas and her maiden voyage, along with the enormous impact she made on the world. At a time of recovery from World War II, and certainly a period of severe austerity in Britain, Cunard's launching of the “Green Goddess” caused quite a sensation!
The Art & Industry Tour
Spread over 3 pages of text and fabulous photographs, this tour will be a total delight to anyone interested in the interior design aboard ships of the late 1940's.
The source, a now defunct magazine called “Art & Industry”, has also enabled me to assign credit for several of the exquisite art and decorative details aboard Caronia, with the industry focus being on crew only areas. Enjoy!
The Clydebank Shipyard Tour
This tour features several pictures spread over 9 pages showing the concept, building, launch, fitting-out commissioning run and first Southampton arrival of the legend that was Caronia.
The texts and pictures have come from the earliest Caronia brochures and the official Clydebank guide-book for 1948/49. Several photographs were taken at John Brown's shipyard.
Also included are some artist impressions of the ship's main public rooms. Clicking on the monochrome pictures will bring up their equivalent in full colour.
Below Decks Virtual Tour
Presently consisting of 6 pages, this tour illustrates various aspects of the “Crew Only!” areas aboard the Caronia. There are deck plans, sectional drawings, descriptions of Caronia's funnel and two sections of the Engine Room. A rare copy of a Chef's Vegetable Order has also been transcribed into this tour.
The Cunard Brochure Tour
Spread over 8 parts, this tour carries pictures from a number of Cunard brochures showing the range of public rooms and other passenger accommodations.
The first four parts show pictures and text that give an insight into the luxurious surroundings provided.
Part 5 is devoted to the dining experience and Part 6 shows the passenger accommodation. A significant move in the mid-1950's to maintain dress standards on board ship is reflected in Part 7, while Part 8 provides the Caronia deck-plans.
The Strelitz Fashion Tour
Extended into 4 pages, with additions being full details of all the garments seen. Whether you have an interest in ladies fashion or in seeing candid pictures of the Caronia as she provides the back-drop, there are some wonderful photographs to browse here.
The source of this tour comes from a lavish brochure of circa 1952 circulated by Strelitz of London
This was once a Ladies Fashion house from none other than London's Regent Street. The tour features over 20 pictures taken in and around Caronia with lots of decorative detail around the very fashionable ladies!
Section 2
Caronia's Voyages
Providing a selection of Virtual Cruises has been built upon the premise that the source information to hand is too much to present entirely within the Month Activity pages. It means that there is sufficient information for me to present a format where one day or a small group of days can feature on each page.
A different style approach has deliberately been taken for each cruise, so that each will hold their own interest. If you have never cruised before, then the 1951 Great World Cruise starts with all the planning stages, before you board and enjoy the sights.
The range of Virtual Cruises offers you an opportunity to virtually stay aboard Caronia for a whole year, but in different periods throughout her career. The best bits being that there aren't any fares or port taxes to pay, and no packing to do!
Be prepared to be transported...
Caronia Maiden Voyage Tour
Now split into two parts, Part 1 has 4 pages of researched news extracts covering Caronia's Maiden Voyage to New York. Part 2 features 10 pages of mostly text. The source being 16 sheets that formed the insert to a Souvenir Folder produced in the USA for Caronia's Maiden Arrival.
Reproducing exact facsimiles of the Souvenir Folder pages was not really a viable on-line reading option, so the original pages have been re-arranged to provide easier access.
The monochrome pictures seen in this section also featured on the originals. Added colour pictures are from various other sources relative to that period.
The Virtual 1951 Great World Cruise
This is by far the largest virtual tour on the Timeline extending to over 33 pages. It has been built from details found in a log book from the 1951 Round the World Cruise.
The tour has every little detail that could be gathered to describe what was claimed on the brochure to be “The Travel Event of a Decade!” It is illustrated with several photographs taken by the ship's photographer on the cruise, along with others from various sources.
T.R. Schoonover's Africa-India Travelogue of 1952
This Virtual Cruise follows the 2nd “Green Goddess” around Africa adventure, which was extended to visit India too. It is based upon Caronia passenger Thomas R. Schoonover's privately published booklet, comprised of his regular reports back to his local newspaper, the “The Lima News”.
Initially, I felt restricted by possible Copyright problems, so only extracts from this booklet appeared here. However, following a contact from his grand-daughter, Christine Zachary, I'm delighted to offer a complete this document, and enhance it into a Virtual Cruise.
As with many other documents I have transcribed here, this offers a unique insight into the social history of the period, and it makes quite fascinating reading. The first page of T.R. Schoonover's Diary starts with an introduction to the author...
Virtual 1952 North Cape Cruise
The Virtual 1952 North Cape Cruise
Starting in 1951, the Caronia North Cape cruise was an unbroken event starting annually in July from New York, initially with calls to Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Scotland and Ireland before ending at Le Havre and Southampton. Spread over 16 pages this virtual cruise will take you to the lands of the Midnight sun and arguably the most scenic places found on any Caronia itinerary.
1952 was the 2nd of 17 annual Caronia pilgrimages made to the North Cape. Only the basic planning details are provided, as these are well covered in the Virtual Great World Cruise pages. Over the years the ports of call would be extended, until by the end Caronia would visit Poland, Denmark, Germany and Holland before crossing to Scotland.
The tour is built from information gleaned from the original brochure, the Cruise News, daily programmes and the Log Abstract. The monochrome pictures come from the brochure, colour pictures from my own photographs will be added in due course.
Virtual 1966 Spring Med Cruise
The Virtual
1966 Spring Mediterranean Cruise
Spring excursions to the Mediterranean on board Caronia started in 1952. In the early years these were billed as Spring Cruises to the Mediterranean and Europe, with some only venturing as far as Villefranche in the Mediterranean, before turning back to visit ports in Northern Europe. Like the Autumn Mediterranean cruises, these spring outings always ended at Southampton.
From 1964, when rationalisation on Cunard began, the itinerary for this cruise was fixed right until the last one in 1967. For this Virtual Cruise I have chosen the 1966 voyage so as to illustrate the subtle, but noticeable changes that were made to the ephemera that was issued to passengers.
Virtual Summer
Mediterranean Cruise 1965
Virtual Summer Mediterranean Cruise 1965
The 1965 Summer Mediterranean Cruise was the fifth of seven excursions to this area of the world, and the third cruise that I worked on board Caronia. The tone of this cruise will be quite different to that of the 1996 Spring Cruise, because it illustrates a far more care-free period.
This Virtual Cruise, once completed, will show Caronia at the epitome of her career, and also demonstrate that by the mid-1960's social changes had made their mark almost all around the world, with perhaps one major exception. Gone are the reserved attitudes and stuffiness of the 1950's, the “Swinging Sixties” had truly arrived!
Webmaster's Note:
Presently, only the bare-bones of this Virtual Cruise are in place though the progress as far as Sicily is almost complete. Trying to promptly deal with new information and especially to avoid too much handling of valuable and rare original documention has always required a fluid method of updating the Timeline.
As these new pages will have links to and from many others, they need to be in place to prevent any possibility of disruption. Just one updated page from elsewhere slipping through unnoticed, without these pages in place, would cause hundreds of broken links.
Development of these pages will probably take several weeks of research, and discussion with others, to gather together all the information that I intend to place here. They will need to see the progress to enable them to judge what's needing to be added.
Having said all that, all the pages are in place and have basic information added. I'm really looking forward to building this latest cruise, even if it's a thinly disguised chance to wallow in some nostalgia. Please watch the “What's New” page for progress reports.
Next... Art & Industry Virtual Tour
Version 1.4