The table on the right, with the blue gladioli, is the Chief Medical Officer's. Fresh flowers on the dining tables was a constant, even if the Caronia had been several days at sea. Each of the distinctive dumb-waiters, with their perspex protectors, were equipped with an electric hot-plate, the controls of which are barely concealed.

For this meal all passengers would be expected to dress formally. A special menu would be produced and possibly the “Wandering Minstrels” would come down to the restaurant to entertain, usually an hour or so after the restaurant had opened.

Rationing Meets its End

You'll probably have heard me speak of the post-war strictures of life in Britain. Well, it wasn't until 04 July 1954 that the country saw the end of meat rationing and of rationing itself. Indeed, we had lived with ration books and the limits they brought for over 14 years; their end coming almost 10 years after hostilities ceased!

Children of school-leaving age will not have known a life without them. In every locality there was a “food office” that controlled the issue of books and cards, along with issuing coupons for dried milk, orange juice and cod-liver oil to mothers of infants.

Clothes rationing came to an end in May 1949; milk came off in January 1950 with petrol following 3 months later. It wasn't until November 1952 that the national beverage, tea, came off ration. For those with a sweet tooth, sweets came off in February 1953. It wasn't until 2 months later that you could freely buy eggs. In May 1954 margarine came off, closely followed by butter.

Work-Arounds

The rationing system led to a vast change in behaviours, especially to circumvent some of the limits. Anyone with a garden would put it to full food-production use. Rarely was there a space without fruit trees. My own parents had built two covered pig-pens and were able to barter meat for eggs or cooking apples. While most of the piglets were sent to market there was room to house and feed several breeding sows.

The rules around rationing were complex and very strictly enforced. While you could grow whatever you wanted, you could not sell any rationed goods without being registered. However, there was nothing to prevent barter or simple exchange. Among the biggest anomalies was butter. Milk had come off ration a long while ahead of butter and neither homogenisation nor pasteurisation had yet become widespread. Some enterprising folk bought the equipment, requiring some strength and stamina, to make their own, mostly for barter.

In almost every street there'd be small stalls of unrationed produce available with an “honesty box” nearby, so almost year round there was seasonal fruit, vegetables and eventually, eggs on offer. In reality, rationing had not been such a bad thing, apart from its hindrance and administration. Indeed, many today claim that public health has deteriorated badly since those days.

As each item came off ration so there was the inevitable rush to buy. Possibly the biggest of these was bananas. There had been many an entrepreneur that had attempted to emulate the taste of that sweet fruit, with many not being exposed as frauds until after the real thing came along.

Another Beautifully Illustrated Memento

For the 1954 North Cape cruise an equally beautiful book to that published in 1952 was freely distributed as a memento by Cunard and American Express. With drawings by Howard Willard, it is a gem. These books were limited editions, with 1,200 copies of the 1952, and just 1,100 of the 1954, editions being printed. Considering this, the quality of both is superb!

The daily programmes issued on this cruise confirm that these were issued free to passengers not long after departing from New York. Anyone who may have missed out could obtain a copy from the Purser's Office.

I've chosen Howard Willard's aerial depiction of Bergen as one example of his work from this book. With the “Wareham & Bergen Trophy” about to make its presence felt on the next occasion that Caronia visits this port, can anyone point out where the football field is?

If you can contribute any information, do please get in touch…

Depart Bergen 1pm
At Sea
Steaming Bergen to Norheimsund 85 miles

EASY TO LOVEFeaturing: Esther Williams | Van Johnson at 4.30pm

Arrive Norheimsund 8pm - Depart 9pm
Stop only to embark passengers from overland tour

At Sea
Steaming Norheimsund to Oslo 404 miles

DOCTOR IN THE HOUSEFeaturing: Dirk Bogarde | Muriel Pavlow at 10pm

BANDWAGONFeaturing: Fred Astaire | Cyd Charisse at 9.30pm

Depart Glengarriff Midnight