Designing for Ocean Travel
The Caronia… contd.
External guys are also absent from the funnel set amidships and fitting in easily with the rise of the terraced superstructure. Nor are there any external cowl ventilators or isolated deck houses to mar the symmetry of the upper decks with their broad terraces descending to the stern.
Built at Clydebank by John Brown's in the same shipyard which produced the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary, the Caronia was launched on October 30th, 1947, by H.R.H. Princess Elizabeth.
With a gross tonnage of 34,183 and a length of 715 feet, the Caronia has ten decks. The thirteen public rooms and two restaurants are all air-conditioned, and nearly all bedrooms are ‘outside’, with portholes or windows.
[Left:]
The Cabin class cocktail bar, named as the Raleigh Room when Caronia was cruising
Outstanding features of the accommodation are the cinema theatre, which seats 300 and extends two decks in height, and the Sun Deck Verandah Café, where a central platform is arranged so that an orchestra can play for dancing under cover in the café itself or on the open sports deck.
Festooned fairy lights linking tall standard lamps completely surround this deck, which overlooks the lido. Here is located an open-air swimming pool, and this also is bordered by extensive deck spaces.
Two classes of passengers - First and Cabin - are carried when the Caronia is on North Atlantic service; one class when she is cruising. Accommodation is arranged over six decks. All bedrooms have adjoining baths or showers.
The two restaurants, named Balmoral and Sandringham, which can each seat 280 passengers, mark the Royal and Scottish associations of the ship. Both are of equal size, extend in height through two decks and are, of course, fully air-conditioned.
[Right:]
The screen in front of the service doors on the port side from the Sandringham
Restaurant to the galley
