Languishing at Southampton
Caronia's final arrival at Southampton, without passengers, on the foggy morning of 24 November 1967 was not just the end of an era. With this final hammer-blow from the 1966 Seamen's strike, came the loss of over 600 jobs - Caronia's magnificent complement of Officers and Crew!
It may be argued that there were other ships which these guys could work on through the British Shipping Federation, however, the reality was that many other British ships were also being laid-up, mostly as a consequence of that strike. Secure jobs on other vessels at that time were very hard to come by!
Initially with just a stand-by crew on board, Caronia spent several months at Berth 101 in Southampton's New Docks, the traditional lay-up berth. For the final 6 months, she was unmanned, with the key-holder being her longest serving crew member, Les Ellery.
Even though the Cunard offices in Southampton were still staffed for the Queens, it was Les who would be contacted whenever potential buyers needed to be shown around. It wasn't long before Caronia was to be joined by other ships in the Cunard fleet, the RMS Carinthia and RMS Sylvania being two. All this while she awaited a buyer.
Lock, Stock & Silver
Hitherto, when a ship left Cunard service, all the paraphernalia that went to furnish it would be removed and put into store for “recycling” to other ships in the fleet. Indeed, at the very beginning and possibly for much of her career, things like linen, crockery and silverware were not purchased new, but came from these warehouses.
Even at the end, there was a huge amount of equipment that was marked “Cunard White Star” or even just “White Star” having in their time been recycled to equip the “Green Goddess”. Some items could be dated way back to the 1930s or earlier!
In 1968 the situation was unique to date in that with a dwindling fleet, nothing was put into store and almost everything on board Caronia stayed in place and became part of the purchase deal. Even under new ownership, passengers could still sleep between Cunard sheets, dry themselves with Cunard towels and eat from Cunard plates, using authentic Cunard silverware.
