A One-Class Ship on a Transatlantic Crossing?

Clearly buying a cabin class ticket on the Caronia for the departure from Southampton on 25 April 1953 would have been a sound purchase! Because of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, most Westbound transatlantics were very much quieter than usual. Indeed, having left Le Havre for New York, the total complement of passengers was just over 250.

Well, even though the ship would have a full crew of 650 personnel for the forthcoming Coronation Cruise, there would still have been economies of scale made on board. For example, there would be no point in running both restaurants, so the First Class Balmoral Restaurant would be used by everyone.

This meant anyone travelling with a Cabin Class ticket would eat from the same menu as the 1st Class passengers. It would have been quite probable that all the passengers would have been grouped together in 1st Class cabins too.

You may be wondering, what did the surplus crew do for the six day crossing? Well, every square inch of the ship would have been cleaned, scrubbed and polished. It was amazing just how quickly the ship got dirty when she arrived at Southampton!

It didn't matter that it was one of the most luxurious ships afloat that the local workmen would board when she arrived. In fact it was quite distressing to see just how little they respected the cleanliness of those miles and miles of gleaming alleyways that would be swept every day, and polished once a week when we were at sea.

During an extended stay in Southampton, that is longer than two or three days, there would have been a “stand-by” crew aboard who would do the general housekeeping. On this occasion, only the loading of stores from ashore would have been done, with jobs that could be done at sea deferred.

It would not matter that someone was a 1st Class Steward on board during periods like this, you were allocated to a working gang where you could be doing anything from polishing floors to stocktaking the cellars!