Keeping the “Green Goddess” Green
With any structure built almost entirely of steel, mixing it with the highly corrosive effects of sea water means that a great deal of protective maintenance is required. Much is made of the unique livery of Caronia, but unlike her black-hulled sisters in the Cunard fleet, the major discolouration of rust really showed.
Of course the annual overhaul would nearly always involve a sand-blasting of the outside of the hull and a complete repaint. I have been told that in December 1959 the painters in Liverpool went out on strike, making the Caronia leave for her transatlantic crossing ahead of the Great World Cruise with only her starboard side partially repainted.
The Liverpool painters went out on strike again in December 1962. See about the 1959 painter's strike.
However, annual repaints were regularly supplemented by Caronia's crew when weather and port conditions allowed. Also, on a few occasions the ship also received repaints by locals in foreign ports.
For example, during visits to Bombay a small army of men would transform the ship's appearance in a matter of days. In Hong Kong it was women who erected a bamboo scaffold around the entire ship and took it all down a day later!
[Left:]
Chris Freeman is touching up round the anchor as he paints the ship's side - particularly the bow area, which caught
the brunt of the weather. Chris isn't hanging on to that pole for support, unseen at the top is a roller brush.
Photo: © Roger Birch 1965
Repainting the hull of the ship was always a hugely risky affair, even in dry-dock! When away, it meant stringing-out scaffolding planks on rope pulleys over the side. The AB's sat on these brandishing a 20 foot pole, at one end of which was attached a woolly roller brush.
It would take some quite deft manoeuvres to replenish this from the bucket of paint, hanging from a hook in the plank, then rotate it through 180° to apply it to the hull. Thankfully, this was never attempted while the “Green Goddess” was in motion!
Quite what the “Health & Safety Executive” would have to say about this practice today I shudder to think. I certainly have clear recollections of seeing this event and I was so glad that I wasn't an AB called upon to do this task!
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