Engine Trouble?
Apparently, the month of August in 1956 was one of the wettest in 21 years and initially I wondered if this had some bearing on Caronia's delays on this year's North Cape Cruise. Having recently obtained the cruise logs it transpires that it wasn't inclement weather that caused the delays after all.
However, there had been problems, because Caronia arrived a day late into Southampton when the cruise ended on 04 August 1956. There had been a last-minute itinerary change with an extra day in Oban. Was this possibly to obtain and fit engine parts delivered there directly from John Brown's shipyard in Glasgow?
Due to my information being not much more than hearsay, I've avoided discussing Caronia's propulsion here, though in the years that I was on board there certainly were problems attributed to her engines. There's speculation that with a steel tube shortage after WWII that right from the start Caronia's boilers were not really up to John Brown's usual standards.
Certainly, by the time Caronia came in for her 8th annual overhaul in 1957, a major turbine gear weighing the best part of 50 tons needed to be replaced, which seems unusual. Was this a cause for the recent delays and did it eventually add weight to Cunard's decision to withdraw the Caronia earlier than planned?
If you can contribute any information, do please get in touch…
