Miss Clara Louise Macbeth
No story about the Caronia would be complete without a mention of some of her famous passengers. Not that Clara Macbeth was a celebrity, you understand. However, to call her one of the “Grande Dames” of the Caronia is no understatement either. She made her first voyage at 80 years of age!
Her main claim to fame is that she spent 15 years travelling on most of Caronia's Great World Cruises and a few others besides. Allegedly, over the years she had paid out nearly $20m in fares alone. Travel back to the USA from the UK would also only ever be aboard Caronia!
To put the above statements into context, Miss Macbeth did not continuously live on board Caronia during those years. There were several long periods, like during winter overhauls, where no-one could live on board, passenger or crew.
The passenger list transcripts do show her never missing a Great World Cruise, so this was her constant. However, she did carefully choose which other cruises to enjoy. For example, her name only appears twice out of 17 Caronia North Cape Cruises.
She was also only an infrequent traveller to the Mediterranean and never sailed on a Caribbean Cruise. The latter, with their 2 sittings in the restaurant would be far too rushed for her to cope with. After all, she was a recluse!
Clara lived in the same stateroom on every voyage - A32 - just by the lift down to the Balmoral Restaurant. Her accommodation was decorated with many of her personal items. She also sat at the same table, a duo just inside the port side entrance doors, again nearest the lift.
Loyalty & Devotion
During her time on board, Miss Macbeth always had the same bedroom and dining room stewards. This not only shows the loyalty of the passengers to the Caronia, but also that of her crew. Getting employment on board Caronia was always seen as a “plum-job”.
[Photo: Courtesy Maris White]
Despite her loyal attachment to the Caronia, Clara Macbeth could not by any means be called an itinerant! Her shoreside home was nowhere less than an apartment at One, 5th Avenue in New York. However, she did find it cheaper to live and be looked after on board ship.
Even her medical bills were less than in the USA! She loved the ship so much that she almost had to be forcibly carried off whenever she'd arrived in New York.
With the “Green Goddess” being a ship of rituals, it soon became a traditional Junior Officer's Sunday Morning duty to “call upon Miss Macbeth in her stateroom”. A rare courtesy which she would no doubt have cherished. The ritual would continue with her steward coming to rescue the hapless visitor, or he'd do nothing else that day.
A Strange Co-incidence
In 1974, years after the Caronia had been sold by Cunard, sales of everything detachable from the ship were held on board and at Pier 54. These to try and offset some of the berthing costs accrued by the Caribia over several years lying idle at New York. The last sale was held long after her final departure under tow from Manhattan for scrapping in Taiwan.
Kiki Kogelnik, the proprietor of a New York restaurant decorated his establishment with furniture and fittings bought from the ship. By strange co-incidence it was called “One 5th Avenue”, and was sited directly below an apartment where once there had lived an infirm and elderly recluse - Miss Clara Louise Macbeth.
Another time-served Caronia passenger was fondly known to
the crew as “Itsy Bitsy”
of “Oliver's Court”
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