The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was obviously a significant world event, with a very real possibility of it causing a nuclear war! For about a week, starting from 22 October 1962, when President Kennedy announced to the World America's concerns over nuclear warheads being sent to Cuba, tensions were at their highest.
With the Caronia carrying mostly American passengers on her Autumn Mediterranean Cruise, and also visiting ports in the Soviet controlled countries at exactly the same time, there was tremendous concern aboard too. Well before the days of instant contacts by satellites and mobile telephones, getting in touch with folks back home back then presented quite a headache.
All of Caronia's brochures boasted that each stateroom was equipped with a telephone, from which passengers could telephone ashore whilst at sea. It should be remembered that these telephones had no method of dialling. You simply picked up the receiver and a human operator on board would answer.
“You can telephone to any part of the world whilst at sea”
[Photo: Courtesy of Brad Newell]
Calls to other staterooms could be put through immediately, however requests for calls to shore would be transferred to the Radio Office. Details of the call would be taken, and a time arranged for the call to be connected by ship-to-shore radio. The delay could be anything up to an hour or more.
The passenger would then have to make their way to the forward main-deck lobby to take their call, in one of two dedicated 'phone boxes. This shows the limitations of the actual service available. Certainly Caronia was not equipped to deal with mass requests!
Now, all of this could only be done whilst the “Green Goddess” was at sea. In port, the radio office was closed, mainly because using the equipment could disrupt local radio communications, vital in circumstances involving the safety of ships entering and leaving port.
With the Caronia in Yalta, and hundreds of American passengers hearing the crisis news on their return from shore excursions, the Radio Office suddenly found themselves overwhelmed with call requests. So much so, that in the end they had no option but to use their equipment in port, in the fervent hope that they didn't get caught!
