CUNARD LINER‘CARINTHIA’ OF 1956

Built by John Bown & Co. Ltd. (Clydebank).  Yard No: 699

Official Number: 187137     Signal Letters:  G V D Q

Gross Tonnage: 21,947,  Nett: 11,630.    Length: 608·3ft, Breadth: 80·4ft

Owned by the Cunard Steamship Co.Ltd.

4 steam turbines, double reduction gearing to twin screws

The order for the third ship of Cunard’s ‘brilliant quartette’, which was to become the Carinthia, had been confirmed with John Brown at Clydebank in 1953. Princess Margaret agreed to launch the new ship and this took place on 14^th December 1955, a rainswept day, but in Princess Margaret’s own words ‘A happy and brilliant occasion’. Some 20,000 spectators braved the weather to watch the launch.

The Saxonia and the Ivernia had both been criticised for their interior ‘modern’ décor, but the Carinthia returned to more traditional style. On 5^th January 1956 a contributor to the ‘Architect and Building News’ wrote: “The Cunard Line has a wonderful record for seamanship, service and naval architecture, but an abysmal one for interior decoration”. The Carinthia had accommodation for 154 first-class and 714 tourist-class passengers, with some cabins being interchangeable. As was the case with her two elder sisters, the Carinthia was built with considerable cargo space and her five holds had a capacity of 290,000 cubic feet, plus 15,000 cubic feet for refrigerated cargo.

The new Carinthia left John Brown’s yard on 12^th June 1956 for her trials which were run on the Arran Mile.  Whilst undertaking these speed trials she passed and exchanged greetings with the inward bound Ivernia. The master of the Ivernia, Captain McKellar transferred to the Carinthia for her maiden voyage. At a luncheon held on board the Carinthia at the time of her handover from her builders, Mr F.H. Dawson, the general manager of the Cunard Line, indicated that the Saxonia and the Ivernia would in future use Southampton as their terminal port in the UK.

The Carinthia left Liverpool on 27^th June 1956 with over 800 passengers on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Montreal. Shortly afterwards Cunard announced that the stalwarts of its Canadian service in post-war years, the Franconia and the Ascania, would be withdrawn from service in October 1956, to be followed by the Scythia a year later.

In January 1957 the Carinthia sailed on a cruise from New York to the Caribbean. It was not a success, due mainly to the very partial air-conditioning installed in the liner; just one feature which made her unsuitable for extensive cruising in her later years with the Cunard Line.

In April 1959 the Carinthia damaged her starboard propeller in the ice at Montreal, and she had to enter dry dock to have this changed at Liverpool at the end of the voyage.

A post-war record of 115 trans-Atlantic liner calls at Greenock was scheduled for 1960. Fifty-one of the visits were scheduled for Cunard liners, with the Carinthia and the Sylvania making a total of forty calls. The Media and the Parthia were also scheduled to anchor at the Tail of the Bank, and the Ivernia would be there on two occasions.

 The Canadian Government chartered the Carinthia for six weeks commencing in November 1960 for trooping voyages.

During her winter overhaul in January 1961, the Carinthia became caught up in the strike of Amalgamated Engineering Union members which trapped her in dry dock for some sixteen weeks. When this strike was settled the boilermakers who had been laid off the Carinthia commenced a threatened embargo of all Cunard vessels using Liverpool. This was the same industrial action which spelt the end of Cunard service for the Media and the Parthia. When the Carinthia  eventually left the dry dock it was found that much of her interior woodwork had warped as a result of the unusual stress placed on the ship for so long, and joiners were hard-pressed to make her serviceable again as hundreds of doors had to be planed and re-hung.

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