[pompeyfan]

ARCADIA FIRSTS

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Arcadia was the first P&O ship to have an Observation Lounge at the forward end of the Boat Deck, immediately beneath the Bridge. The bar counter was decorated at each end with a figurehead of a sailing ship, and a mural on the after bulkhead (since painted over) bore representations of the first Arcadia, the William Fawcett and the Cutty Sark. Most of the other nautical and maritime decoration including globes are still there today (May 1974) in the Lookout Bar.

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Arcadia was the first P&O ship to carry P&O (and not Marconi) employed Radio Officers.


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Whilst cruising from Bergen in August 1954 Arcadia passed through Karm Sound, a channel of no more than 200 yards in width, to the cheers and whistles of local children lining the nearby shores. A bridge under construction at the time, and long since completed, by reason of its insufficient height, meant that Arcadia was not only the first P&O ship to pass there, but also the last large ship to transit these narrows.

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In November 1959 Arcadia became the first passenger liner to land passengers at Picton New Zealand whilst on a cruise between line voyages.

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22nd December 1959, Arcadia’s first call at Honolulu.

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12th October 1961, Arcadia’s first call at Seattle.

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1970 Arcadia was the first P&O ship and largest passenger liner to cruise to Alaska and Glacier Bay.

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On 14th July 1973 saw P&O’s and indeed Arcadia’s first call at Anchorage Alaska. Now a full time cruise ship, the call of such a large passenger vessel on a cruise at a port so far north caused quite a stir in the local Anchorage press. I still have this newspaper somewhere in my loft. We made the front the page, and there was a picture of her Captain Chapman (relief captain to Captain Dallas), standing on the bridge.

This was part of Arcadia’s Summertime Great Circle Pacific Cruise as Arcadia set off now based on the west coast of America and quite a new crew many of us joining for the first time a month earlier flying out to San Francisco by TWA with champagne on the way out, a far cry from Dan Air when we moved to Australia some 16 months later. Setting off from San Francisco, having signed articles on 18th June 1973 we set off for LA to pick up passengers before heading north to Vancouver arriving on 9th July 1973. From there we headed further north to Ketchikan, then onto Glacier Bay and Anchorage. From Anchorage we headed for warmer climes reaching Yokohama 9 days later on 23rd July 1973. On 25th July we reached Kobe staying there for two days.

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28TH July 1973 saw another P&O and Arcadia first when we called at Kagoshima, Japan.


After Kagoshima we visited my favourite port Hong Kong where both the ship and crew had a wash and brush up with a new coat of paint on our three day visit and most of us with new made to measure suits, shirts, shoes, new glasses and goodness knows what else in the most amazing place you will ever find. From there we headed to Guam. If memory serves me right, Chitral was there with us. After that we headed down to Rabaul where, again if memory serves me right, our water tanks filled from an old submarine itself filled with water to serve anchoring ships.

From there it was onto Sydney, Noumea, Suva, Pago Pago, Papeete, Nuku Hiva arriving back in LA on 2nd September 1974 and San Francisco on 3rd September 1973.

While down in the South Pacific on 10th August 1973, Arcadia anchored off Niuafo’ou Island known as ‘Tin Can Island’ because ships have to post their mail by tin can. Niuafo’ou is one of the outlying islands of the Kingdom of Tonga, 400 miles from Tongatapu Island, on which Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga is situated. It is about 3½ miles long, 3 miles wide, and is of volcanic origin. The last volcanic eruption took place in September 1946 (as written in 1973), and when this happened, the home and properties of the 1,300 inhabitants were almost wiped out, and so they resettled on Eua Island, south of Tongatapu. About 200 villagers returned to Niuafo’ou in 1958, and the population was about 600 as of 1974.

Passengers and crew posted letters here with a special insertion with details of the island (as copied below) which they could write on the other side plus an envelope printed on the outside: SS Arcadia Summertime Great Circle Pacific Cruise August 1973 Dispatched By Tin Can Mail at Niuao’ou Island, Tonga August 20th, 1973. Due to this and the unusual way it went ashore it would become a collectors item.

Niuafo’ou is better known by its nickname ‘Tin Can Island’ because, as there is no good anchorage, at one time the regular means of mail delivery was for the ships carpenter to seal mail in 40-pound biscuit tins and throw them overboard, to be towed ashore by waiting ‘postmen’..

The outward mail was made up ashore into several parcels, and tied to the ends of sticks about three feet long. Two or three natives usually swam out, each with a stick topped by a parcel of mail, supported by poles of Fau wood of six to seven feet in length. These poles were buoyant and easily carried the weight of a recumbent body. The parcels of outward mail were place in buckets lowered from the deck of the steamer.

The letters posted from Arcadia was sealed in a canister which was thrown overboard off Niufo’ou Island, picked up, and taken ashore for forwarding to the addressee.

As the government owned vessel in which the mail is conveyed to Nuku’alofa only sails at 5 weekly intervals, it is likely that letters could take up to 3-4 months to reach their destination.

I have pictures on slides of natives in rafts picking up the can dropped by one of our lifeboats. When, and if I treat myself to a slide scanner I will post these pictures.

On later cruises we called at Nuku'alofa picking up mail left by other ships in our lifeboats from natives in their rafts. Again if memory serves me right, we pick up mail left by one of the Royal Vikings who passed a few days before us.

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November/December 1973 First passenger ship in P&O, and first since Queen Elizabeth during World War 2 to be refitted and dry-docked at Esquimalt, Victoria BC. We flew home on leave from Vancouver on KLM, after a very pleasant trip by ferry to the mainland.

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2ND January 1974 Arcadia’s first call at Le Guaira.

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7TH January 1974 Arcadia’s first call at Aruba in the Netherlands Antilles. This was part of her Christmas Cruise to the Caribbean from Vancouver, San Francisco and LA. A poor lady from Vancouver spent the entire cruise in the passenger hospital.

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May 1994 Arcadia called at Portland Oregon being the first P&O passenger ship to call there.

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First time for Arcadia to hold the Oriana Trophy, and the first P&O streaker!

Pictures below are Arcadia at Glacier Bay, the lifeboat collecting ice for drinks, and posting mail to locals at 'Tin Can Island'.