[pompeyfan]

CANBERRA PART TWO


As we sailed down Southampton Water, the events of the past 13 days were going through my mind. I had not been home long enough to see many people, and now off again, not due back in Southampton until 7th December 1971. I could hardly take it all in, thinking back to 1961, when my dreams seemed to be over, and then thinking about Northern Star that took me to New Zealand to make it possible.

My mind was doing overtime pinching myself making sure it was not a dream. Then reality soon hit me. My hospital deck came off an alleyway to the Crew section of my hospital where my cabin was. The door was open, so I could hear the phone ring. A member of crew was being admitted, my first patient.

The next day I was busy in both my own and the passenger hospital on D Deck starboard side My hospital was on C Deck aft port side. I had a lovely cabin with large window type porthole. This was the life and being paid for it! It was not all a bed of roses however. I would be on call 24 hours a day seven days a week for the next four months. In those days, Canberra was first class and tourist during ‘line voyages’ and cruising. When we reached Sydney we did two circle Pacific cruises, one short and one long taking us to the Far East and the west coast of Canada and the USA. In the British summer, we cruised to the Mediterranean. Canberra had just completed her summer season when I joined her.

With the introduction of the airliner, passenger shipping was being affected ships doing more cruising to make ends meet. It was in fact the beginning of cruising as we know it today, although cruising goes way back before then, but nothing like today. Also, rich passengers used a ‘line voyage’ as a cruise often going all the way with us, or spending time in Australia or New Zealand before joining us again for the homeward voyage.

Anyway, back to my diary. In my hospital I had Asian and European wards. European is a word we used for British crew. Within my hospital complex was the Isolation Hospital.
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On 24th August 1971, Canberra docked at Lisbon. My diary tells me I had five hours off, and walked around the town. That evening, I had a seven-year old Fijian girl admitted to my isolation section with Chickenpox. The next day I gave out medicines to my patients and did observation, temps, pulses and BP etc. On Thursday 26th August Canberra docked at Tenerife. Again my diary tells me I helped a patient to a taxi and was given a £1 tip. I did not have time to go ashore.

On Friday 27th August 1971, we had a death this was sadly very common on ‘line voyages’ or indeed cruises today. The only difference to today is that in those days, we had to perform a post mortem, and bury the body at sea. No country would let us in with a body on board because we had nowhere to store the body. I was heavily involved with this along with the Surgeon today known as senior doctor. I had seen this done in New Zealand, but never took an active part. We performed the post mortem on my hospital deck. The Surgeon was not trained for this no doctor is it is a specialized field of pathology. I trained to do this properly after leaving the sea become a fully qualified Anatomical Pathology Technician working as a team with the pathologist sometimes performing the post mortem alone and teaching students. However, at the time it was very much a learning curve, in at the deep end as they say. It was my job to prepare the body after the Surgeon had found the cause of death or rather what he reckoned was the cause of death.
Looking back at it when properly trained what we did was very amateurish. Anyway, it had to be done to comply with international law at the time as far as I am aware.

I did not worry too much about the why’s and wherefores, just getting on with the job. When the gory bit was done, the European deck crew, one usually a sail maker sewed the body into canvass with weights inside in the same way as the Royal Navy buries bodies they got a bottle of rum. A current member of SN did that very job! My job then was to arrange the funeral, which always took place at 2200. The captain took the service, so I had to erect the Lectern for him, with chairs and hymn books for all senior officers and relatives if any. The body was laid on a wooden stretcher and pointed at a half gun port door we had on my deck for this very purpose. It was mine, and the Boatswains job to lift the stretcher when the captain got to the part of the service: “Thou” shall cast the body to the deep”. The Boatswain and I had to be in full uniform by then. It was also crew drill that day, so I was very busy. Although. medical, I was also part the the deck department being a petty officer/.

At crew drill on Friday 27th August 1971, we began with fire drill. I was in charge of the stretcher party consisting of the U Gang. We usually had to take the Neil Robertson Stretcher to some part of the ship, often the engine room where a mock fire or accident had occurred often lifting the stretcher through a small hole with a crew member inside.

After crew drill, and recovering from my first post mortem, and arranging the burial, it was back to normal duties looking after my patients, the Fijian girl in the Isolation ward, and other normal stuff around the ship. Normal stuff in addition to looking after my patients meant going with Surgeon or Assistant Surgeon to passenger cabins or crew quarters, helping out in the passenger hospital, patrolling the galley checking hygeine. or helping the Dispenser make up drugs. In those days we made a lot of our own such as seasickness mixture. This is not allowed nowadays, but we sold a lot, and sometimes the Dispenser could not make it quickly enough. Saturday 28th August 1971 was also Captains Rounds, inspection of crew cabins. It was not always the captain. Thid time, it was the Purser. These inspections were every Saturday. It was also the day we leading hands and officers got our weekly fags and booze rations from the bar in the first class section of the galley. I smoked then, so it was the usual 200 fags, and a bottle of spirits, both being 75p. Passengers paid duty free, but crew got it cheaper than that. There was always a bit of bargaining going on, those who did not drink or smoke, so if we had more than our allowance, we waited until after captains rounds. Officers were allowed more than us, so bargaining going on there as well. All in a days life below decks!

Ratings who were not allowed spirits also tried to do secret deals. All of us were allowed beer, the most popular being Allsops larger. It was British made, but for export only. I always bought a box. I think there were a dozen in there.

We were all given subs from our wages to pay for on board goods or money to take ashore. In those days all purchases on board were cash. The Welfare Leading Hand had a shop in crew quarters for ratings including stamps. But I was able to use shops and the post office in tourist class.


I hope this brings back memories of life below decks. More soon.