Page 237 - Michael Frost-Voyages to Maturity-23531.indd

and new and unexpected costs. The most intractable problems existed for the use
of Cathay and Chitral – there was simply insufficient call for them given the new
classes of container ships, and the Government and other employers (an obvious
one would be HSBC) quickly losing enthusiasm for paying their employees for
longer trips by sea that BOAC could provide at less cost. John and I were charged
with finding new uses for those ships in particular, but other liners in general, and
bring our thoughts to the attention of Mr Mackenzie and his harried assistant,
Roger Brown, a very pleasant young man who was permanently on edge because
he was operating at the very limit of his capabilities. The problem was that so was
P&O; the company operated the finest fleet of elegant and comfortable deep-
water ships whose ‘due date’ was recognisably upon us.
We worked on two possibilities in particular. The first was to base the two
vessels in Fiume (now Rijeka, then part of communist Yugoslavia) or Trieste from
where their limited speed would be no hindrance to cruising to the Dalmatian
Coast, Greece, Turkey and the Black Sea. There were two problems; they carried
only 250 passengers and were as much cargo ships as cruise vessels, which cargo-
carrying capacity was not needed, and, more importantly, could earn no revenue.

The second possibility was to develop new scenarios entirely; the Baltic was
under-served (but who would want to go to Leningrad, the only interesting
city on that sea? Who had heard of Riga or Talinn?) and there was talk of Alaska
becoming a destination of choice (but, firstly, who would want to go to such a cold
and destination-deprived place, and, secondly, the Jones Act precluded foreign ships
carrying Americans from US port to US port; could this impediment be overcome?).

Perhaps the greater problem was the ships themselves. Excepting Canberra
and Oriana, the bulk of the fleet were not really cruise ships at all. They all had
substantial cargo capacity with derricks and other comfortless ships’ gear, and
their decks, while having swimming pools and suitably-placed bars, were very
limited in ‘entertaining’ facilities; after all, conventional first-class passengers
to Australia spent more time resting, reading, eating and drinking than did the
newly targeted cruise passenger, which could be described as the young, hip and
well-off. We directed suggestions to Mr Mackenzie, who was, I have to say, quite
open to discussion, but as with many in the shipping industry, somewhat aghast
at the profound and rapid changes generally taking place over the whole nautical
world (as an example, Noel Mostert (see ‘Supership’) had sailed on Ardshiel in
1966, a new behemoth at the time, a type of vessel that soon rendered the Suez
Canal almost irrelevant). P&O had also noted that K Line, a Japanese company
with vast numbers of ships, operated from two skyscraper floors in Tokyo, while
the P&O Group, with fewer ships, maintained offices all over London, each
component company having a complete office, separate facilities and employees.
However, in addition, life in London was not quite what it was cracked up to

236