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And after six languorous weeks, I was enjoined to report to Arcadia at Tilbury
(near the mouth of the Thames) for some cruising in the Mediterranean and the
North Atlantic. This, I felt, was far more in my style.

The P&O-Orient passenger fleet was large and diverse, and the two
companies had for long co-operated in ship design and management. While I
was at Warsash they had launched Canberra and Oriana, by some stretch the
world’s largest passenger vessels not operating regularly in the North Atlantic.
Prior to that Arcadia, Iberia, Himalaya, Orsova, Orcades, Oronsay and Orontes
comprised the largest Australia-trade group of vessels, supported for a few years
by the pre-war Strathaird, Strathnaver, Strathmore, Stratheden and Orion. The
Far East was served by Chusan, Cathay, and Chitral, these supported by the pre-
war Canton, Corfu and Carthage. It was an impressive fleet, but not one destined
to long survive, extinction occurring because of the success of the 707. Prior
to the arrival of the two larger ships, Arcadia had been the flagship, and was
in many ways the epitome of the classic passenger ship design; the five Straths
(Strathallan, commandeered as a troopship, was sunk during the war) were
old P&O steamships, originally sporting three impressive funnels, and from
whose design there was an almost direct line to Arcadia and Iberia, but which
thereafter abruptly ended with Canberra, she and Oriana being in their own ways
completely novel designs.
Although I had never been on her, I was not unfamiliar with Arcadia. An
impressive ship, newly painted for summer cruising, she was of 29,734 gross
tons, then a fairly standard size for a major passenger ship, today a minnow.
These ships were not naturally designed for cruising, as their most profitable
use at the time was for the transportation of emigrants from Europe to
Australia, for which the Australian government paid P&O a handsome sum.
The ships also carried substantial cargo, for which purpose their speed was of
some commercial purpose. But generally, the decks were somewhat utilitarian,
the pools were small and inconvenient, and the division into first and tourist
class gave the one group ample and comfortable room and the other cramped
interior cabins and public rooms and little deck space. But as the trade was
changing by virtue of Italian and Greek ships carrying large numbers of
southern European emigrants, in order to utilise redundant ships, cruising
was beginning to become popular (for many decades, cruising had been the
preserve of the relatively well-off, and the reverse snobbishness of even the
more prosperous working class prevented its members easily accepting what
was seen as a rather snooty way to holiday). Nevertheless, for those who chose
to see it, the days of this type of ship were numbered. It was only by pure chance
of birthdate that I had actually landed on these ships at the right time.

One feature of Arcadia was that cadets were not part of its normal complement.
It was unclear what purpose we were to serve, as the ship was ordered in a

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