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Ken
In the days of coal it did require a lot of time because the coal was mostly hand loaded with buckets and wheelbarrows. But when oil came into play by the 1920s it was increasingly a different story.
It was not an issue of work -- it was an effort of how they worked. It was no more difficult to turn around a great liner than a modern day cruise ship. Issue was working the crew or unions etc. to turn the ships around. Some of the American ships even had a separate crews who did the turnarounds while the "sea crew" got shore leave.
Marine News Article 'Bunkering The Three Queens' (go to page 41-42)
I'm guessing engine maintenance, perhaps? 1 day to cycle down all the boilers, 1 day to clean/inspect/maintain them, then the final day to bring some back on line for departure?
quote:Originally posted by Lubber:Why would the original Queens take 3 days to turn around? Forklifts were already in use by the mid-'30s, so provisioning shouldn't have taken much longer than it does today. Bunkering obviously wouldn't take any longer than it does today.
As Allan posted above, the turn-around time could be expedited if necessary, but in the case of the Queens, it was a matter of scheduling. There was a sailing every Wednesday, or whatever, and it took 4+ days to cross. Therefore, the ship would be in port until the next scheduled sailing day.
Rich
You would think w/so much time in port, Cunard would have had the paint crews out for maintenance but based on how the Queens and other Cunarders looked, they left all the silly painting up to the United States Line
quote:Originally posted by Lubber:Why would the original Queens take 3 days to turn around?
I recall reading that loading coal was a slow process. The Crew had to cover all furniture in the public rooms to protect them form the coal dust.
After the bunkering of coal abig clean-up of the entire ship was required!
As Rich said it was all in the schedule. The Queens kept to their schedule so when they had a long crossing slowed due to weather they generally still sailed on time with a shorter turnaround. Not an issue of forklifts, etc.
We think of the typical turn around of the cruise ships arriving at 6 am or 7 am and sailing at 4 pm or 5 pm. But in the 1960s and 1970s they could turn around in three or four hours sometimes.
The other extreme is I have been working on Cunard 1960s sailing schedule and ships like the Carmania and Franconia could spend 3 or even 5 days between sailings.
The economics simply do not let them do it anymore. By the 1970s most ships were doing same day turnaround. I remember doing some of the last cruises to sail at noon and let me tell you from the passenger perspective it was a pain. We were up early in the morning to get to the ship on time, fighting morning rush hour etc. We actually liked the afternoon sailings better!
quote:Originally posted by SSTRAVELER:We think of the typical turn around of the cruise ships arriving at 6 am or 7 am and sailing at 4 pm or 5 pm. But in the 1960s and 1970s they could turn around in three or four hours sometimes.
Some still do. Louis work to a 4hr turnaround on some itineraries departing at 11:00 and MSC have 14:00 departures in the Med, but in their case it is not a big deal for crew, as passengers embark/disembark in most ports.
Pam
quote:Originally posted by KenC:The Cunard Queens ran a weekly service so, leaving NY or Soton on the same day each week and crossing the Atlantic in as little as 4 days, their turnaround could be anything up to 3 days!!Ken
Yes. Samuel Cunard recognised early on that if you ran a service with a ship departing every week, on the same day of the week, then you would get more bookings, provided the ships were of equal quality and speed.
Anyway, apparently the dates of her cruise were 21 July to 3 August. Oriana's next voyage, to Australia, started on 12 August so she had a whole nine days between the cruise and the subsequent voyage. To me, and having got used to today's schedules, that seems a long break: I can't help wondering why they didn't lengthen the cruise a bit (it was 13 nights).
Here's a link to that earlier thread:Oriana cruise details 1969
-12/21/67- 01/03/68 : cruise-01/04:NY-01/05-01/12: cruise-01/13-01/24: cruise-01/25:NY-01/26-02/07: cruise-02/08 :NY-02/09-02/23: cruise-02/24-03/12: cruise-03/13-03/18: transat east-03/18-03/23: overhaul-03/23-03/29: cruise-03/30-04/12: cruise-04/13-04-16: cruise-04/17-04/18:le Havre-04/19-04/30: transats west and east-05/01: le Havre-05/02-05/13: transats west and east-05/14: le Havre-05/15-05/27: transats west and east-05/28-06/14: on strike, transats cancelled-06/15-06/25: transats west and east-06/26: le Havre-06/27-07/08: transats west and east-07/09-07/11: le Havre-07/12-07/23: transats west and east-07/24-07/25: le Havre-07/26-08/06: transats west and east-07/08-08/08: le Havre-08/09-08/20: transats west and east-08/21-08/22: le Havre-08/23-09/03: transats west and east-09/04-09/05: le Havre-09/06-09/17: transats east and west-09/18-09/19: le Havre-09/20-10/01: transats west and east-10/02-10/03: le Havre-10/04-10/11: special transat west via Quebec-10/12-10/25: cruise-10/26-11/05: cruise-11/06-11/11: transat east-11/11-12/07: overhaul-12/07-12/19: special transat west via French indies-12/20-01/02/69: cruise
In comparison, I assume QM2 is operating almost every day of the year minus overhaul time.
[ 10-21-2010: Message edited by: lasuvidaboy ]
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