Chandris Lines

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rhms Britanis

 I decided to use this poignant picture after the tragic events of September 11th 2001.  How sad that neither the Trade Towers nor The Britanis are with us any longer.  Picture credit: Chandris Fantasy Cruises, from the collection of Timothy J. Dacey, President of The Steam Ship Historical Society of America.

She sank off Cape Town on 21st October 2000.   Very sad, but I think its always a more fitting end than being broken up into pieces somewhere.  For more information on Britanis visit the links page, soon I hope to be able to add a link to sad pictures of her sinking.

Below a cutting from The Southampton Evening Echo.

When I joined Britanis in August 1973 she was doing 2 weekly cruises to the Med from Southampton.  I then did Voyages 14 & 16 around the world to Australia.  I still regret not staying on for Voyage 15 as I missed  the South Sea Island cruises she did from Auckland.  It was wonderful to see Australia and New Zealand and would love to go back some day. ( Made a trip to Oz in Feb 2002!  It was as wonderful as I remembered it!) 

I will never forget lifeboat drill whilst working at sea!  Having to line up in our life jackets and quaking in case the Staff Captain asked us a question we couldn't answer.  I think the passengers all thought we knew exactly what we were doing.

The most amazing thing I remember was sailing from Sydney.  All the streamers, the bands playing, and people saying their farewells.  It was so sad thinking of families not seeing each other for so long.  I was always pleased I was not in that situation.  It obviously happened when leaving Southampton as well but I don't remember seeing that.  I must have been too busy below decks!

Other impressive memories were.... going through The Panama Canal, it seemed so narrow!  The longest time I'd ever had at sea without a port, 10 days between Cape Town and Freemantle.  Crossing the International Date Line and having 2 Thursdays, for example, always caused great problems booking appointments in the salon!  We also had great celebrations for Greek Easter as you will see from the photos.

N.B. Sorry but "Memorabilia" has a long download time.  It shows a calendar, a Chandris Schedule & my Lifeboat drill book.