tev Canberra

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Canberra was launched by Dame Pattie Menzies, wife of the Australian Prime Minister, on March 16, 1960 and the ship arrived in Southampton for the first time in the May of the following year.

During her early days she had more than her share of teething troubles, principally with boilers and condensers, and an engine room mishap, resulting in a fire, in 1963 meant that she had to cut short a voyage to Australia and return to Belfast for repairs. After that Canberra settled down, first on the Australian route and later as a permanent cruise liner. The highlight of her programme was a world cruise from January to April each year.

Canberra's finest hour came when she was called up for national service as a troopship during the 1982 Falkland Islands conflict when servicemen and women christened her the Great White Whale.

Here she is flying her retirement pennants. One pennant for every year of service.

Canberra’s final voyage, shown above, was in 1997.

and here’s another great shot of her.

Courtesy of Captain Mike Carr

I’m not sure who these guy’s are.

Harbo adds;

I guess this was from the scrap run as all the Mates are in Khakis.

L-R:

??, ??, Martin Dacombe, Mike Carr, Phil Bowler, ??, ??

Courtesy of Captain Mike Carr

and here’s some great final shots of the magnificent ship herself.

Courtesy of Captain Mike Carr

On the very first night on my very first cruise on Canberra I was sitting in this very room talking to a lovely lady when all the lights went out for a few seconds and I thought nothing of it until a waiter came across to me and said “That’s the sign for an Engine Room Emergency, during the blackout you were supposed to slip away inconspicuously, you’re not supposed to be here now, but don’t run as we don’t want to alarm the passengers do we”. I guess it was nice for someone to tell me.

Courtesy of Captain Mike Carr

oops!

These two photos of the Canberra Boiler Room are from Ken Miller and will bring back memories for some.

Here’s a great shot of The Bogie taken by Marty Elliot from the Oriana in the bay of Biscay.

Dave Harbinson found this amazing video footage of Canberra being launched in Belfast.

Courtesy of Ken Ellis

Here’s a great shot of the old girl in Sydney Harbour.

Courtesy of Dai Griffin

Above and below are great shots of Canberra taken in Southampton.

Courtesy of Dai Griffin

Courtesy of John Thow

What an eerie shot of the lightening looking like it’s hitting the starboard funnel. Great shot JT.

Courtesy of Roger Lownsborough

Canberra aground at St. George, Grenada, 12th -15th July 1973.

I've realised nothing has been said about Canberra's involvement in the Falklands in this section so I was pleased to receive the next two photos from Roger Lownsborough so I could rectify that.

Courtesy of Roger Lownsborough

Here she is looking well used and tired but still alert and ready to serve.

Courtesy of Roger Lownsborough

and here earning her stripes as she off-loads troops in San Carlos.

Courtesy of Tony Simpson

Here is a photo of the great white whale taken just off Port Stanley during the 1982 conflict (taken by Tony from aboard the hospital ship Uganda).

Courtesy of Iain Reeves

Job done ... here she is being moved (by tug power) into KGV dock at Southampton during the post Falklands refit.

Courtesy of Richard Reubin

Canberra in dry dock December 1978. This photo was submitted to and published in the Southampton Evening Echo for which they paid Richard the princely sum of £5-00. The photograph was entirely processed and printed in the hospital darkroom onboard Canberra.

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

Glyn recalls;

I never sailed on Canberra, in fact I was only ever on her once while she was alongside in Southampton in October 1973. During my two week pre-sea training with P&O in Southampton I was given orders on the Wednesday of week 1 to join Canberra on completion of the course. I duly went to Miller Rayners that Saturday and bought my Blues, Whites, Mess Kit and 4 boiler suites and on the Sunday I went with a couple of guys from the course (tanker division) to view 'my ship' which was in Southampton. To the 'oooohhhs and aaahhhs' of myself and colleagues we walked her decks and rooms, fascinated at the ship and the world I was going to enter. On the Monday, back on the course, I was given orders NOT to join Canberra, I was gutted. Tuesday I was ordered to Uganda only to have that cancelled the following day and Thursday was ordered to Himalaya, flying out on the Sunday from Gatwick with Dan Air to Fiji. By now my course colleagues thought Passenger Division was some sort of joke and couldn't organise a p*** up in a brewery, but I finally did fly out and join Himalaya.

The next 17 brilliant photos of Canberra's Engine Room, Public Rooms and the Old Girl herself have been sent in by Glyn. Richard Reubin asked if I could add descriptions and uses of the equipment so with the help of Don Cole, Alan MacKenzie and John Rockell here goes;

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

Ballast Pumps in Pump Room (starboard side, after end, outboard)

Fuel oil transfer or "stripping" pumps used to transfer the fuel to different tanks to keep the ship straight (balanced). Situated in the pump room which also housed fresh water pumps, sanitary water pumps, the forward sprinkler pump, oily-water separators and some of the grey and black water collection tanks.

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

Starboard Engine Telegraph (just outboard of the Main Engine Console)

The telegraph is connected to an identical telegraph on the bridge and is used by the Deck Officers to "request" engine speeds. They could be hydraulically linked to a lever at the control stand so that the operator didn't have to move from the manoeuvring position to answer the telegraph orders.

The labelled Electro-Feeder Pump Starter was used to supply boiler feed water to flash up again following a black-out. The gauges in the centre were fuel oil pressure, water pressure etc and the large circular gauge, above the clock, was the main superheated steam pressure gauge. This is the one we had to watch carefully when increasing speed during manoeuvring as too rapid an increase would result in a (possibly catastrophic!) drop in steam pressure which could lead to a black-out. The grey box on the right was a Crockatt Salinometer used to monitor the salt content in ppm (parts per million) of the boiler feed water.

Rocky adds that it is interesting to see that the condenser is pulling a good 28 inches of vacuum and on the gauge below, most importantly, there is only 55 minutes to go before the end of the watch!

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

The main Manoeuvring or Control Console (Engine Room)

The levers are, moving from the outer most in;

a) To change motor direction. They changed the electrical phase rotation and thus the propeller direction - ahead or astern.

b) "Throttle". To admit more or less steam into the turbine driving the alternator.

c) The excitation lever which started the propulsion motor as an induction motor then at it's second position boosted excitation to pull it into "sync" when the lever was then moved to the third position which set the motor running as a synchronous motor at a ratio of 1:21 to the alternator speed. That is to say the alternator turned at 2100 rpm when the prop shaft turned at 100rpm. The red bar in front of the inner levers was to remind the engineer not to stop the motors without putting the jacking pumps on. These pumps force oil into the bearings and maintain a fluid film which might be lost with the weight of the massive rotor pressing down as it stopped turning.

Alan adds; The console is shown in the photo whilst the ship was at sea, full-away. The indicators show that both main alternator sets were online, port supplying the port PEM (Propulsion Electric Motor) and starboard, the s'board PEM. The large green units either side, abaft the Console were the main turbo-alternator sets themselves, supplying the PEMs at 6kV, the output frequency being varied to vary the rpm of the PEMs (synchronous motors).

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

Pump Room Control Console

The vertical gauges indicated tank levels and operated on a mercury pressure principle, a bit like a barometer. They're called Pneumercator Gauges. Many of the tank filling and suction valves could be opened from this position so that the operator could control the operation from one position. Common now but a novel idea in 1961. The large squarish gauges in the centre were a modern replacement for a number of the originals.

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

Engine Room Alarm Panel (forward of the Main Console)

This is the original E/R Alarm Panel. One of Alan's projects, completed during his time as SETO in the early 90's, was to collect all the add-on alarms shown and integrate them into a small, neat alarm console which was mounted on the side of an air-duct just to starboard of the old panel (out of shot in this picture).

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

V Block Fridge Compressors (The Refrigeration Flat)

This is where the main Air-Conditioning plant was located but the machines in the picture are the small "Vee-Blocks" which were the little refrigeration compressors used to chill the cold store rooms.

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

Port Main Turbo-Alternator

The left side shows the Turbine casing (white) with main steam feed pipe in. The right side is the Alternator (green) which is driven by the Turbine. The Alternator provides the electrical power that drives the motors which drive the propellers.

Rocky adds;

The alternator is directly coupled to the turbine through a flexible coupling. The Alternator Rotor has one pair of poles which were fed DC power to produce three phase alternating current in the Stator. The Motor actually consists of two half-motors. Each half motor had 21 pairs of poles on it's rotor with a stator wired so that one cycle of the alternator produced a movement of 1/21st of a revolution of the motor. This meant that the turbo-alternator set had to turn 21 times to turn the motor one revolution i.e. 2100 alternator rpm = 100 motor or prop-shaft rpm. I believe 147rpm was actually achieved on trials but the best I ever saw was about 122.

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

Number 2 Boiler. (Boiler Room looking starboard, No.2 Boiler being mounted in the forward starboard quarter of the Boiler Room)

The Boilers produce the steam to drive the Turbines. Rocky recalls that originally the furnace fronts had 8 registers but these were reduced to four bigger ones and changed to steam assisted.

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

Aft Steering Gear. (Steering Gear Compartment)

This is the Emergency Helm mounted at one side of the Steering Machinery itself used if the Bridge control fails.

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

Starboard Main Motor, Shaft, Bearing & Thrust Block (Motor Room)

This shows the Motor on the left (PEM) and the Thrust Block on the right and supporting Bearing in the middle. The shaft then passed through a watertight bulkhead into the Shaft Tunnel. The shaft at that point was just under 24" diameter.

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

Lube Oil Filters (aft end of the main E/R on the lower level)

In the foreground are the main lube oil filters and behind those and slightly to the right are the lube oil coolers.

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

No 3 Turbo-Alternator. (TA Flat)

These were the alternators which supplied the ship's main switchboard with power at 440V which then was distributed to Masterboard Rooms (sub-stations) around the ship. The TAs also included DC generators (nearest the camera) used to supply DC excitation current for the main propulsion sets and PEMs.

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

The Bridge

This is the Port aft corner of the Wheelhouse showing Telegraphs and fire-control and monitoring panels in the background. The grey telephones were "Loudaphones", sound-powered telephones used to communicate with the Engine Room and various other parts of the ship in an emergency. They would function in blackout conditions when the main Exchange might be down.

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

The Forward Tunnel (looking aft to the forward Stabiliser Compartment)

This is the Forward Tunnel showing the "Pilgrim" valves used for Fuel Oil and water transfer between the various double-bottom tanks which are operated from the pump room. It's the walkway from the engineers lift to the Engine Room and yes, that is carpet.

Many thanks to Don, Alan & Rocky for taking the time to undertake that task and I'm very pleased to tell you that they all agreed with every shot. Thanks also go to Ken Miller who was busy at the time but offered to do it when time permitted if no one else did.

Courtesy of Glyn Dodson

Courtesy of Geoff Kimber

Canberra in drydock, Bremerhaven, October/November 1984

Courtesy of Geoff Kimber

Geoff writes;

Photos show those wretched “A” brackets. Sometimes the A brackets used to leak dreadfully. I recall heaving drums and drums of Vickers Hydrox up ladders on the night time 12-4 as we didn’t want to get the crew up. To this day I blame that episode on back problems I have had in later life, culminating in having an operation on a prolapsed disc.

Courtesy of Geoff Kimber

Prior to this refit the boiler casings were leaking huge amounts of exhaust gas into the boiler room making it just about uninhabitable. In the last few days before refit it looked like there was more gas coming out of the deck level plenum chamber than out of the stacks. Heaven knows how the 4th’s and firemen endured it (I think some were literally coughing up blood) - you could not see across the boiler room plates. It wouldn’t have happened in these days of ‘elf & safety.

Geoff Kimber writes;

Canberra suffered a major failure of the starboard main alternator during the Aussie cruising season of 1984/85; this is mentioned in various pages of the website, but here is a bit more on the incident as I recall it, with some photos.

I was 3rd on the 4-8 morning watch with Mike Eltham. At around 06:00 an alarm lamp lit up on the main engine control console, something like “Alternator Earth Fault”. I don’t recall any wailing claxon or any sort of audible alarm, just this very dim white lamp. I called Mike over and we were both puzzled, having never seen this before. We checked over a few things and couldn’t find anything else untoward. As the time was now approaching the wake-up call time for the senior engineers and day workers we decided to mention it to the Chief & 1st Electrician when we called them so they would come straight down. During this time we then became aware of a faint whiff of hot/burning insulation - but this was a subject of debate - it seems some of us had more sensitive noses than others. Anyhow the manuals were retrieved from the archives and the dust blown off. We handed over to the 8-12 whilst the Chief, 1st, 2nd, and assorted electricians puzzled over it and Telexes were sent to head office.

I think it must have been the first full day of the cruise after departure Sydney as we spent the whole day at sea. When we went back down for the afternoon 4-8 there was a definite smell of burning which no-one could deny, but after extensive investigations it had been decided to keep going. The day workers knocked off and we went about the usual routines. Then, sometime around 19:00, there was a very loud bang from the area of the starboard engine and a large puff of dirty smoke came out of the top of the alternator. The starboard turbine whizzed up in speed and then tripped. The ship could be felt to wheel over a bit as power was suddenly taken off the starboard prop. Multiple alarms went off and the boiler relief valves popped. Amongst the various things to do was to hit the red panic button. For quite a long time after hitting the button we were aware that no-one was actually appearing; we then realised they were all doing their duty at the Captain’s bloody cocktail party. Luckily the mate on the bridge had been enjoying the late evening sun on the bridge wing and had heard the boiler relief valves blow, so knew something was amiss, plus being aware of a sudden correction required on the steering to compensate for the loss of the starboard propeller. He had the sense to realise everyone was a cocktails and would be “blissfully” unaware of what was happening, so a cadet was despatched to raise the alarm, and a call made to the bar to get the waiters to locate all the engineering department and Captain.

So after what seemed like a rather long time, all the guys started to appear - half in mess kit and half in boilersuits. By that time Mike and I had refreshed our memory on how to switch over to have the port alternator set to power both port and starboard main motors and were all ready to go with that by the time we got some help, so it was all sorted out pretty quickly. Amazingly we did not black out! The on-watch electrician happened to be at the main board at the time and did some fancy footwork rebalancing the load; and the 4th got the boilers under control with some help from the junior we despatched to help him.

The coming days were interesting. That cruise had to be re-routed slightly as top speed was obviously affected. What was, and still is, quite amazing and a real tribute to the plant designers that even after this catastrophic failure, with it’s in-built redundancy, the ship could proceed on one engine for several weeks, just restricting the top speed I think to around 18 knots, and with reduced manoeuvrability where effectively both propellers were electrically locked together as though the ship now had one prop. How many ships out there have ever been able to carry on with one single turbine?

The alternator rotor was rolled out of the stator on to a fabricated “railway” of 2 steel girders; the rotor sitting on a substantial rail buggy retrieved from the store room. With the rotor out, the full extent of the damage could be seen - a hole the size of a football had been blown into the stator. I recall the alternator did vibrate in service a bit more than the port set: it would seem that constant vibration and magnetic “drag” had pulled and loosened the laminations of the windings such that in the early stages of the failure (morning 4-8) the copper had cut through laminate insulation, thus going to earth. This earth and subsequent burning progressed during the day such that 12 hours later there was a direct phase to phase short - resulting in a trip. My memories of the technicalities are a bit hazy now - but this is how I recall it. No doubt someone will put me right.

Courtesy of Geoff Kimber

A squad of 4 “winders” were flown out from GEC in Stafford to do the remedial work. This was a very long and laborious job which basically required the stator re-winding and took something like 8 to 12 weeks. This meant the whole of the Aussie cruising season continued with one turbine/alternator set. The winders commented that in normal power station applications, this sort of alternator would at least be inspected via removal of the rotor every 5 years. Canberra at the time was about 24 years old and no-one was aware of the rotors ever having been withdrawn.

Courtesy of Geoff Kimber

On the above two photos note the engine control settings showing the port alternator set driving both motors.

Tut tut - who removed the deflectors from the blowers?!

Sorry guys I do not recall who was on watch with us at the time - so if you are out there please chip in with your memories. I recall Norman Pound was Chief and Dai Thomas was 1st Electrician. Bert McAughtrie I think you were 2nd and in charge of the railway buggy?!

Courtesy of Roger Lownsborough

Roger recalls;

Above is the broadcast/public address system installed on Canberra, known to the Radio Officers as the SRE - Sound Reproduction Equipment.

Located in a separate room that formed part of the Radio Office, it was the scourge of all who sailed in Canberra. Designed by Mr. D. Pipe, a genius from Tannoy, it was installed in Canberra in 1961, and remained in continuous service until 1997 when, having played Freddie Lloyd's bagpipe farewell as she raced for the shore at Gadani Beach, the breakers were finally pulled.

Driving 8,000 loudspeakers with over 3,600 Watts of amplification the relentless announcements blasted out; "This is the Bureau…..", "This is the Bridge….", "This is the Radio Office…", "This is the Bureau…"

The distorted twanging Hawaiian guitars played from an ever so slightly stretched tape made dinner conversation difficult on Island Night. In port, sunrise and sunset bugles were played from a tape in the Radio Office and dinner was announced by the chimes of a dulcimer played from the telephone exchange down on D Deck.

Almost every port departure was accompanied by music played through the loudspeakers around the open decks, often a recording of the Band of the Royal Marines (we regularly used the 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' signature tune 'The Liberty Bell' as the first track). On one occasion, CRO Huw Williams thought calypso music was more befitting for our departure from a port in the Caribbean - unfortunately, the lyrics of the first track started with, "Who put pepper in the Vaseline - I cannot stand the pain.. "Shortly after the start of the record Commodore Fred Woolley instructed the music be stopped… immediately!!

Each day at twelve noon, some poor soul on the bridge would whack a small CO2 fire extinguisher with the edge of a ruler to ring eight bells while the Officer of the watch held a microphone close by - Canberra did not have a ship's bell on the bridge. The ship's main alarm bell that sounded from all of the loudspeakers around the ship was a small bell on the bridge with a Reslo microphone dangling alongside it !

In all of the passenger and crew cabins, two channels of sound were relayed, taped music on one and static-riddled fading and whistling radio broadcasts from the BBC World Service, Radio Australia or the Voice of America on the other. The only respite from broadcast announcements in cabins was by carefully placing the channel selector in mid-position, this was the only way that night-workers could have an undisturbed sleep. Day workers were lucky, the broadcasts were turned off between 23:00 and 07:00.

The original amplifiers used big, glowing KT88 valves, and the heat in the SRE room would have made it an ideal place to grow pineapples - despite the best efforts of the air conditioning and an air extraction system. They were replaced in the late 1970's by much cooler semiconductor amplifiers.

Courtesy of Roger Lownsborough

Above is a brilliant old shot of Canberra's Crows Nest.

Courtesy of Roger Lownsborough

The above and below photos were taken from the radar platform while alongside in Southampton. In the aft view, the diminutive female figure seen striding
back to her cabin was children's hostess, Liz Nixon.

Courtesy of Roger Lownsborough

Canberra looking magnificent, freshly painted and looking at her very best after the Falklands refit.

Courtesy of Roger Lownsborough

View from the bridge going through the Panama Canal, circa 1977.

Courtesy of Roger Lownsborough

Courtesy of Alan MacKenzie

Canberra postcard circa. early 1960s. Believe this to be a photograph taken during the acceptance trials.

Courtesy of Alan MacKenzie

Canberra - photograph taken at time of acceptance trials, probably off Arran

Courtesy of Alan MacKenzie

Ditto

Courtesy of Alan MacKenzie

Ditto

Courtesy of Alan MacKenzie

Postcard purchased in Vigo, late 1970s. Shows Canberra and what looks like Northern Star alongside.

Courtesy of Alan MacKenzie

Sydney postcard showing Canberra and the Harbour Bridge at sunset

Courtesy of Scott Becker

What a truly magnificent shot of the beautiful Canberra.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

The next 8 photos are Canberra leaving Sydney on the 1st February 1984.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Great shot!

Courtesy of Mike Williams

another great shot!

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Off she goes mooring rope trailing ... I presume that would have to be reeled in before they could start the props?

Courtesy of Mike Williams

This was originally listed as an Oriana pool and quite rightly pointed out by Simon Lockyer that it was not. Simon suggested it maybe on Canberra and Alan MacKenzie, Mike Williams and Veronica McCusker all confirmed that. I've placed the photo here because it can be seen in the series of photos above. Alan and Veronica both named it as the Alice Springs Pool.

Alan MacKenzie adds;

The Alice Springs Pool on Canberra, a well-known haunt of the 12-4 after coming off watch in the afternoon! Also clearly in shot are the ghastly automatic sliding doors, fitted in the late 1980s, at the behest of some bright spark in the shoreside technical department. No doubt fine for high-street Tescos, these doors, totally un-marinized, were an absolute disaster at sea. They were forever breaking down, the mechanisms and electronics rapidly corroded by the salt air and so light they were always blowing open with the air-pressure differential inside/outside the enclosed deckhouse, particularly on windy days. (Why are ships' exterior doors ALWAYS heavy???). Eventually, after much condemnation in successive voyage-reports, they were replaced by a slightly more robust version that were a little better but, overall, they were a menace!

Courtesy of Veronica McCusker

Veronica kindly sent in the this of the same pool photo taken in 1970 while she was onboard as a passenger.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Ready to leave Sydney for the last time in 1997.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Bye old Girl.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

We're not sure which Port this is.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Portside Boat Deck undergoing a paint job.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

A bit of a battered looking rear end.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Very nice shot taken as she passed Oriana at sea in 1997.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Ditto

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Ditto

Courtesy of Mike Williams

These are the passengers on Oriana waving at Canberra.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Very nice B&W taken in Sydney.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Engine Room Control Panel

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Oslo 1961

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Gliding in to Hong Kong 1987

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Southampton

Courtesy of Mike Williams

Definitely her 'Finest Hour'!

Courtesy of Colin Doughty

Another brilliant shot of the same event.

Courtesy of Tony Simpson

Tony writes;

These were taken whilst we were sailing in the Solent in 1995 during the celebrations to mark the 50 year anniversary of the D day landings in 1945.

Courtesy of Tony Simpson

The QE2 can be seen in the background.

Courtesy of Brian Hudson

Brian adds;

This was taken late 1965 anchored in Nagasaki Harbour. In the background is a shipyard with some tankers in various stages of completion. This was the era of Japan's recovery after the war, and her domination of shipbuilding at that time.

Courtesy of Alan Williams

Alan writes;

These 3 photos are of Canberra's last cruise before going to scrap. My mother took them when she went on the mv Oriana in 1979.

Courtesy of Alan Williams

Nice shot Mrs Williams!

Courtesy of Alan Williams

Sad!

Courtesy of Paul Carney

Canberra Leaves Southampton on her last cruise...

Courtesy of Paul Carney

Canberra's last Cruise - Handover of the golden cockerel to the new Oriana at Cannes.

Courtesy of Paul Carney

Then farewell

Courtesy of Paul Carney

...and says farewell to Victoria in the Medi.

Courtesy of Paul Carney

Last arrival Southampton

Courtesy of Paul Carney

In the pictures of arrival Southampton I can just be seen between the funnels letting the red, white and blue smoke bombs off as we approached Mayflower Park. My other job was to make sure no sparks, form the pyrotechnics we had set up, went down into the plenum chamber underneath. Arrival was a little of a let down at first as it was very foggy going up the Solent and you could only hear all the foghorn's around us. Finally though it lifted in time for those gathered on the banks of Southampton water to see the "old girl". We did set up one of the funnel smoke cameras up to video our arrival, but I think (in the excitement of the occasion) Freddie Lloyd (SETO) forgot to start the VCR and it never got done.

Courtesy of Paul Carney

The plane flying over the bridge wing is a "Canberra".

Courtesy of Paul Carney

Canberra's last departure from Sydney.

Courtesy of Paul Carney

Paul writes;

That's me and Christine on the deck, as Deputy Chief I was fortunate that I did very few standby's.

Courtesy of Paul Carney

Canberra final cruise Tech Dept

Courtesy of Paul Carney

Courtesy of Captain Mike Carr

These shots were taken by Captain Mike Carr who was the “Old Man” for the scrap run and they were sent to me by Don Cole. Thank you both of you especially Mike for capturing some priceless memories.

Canberra was withdrawn from service and sent to be scrapped but she did not give up without a fight as she became firmly stuck on a sandbar just off the breaker's yard at Gaddani Beach, Pakistan.

Courtesy of Captain Mike Carr

And this shot shows how far away from the beach she got stuck.

Courtesy of Captain Mike Carr

Here’s the crew arriving by lifeboat onto the beach.

Courtesy of Captain Mike Carr

and packing up ready to go home. Having been on the Nevasa scrap run I can feel the emotion in this picture.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

This is absolutely horrible but it has to be shown I guess.

Courtesy of Mike Williams

No further comment in necessary.