CANBERRA’s 1973 New York Cruises - A Season to be Remembered and Forgotten

by Brad Hatry

CANBERRA arrived at New York on the clear, brutally cold morning of January 31st. P&O, uncertain of just what to do with their flagship, had scheduled nearly a full year of NY-Caribbean cruises. It was to be a year of adventures and misadventures.

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CANBERRA sailing from New York June 2, 1973.
(Photograph Ted Scull)

Cunard Line had been contracted as U.S. agents for these cruises and, as such, really didn’t strongly promote CANBERRA, competing as she was, with their flagship QUEEN ELIZABETH 2 and their soon-to-be Bermuda bound cruise ship CUNARD AMBASSADOR. Early sailings were miserably booked, so a few cruises were cancelled and CANBERRA spent most of March anchored several miles offshore of Wilmington, North Carolina. Spring bookings picked up and CANBERRA resumed her schedule in April. But misadventures beckoned and the future looked ominous: on June 1st, P&O announced that CANBERRA would be withdrawn at the end of her New York cruising season, after a career of only twelve years.

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Another view of CANBERRA in the late afternoon.
(Photograph Ted Scull)

Arriving at Grenada on July 12th, with WSS member Brad Hatry and more than 2000 other passengers aboard, CANBERRA went hard aground and remained so until fuel could be offloaded on July 15th. While aground, a laundryman was killed when a cable attached to a tug snapped and recoiled. Resuming her cruise, CANBERRA skipped Martinique, calling at Barbados and St. Thomas before returning to New York two days late.

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CANBERRA in upper New York harbor
with the Statue of Liberty in the background.
(Photograph Ted Scull)

On August 14th, while anchored off St. Thomas, a sudden squall drove CANBERRA aground again. Refloated on August 16th, she suffered only bent propeller tips. However, it was during this cruise that P&O announced that the decision to retire CANBERRA had been reversed and she’d be refitted for full-time cruising. It was a silver lining indeed to certainly the most bizarre year of her career.