# Himalaya



## Fairfield

P&Os first post war liner completed at Barrow in 1948 taken in Tilbury Dock in 1968.


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## cockerhoop

*vintage liners*

due to air travel a lot of liners pre-war and post were retired or scapped between 20 and 30 years of age, i find it amusing when i read of people talking of vintage liners from the 50's and 60's. While they class the likes of Sundream, Carousel, Black Watch etc in the modern cruise liner bracket, many of these are approaching 35 years old, and are older than Saga Rose and Caronia. Also reading back to 1967 with the retirement of the old Queen Mary, at just 31 years old, nobody seems to class the QE2 as elderly yet!!!!
thanks
Geoff


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## tanker

A very similar of HIMALAYA was CHUSAN built a year later in 1950 a few little
of grt and a few short.


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## Doug Rogers

Fairfield said:


> P&Os first post war liner completed at Barrow in 1948 taken in Tilbury Dock in 1968.


Hi,
Great photo, might well have been one of her last visits to Tilbury as it wasnt much longer before the push to Southampton took over. I may well have been on her or about to join again depending when in 68 it was taken.
Cheers,
Doug


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## Fairfield

Taken on 17th February 1968.Incidentally,how did you pronounce her name-HIMALIA or HIM-MALAYA.Always interested to hear!!!


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## Doug Rogers

Fairfield said:


> Taken on 17th February 1968.Incidentally,how did you pronounce her name-HIMALIA or HIM-MALAYA.Always interested to hear!!!


Yes I had just joined her for dry dock at Tilbury (7.2.68), spent the next sixteen months attached before joining Canberra after leave.
In terms of the name it was generally "Himalaya" as in the mountain range. A very few people pronounced it "Himalia" but I think it was purely an affectation - I could never find any reason for it that made sense to me anyway. The other pronounciation of her name - generally for the inevitable fancy dress party - was to dress up as a chicken with the placard Him a laya attached front and back to their clothing.


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## Doug Rogers

Fairfield said:


> Taken on 17th February 1968.Incidentally,how did you pronounce her name-HIMALIA or HIM-MALAYA.Always interested to hear!!!


Yes I had just joined her for dry dock at Tilbury (7.2.68), spent the next sixteen months attached before joining Canberra after leave.
In terms of the name it was generally "Himalaya" as in the mountain range. A very few people pronounced it "Himalia" but I think it was purely an affectation - I could never find any reason for it that made sense to me anyway. The other pronounciation of her name - generally for the inevitable fancy dress party - was to dress up as a chicken with the placard Him a laya attached front and back to their clothing. 
She was a great ship, extremely seaworthy and in any form of bad weather generally left both Canberra and Oriana behind if they were in the offing. I think that she still held the record for the Syd/Melbourne transit when she was retired. I believe that her main turbines were originally destined for one of the RN cruisers that didnt get built and became available for her use. You may know more on that subject than I do although I believe it to be gospel!!.
Doug


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## Fairfield

Thanks for that.I/ve seen and heard many discussions about her name but usually ended up as the mountain range being the most popular.Nice story about her turbines-could be true!


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## 12548

*Anyone know?*

Just looking at these Posts and wondering if by any chance anyone would recall "Dusty" who served on the Himalaya.
Am not too sure how long he was on her but it was for quite some time i believe.
Worked in the Bar i think! Real name George Vander Poll
Well liked and known.
This was my late Uncle ('My Mums youngest Brother)
Was of South African Origin,but became British Citizen and married and lived in East End when at Home,very seldom in those days.
Cheers
joller6


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## Gareth Jones

Doug Rogers said:


> Yes I had just joined her for dry dock at Tilbury (7.2.68), spent the next sixteen months attached before joining Canberra after leave.
> In terms of the name it was generally "Himalaya" as in the mountain range. A very few people pronounced it "Himalia" but I think it was purely an affectation - I could never find any reason for it that made sense to me anyway. The other pronounciation of her name - generally for the inevitable fancy dress party - was to dress up as a chicken with the placard Him a laya attached front and back to their clothing.


 At that time I was working at GNF, and I remember one morning working her with a long string of link calls due she had been delayed by bad weather - halfway through these calls the R/O on watch chided me for pronouncing "Himalaya" when it should be "Himalia" -I replied that the mountain range in India was Himalaya and as far as I was concerned that was that, however we could both use our differing pronounciations on the understanding the each would know what the other meant !. He didnt argue further !


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## aleddy

I have heard it said that each ship of the P&O Passenger Fleet was named after certain geographical features.
As already mentioned, Himalaya for the mountain range which had Mt Everest as its tallest peak.
I sailed on Iberia which was named for the Iberian Peninsula which was Spain and Portugal.
There is a series of P&O Passenger Liner names of the 20 th century starting with the the other letters "A" "C" "M" "N" "R" & "S" 
Can you name one and the geographical feature it was named for if in fact it was.
Mr. Fairfield Sir, I hope you do not mind me using your thread in this manner
Cheers
Ted


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## TonyR

Known on the Aussie coast as the Poofter Chook,


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## 12548

Arcadia (A region of Greece in Peloponnesian peninsula)

Sea Princess (named after the Goddess of the Seas ) so i am told

joller6


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## Ron Stringer

Gareth Jones said:


> At that time I was working at GNF, and I remember one morning working her with a long string of link calls


Come on now Gareth, that can't be true. We all know that GNF never answered calls from ships. Made calls to ships, yes, but never the other way around. Lol.

Returning to the thread, pronouncing the name as Himallia at least was the way it was pronounced in Hindi. We had a batti wallah (electrician's assistant) who was from the mountains and when asked where he came from, would say the name of the village (now long-forgotten) and add "In the Hamallias, sahib." Himarlia was a posh attempt at an imitation.

On my first ship as 3rd R/O I was asked to fix the VHF and, having done so needed a test call. We could see the Himalaya on an opposite course, passing 3 or 4 miles away heading up Channel so I gave her a call, in my best Lancashire accent - Him a lay a. The reply came back from the 'Himarlia'.


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## K urgess

On one of those evenings when you could hear the UK and Capetown on VHF channel 16 we heard a vessel calling.
"Dakarrrr Radio, Dakarrr Radio this is the Pee and Oh vessel Himarlia, Pee and Oh vessel Himarlia, over" in a very plummy accent.
Dakar was obviously fast asleep because there was no reply and the calling went on for quite a while before he got a reply and not the one he expected.
"Oh shut up ye bloody great poofter" in a broad Yorkshire accent from what must've been one of the Hull trawlers trying his luck down around the Falklands.


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## Gareth Jones

Ron Stringer said:


> Come on now Gareth, that can't be true. We all know that GNF never answered calls from ships. Made calls to ships, yes, but never the other way around. Lol.
> 
> Oh really! (Scandalised!), I have to say I personally never failed to answer ships where possible.
> Let me explain, there was normally one man on W/T watching 500 and working ships at the same time, this meant if he was off on working frequencies, calls could go unnoticed. (500 was on a speaker, so the landline man could hear any distress calls).
> The exception being, 0800z to 1200z when one man was devoted to watching 500 giving qrys bcasts etc, and an additional "working" man taking and sending traffic on working frequencies, both these guys shared the same transmitter, so if the working man was sending traffic the 500 man couldnt answer even though he could hear you ! but he would eventually reply if you waited for him to get the transmitter back.
> 
> R/T worked in a similar way 0800z to 1200z a distress watch man watched 2182, 2381 and ch16 VHF giving QRY's and making bcasts. With another man alongside him connecting the ships calls.
> 
> Outside these hours one man did it all - GNF was a very busy station in my day, and in trying to work off as many ships as possible it was nothing to have three calls connected at the same time (when we got remote controlled Thames Radio VHF it was possible to connect four!) - however this meant the answering transmitter could be tied up, hence no immediate answer - if you were patient he would have replied eventually. This situation did improve when we eventually got another M/F transmitter.
> 
> Having said all this, I must admit not all staff were always as consciencious as they might have been, and relieving certain persons on watch meant facing a solid wall of calling ships who allegedly 'weren't there a minute ago!!!'. Personally I didnt mind because l enjoyed working ships, but it did lead to staff tension/quarreling.


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## Ron Stringer

Gareth,

It was only tongue in cheek. 

At sea it was rumoured that GNF was the 'punishment block - all the naughty boys and square pegs were sent there!

Whatever the reason, I always found it quicker to work GCC or GND from the southern end of the North Sea - even from the Channel once you were East of GNI and couldn't get a response from him. Never did understand why the GPO [and later BT] couldn't sort out the MF W/T and R/T coverage. Struggled to raise GLD from the Bay of Biscay but had no problems with GNI from there. GLD was fine from the West or down by Finisterre but once East of Ushant you could also forget it, even at 50 miles range. 

PCH could be reached from anywhere in the Bay or the Channel. Must be the old Brit thing - started radio off [with the help of a certain Italian gentleman] but never managed to make a go of it!


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## Gareth Jones

Ron,
I did appreciate it was tongue in cheek - but it's something I'd heard before and felt it necessary to point out that it wasn't always the staff to blame. 
When I was there we were equipped with very old horizontal receiving aerials which as you know can have a directional element, as opposed to vertical ones which are omnidirectional. The receiving aerials were sited right by the Northforeland light and gave reduced response anywhere in the westerly direction. This may account for apparent gaps in coverage.
Best 73's.

Gareth.


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## sparkie2182

the lads in awarua sometimes needed a few "shouts" as i remember.......


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## Ron Stringer

Gareth Jones said:


> it wasn't always the staff to blame.


That's what I meant about the need for GPO/BT to sort out their MF coverage. The guys at GLD said that their receiving antennas were sited with rising ground to the East, which greatly reduced reception from ships in the Channel. Or was it the scrumpy?


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## K urgess

"Failure to establish Communication with a
United Kingdom Coast Station
101. 
When a ship station passes within the service area of a United
Kingdom coast station and is prevented for any reason from
communicating with that station, it is the responsibility of the 
ship station to secure redirection of any traffic held for the 
ship by that coast station, through the first United Kingdom
coast station with which communication is established."

Handbook for Radio Operators, 1975 edition.


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## sparkie2182

is that the blue edition marconi?


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## K urgess

Yup, Sparkie....sure is....
Anybody got an orange one?


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## sparkie2182

mine fell apart donkeys years ago.........it was my training copy, and had all the ink worn off the pages with constant scanning.........


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## K urgess

When I started working shoreside most of mine got dumped.
Besides I was working for a RAMAC radio company and we had shelves full of all the required publications for visiting contract ships.
Used to just bin the old ones from the ships.
Wish I had a few of those now like lists of callsigns etc..... (Sad)


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## Ron Stringer

Marconi Sahib said:


> .....through the first United Kingdom
> coast station with which communication is established."QUOTE]
> 
> Choosing the right time of day/night it was always a boost to be able to get a MF link call through GCC or GND from off the West African coast. So much cheaper (and quicker) than making the tedious arrangements via HF - make an appointment at least 24 hours in advance, be allocated 30 minutes when you needed only a 3 minute call, then finding that there was no answer because the person being called had gone out. Book another 30 minutes for the following days and try again. Repeat ad infinitum. Of course you had to say that you were in the Channel or North Sea but I never heard of anyone being prevented from making a call.


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## aleddy

In a rescue attempt I'll tackle "C" for Canberra, a beautiful and modern style of Passenger Liner built at Harland and Wolff Belfast.
She was named for the Australian capital city Canberra which was also a totally modern concept of the 20th century.
Cheers 
Ted


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## Michael Broughton

As an ex-Himalya R/O in the early sixties, it was always Himalaya. We were aware a few said Himalia but it never became the normal pronunciation, not even among the deck officers! Incidentally the hardest radio station to contact, certainly on HF, was VIS. You could spend hours trying and yet, when you finally got through, they were pretty good in actually dealing with traffic.


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## sparkie2182

the Handbook for Wireless Operators had a fund of interesting items tucked away at the back.
the "specimen" exam papers were a hoot................

the gap between P.M.G 2 and P.M.G 1 was clear for any student to see.

sadly, the year i joined, the M.R.G.C. came into being, and the City and Guilds
qualifications followed later........ leading to the Full Tech Cert.

The D.T.I. Radar Maintenance Certificate was highly prized, and came as a suitably ornate "Silk Parchment" do***ent.........highly impressive.
almost worth remembering the radar range equation for........


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