With BI we started with admin traing in the Personnel Dept at No 1 Aldgate. After years as JAP then Clerical Purser (exra stripe) we did a catering course with Joe Lyons in London. Then back to sea as Dep Purser (C). It is interesting to see the very different routes taken by the variius companies..
In late sixties we had two immigrant liners in Shaw Savill, Southern Cross, came into service in 1955 and Northern Star in 1962. Usually, Southern Cross travelled westbound from Southampton to West Indies, Curacao ( for bunkers) Panama Canal, Tahiti, Rarotonga, Fiji to Wellington New Zealand, then across the Tasman to Sydney, where we stayed 3 days, before homeward to Melbourne, Fremantle, Durban, Capetown, Las Palmas and home to Southampton. Northern Star usually sailed eastbound with same ports, sometimes stopping in Auckland before heading across the Pacific, with same South Seas ports, but heading to Acapulco, before Panama. On Southern Cross, we sometimes stopped at Fort Lauderdale, the predecessor of Miami, and Bermuda, if travelling eastbound. Many additional ports when we started cruising in SouthPac and Mediterranean.
With BI we started with admin traing in the Personnel Dept at No 1 Aldgate. After years as JAP then Clerical Purser (exra stripe) we did a catering course with Joe Lyons in London. Then back to sea as Dep Purser (C). It is interesting to see the very different routes taken by the variius companies..