Page 10 - October 2015
P. 10

10

    THE OCEAN TIMES

                                                                                   by Len Friend (8988)

         HERE'S not a lot to be said about        a double crown Harrild both of which were
         geƫng older except that you can          installed when the ship was being built in
         start to do the things that you always   1934. As there were no five year changes in
wanted to do but never had the Ɵme; so, with      technology in those days they were both sƟll
the gradual planned reducƟon of our prinƟng       working right to the end in 1967.
business, I can now turn my thoughts to all
sorts of weird and wonderful ideas.                  The inside secƟon of the twelve page paper
   One of the things that has both fascinated     was pre-printed and the on board printers had
and exasperated me is old newspapers, they        a selecƟon of these to use on different nights,
are interesƟng to look at and read but at some    they even used different secƟons for east or
point they will all disintegrate and, given the   west bound crossings with adverts that were
cost of preserving them in paper form, it's       more UK or USA orientated. The outer secƟon
preƩy pointless if they can only be viewed in     was printed with news from the outside world
an airƟght glass case.                            which, given the primiƟve communicaƟon
   Having all this spare Ɵme I have been busy     systems at that Ɵme, was rare or non-
capturing the images on the mac, restoring        existent for the majority of those on board.
the damage of Ɵme and, when needed,               I parƟcularly like the Kempton Park racing
re-producing them digitally. They are not         result on the front page. The printer has had
produced commercially but are used as props       a baƩer on the winners name but probably
or given away at talks and I would say that       calculated that no-one on the ship would have
everyone who sees them is amazed at the           had a bet so, run on.
difference in a newspaper from the mid 1960's
to those of the present day.                         The Mary was notoriously unstable even
   One of my first efforts was a copy of the        on a moderate sea, so there must have
Ocean Times, this was given to me by a fellow     been some interesƟng Ɵmes in the print
member of the Queen Mary Crew AssociaƟon          shop because, as well as the newspaper the
and, as well as being eternally grateful, it      printers worked in close co-operaƟon with
gave me the chance to try out my idea. The        the head chef and the pursers office to print
newspaper was in reasonable condiƟon but          all the daily menus as well. They also did a
had been kept folded for almost fiŌy years         very nice line in Christmas cards which were
and had some sunlight damage to half of the       popular with the American passengers.
front page, but given its historic importance in
my life was a worthwhile project.                    Although I visited the print shop from Ɵme
   The Ocean Times was the newspaper              to Ɵme, my actual job was much deeper in
printed every night on the Cunard                 the ship. FiŌy feet below the working alley
transatlanƟc liners and this copy was printed     (the Burmah Road) and extending more than
on the Queen Mary in 1966. The newspaper          three quarters the length of the vessel was
was set on a linotype machine and printed on      the propulsion machinery or, as the Americans
                                                  now call it the powertrain. Here one hundred
                                                  and eighty men divided into three watches
                                                  tended the fires, monitored gauges and
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