Canberra

On the withdrawal of Canberra, P&O's most famous cruise liner, in September 1997, a chapter in shipping legends will be complete. Canberra began life in 1961 as a liner working the route from Southampton to Sydney, taking tourists between the continents and those on the assisted-passage scheme to new lives in Australia. Alongside her regular career as holiday home for the thousands who cruise in her every year, highlights of her service life include working as a troop ship and prisoner-of-war vessel during the Falklands conflict of 1982 and taking on a major role in the D-Day Remembrance Service in 1994. Canberra was also at the forefront of cruise liner design, with particular impact on the design of the new Oriana. In this volume her importance to maritime architecture is discussed alongside her undoubted place in the heart of the nation. Using original material from the P&O archives and drawing on personal collections, the author explores the part Canberra has played in history since the early stages of planning in the late 1950s through to her forthcoming retirement.