Last year, my son, having just enlisted in the Army Air Corps, spent an exciting few weeks on board HMS Ark Royal, Britain’s only aircraft carrier, during a combined military exercise off the coast of Scotland. It was to be the ship’s last voyage.
Click photo to read Ark Royal notice
A week or so ago he sent me a poignant notice that had gone out to potential buyers of the Ark Royal, days before it was formally scrapped.
It saddened me. A ship has a soul and a dry dock is a cemetery.
I recalled how in 1976 I once rounded a cliff on the East coast of Taiwan not far from the port of Hualian. It was a bright sunny day and sky and ocean were an arching expanse of life-giving airy blue, and every shape on shore was etched with light and shadow.
There below us in a breaking yard was an ocean liner – dazzling, white, with fine lines, knife-like against the background of hills.
Only closer inspection showed that the great yellow funnel was hanging at a gruesome angle, and all the masts were gone.
SS Chitral
With a shock I recognised her. She was SS Chitral. She had been the pride of P&O’s Far East passenger run. In 1962 I had celebrated my ninth birthday on her. My mother, brother and I had spent the whole summer travelling in her from Yokohama to Southampton. She took me to boarding school.
My mind was flooded with memories: islands at sunset in the South China Sea, the Tiger Balm Gardens in Hong Kong, Hindu temples in Singapore, the snake temple in Penang, a boy climbing a coconut tree in Colombo, the lights of Aden glinting in a velvet dusk, mysterious lines of camels plodding by the Suez Canal, turbanned Gully Gully men producing chicks from my ear in Port Said, a baboon looking solemnly at me from on top of a rock in Gibraltar.
It was a different age then. The buildings in Hong Kong were colonial and rather small, it was normal to take rickshaws, and all the Chinese ladies wore cheongsams. In Singapore the men wore white suits, or crisp shorts and long socks. The East was green, mysterious and deeply romantic, even for a boy of nine. It was full of colour and smells. Later I was to recognize something of Kipling’s era in those memories. I was experiencing the British Empire in its final fading – but at the time it did not seem like that. It was a journey through an illustrated school atlas, opening up a very diverse world, a bigger book of life.
And central to everything was the ship we were travelling on, the shuttle that carried us between all these different tapestries. For those five weeks it was our home. While my mother bathed blissfully unconscious of us on the sun deck, my six-year-old brother and I explored every deck, every galley; we tried every hatch, every ladder. Once my brother caused consternation by climbing one of the masts; he had to be rescued by a sailor.
I close my eyes now and I recall her. Her spotless wooden decks on which we played quoits, cricket and sack races, and where at the end of the voyage there was a fancy dress party; the swimming pool full of salt water; the tearooms facing the main deck where you had to walk softly because here were the grown ups – quiet, faded men in grey suits, waistcoats and white moustaches with ladies in flower dresses and hair styles that now you only ever see in Agatha Christie episodes on television. In my memory they were always taking tea and biscuits. (Oh, that rich, wonderful tea. Sweet and spicy. P&O tea. I’ve missed the taste ever since).
But the pride of her was in the bow, as she ploughed proudly and confidently through and over the grey and green hills of the waves. And the soul of her was in the stern, where I would stand for hours, tasting the salt on my lips, feeling the wind in my hair, watching the gulls blown above my head, while the flying fish and dolphins kept pace with us, skimming the foam of our wake.
It was liberty, a feeling that infinity was something you could touch – the first time I was ever really conscious of the potential that life had to offer – and it was all the generous gift of this marvelous, beautiful ship.
Under a huge, unimaginable sky that rolled on forever…
Fourteen years later, a young man feeling my way into adult life, I stood on a cliff, looking down at my once proud travelling companion, my ocean steed, broken and shamed in her death throes, and again experienced something new, and shocking: a sense of mortality.
Brilliant writing, paints the scenes better than photos. 🙂
A very poignant story.
Can feel some of the emotions – in the nineties I worked on the Brazilian aircraft carrier NAeL Minas Gerais in Rio de Janeiro Navy Arsenal. She was an ex RN Colossus class carrier. 2004 I was saddened to see that she had been turned into razor blades and Indian micro cars 🙁
David Richards
I was on the ss chitral as a bell boy
In 1966 came from training at TS Indefatigable and left to go on ss Imalaya 19 67 great times !
I have. fond memories of working on the chitral as 3rd cook in the mid 60s
Like many others I remember sailing on the Chitral from Hong Kong to Southampton in 1964 as a 10 year old boy with my family. We made many friends on that voyage, among them the Reddaways and I recently corresponded with Phillip about this trip. Phillip and I scared everyone by hiding under the pool tarp to watch the small amount of water left splash against the sides during some rough weather. My parents were convinced I had been washed overboard. Thanks for the memories!
I wanted to show my Grandson a picture of the Chitral online, and was thrilled to come across your interesting article. We (husband, 5 year old son and 2 year old daughter) travelled to Singapore on our way to live and work in Bangkok, in August 1968, leaving from one of the still working London Docks- perhaps the King George V dock. What a wonderful voyage, not a cruise; everyone was going to the ‘East’ to work; for Cathay Pacific, the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, and missionaries to Calcutta and China.The Governor of Hongkong and his wife were in the next cabin. I spotted our window out onto the deck on the picture you included. The Suez Canal was closed (don’t know why) we stopped at Lisbon, Las Palmas, Madeira, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and then across the Indian Ocean accompanied by flying fish and dolphins, to Bombay, Colombo, Penang, Port Swettenham, and Singapore, where we took the train up to Bangkok.
Amazing that I remember every detail after all these years. The children were so well looked after, and entertained in the ‘nursery’. Dancing after dinner to an old fashioned – even in 1968 – quintet. Nothing much to do, except read, write postcards and letters, walk around the deck, watch for birds and sea creatures, or attempt a swim in the little pool; one small shop, a hairdressers, and a doctor’s surgery.
The food was wonderful, so many new things to taste as we sailed through the tropics and took on new supplies. Like another of your respondents, I too rolled off the ship after 5 weeks quite a bit heavier than when I had embarked in London.
You can imagine what a wonderful experience for me, who had never been further than a day trip to France before.
I sailed in the old Chitral in 1964 from Southampton to Hong Kong.We stopped at Port Said, Colombo, Penang,Singapore, Manila then Hong Kong.Those probably were the last great days of sea travel..white dinner jackets after Suez and stopovers with a whole day or so to explore local sights. She was a comfortable ship. Lovely
the flag is roughly 7 foot tall and about 12 foot long
hi there I believe I have the genuine ark royal flag it has a serial number down the left hand side of the union jack the serial number is 5714522 printed on the seam can anyone help ????
Your story of her incongruous fate moved me. In 1968 we were newly married and shortly thereafter we were posted to Singapore. The Suez was closed so we boarded the Chitral in Southampton and spent 6 blissful weeks sailing round the Cape stopping en route at Las Palmas, Cape Town, Bombay, Ceylon, Port Swettenham and, finally, Singapore.
The crew were magnificent. The service impeccable and the best haircut I gave ever had! The food was outstanding as witnessed by my putting on 2stone in the 6 weeks despite the deck quoits and winning the table tennis championship!!
Life on board was of an age gone by. We dressed for dinner and, being a relatively small ship, one quickly got to know one’s fellow passengers and who to avoid! All in all a wonderful experience and education without the overt commercialism so prevalent today. One disembarked with the feeling that the crew were sorry to say goodbye to a friend. It was an act but it made one feel that P&O were really the best.
To think of Chitral’s end in a ship breakers yard is sad.
Would anyone know of a possible tragic accident on this ship where a man lost his life in the engine room during a voyage to Australia?
I travelled on ss citral from Singapore to the uk in ’68 right after my 5th birthday. I know this because I had a cao with the dhips name on it. I was with my mother, sister and brother, having fled bangkok leaving my father there. I can’t say I hsd fond mrmoties but I fo remember king Neptune coming aboard and beong scared silly by him! do I was amszrd tp tead yhis story of this patticlar ship and its last testimg place.
Hi all, your experiences of sailing on the Chitral bring back many happy memories for me. This was my first ship when I joined the Merchant Navy in 1966 and sailed on the Chitral for three trips as a Bell Boy. I still have some memorabilia from my days at sea and fond memories as a Bell Boy on the Chitral and the Far East, particularly Honk Kong. I left the Chitral and worked as a Steward on the Oriana, plus other ships. I was sad to hear the Chitral was scraped; they will never make ships like that again.
I travelled with my parents, two brothers & sister from Colombo to Singapore via Penang in Nov. 1966. Left Colombo on the 27th of Nov & reached S’pore on the 3rd of Dec. Was sea sick for the first couple of days but enjoyed the rest of the trip.
My mother immigrated to Australia with her family on her in 1950. We have a photo of my mother with her brothers and sisters taken for the Family Circle magazine on the ship.
i was an engineer on chitral 1968 1970 your story had me in tears
Hi, I sailed on the SS Chitral approx 1970 it was a 6 week cruise through Japan,Manila, and New Guinea, the day we were to dock in Rabaul there had been a tidal wave, so we had to dock further out for the day. I had my appendix out at sea on the ship between Port Moresby and Manila. I remember the cruise very well, and have since been on 7 other P@o cuises, meeting my now ex husband as a crew member on the Arcadia and then as an engagement gift to spend some time with him on the Oriana, he eventually jumped ship to marry me. Your story was well written. cheers Kim
My mother, aged about 9 sailed on SS Chitral to England in 1930. We have lots of memorabilia including a postcard featuring the vessel and a souvenir spoon.