A Brief History of Canberra

SS Canberra was launched in 1961 at Belfast, the pride of P & O. She was revolutionary in her design, having engines which powered electric turbines. The lifeboats were also different to the normal lifeboats of the day, being made of Glass-reinforced plastic, which was a new material at the time. The boats were also set back from the edge of the ship on davits, passengers would stroll underneath them on their walks along the promenade deck.

Canberra ran from her home port of Southampton to Australia and New Zealand and on world trips further for some years, visiting almost every destination in the world.

She was involved in the Falklands War where she carried Paras and Marines from Blighty to San Carlos Water via Sierra Leone and Ascension, coming under fire in Bomb Alley without a single scratch. After cross-decking troops she continued to South Georgia to rendezvous with QE2 and carry further troops once more to San Carlos. At the end of battle, she carried over 4000 prisoners-of-war back to Argentina, all of them having to be loaded by the lifeboats, which took 12 hours.
Canberra then returned with troops to Southampton to a Heroes Welcome when thousands of people and boats turned out to see her home.
The Falklands war re-kindled interest in her, and she was saved from the scrapyard, cruising as always, until
nearly 40 years on from her launch, on 10 October, 1997, she left the UK from Southampton docks for the last time heading for the scrapyard, in the dark, to the accompaniment of bagpipes playing 'Dark Isle', 'Flowers of the Forest' and 'Flower of Scotland' on a cassette tape her Captain had had made for the occasion. Only a handful of ex-crew were there to see her off. It was a far cry from the throngs who'd crowded the dock in the 1960s and 70s to send off those bound for £10-a-ticket new lives in the New World with thousands of coloured paper streamers, symbolically tearing the links to the Old World apart one by one as the great ship pulled away from the harbour wall.
Early in the morning of 31 October, 1997, Captain Mike Carr brought Canberra's engines up to almost full speed. He then set the piped laments to play full volume through all the deck speakers and brought 40 years of ocean crossings to a close when he steered her straight at Gadani beach and into the hands of the disembowellers.
Dismantling her was not trouble-free. Her draft had always caused difficulties. She'd run aground twice: on one occasion taking four days to be set loose. Now a sandbar brought her to an inconveniently distant standstill. But even though it took a year instead of three months, the scrap merchants succeeded