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CANBERRA (1961)
Service dates: 1961-1997
Official number: 302649
Shipping lines: P&O ORIENT LINE; P&O LINES; P&O PASSENGER DIVISION; P&O CRUISES; P&O STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY
Ship type:
Passenger Liner.
Career
- 20.12.1956
- Ordered.
- 23.09.1957
- Keel laid.
- 17.03.1958
- Name announced.
- 16.03.1960
- Launched by Dame Pattie Menzies DBE wife of the then Prime Minister of Australia.
- 29.04.1961
- Builder’s trials, after which her bow was given extra ballast to compensate for the aft-bias of her machinery.
- 19.05.1961
- Owner’s trials. Achieved 29.27 knots.
- 19.05.1961
- Completed as Canberra for The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company at a cost of £17,021,000.
- 02.06.1961
- Maiden voyage Southampton/Sydney/Auckland/US West Coast and reverse via Suez to Southampton.
- 04.09.1961
- Arrived at Southampton after maiden voyage.
- 21.06.1962
- Work undertaken to alleviate high fuel consumption, reduce soot deposits by extending her funnel uptakes by 1.5m (5ft), and cover the first class stadium turning it into a theatre.
- 01.1963
- Suffered a fire which disabled her main engines while in the Mediterranean heading for Port Said, outward bound for Australia.