Guest Blog - P&O Cruises Chief Engineer Charlie Hill.

15 May 2011 – In Alaskan Waters.


Hello readers Cruise Director Nigel is with you once more.

Today we have a very special blog, on 8 May in San Francisco P&O Cruises Chief Engineer Charlie Hill disembarked Arcadia and retired. He had been with the company 42 years 8 months and 11 days, and had worked on 16 ships in all, 9 of them steamships and 7 motorships!

Please find below Charlie’s guest blog.


I was born on 8 May 1951 in that Festival of Britain year.

I was Educated in Ilkeston, Derbyshire and finished my schooling at Hallcroft School Ilkeston.  After leaving school in 1967 and working on the family farm until it was sold in early 1968, I applied for the position of an Engineer Cadet to the New Zealand Shipping Company. They actually preferred to take cadets straight from school, so sent me an application form for the parent company The Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company.

I duly filled in the form and managed to get an interview down at Beaufort House, Gravel lane, London. To my amazement I was actually accepted (they must have been very short). In August of that year the entire intake of Engineer Cadets went for our induction into the company on the SS Oronsay down at Tilbury.

It was a four and a half year apprenticeship with P&O spending the first 2 years at South Shields Marine and Technical College.  As a Cadet we were on £4, 16 shillings a week which was a huge pay rise from working on the farm, I can assure you.

The third year was then spent at sea and I served on the P&O cargo liner SS Pando Sound (Formally the SS Bendigo). During my time on there we were on the Far East service from London, Hamburg, Rotterdam and Antwerp. I also served on the new OCL container ship SS Flinders Bay on the Europe-Australia Service.

It was then back to South Shields for my final year at college, completing my studies in June of 1972.

I then joined my first passenger ship the SS Chusan. This was the sister ship to the SS Himalaya but had a GRT of some 2,000 tons lighter but with the same engines. So just a little faster. I completed my cadetship on her and became an Assistant Engineer at the end of 1972. The Chusan was a fantastic ship built just after the war, she was the first vessel ever fitted with Denny Brown anti roll stabilisers. In those days the ships were all two class (except for Cathay & Chitral who were one class first). For most of my time on her, I was based down in Cape Town and mainly cruised to South America and the islands of the Indian Ocean.  Chusan was then decommissioned in May of 1973.

I then was then on various ships as an Assistant Engineer finally being promoted to 4th Engineer on the fastest and most powerful vessel of the P&O Orient Line Fleet, - SS Oriana. Her boiler room was basically my home and this ‘Ocean Greyhound’ had 4 Foster Wheeler ESD Type boilers. When at her service speed of 29 kts she closely resembled Nagasaki at two minutes to eleven.

In 1976 I was promoted to 3rd Engineer on SS Arcadia. During 1982 I served on SS Canberra during the Falklands campaign, which was certainly a different type of cruising.

I went to the MV Sea Princess / Victoria in 1985 and sailed as her Senior Second Engineer from 1989, finally being promoted to Chief Engineer in 1994.  Until the retiring of Canberra in 1997 I was the relief Chief on both Sea Princess and Canberra.  After leaving Canberra I sailed on various ships as Chief Engineer until my retirement on 8 May 2011 in San Francisco (my 60th birthday).

I have sailed on the last three Arcadias, but not the first as it was way before I was born.

As for my family life I met my wife Catherine Elizabeth (Kate) when she worked in a Private school in Derbyshire in 1973, which was where my father and mother worked. We were married in 1976. I have two sons and four grandsons. I have always lived in Derbyshire and presently live in the village of Crich, which is about six miles from Matlock. To be honest I don't think I will ever leave the county.

My interests are walking, gardening, farming, motorcycling and local history, in particular industrial history. I belong to the Arkwright Society and hope to be able to find more time once retired to take a more active part in Cromford Mill, its surrounding areas and the life of Sir Richard Arkwright. - I am not quite ready just yet for 'the pipe and slippers'.

I will certainly miss being with P&O Cruises and the sea, but most of all it’s the people that I have sailed with over the last 42 years that I will miss the most.


Thanks Charlie for the great story - the life of an engineer on P&O Cruises!  Do enjoy the photographs today.

Charlie Hill in 1969.

Chief Engineer Charlie Hill and I at Charlie’s ‘Dining out Dinner’ held on board Arcadia in The Retreat on 30 April. It is a tradition at P&O Cruises that before an Executive Officer leaves his final ship to go in to retirement he is given a ‘Dining out Dinner’; this is attended by the ships Executive Committee and other Senior Officers.

Charlie was presented with cards and gifts at the dinner by his fellow officers and Captain Opray, Executive Purser David Hall, and Staff Chief Engineer Tim Chillingworth read out many messages that had been sent to Charlie from friends and colleges throughout our fleet of ships and from our head office in Southampton.

Chief Engineer Charlie Hill cutting his retirement cake at Charlie’s ‘Dining out Dinner’ held on board Arcadia in The Retreat on 30 April. On the left of the photograph is Staff Electo-Technical Officer Terry Kearney.

The Executive Committee and Senior Officers who attended the ‘Dining out Dinner’ on 30 April 2011.
Back row left to right, Commercial Manager Cory Brown, Senior Doctor Katharina Loock, Personal Development Manager Dawn Gardener, Ships Service Engineer Steve Ralphs, 1st Electro Technical Officer Darius Smolec, Cruise Director Nigel Travis, Ventilation Officer Lee Rutherford, Staff Chief Engineer Tim Chillingworth, 1st Engineer Nick Payle.
Front Row left to right, Food and Beverage Manager Dianne Lilley, Staff Electo-Technical Officer Terry Kearney, Deputy Captain Derek Gray, Chief Engineer Charlie Hill, Captain Kevin Opray, Executive Purser David Hall, Passenger Service Manager Jackie Bott.

A life at sea.


Bye for now, I will be back in a few days to start a series of blogs on our Alaskan ports of call.

All the best
Nigel