G.H.Bell Caronia

G.H.Bell "The Caronia days"

This page contains the original story of G.H. Bell

The Caronia was was designed and built for the Cunard Steamship Co. as primarily a Cruise Liner. I have a feeling she was the first large (34,000 tons) ship built mainly for that purpose. As such she had only one class of passenger accommodation compared to the two, or even three, classes of other passenger liners.

A normal year would consist of three or four West Indies cruises around Xmas and New Year, a couple of Spring Mediterranean cruises, a North Cape cruise which included a trip into one of the magnificent Norwegian Fjords. Finally, the annual lengthy World Cruise. Three or four ferryboat runs from Southampton to New York and back occupied the remainder of the the year.

Since the Caronia only carried one class of passengers she had only one cinema. This was well designed, well equipped and was a pleasure to handle.

The projectors, sound heads and sound system were all Westar. The lamps were horizontal low intensity carbon arc, roughly comparable to one kilowatt high intensity, although the light did not have the same sparkle as high intensity and tended to be more yellow. I don't remember the make of the lamps although the name Robert Rigby Co. of England comes to mind, but I can't recall if they ever manufactured arc lamps.

picture 1 : Rear-view of the auditorium of the Caronia.

There was also a non-sync turntable and a lantern for glass slides. This lamp also was low intensity but using an inclined vertical trim and a condenser instead of a horizontal trim with a reflector.
Main electrical supply on the ship was 230v DC and there was an adequate supply of 230v AC where needed. Instead of rectifying AC to DC for powering the arc lamps the lamps were connected to the main DC lines via ballast resistors which supplied the lamps with the required 55amps at 20 volts.
The only problem with this arrangement was the 30 volt carbon feed motor which, when the arc lamp switch was closed was subjected to the full 230 line volts until the arc was struck and the voltage dropped to 20v. A war surplus relay for each of the two projector lamps solved that problem (the slide lantern was manual feed only). The original coil was removed from the relay and three turns of the asbestos covered positive lead from the lamp switch to the lamp was wound around the relay pole piece. The relay contacts were wired in series with the existing manual isolation switch for the feed motor. So now, when the lamp switch was closed there was no longer the unearthly shriek from the overdriven feed motor, it remained stationary until the arc was struck, the current flow energised the relay and the feed motor went to work at its normal voltage. From then on the manual switch for that motor would remain permanently in the "on" position but would still be available for use as an isolation switch.
I almost forgot the third projector - a 16mm machine, I don't even remember which make. In order to use it I would remove the slide lantern from its pedestal and secure the 16mm to the convenient bedplate on which the slide lantern had been mounted.
The standard Westar sound system was mounted in a normal free standing rack close to the rear wall behind #2 projector.
The last item of equipment in the projection room was the Strand Electric dimmer board. Only four dimmers but adequate for the purpose.
The projection room itself was of reasonable size, about 18 feet by 9 feet with a 7 foot ceiling. Not too confining but no wasted space. A separate rewind room was on the other side of the wall alongside #2 projector and the large cabinets containing the ballast resistors were mounted at a reasonable height in a similar room behind the dimmer board.

The auditorium, containing 300 - 350 seats, was very well appointed, with good sight lines and fully carpeted, even in the actual seating area except for a very narrow strip immediately under each row of seats.
The screen was a conventional perforated made by Harkness. The masking even had rounded corners. Many years ago SMPE had a specification for calculating the radius of screen corners in relation to screen width! Then along came Cinemascope with its requirement of moveable masking and rounded corners vanished into limbo.
Caronia Auditorium front view

Picture 2 : Front view of the auditorium of The Caronia.

There was also a set of screen curtains plus a main drape. There was a loudspeaker system of course, usual small theatre type with a multicellular high frequency horn and the usual cone type low frequency driver. The make? Lost in the mists of time I'm afraid.

Performances

A different feature for every day at sea including any nights tied up in port when on a cruise. Normally there would be one show at 9pm when cruising.
On the ferry boat runs it would depend on the size of the passenger list. With a short passenger list it would be the usual 9pm show. With a large passenger list an extra show would be added at 4pm.
Very occasionally, when filled to capacity the show times would be 2pm, 5pm and 9pm.
During cruises the theatre would also be used during the daytime when at sea for lectures of various kinds including talks by experts on what to see and do while in the next port of call including details of the various optional land tours available at each stop. Many of these talks also included film, either 16mm or 35mm, and/or slides of both sizes, 35mm and the old style glass slides.
Occasionally on the West Indies cruise the ship would carry a group of entertainers and on several nights the 9pm show would be moved forward to 4pm and the stage show would take place at 9pm. If live performances were scheduled for any given cruise a platform stage was built out from the very shallow stage, and covered the first two rows of seats in the center section. It worked well enough but any slight pitch and roll of the ship was not conducive to the peace of mind of the performers when they realised there was nothing close by to grab hold of if needed!

I joined the Caronia shortly before her Maiden Voyage, to New York, in late 1947 or early 1948 and remained with her until mid 1954.
A very pleasant period - travelling the world, getting paid for it and not overburdened with work. With the bonus of eating meals prepared by some of the best chefs in the world!