Although this starts with Capt Sir Ian McNaught, it then moves on to a passenger - Mrs Betty HOLLOWAY!
The lady mentioned as wel las being a regluar QE2 Australia passenger was also occaisionally a traveller on other ships. When i first met her on Qe2 she used to 'tell other passengers' that she was either my 'mother' or 'Aunt', of which she was neither! But it was a good laugh and i played along with it.
Anyway some years later, when i was serving in the 'Penal Colony' with P&O Australia we were doing a 7 day cruise from Sydney to Melbourne for the 'Melbourne Cup' race meeting. Among the passengers was Betty Holloway who when she saw me at the gangway on embarkation started on her old 'he's my son you know' again.
Pacfici Sun had a routine, as did all P&O Aust ships whereby should a passenger indulge too much in alcohol they would have their bar tab suspended for 24 hours. This usually was about 4 or 5 pasengers a night! On this cruise my wife was travelling with me so in fact there were two Mrs Holloway's onboard.
One morning while alongside in Melbourne i arrived in my office to take over from the Night Security Officer to find a message that The Captain wanted to speak to me as soon as i arrived in the office! So i took myself up to his office, wondering what had happened. He greeted me with a 'come in and close the door'. He then asked me if i had seen the night report, which as i had gone up to see him straight away i hadn't. He then passed it across the desk to me and pointed out the 'Suspention of Tab. list, on it was Mrs HOLLOWAY!
Athough i knew, he obviously hadn't, that there were in fact two Mrs HOLLOWAY's onboard, my wife and the passenger Mrs Betty HOLLOWAY, and that this Mrs HOLLOWAY was in fact the passenger and not my wife! He thought a moment, then looked at the passenger list and smiled. He apologised adding that he thought it strange as he'd seen my wife and i having dinner in the restaurant the previous night.
I saw the other Mrs HOLLOWAY around the ship later that day and she was SOOOO embarassed by her actions. After we got back to Sydney i never saw her again, but she certainly was a charactor.
