Hello all, great website.. been fascinating reading the posts. Anyway, here is my offering. I am quite verbose so I guess I'll have to split it in to a few posts, typical Liverpool lad, we like to talk!
I was always in to technical stuff and radio was my first love. My grandfather used to repair watches and radios and was one of the guys who would make "ships in bottles" which he sold to people all over the world. So it was natural that I should follow him on a nautical path, and I decided to take him up on his advice and pursue a technical career to become a "sparky" or radio officer, and duly signed up to study marine radio and radar at Riversdale nautical college in Liverpool
After 3 years of successful study, I gained by higher national certificate in telecomms engineerig, DTp radar maintenance certificate and the coveted MRGC - the marine radio officers qualification. This involved study, both theory and practical, of all ships radio, radar and maritime radio regulations, as well as Morse code.
I was awaiting the outcome of interviews that I had attended over the prior months- GCHQ, Royal Fleet Auxiliary with others in the pipeline, the Foreign Office, Civil Aviation Authority etc. when something happened that will live with me forever.
One day, a phone call arrived from one of my tutors at college asking if I would be interested in working on the QE2 - what a stupid question!! I was given the information and I contacted Bill Curry at the Cunard building at Liverpool's Pier Head to introduce myself. He invited me down the next day for a "chat". I arrived at one of the famous "3 Graces" on a sunny September morning in 1988.
I entered a building that I had only ever looked at from the outside. especially on my childhood trips with my grandfather, who was a seaman for most of his life. My great uncle Tony is commemorated on the memorial just facing the building as one of the crew members who died when HMS Laurentic was torpedoed during WW2. That area was special for me as it is for many people in Liverpool. It was, as expected, fantastic. Marble floors, wood panelled walls, everything you would expect for the head office of the greatest shipping firm in the world. I was shown in to the board room for my interview, the very room where the whole concept of the QE2 came to fruition. I was asked to get my medicals completed and all of the other stuff required as I would be joining the ship in Southampton on 6th October! So, I got my medicals, injections, uniform and all the other needs. I was asked to return a few days later for a "technical interview" which involved being dispatched in the basement of the building for the majority of the day dismantling a radar for a spare that was required one of the other ships in the Caribbean. It was very dusty, and I emerged in a dishevelled state after that I can tell you - now wonder Bill didn't want to do it! I did get to see the first class passengers' safe boxes and secure storage areas. I wondered how much money and precious belongings had been stored in there. If only the walls could talk....
The weeks passed quickly and it was time for a tearful farewell to my parents and girlfriend. The journey to Southampton seemed to take forever, not helped by the fact I was feeling sad at leaving my loved ones behind, but also trepidation at what lay ahead.
My first memory on reaching Southampton was the Toys r Us store near to the railway station. Then it was in to a taxi and my journey to the "other lady" in my life. On passing through the gates of the cruise terminal I saw the unmistakeable features of the ship that would be my home for the foreseeable future. I was completely overwhelmed by her size and majesty, a truly pedigree vessel. On leaving the taxi I approached the staff gangway and headed up to be met by my colleague Martin....to be continued.....
