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Harland & Wolff won the contract to
build P&Os largest liner to date in
1956. Canberra was intended to
provide an alternating service between
Southampton and Sydney with the
41,915-ton Oriana. Her maiden
voyage from Southampton June 2nd 1961
called at Gibralter, Naples, Colombo,
Fremantle, Melbourne and Sydney. She then
set off across the Pacific calling at
Honolulu, Vancouver, San Francisco and
Los Angeles. Her return to Southampton
took the same route back via Sydney.
Immigration to Australia had declined by
the end of the 1960s and many of the
remaining passengers were traveling by
aircraft. This forced P&O to operate
Canberra on cruises throughout the
Caribbean in an attempt to keep her in
service. Due to low bookings on the first
of these cruises, plans were made to
scrap her at the end of the 1973 season.
A sudden increase in
Canberra’s bookings during
the 1973 season persuaded P&O to keep
her in service.
After Argentine troops invaded the
Falklands in April 1982, Canberra
and Cunards QE2 were requisitioned
by the British Admiralty to serve as
troopships as they were the only large
liners operating under the British flag.
While unloading troops at San Carlos Bay,
Canberra was fortunate to escape
undamaged after being attacked by
Argentine aircraft. The completion of
that mission saw her set out for South
Georgia to pick up troops from the
QE2. She was then returned to the
war zone and successfully landed troops
for a second time. Following the
Argentine surrender June 14th 1982,
Canberra arrived back at
Southampton July 11th. P&O ordered a
replacement for Canberra in 1991
as she had by then become expensive to
maintain. The arrival of modern cruise
ships led to Canberra being sold
to the ship breakers at Karachi/India in
1997. With this being where the largest
oil tankers are normally scrapped, as
with the tankers, Canberra was run
onto the beach and dismantled where she
lay.
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