Box for souvenir lifebuoy from QUEEN ELIZABETH
Datec 1957
Object number00051887
NameBox
MediumPaper
DimensionsOverall: 120 x 120 x 22 mm, 36 g
ClassificationsToys, games and souvenirs
Credit LineANMM Collection Gift from Elaine Grierson
DescriptionBox for souvenir lifebuoy from QUEEN ELIZABETH.
This collection of souvenirs relates to voyages made by the Grierson family in the 1960s.HistoryThis collection of souvenirs relates to voyages made by members of the Grierson family in the 1960s. The mementos and prizes were awarded for sporting competitions and deckside games on SS ORSOVA, RMS QUEEN ELIZABETH and SS ARCADIA in 1968. Jack and May Grierson and their two teenaged sons travelled from Sydney to London on the Orient liner ORSOVA in February 1968. They sailed from Southampton to New York on the Cunard liner QUEEN ELIZABETH in July 1968. The Griersons returned to Sydney on the P&O liner ARCADIA, embarking from Los Angeles in September 1968 and sailing via Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines. They were joined by their daughter Elaine Grierson, who was returning to Australia after working as a nanny in the United States.
ORSOVA and ARCADIA were both launched on 14 May 1953. ORSOVA was built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow, England, and departed on its maiden voyage from London to Australia on 17 March 1954. It had accommodation for 681 first and 813 tourist class passengers.
ORSOVA completed the Orient Line's first round-the-world cruise in 1955, sailing from London to Australia through the Suez Canal, then across the Pacific to the west coast of America, returning to Tilbury via the Panama Canal. ORSOVA was repainted white in 1964 and transferred to the ownership of P&O the following year. It was used extensively for cruising through the early 1970s and was broken up in 1974.
ARCADIA was built by John Brown & Co at Clydebank, Scotland, in 1954. It had accommodation for 675 first and 735 tourist class passengers and departed Tilbury on its maiden voyage to Australia on 22 February 1954. ARCADIA underwent an extensive refit in 1959, with air conditioning extended through the ship, and cabins and public rooms upgraded and refurbished. At the end of 1959 it departed Sydney on its first voyage across the Pacific to San Francisco. Following its conversion to accommodate 1,372 passengers in one class, ARCADIA made a series of cruises to Alaska and Mexico, before being based in Sydney for cruises to the South Pacific and Asia. It was broken up in Taiwan in 1979.
RMS QUEEN ELIZABETH was launched in 1938 for the Cunard Line’s transatlantic service between Southampton and New York. It operated as a troopship during World War II before commencing commercial service in 1946, embarking on its maiden passenger voyage on 16 October. With the increasing popularity of air travel in the 1950s and 1960s, QUEEN ELIZABETH was retired from service and embarked on its final Atlantic crossing on 5 November 1968. It was later sold to a Hong Kong shipping group who intended to develop it as a floating university. In 1972, as it was being converted, QUEEN ELIZABETH caught fire in Hong Kong harbour and was eventually scrapped.SignificanceThis collection includes a number of rare mementos and prizes, ranging from the practical to the decorative, that were awarded for sporting competitions and deckside games on SS ORSOVA, RMS QUEEN ELIZABETH and SS ARCADIA in 1968. Shipboard activities such as horse races, table tennis and shuffleboard were often the highlights of a long sea voyage and many passengers cherished mementos of these events. As three-dimensional souvenir material is quite rare, this collection, bearing the distinctive P&O, Orient and Cunard corporate identities, has significant historical and aesthetic value and excellent display potential. It also provides a perspective on outward-bound voyages from Australia, at a time when thousands of British migrants were arriving in Australia through post-war assisted passage schemes.
