Dress Code

In 2016, P&O relaxed the dress code onboard their ships.

For our trip, we were in the second sitting in the main restaurant and thus subject to the highest level of the code.

On the very first night after leaving Southampton and on all evenings that followed a day on shore, we were allowed to go “casual”. Merely ordinary suit or smart jacket and tie for us men and a “simple” dress for the ladies.

On evenings while at sea and not in the “tropics” – which in our case was to be the Mediterranean – it was Atlantic/Bay of Biscay Black Tie. Tropical Black Tie to come  in a few days. 

One can laugh about all this pomp and ceremony but have to say I quite enjoyed it and without doubt, so did all the other passengers.
This particular evening, Captain greeted all the guests personally.

I don't remember ever getting to dine at the Captain’s table although I am sure we were invited as a matter of courtesy. The captain, Commodore Michael (Sammy) Bradford V N C.B.E RD**RNR was, however, invited to dine at our table and told some wonderful stories of his time on the Canberra and many other P&O ships.

He had been on the Canberra as a young officer in 1960 when she was still in the builder’s yard in Belfast and served on her for the first three years, always returning from time to time.

He had been captain on the first leg of the Canberra’s 1982 World Tour and had left at Sydney and was sitting in his garden at home in the UK when the call came to pack a bag and fly out to join the ship at an unplanned emergency stop. His extensive knowledge of the ship and his length of service in the Royal Navy Reserve meant he was ideal to assist the “secret” small team from the Ministry of Defence who with him were picked at Gibraltar and during the final leg of the World Tour back to Southampton, draw up all the plans for converting her for use in the Falklands War: helicopter pads, extensive hospital services etc., all had to be worked out before she docked at Southampton where all the necessary steel girders and equipment was waiting.

We were to be given permission to have his personal deck during the cruise, just below the bridge. A luxury of course.

He died in 2011, aged 80. I am not sure when he received his C.B.E. The “RD" is a medal given to RNR officers after 15 years of service and I suspect the two “*” represent further 10 year stints. I can’t find out what the “VN” stands for. I know his ultimate boss was very proud of him and held him in the highest respect and fully acknowledged he was the boss on the ship.

In the photo, he is wearing the insignia of "Captain" but signed my daughter's autograph book as "Commodore". Perhaps the title had only recently been awarded. We would have been somewhere in the southern Bay of Biscay or off the Portuguese coast.