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Subject: SS UGANDA Christmas 1976


Author:
Clark Warden (Great memories)
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Date Posted: 16:59:30 02/05/07 Mon
 It was great to find a forum dedicated to those who experience cruising aboard the good old SS Uganda. I was on the Christmas 1976 cruise to the Holyland. I'm sitting here thinking of all the things I remember and it's quite surprising all the little memories that come flooding back from over 30 years ago. 30 years ago!?!? Crikey, that's scarey!! The trip was an inter-schools group from Northern Ireland. I had just turned 15 and was the only pupil from my school, Friends' School Lisburn. Most of the group were from Bangor Grammar School. We went on a weekend break prior to the cruise so that everyone could get to know each other. I remember we flew out on 18 December 1976 from Belfast to Brindisi on the very southern tip of Italy via a DanAir comet. From Italy the itinery was Antalya in Turkey, Piraeus in Greece, Haifa in Israel, Kos in the Greek Islands and Malta. I'm not sure if that's the correct order. We were supposed to go to Beirut but a lot of trouble started there and it was cancelled. There are lots of little random memories that are springing to mind here... playing deck hockey on the longer journeys between ports and loosing quite a few of the pucks made of rope over board, a horrendous storm in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, some poor girl dropping her camera into the sea as we boarded one of the motor boats to take us from ship to port; smuggling bottles of Ouzo on board and having our dorms searched by the crew. They never did find our bottles that were well hidden around the pipes; Raiding some of the girls dorms in the middle of the night; catching a bad cold and loosing my voice for about 5 days which was awful; the cold pork pies that we got with the pack lunch; the food on board; the great on board discos in the evening; memorable songs include Dancing Queen by Abba, Don't Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee, and of course Sailing by Rod Stewart which always ended the nights. Watching Bugsy Malone in the onboard cinema; riding a camel in Jerusalem; a torrential rain storm in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve night; Our muster station was called Young Husband and we had a pin badge to wear; all members of our dorm being up in front of the Captain for unchaining someones bed and throwing it into one of the swimming pools... terrible; the great banter in the dorms in the evening; the 7 inch vinyl record that we all got on departure; running across the runway at Malta airport to catch the flight home, which we almost missed... and so many more great memories. I haven't seen any of my fellow cruisers since we broke up at the end of the trip. I wonder where they all are? Clark Warden.
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Replies:
Subject Author Date
Re: SS UGANDA Christmas 1976Kevin O'Neill (The Memories!)14:18:43 04/19/11 Tue
Re: SS UGANDA Christmas 1976Carole00:00:02 06/04/12 Mon
Re: SS UGANDA Christmas 1976Greg (Brought a smile to my face)23:30:25 09/12/18 Wed

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