By training Malcolm McRonald was an accountant who spent ten years as the Finance Director of a major regional brewery company. Part of his job was presenting the company’s results to groups of employees, using tape/slide presentations (how technology has moved on since then!). However, his major interest outside work, which he has been able to develop substantially since taking early retirement, has always been in merchant ships, especially passenger ships. Malcolm became interested in ships when his father took him on the Mersey Ferries and on the excursion steamers from Liverpool to North Wales. His father was Chairman of Birkenhead’s Municipal Transport Committee during the period when the Council’s last three new ferries were ordered; his mother launched the ferry Woodchurch.

Malcolm has built up an extensive collection of his own photographs, mainly covering coastal/cross channel ships. He has a large collection of postcards and photographs of passenger liners and other ships, and a library of more than 1,200 books.

Since retiring, Malcolm has written three books on Maritime History, under the collective titles of "The Irish Boats". Volume 1 covers the Liverpool - Dublin route; volume 2 describes Liverpool - Cork & Waterford, and volume 3 deals with Liverpool - Belfast. Each volume comprises about 100,000 words and is widely illustrated. The research for these volumes took more than ten years.

In addition, Malcolm has had articles published in the magazine "Shipping Today and Yesterday", the World Ship Society's "Marine News", the Liverpool Nautical Research Society's "Bulletin", the Coastal Cruising Association's "Cruising Monthly" and the Friends of the Ferries "Newsletter".

Over the years, he has given illustrated talks at Keele University and to the World Ship Society, the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society, the Coastal Cruising Association, the Friends of the Ferries across the Mersey, the Liverpool History Society, the Liverpool Luncheon Club and the 39 Club (a dining club in Wirral).

Malcolm has cruised and travelled extensively and has visited more than 70 countries in every inhabited continent. He met his wife, Gill, in 1969, on a cruise aboard P&O’s Chusan.

Malcolm’s cruise talks are of two main types. One group covers well know events with a maritime connection, which are of interest to a general audience, and the other deals with ships in service after 1945, on which it is likely that some cruise passengers will have sailed, either as passengers or as crew. He also has talks likely to be of interest mainly to a particular cruise company.

TALKS ABOUT WELL KNOWN MARITIME EVENTS.

1. The arrest of Dr. Crippen.
Even today, more than 100 years after his death, the name of Dr. Crippen is notorious as that of a cold-blooded killer, and the name of his mistress, Ethel le Neve, is almost as well known. Dr. Crippen was convicted of having murdered his wife before dismembering and concealing her body. He fled with Ethel le Neve, who was disguised as a boy and sailed on the Canadian Pacific liner Montrose from Antwerp to Canada. They were recognized by the ship’s captain, who used Guglielmo Marconi’s new radio service to notify Scotland Yard. After a dramatic and well publicized pursuit by the White Star liner Laurentic, the couple were arrested on their arrival in Canada and were brought back to Britain to face trial. None of these events would have been possible without the use of radio, and Marconi’s efforts to achieve a working system are described here; there are some surprising earlier links between various participants in this story. Although Dr. Crippen was convicted of murder and hanged, recent discoveries have cast doubt on whether the body found in his house was really that of his wife. The talk includes contemporary newspaper reports and pictures of the pursuit, arrest and trial of Dr. Crippen.

2. The other two Titanics.
The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the “unsinkable” Titanic was on 15 April 1912. This talk describes the conventional view of the sinking of the Titanic, and explains that the invention of radar has made it impossible that such an accident could happen today. It then contrasts that sinking with the catastrophe of the Empress of Ireland only two years after the loss of Titanic. More passengers lost their lives in that sinking than on the Titanic, and yet the event is barely known by most people. The talk also looks at the reasons for the obscurity of the Empress of Ireland. In contrast, Britannic, the younger sister of the Titanic, and the largest British passenger ship ever to become a war casualty, suffered very few losses when, despite her hospital ship markings, she was mined in 1916, and so has been almost forgotten.

3. The sinking of the Lusitania.
Lusitania was built for the Cunard Line in response to German competition on the North Atlantic. She was sunk without warning in 1915 by a torpedo from a German submarine, with great loss of life; the sinking is still remembered with outrage. The sinking probably contributed to America’s decision in 1917 to enter the war. The talk first describes the background to the building of the Lusitania and her sister Mauretania, including her proposed naval use in war, then gives full details of the voyage in which she was sunk. Finally, the talk shows how Cunard rebuilt its transatlantic service after the end of the war.

4. Merchant ships in the Falklands campaign.
The Falklands campaign came about as a consequence of the invasion of those islands by Argentina. The task force to recover the islands was led by the Royal Navy, with from the Army, the Royal Marines and the RAF. However, there was another component to the task force – the “Ships Taken Up From Trade” (STUFT). It was subsequently recognized by the Navy that the re-capture of the islands could not have taken place without the support of a substantial fleet of merchant ships, which carried most of their troops, their supplies and the fuel needed by the operation. This talk looks at the merchant ships involved and describes their roles. The talk also poses an alarming question.

5. The Transatlantic Slave Trade.
This topic has become of increasing interest in recent years. Slave trading had existed from time immemorial, but the transatlantic slave trade was on an unimaginably greater scale and brought about new depths of cruelty. Britain was not the instigator of the trade, which was begun by the Portuguese, but was one of the earliest countries to abolish the trade, when its full horrors were exposed to the public. This talk describes the origins of slavery, the development and operation of the transatlantic slave trade and its eventual abolition.

SHIPS IN SERVICE SINCE 1945.

I expect that a number of cruise passengers will have sailed on these ships, as either passengers or crew, or will have worked in shore establishments dealing with the ships. Passengers on previous cruises have found that the talks bring back happy memories (see comments below).

7. Transatlantic liners.
The heyday of transatlantic travel by sea was in the period from around 1900 to 1939, when travel, at least for the first class passengers, was unbelievably glamorous. This talk looks at the early history of transatlantic steamships, with occasional crossings in the 1820s and 1830s. Suddenly, there was a blossoming of regular sailings from 1840. By 1900, there was huge competition between five major companies, two British, two German and one French. The Germans lost all their ships after the 1914-18 war, so the three remaining companies fought the battle, joined by an American newcomer. The Germans recovered their position under Hitler, with two record-breakers. The second half of the 1930s saw the three largest liners ever built solely for transatlantic service. The 1939-45 war brought major changes, and the number of ships never regained pre-war levels. The 1950s and 1960s saw the three final ships built for the service, but their transatlantic lives were cut short by the advent of the jumbo jet. Today, there is only one transatlantic liner, operating a summer service interspersed with cruises. (Not to be used in conjunction with “Favourite and Famous Liners”).

7. Favourite and Famous Liners.
Meet again some of the well-known liners which you have seen around Britain’s coast or even sailed on, ranging in size from the Queen Elizabeth (83,000 tons) to one liner of less than 7,000 tons. There are also a few ships which have hit the headlines. There’s even something for followers of the TV programme “Call the Midwife”. (Not to be used in conjunction with “Transatlantic Liners”).

8. Canadian Pacific’s last White Empresses.
After the war, Canadian Pacific’s much-loved fleet of “Empresses” sailed regularly from Liverpool to Canada until 1971. This talk describes all of the seven post-war ships which operated that service, and relates how two of them remained in service for subsequent owners into the 21st century. The talk also describes the disastrous fire on board Empress of Canada, while she was being overhauled in 1953 prior to the Coronation, and her subsequent salvage.

9. Every Thursday at 4 p.m.
“Every Thursday at 4 p.m.” was used for many years by the Union-Castle Line to advertise the frequency and regularity of its mail service between Southampton and South Africa. This talk describes the post-war years of the service, from the replacement of war losses to the final days. The demise of the service was bought about by a combination of air travel and container ships. The talk also shows subsequent attempts to operate a passenger service between Britain and South Africa.

10. Rolling Down to Rio.
The principal shipping line serving Brazil and Argentina was Royal Mail Lines. Rudyard Kipling described its ships as “Great steamers white and gold go rolling down to Rio”. The company had been set up in 1839 as the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company to carry mail to the West Indies. It later extended its services to the Brazil and Argentina and grew to be the largest British shipping group, including the White Star Line among its many subsidiaries. It suffered huge financial problems during the depression years of the late 1920s and early 1930s, culminating in the jailing of the company’s Chairman, Lord Kylsant. A new company, Royal Mail Lines, emerged from the ashes of the old, and built the company’s best known ship, Andes, in 1939. A new passenger ship, Magdalena, was built as a war replacement, but was wrecked on her maiden voyage in 1949. The company’s final three passenger ships were known as the “Three Graces”. After an attempt to diversify into cruising, the company made its last passenger sailing in 1971.

11. The last British pleasure steamers.
Until 1939, pleasure steamers were a feature of every major British seaside resort with a suitable pier. From 1945, social changes brought about the virtual extinction of these ships, with only two now left in service - the paddle steamer Waverley and the motor vessel Balmoral. This talk describes the major ships since 1960, and their decline.

12. Irish Sea ferries.
In many ways, the Irish Sea provided the most interesting contrasts of all Britain’s cross-channel services, with great competition between the “short sea” routes, operated by the Railway companies, and the “city centre to city centre” services operated by the Coast Lines group. This talk concentrates on the services from Liverpool to Belfast and to Dublin as examples of changes over the past 50 years. It looks at the passenger services immediately after the war, the decline of the conventional overnight ships, and their replacement first by car ferries and then by ro-pax vessels and fast craft.

13. Ferries to Norway.
Ferries from Britain to Norway were the normal means of travel between the two countries. In recent years, the services have been the subject of decline, and now they no longer operate. This talk describes the post-war reconstruction and growth of the services, and their subsequent decline.

14. British troopships.
In order to maintain control of the British Empire, troops were garrisoned in the various colonies. The rotation of troops required a fleet of troopships to move the numbers involved. Surprisingly, the number of peacetime troopships reached a peak in the years after 1945. The vessels then involved were an eclectic assortment of purpose-built vessels, former British and allied liners, and former German liners most of which had been taken as war reparations. Many men on national service were transported in these vessels, whose withdrawal was contemporaneous with the ending of national service. This talk describes the vessels involved in the post-war period.

15. Scandinavian passenger liners.
The Norwegian America Line and the Swedish America Line were two major Scandinavian shipping companies, which were formed around the same time and for similar reasons. After their demise, also for similar reasons, three of their ships joined the British cruising fleet. This talk features their ships, many of which were built in Britain, and describes the gradual switch to cruising which resulted from the decline in transatlantic passenger numbers.

16. What a difference a funnel makes!
The largest number of funnels ever fitted on one ship was five. The role of the funnel has changed over the years from a mere outlet for engine exhaust gases to a powerful marketing statement about the status of the ship and her owners. This talk looks at various British passenger ships whose appearance was changed dramatically during their lives, as a result of changes in the number and / or design of their funnels. There are also examples of other passenger ships whose appearance and even function were changed to the point of unrecognisability.

TALKS MORE SUITABLE FOR SPECIFIC CRUISE COMPANIES

17. From the North Sea to the World.
The history of Fred. Olsen Lines dates back to 1848. This talk describes the Lines’ early history, their North Sea passenger services, the highly successful transition to cruising, and the cruise fleet. (Most suitable on Fred. Olsen ships).

16. P & O – from ocean liners to cruising.
Most British passenger liner companies went out of business following the end of empire and the introduction of jet air services. P&O was affected similarly, but made a successful transition to cruising, first by skilful use of some of its existing liners, and then by building new cruise ships. After an introduction covering the early years of the company, this talk describes that transition. (Most suitable on P&O ships).

18. Cunard’s post-war transatlantic liners.
Cunard lost a large number of liners between 1939 and 1945, including the Lancastria, whose tragic ending has featured on TV. Partially offsetting these losses, the Queen Elizabeth was completed in 1940 and made a clandestine dash across the Atlantic to the safely of New York. Both Queens performed sterling service during the war and Winston Churchill stated that they had reduced the length of the war by about one year. After the war, the two Queens together enabled Cunard to achieve its long-held ambition of a weekly sailing to New York operated by two ships. This talk describes those years and also the smaller passenger ships which made up the full Cunard service to the USA and Canada. The service were virtually ended by the rapid growth of jet aeroplanes, but Cunard succeeded in retaining a limited service by designing the QE2 as a combined transatlantic liner and cruise ship. She is no longer with Cunard, but has been succeeded by the larger Queen Mary 2, the last liner designed specifically for transatlantic service. (Most suitable on Cunard ships).

19. The Saga Ships and their Viking Predecessors.
The first two ships in Saga’s cruise fleet were Saga Rose and Saga Ruby, both of which were built for the Norwegian America Line. That company’s first ship was completed just over 100 years ago, in 1913. This talk looks at the history of all the passenger ships of the Norwegian America Line. It then describes the ships which have come into the Saga fleet. (Most suitable on Saga ships, but should not be used in a programme which includes “Scandinavian Passenger Liners”).

FEEDBACK FROM AUDIENCE ON SOME PREVIOUS TALKS.

Canadian Pacific’s last White Empresses. “I used to work in Frames’ Tours in Liverpool. We were booking agents for Canadian Pacific. You have told me many things about the company that I never knew”.

Every Thursday at 4 p.m.. “I worked in Union-Castle’s head office. Your talk was spot on”. “I was a member of the crew on the Capetown Castle when the gold bars were stolen from the strongroom. The police gave all the crew a very hard time. The gold was found still hidden on the ship on a later voyage. I really enjoyed your talk”. (The talk had referred to the theft of the gold).

Unspecified talk. From a lady passenger: “I only came to your talk because my husband and I had met you at lunch and we had promised to come. I’m glad I did; it was most interesting”.

General. From a lady passenger: “My father worked on Canadian Pacific ships, so my husband and I were particularly interested in that talk. However we came to all of your talks and really enjoyed them; your enthusiasm for your subject came through very strongly”.

I have been a guest speaker with Fred.Olsen, Saga, P&O and Princess - total 7 cruises. Particularly popular talks are ones about Dr. Crippen and Titanic. Other talks bring back good memories of individual ships to people who sailed on, or knew, them. I try to include a talk on the history of the company I am sailing with. I always enjoy discussions with passengers after my talks and have had many very complimentary comments.

The following recent Cruise History has been recorded for this candidate.