Belfast: Titanic Shipyard

"This is where they built the Titanic". Belfast has made a  tourist attraction out of the shipyard where the poorly designed and/or ineptly operated liner was born. Back in the early 1960s the Harland & Wolff shipyard had clearly seen better days. Empty were the gigantic slipways where the big ship and its sisters Olympic and Britannic were built. The yard always seemed dark, gray and sort of dismal even in the daytime. Not much shipbuilding going on. Men wearing neckties and tweed jackets shoveled coal. 

The port and shipyard at Belfast. Michelson made port calls here from autumn 1962 through the late spring of 1963. Harland & Wolffe shipyard is being turned into an RMS Titanic tourist attraction.
 
During a January '63 in port period Michelson was at one of the shipyard piers. At breakfast somebody announced that an ocean liner had appeared overnight and was tied up across the pier. Sure enough, it was Canberra, of the P&O Lines (Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company). This was a huge, beautiful, white, modern looking vessel. While it had steam turbine power plant, it was propelled electrically as are most ships today.

P&O Lines SS Canberra, built in the Titanic's shipyard at Belfast.

Built for the UK to Australia route, Canberra went into service in 1961, hauling British emigrants for a reported fare of 10£ each. After an electrical fire near Malta, Canberra off loaded its passengers and steamed under its own power to Belfast  and the shipyard where it was built. After four months of repairs Canberra went back into service on the emigrant route.