Maiden Season officers

Continuing with the theme began some weeks ago with the interview with ORIANA’s first commander Commodore Gibb we take a look at a few of the crew who took her through her maiden season.

Philip Pickford-Deputy Captain.

Born in 1948 he began his Nautical Studies at the School of Navigation, Warash. He joined P&O as a Cadet in 1967 the first ship he served on board was the Cargo ship COMORIN trading to the Far East, staying with the cargo side of things for 6 years he transferred to the passenger division in in 1972 serving as a third officer on board ORCADES.

From then onwards he served on board passenger ships up the ranks to Deputy Captain during the construction of ORIANA he was assigned as Deputy Captain designate as well as serving the same role on board as ROYAL PRINCESS.

He has since served with Princess Cruises of Captain on among over ships STAR PRINCESS and CARIBBEAN PRINCESS

Hamish Reid-Chief Officer

Beginning his Career at sea in 1972 during the 4 years of the cadetship scheme he served on board ships from across the P&O group encompassing tankers, container ships, cargo ships before finishing on the company’s flagship CANBERRA

Afterwards he rose quickly through the ranks serving on board many ships of both P&O & Princess including The Love Boat PACIFIC PRINCESS and returning to CANBERRA.

In the early 1990’s he was assigned as Chief officer designate for the new build ORIANA and spent some time living in Germany and working at P&O’s on sight office at Meyer Werft with Commodore Gibb among others.

Continuing his rise through the ranks he was promoted to Captain in 2000 during his time as Master he commanded among others ORIANA, AURORA, OCEANA, VENTURA and for Cunard QUEEN VICTORIA, after 39 years at sea Hamish retired in August last year commanding for the last time somewhat appropriately ORIANA.

Chris Bullen-Purser

Chris joined P&O in 1971 beginning as a Purser Cadet in P&O’s head offices in London leaving the Headquarters his first ship was CHUSAN serving as Junior Assistant Purser. In 1980 he was promoted to Deputy Purser and then 9 years later to senior Deputy Purser.

Another promotion came in 1992 when he was assigned as Purser to the yet to named Project Gemini ship where he advised on the practical side to passenger accommodation such as Restaurant layouts.

Since first going to sea he has served on board many of P&O’s ships including CANBERRA and SS ORIANA where he met his wife Marinya when cruising out of Australia. Chris continues to serve with P&O regularly being found on board ORIANA.

James Cusick- Deputy Purser

James who joined P&O in 1983 as Junior Assistant Purser trained in business studies in Belfast and catering in North wales, he has served on ships such the former ISLAND PRINCESS, the previous SEA PRINCESS and CANBERRA where he was first appointed as Deputy Purser in 1990. During ORIANA’s Maiden Season James was assigned as Deputy Purser (Food and Beverage). Since then James has gone been promoted to Purser and has been serving most recently on board ARCADIA and AURORA .

James is also known to P&O’s regular followers for his blog Jamescusick .co.uk which he updated until November 2011 and gave a day by day account on the happenings on board the ship he was serving on board.

Ian Fraser- Cruise Director

Ian joined P&O in 1984 as an Entertainment officer after previously working in a number of clubs and Theatres in Scotland and Northern England.

He spent several years on board SS ORIANA sailing out of Sydney and then alternated between CANBERRA and SEA PRINCESS/VICTORIA.

In 1991 he was promoted to Deputy Cruise Director and a year later to Cruise Director.

Ian retired from the sea in 2006/7.

David Mclachlan and Colin Bussy- Chefs de Cuisine

David Mclachlan had served with P&O for 18 years when he was ass

igned as of the two head chefs on ORIANA’s maiden season prior to that he trained at the Clydebank Technical Collage before holding positions at several prestigious London hotels.

He began his seagoing career in 1976 as third cook on board CANBERRA going on to serve on board UGANDA and SEA PRINCESS as he was promoted finally reaching the position of Chef in 1992 while on board SEA PRINCESS.

Colin Bussey joined P&O in March 1994 and alternated between CANBERRA and SEA PRINCESS before being assigned to ORIANA and also spending some time Mumbai, India interviewing prospective Indian Galley staff.

After leaving P&O he returned to his previous employer the prestigious Scottish hotel Gleneagles where he briefly mentioned his time with ORIANA in

interview given some years later which is printed below-

Interveiwer: You went to join P&O on the new ORIANA?

C.B: Yes, P&O’s Michael Olfield was looking to launch ORIANA. He was new to the company and was looking for an input of fresh blood into the company an

d that was me. They contacted me through Gleneagles. I felt that I wanted to move on; seek new pastures etc. So the approach was made and it felt right at the time and very exciting.

Interviewer: To me that seems a very brave move serving some 2500 people.

C.B: Right, But with a team 120 cooks. I took a big deep breath . . . and I did a 4 day Cruise to Madeira, to see if I would like it; all the people that were looking to join P&O did that.”

Interviewer: Didn’t you have problems with the propellers? Putting food on the hotplate and the vibration of the propellers just shook it off!

C.B: There had been a problem with ORIANA in Germ

any, but P&O and the shipyard who built the ship worked together to fix it

Every ship is a prototype and there are I understand normally teething problems with every ship in this case I think it was the bow thrusters that caused the issues when you came into port; you needed to reverse the engine in order to dock. We lost a lot of china, glassware and food - it was like a Greek Wedding! The vibration was horrendous at first! But they fixed it.