About Vintage Stuff

The aim of Vintage Stuff is to display some of the ephemera that I have collected, often inadvertently, over the years. I am now deliberately seeking out interesting old adverts, screen shots, leaflets, obscure record covers, picture postcards and illustrations; anything that catches my eye, in fact. They will be mainly, but not exclusively of UK origin (so many vintage blogs appear to be American) and almost always a scan from something that I actually have in my collection, rather than off the net. If you do re-blog, please acknowledge the source. Further stuff, mainly photographs, can be found on my Flickr pages, via the Benny Hill record cover.

Wednesday 29 April 2015

Change of plan

I picked up this drinks mat for 50p this morning, to have been used on two of P&O's Darts Cruises that took place in May and October 1982. The two professionals were John Lowe and the late Leighton Rees, both players, even as a non-darts fan such as I, had actually heard of.

All is not as it seems however, as the ship concerned, the SS Canberra, was unavailable for the first cruise due to being requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence and hastily refitted as a troop ship in early April and sent to the Falkland Islands, not to return to the UK until the July. Whether she made her October date I can't say, nor which ship took over her duties during the interim. Put into service in 1961, the 45,000 ton ship was withdrawn in 1997 and sent to Pakistan for scrapping, a feat that, due to her bulk, took a year, rather than the estimated three months.