CREW OF OVER 1200.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 307, 28 December 1934, Page 8

CREW OF OVER 1200.

QUEEN MARY'S COMPLEMENT. ONLY ABOUT 100 SAILORS. Few of the complement of the new Cnnard liner Queen Mary will be sailors —oulv about 100, out of a crew of between 1200 and 1100. There will be a captain and a staff captain, the latter being an executive ofliccr equivalent to a naval commander, in charge of the ship's company and its discipline. There will be seven other officers. Below theni will be the domains of that mysterious super-housekeeper, the chief steward, writes Mr. Gordon Bccklcs in the "Daily Express." Here are the library lounge, and writing room stewards, the barmen and the shop salesmen, the musicians—who depend largely upon one well-stimulated benefit performance and their free keep—the cinema operators, and even the gardeners. Floral Settings. Following a Cnnard tradition, the new ship will have a plentitude of elaborately banked. floral settings. It, is a day's work to tend these flowers. Moreover, there are some thousands of vases to be refilled each day under the florist's direction. Gymnasium instructors. lift attendants, manicurists, Turkish bath attendants, swimming teachers, squash "pros."—all of these | have their small wages, and their bigger "rackets"—if that is not too strong a word t.o indicate the spirit of specialised opportunism. The new liner will carry between SOO and 1000 in the "catering" department alone. There will be about SO stewardesses. seven wireless operators, and a kennelman. Decks below the principal public,room deck will be the head waiter's, the waiters' and the 110 cooks' —including a Kosher one—over whom a highly-paid chef will preside. All these come within the province of the omnipotent chief steward. The purser, in whoso office will labour, with scarcely a sight of the sea from port to port, about 20 clerks, is the official representative of the company. TTe deals with the passengers; tlio chief steward caters for them. Lower down still in the vessel's depths will be the engineering statT. much depleted by the coming of oil-burning. Tli"i'e will be some -10 engineering officers, and over 300 stokers, engineers ■and assistants. I