Captain Alan Hawkins is Master of Queen Victoria. He is one of the next generation of Captains and appears to be a very popular with his crew. At the Captain’s cocktail party on Wednesday evening he spoke very well to the assembled guests, who, unusually at such events, stopped talking amongst themselves, and listened to what he had to say. He was very amusing.
Cunard have clearly listened to criticism about the way in which these events were run in the past. Finding a drink used to be a nightmare, but now they are readily available and the scrum around the wine waiters no longer occurs. It’s all much more relaxed.
When we arrived at the party I (we) drifted towards two young ladies in uniform. Very attractive they were. One of them was in charge of the receptionists and the other was in HR. They kept us entertained until the Captain introduced his senior Officers.
A number of senior Cunard Captains have retired and as a result men who were Deputy Captains in the Cunard and P&O fleets are now getting their chance as Masters. One such former Deputy is Captain Simon Love. We met him back in 2014 on QV’s World Voyage and I predicted in my blog at that time that he would soon get a command. He is now one of the Masters of Queen Elizabeth and I have it on very good authority that his crew love working for him.