Thursday May 30, 2024 – At sea en route to Greenock
The first Lecture was Alastair Greener talking about the Glasgow – Clyde shipbuilding history going back 200 years and where Samuel Cunard’s first ship – Britania as well as Lusitania, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth for a total of 120 Cunard ships were built with the QE2 being the last one.
The second lecture was by Rachael Klosky – The Kitchen Sink to Careers – Women of the 1960’s. After the Second World War was over and all the troops were settling back into society at home, finding jobs, marriage, babies etc, the 1950’s were a time when women, started shifting from a traditional homemaker role to that of a business / workforce element. Although the 1960’s are thought of as the decade when major change took place, it is actually the 1950’s when all this started, with fashion, design, architecture and many other fields. Rachael explores these changes through the lives and accomplishments of various women. Some of these were – Stella Isaacs (1894-1971) – founder of the Women’s Voluntary Service (now RVS) and first of four women in the House of Lords together with Irene Curzon (1896-1966), Barbara Wootton (1897-1988) and Katherine Elliot (1903-1994). Each of these ladies contributed greatly to society in their own right. In the movie and theatre buisness – Muriel Box (1905-1991), Betty Box (1915-1999), Joan Littlewood (1914-2002) and the “British Marylin Monroe” – Diana Dors (1931-1984). Others included Lucienne Day (1917-2010) furniture and cloth design, Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) whose Photograph 51 allowed Watson and Crick to develop the structure of DNA and last but not least – Queen Elizabeth II (April 21, 1926 – September 8, 2022) who ascended the throne of Great Britain on February 6, 1952 and is the longest reigning British Monarch of all times (70 years and 214 days).
The Third lecture was by Dr. Chris Martin – who is both a Medical Doctor as well as a Lawyer (Solicitor) who has worked many years in South Africa. He spoke of DNA Forensics and the Law. After starting off with some discussion on what is DNA – a double helix nucleotide (a sugar – deoxyribose, a phosphate group based structure and 4 types of Base Pairs – Adenine, Guanine, Thiamine, Cytosine or abbreviation – A, G, T, C). This structure was discovered by James Watson and Francis Crick, based on the X-Ray crystallography work of Rosalind Franklin and the Austrian – Erwin Chargaff who discovered that there were an equal number of A and T and that C and G were also in equal amounts. C and T bases have one ring called Pyrimidines while A and G have two rings and are Purines. Enough technical aspects, but this is the basis of chromosomes, and indeed life for all living things, so important to have a basic understanding. One interesting fact is that each DNA stand is 4 ft long, and if all the DNA in the human body were to be placed end to end, it would reach from the earth to the sun and back 50 times! In tomorrow’s talk, he will talk of the various cases that he has been involved with that have a DNA basis of resolution.
In the afternoon, Bingo was played in the hopes of garnering the US$5,000 prize, but alas, it went off without a winner.
The Captain’s noon day announcement indicated that we have travelled 192 knots since leaving Invergorden at an average speed of 10 knots, leaving 420 knots to reach Greenock, Scotland.
We dined in the Britania and enjoyed the second of the Cunard Troupe shows – Let’s Dance – a series of dances through the ages with singing by the cast, that was a high energy glorious spectacle.
Roger & Anne Travels 