SOUTHAMPTON. DOCK OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE

Southampton. The quays of this city meet the greatest passenger liner in the World - Queen Mary II. The piers of this town saw off the Titanic. Southampton is situated 120 kilometers from London. I went here to see a regatta. The regatta season is continued to the 12th of December and is called Frostbites. I missed the event, but I had two unexpected encounters: a ship and a friend of mine. Читать далее | More Let me first explain, in Southampton 3 forces come together: english mentality, water and technology. And none of them are willing to compromise. In Southampton you will never find the romance you would expect from a coastline city (such as Brighton, for example). Firstly, there's no actual open sea in Southampton. The port is standing in a big inlet, closed from the ocean with the Isle of Wight. The low horizon is peering into the opposite shore with sad firs, and the wind is blowing endless clouds on the gray northern sky. Secondly, history excursions here are better to leave to the museums. Southampton has accumulated all the features of a modern city: on exit from the station you will firstly see a couple of Tesco-like malls. To see the sea you have to have some patience: the first view of the bay opens from the bridge, leading to the center of the city. From here, at a distance of 2 kilometers, the huge liners in the port of Southampton look like parking facilities, growing right out of water. Not as beautiful as one would expect. But these ships make Southampton worth visiting as I discovered. When I moved closer, I came upon “Queen Mary II”, a ship so big that no metaphor will describe its size. The warm lights of chandeliers the bottom deck are inviting, and draw you aboard, into the restaurant. The restaurants of such class deserve special attention. For example, the "Titanic's” was run by the chef's team from the Ritz (sadly, none of the team survived the catastrophe). On the closest predecessor of Queen Mary II, QMI, dishes were served on chinese porcelain. Can you imagine yourself as a melon? Try - it is the easiest way of getting abroad Queen Mary II or other luxurious ships (although you will end up in someone's dish). Imagine: you ripened on the hot plantations of Yemen. You were sold to Southampton for Orient Line or Oakley and Watling , supplying fruit to liners in the 20th century. The main point is that having passed the Suez, you will probably see your brothers, with whom you ripened on the same branch. To ensure the products arrived as fresh as possible, Oakley&Watling and Orient Line shipped the fruit to the ports of mooring with direct plane flights. Here's the menu from the Queen Mary I restaurant: - honey melon; - chicken creol style; - beef in mint sauce; - sweet peas or potatoes roasted in cream; - fruit salad; - coffee. In order to avoid gaining too much weight after such good dinners, Queen Mary I had three tennis courts on the top deck. The service of the liners was the main preoccupation of Southampton habitants since the eighties of the 19th century. The working day lasted from eight in the morning till eight at night. Men were carrying cargo or sweating in the engine rooms. Until diesel engines were invented, the work was incredibly hard, and many a steam ship received leering names like "Dead-And-Bury'er" (originally the ship was called "Berengaria"), and "Can-you-work-Castle" (for «Kenilworth Castle”). Women were washing and mending the crew's and dockers' clothes. There were many dockers working in Southampton. In fact, the docks were the economic core of the city. In the 19th century, Southampton had the largest wet dock in the whole world, and in the 20th - the largest dry dock in the whole of the United Kingdom. At that time the mouth of the Itchen river was artificially deepened to anchor the large vessels of the oncoming age. After 20 minutes on the ferry, I arrived to Hythe, a small town right across the bay. Here I had my second pleasant encounter. I met an old friend of mine - not in person, unfortunately. But his name was chiseled on a plate. The name was Lawrence. We were introduced at the British Embassy in Moscow about a half year ago by another Lawrence, Lawrence Durrel, whose literary characters regularly read the prose of my friend. The latter, Sir Lawrence, was born in 1888. Some time on, in 1920, he came to Saudi Arabia, where he for the first time changed his name, T.E. Lawrence, for T.E. Shaw. A great spy, he reignited Arabian unrest in the Osman Empire. Then the world of diplomacy and espionage knew the name of Lawrence of Arabia. In 1930 he walked along the endless pier of Hythe and first gazed out on the grey moors of Southampton. Nearby clattered the train, delivering the workers to the plant. (By the way, it was a chemical plant producing mustard gas. The train is still in use and has become a tourist attraction). Having made a lot of trouble for the Turks, Lawrence earned deadly enemies, and sought solitude away from London's receptions. An extraordinary man, Lawrence asked for a place at the British Power Boost Company, which constructed high speed ships for the Royal Navy. The choice was not coincidental - redhead Lawrence was a great fan of speed. Which determined the end: in 1935 he died in a motorcycle crash in Dorset. Hello, Lawrence. 02.11.2007 Dmitry Artyukhov; thanks for editing to Jane Ritchie На русском