Editing SS Canberra (section)

===Ocean liner===
[[P&O (company)|P&O]] commissioned ''Canberra'' to operate the combined P&O–[[Orient Line]] service between the United Kingdom and Australasia and designed her to carry 548 first-class passengers and 1,650 tourist class. Too big for [[Port of Tilbury|Tilbury]] she was based at [[Southampton]]. Her first voyage set out on 2 June 1961 through the Suez Canal and called at Colombo, Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Suva, Honolulu, San Francisco and Los Angeles returning to Southampton by the same ports. By mid-1963 she had spent many months in [[dry dock]] in Southampton and in the builder's yard for repairs to her electrical and mechanical systems.<ref name=PP>Plowman, Peter. ''Australian Migrant Ships 1946-1977.'' Rosenberg, Australia. 2006. {{ISBN|1877058408}}</ref>

The era of mass air travel had begun by the time the ''Canberra'' was laid down and air travel prices fell relentlessly in the early 1960s to challenge P&O's lowest fares. In the second half of 1962 ''Canberra'' made a short cruise from Southampton followed by two more to New York. More cruises followed but nevertheless most of the ship's first decade was spent on the Australia run.<ref name=PP/>