[majoconz]

I was an RO on the "Empress of England" in the 60's. First Class cabins had telephones that were connected to a manual exchange in the back of the Purser's office - the bridge had a push-button phone where you could call other senior officers or specific locations on the ship but not connect into the Purser's system. If a passenger wanted to make a call to a shore station then that had to be organised through the Pursers office who would check with us to arrange the call - often difficult in the middle of the day as propagation was not good, evenings or early mornings were best. There was a little phone booth next to the Purser's office which connected to the radio room. Hopefully a full duplex call could be made but often only half-duplex or simplex was useable and the passenger had to be 'schooled' to say "over" at the appropriate times and use the PTT switch on the handset - often the passenger would be nervous and not let the PTT go!