Flying-boat stewardesses

[stepwilk]

I'm doing a pictures-and-text book on stewardesses, with a co-author/photographer--yes, we're specifically talking stewardesses here, not flight attendants--and I've gotten zero responses to this query on the "Cabin Crew" forum, despite numerous views.

Specifically, I'm looking for sources of what might be interesting stories of serving aboard flying boats, either PanAm or the Empire Boats or whatever else might have been out there at the time, either people who actually did it, people who knew people who did, or published accounts.

Anybody out there have any input?

[sixtiesrelic]

My wife was one for Ansett, flying Sydney to Lord Howe RPT in the sixtires.
She's a bit hard to get in front of a computer tho.
Ask questions and I'll answer for her.
The Ansett museum at Ansett Museum - Home
have photos from memory. We don't unfortunately.
Sixties

[stepwilk]

Thank you, Sixties. Assure your dear wife that I myself am 75, so perhaps I can be considered a relic from the Fifties. If you'll message me at [email protected],we can carry on amongst ourselves.

[A30yoyo]

Stewardesses on Flying-Boats

Are you sure Pan Am and Imperial/BOAC used stewardesses on the boats? I've got a suspicion the crews were all-male but could be wrong. There are a number of photo-essays on Stewardesses in the Google LIFE photo archive mainly from the 50s if your book covers that period (and your publisher has a decent budget)

[A30yoyo]

Stewardesses on Flying-Boats

And this thread from 2002 whilst it's written from the viewpoint of someone who was a passenger when a schoolboy, might provide detail
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...caledonia.html

[stepwilk]

Are you sure Pan Am and Imperial/BOAC used stewardesses on the boats? I've got a suspicion the crews were all-male but could be wrong.

I've seen at least one photo of BOAC stewardesses on a flying boat, and I know that PanAm used them briefly on the Boeing 314s between SFO and Hawaii. "Briefly" largely because the Boeings were quickly replaced by DC-4s and then -6s.

But you're right in that PanAm didn't hire any stews until 1944--they were late into that game--so most of the serious flying-boat use before that was male-staffed.

[A30yoyo]

Male vs Female cabin crews on Flying Boats

One thing BOAC did at the end of WWII when they were short of stewards was to take on about 100 ATC cadets, 15/16 year lads who went flying after some training to augment the cabin service. I have an acquaintance who was on the scheme on Lancastrians at first . I don't think he was on the boats but he saw some of the Boeing 314s at Poole as well as Ensigns at Hurn where he was based.... I'll ask him about the flying-boats and stewardesses in a few days time

[stepwilk]

Thank you, that'd be great. I look forward to hearing what you learn.

[WHBM]

Where stews did come onto the Flying Boats it was only at the very end of their era. Given that much of the payload was given over to mails on the classic flying boats, the limited number of pax were typically looked after by one crew member, and in every article I've ever read they were male. Part of this was because on arrival and departure they were effectively AB's on a boat, assisting with the paying out and in of mooring ropes etc, handling the mails at the various points, etc.

There was also a limited requirement for service of meals in the air, although some was done; due to their limited range the big boats only ran for a few hours at a time (Pan Am Californis to Hawaii excepted) and it was common for pax to have breakfast before boarding, go ashore for lunch at a intermediate stop, and have dinner in the hotel where the overnight stop was.

Imperial/BOAC, at least, called these men Flight Clerks rather than stewards (which may help a Google search).

From the 1930s-40s era of the boats, there seem to have been far more accounts of journeys by passengers than there were by any crew members, cabin or flight deck. There was an excellent one by the editor of "Flight" magazine in 1938, travelling London to Sydney, reprinted in "Propliner" magazine some years ago, which included many comments on the duties of the flight clerk.

But that doesn't address your point about 'specifically stewardesses' at all, does it .... !

[John Hill]

Here is a video about a day in the life of a flying boat stewardess..
Footage | Television New Zealand | Television | TV One, TV2, U, TVNZ 7

[noelmc]

Have you tried the Solent Sky Museum as an information source? They have a Sandringham flying boat there.
I do believe that Maureen O'Hara was a stewardess on the one they have (I think her husband owned it)

[stepwilk]

Thanks, Noel, I'll take a look. That husband would have been Charles Blair. Unfortunately, Maureen O'Hara was never a stewardess, though she was the first woman president of a scheduled U. S. airline (Antilles Airboats).

[WHBM]

Originally Posted by stepwilk

That husband would have been Charles Blair. Unfortunately, Maureen O'Hara was never a stewardess, though she was the first woman president of a scheduled U. S. airline (Antilles Airboats).

Maureen O'Hara was certainly described as acting as stew when Charles brought the Sandringham over to Europe and they did some local trips.

I wouldn't describe Antilles as being from the USA, they were from the Virgin Islands. The Sandringhams were on the VP- register (I don't think any ever got onto the FAA register).

[A30yoyo]

Stewardesses on BOAC, post-war

Stepwilk....I saw my pal this morning(Flight note on ATC cadet stewards
scientific workers | model aircraft | aircraft exhibition | 1944 | 2617 | Flight Archive ATC cadet steward
He thought that BOAC took on some young women as flight attendants for the Bristol(Whitchurch) to Rineanna(Shannon) shuttle which used DH Albatrosses originally, later Dakotas but not on the connecting flying-boats though women launch-crews attended the flying-boats at Poole.


Boeing 314 A Flying Boat by Etiennedup, on Flickr


Post-war he thought the first use of Stewardesses by BOAC was on the L049Constellations,(which Flight supports see under Galley on:
cockpit | 1946 | 1379 | Flight Archive female steward )

[stepwilk]

Maureen O'Hara was certainly described as acting as stew when Charles brought the Sandringham over to Europe and they did some local trips.

She may have been "acting" as a stew, since that's what she did for a living--acting. She was a major, major U. S. film star and Hollywood icon from 1939 until as late as 1972, when she last did a film with, I think, John Wayne. She would hardly have been working as a stewardess or even had the slightest idea what they actually did for a living.

I'm sure you're right that Antilles was on the VP register, so make that "the first woman president of a scheduled airline in North America."

[Corsairoz]

Stepwilk

Maureen O'Hara certainly did perform as a Stewardess for Antilles, and certainly understood the role very well.

Maureen O'Hara would often accompany her husband Charles Blair on flights. Indeed she was with him when their Sandringham visited the UK for some pleasure flights for a few days in the early 1970's.

I had the great pleasure of being on one of those flights, a 1 hour flight around the Isle of Wight alighting from Calshot. And Maureen was certainly not 'acting' the part or only along for the ride. She clearly took her role as senior cabin crew very seriously and I remember her simply being a lovely lady with absolutely no celebrity 'attitude'.

That particular aircraft, VH-BRC is now preserved at SolentSky Museum in Southampton, UK and I have the second great pleasure of taking care of her and showing our visitors around her, including up onto the flight deck. We have a small information plaque remembering the aircraft's time with Maureen O'Hara on board.

C

[Warmtoast]

There is mention of Maureen O'Hara acting as a stewardess on page 6 here:

http://www.pooleflyingboats.com/arch...hern-Cross.pdf

There had been for some a further memorable encounter of meeting Maureen O’Hara dressed as a late-1940s stewardess:

‘Soon after we had got into the aircraft a very attractive air stewardess appeared in a 1940s style outfit - Maureen O’Hara the wife of Captain Charles Blair…The joyride was quite spectacular, for I was not prepared for the amount of splashed water as we took off. Then we flew at low level right round the coastline of the Isle of Wight.’

[stepwilk]

That's certainly interesting about O'Hara. Though obviously being a stewardess was never what she did for a living any more than having my Porsche on the track several times means I was a professional racecar driver, we certainly should include a photo or two of her in the book. So thank you for the input.

I just realized that "racecar"is a palindrome. Never spotted that before.

[Warmtoast]

Stepwilk

At 91 Maureen O'Hara is still around, living in Glengarriff, Co Cork.

The Irish Independent dated 19th May 2011 has a photo of her taken at Foynes Flying Boat Museum, with Lal Kirwan Dowley, the first ground hostess for the flying boat, museum director Margaret O'Shaughnessy and Carol Davenport, whose husband David was head of operations.

See here: The screen siren and her dashing captain - National News - Independent.ie

Quite possibly the Foynes Flying Boat Museum will help you in your research for the elusive Flying Boat Stewardess(s)

[A30yoyo]

Curious that racecar is a palindrome as they possibly don't have a reverse gear