Sailing Cunard: An infamous maritime moment, knighted commodores, and much inner blushing over THAT Minki

8 Apr 2025

Day one on the Durban to Cape Town leg of the maiden world voyage of Cunard’s new Queen Anne offered a fly-on-the-wall peek into life on board this most elegant of passenger liners. It was all wonderful, and even better once I’d figured out who the other people were.

Standing in the Commodore Club on board Cunard’s Queen Anne, I find myself contemplating a direct line between the spot where I’m standing now and the night RMS Titanic sank on 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic, en route from Southampton to New York.

Queen Anne departed Hamburg on 7 January. After her arrival in Cape Town this week she commences a cruise to Southampton via Walvis Bay, Dakar, Senegal and Tenerife. There is deep history in crossings from Southampton to New York, the pinnacle of cruising at the highest level.

It is 8 April 2025 now, 113 years since that dread event in 1912. Famously coming to the rescue of 705 of Titanic’s passengers was RMS Carpathia, a Cunard passenger steamship that had first sailed from Liverpool to Boston on her maiden voyage in 1903.

Carpathia became world famous that infamous night, bringing rare light into what became one of the world’s most famous maritime disasters. Her name still comes up whenever the word Titanic is mentioned. The captain of Carpathia was Arthur Henry Rostron, who was to become the first Cunard commodore to be knighted, by King George V. There are now seven commodores in Cunard history to have been knighted by British monarchs, most recently Captain Christopher Wells of Queen Elizabeth 2, and the Commodore Clubs on Cunard liners honour these heroes of the seas.

The next thing that occurs to me as I survey the beautiful — and dare one say commanding — space that is the Commodore Club on board Queen Anne is that, as Cunard director of sales Bob Dixon tells us, “you can drink your way through all of them”.

Well, there are other nights in store for trying that. But a funny and entirely unrelated thing happened on the way to this moment. On landing at Durban’s King Shaka International Airport outside Ballito on Monday, we met another couple who were waiting for the shuttle to the harbour. We’d been told their names, Minki and Ernst Joubert, but nothing else. I did think, unusual name that, remembering the famous Minki who was all over magazine covers. And I thought about it and decided, nah, I don’t think her name was Joubert. We say hello and she says, modestly, that she does some social media for Cunard. Nice gig, I thought. And gosh, she’s beautiful, undeniably. Maybe all Minkis are gorgeous?

After a fabulous afternoon and evening on board, and a sound night’s sleep (the rolling of the ship has a pleasingly soporific effect), I grab my laptop bag and find the Chart Room, a table near a plug point, and set up to write this. Shortly, Shaun McCarthy, owner/operator of Whitestar Cruise & Travel, passes by and we have a little chat. He mentions that he and his colleagues had a meeting before dinner last night, because “Minki is doing a shoot for us today”. Ohhhhh… kay. Pennies are dropping like a jackpot slot machine.

Oh ja, says Shaun, she’s got something like 400,000 social media followers, is an ambassador for Cunard, US soldiers in the Iraq war plastered pinups of “Slinky Minki” on their tents, and here I am thinking, “Gosh, there’s another Minki in the world”.

She’s THAT Minki. Minki van der Westhuizen. Much inner blushing ensues. Best I slink back into my cocoon and own up to it at dinner time tonight.

Meanwhile, I’m all at sea in other ways too. We’re on board Queen Anne for the Durban to Cape Town leg of this world cruise. Most recently she visited Singapore (Queen Anne, not Minki). We’re allocated a balcony stateroom with an amazingly large bathroom (well, shower), and our allocated dining room is no less than the Britannia, the main dining room on the Cunard liners. I saw Queen Mary’s Britannia room a year earlier when she visited Cape Town and we had dinner on board in the grill room.

On other nights this week we will dine in two speciality restaurants, including this ship’s grill room, which has a similar menu.

Peri-peri poussin. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

What’s interesting to me is that the Monday night menu in the Britannia restaurant features some South African choices: a Durban curry (but beef, not the usual Durban lamb or mutton), which was good regardless, and a “South African peri-peri poussin”. I chose the latter, which was a portion of a poussin with a mild peri-peri sauce; a polite version, but at sea with thousands of passengers on board, the universal palate has to be catered for. This is a feature of Cunard cruises, bringing in the cuisines being passed en route.

The ham hock terrine with horseradish cream. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

I had started with a terrine of ham hock, pickled carrot and mustard, which was truly delicious; I loved every morsel, and the horseradish cream that offset the flavour and texture so perfectly.

About 30 years earlier, I had sailed out of Durban on another great passenger liner, P&O’s Canberra, a true classic of the seas for decades. I had built a model of Canberra as a boy of 9 or 10, so to sail on her was a dream.

The cheese plate. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

After departing Durban that late afternoon, with the Bluff receding, we went down to dinner and my abiding memory of it was the cheese trolley. I remember being served slivers of various cheeses, including Red Leicester and Stilton. I asked for the cheese course last night on board Queen Anne, which request resulted in a platter of slices of Cheddar, Emmental and a little triangle of Brie. If there’s that kind of cheese trolley service on board, it’s not in the Britannia restaurant. If it does crop up this week, I’ll keep you posted.

Lovely trio of ice creams with an old-fashioned wafer. (Photo: Tony Jackman)

John Ridler of Thompsons Holidays was with us at dinner, and decided we needed dessert as well, and who am I to argue. John is an old-fashioned PR professional in the best sense, a delightful throwback to the way PR used to be done. Desserts included “South African Malva pudding”, another nod to where we were on this world cruise, Italian hazelnut cake, chocolate cheesecake, and a choice of ice creams. I asked for orange sorbet, vanilla ice cream and coffee ice cream. Small scoops were topped with blueberry sauce; loved the coffee one. Best of all was the wafer garnish, just like in the old hotel dining rooms of the mid 20th century.

Everything was served on William Edwards fine bone china with its gorgeous blue patterned trim. There are beautiful design details everywhere on board, and I was thrilled to see the art deco touches in many places, from carpeting and wall decorations to certain light fittings. Everyone who knows the interiors of the Cunard greats has been wondering how Queen Anne matches up. Well, that she has all the grace and beauty of Cunard is clear to see, if in a more modern way while retaining the classic Cunard mood and feel, and adopting modern ways is the way of the world.

But this has only been day one, so there’s much more to see and enjoy.

In the Golden Lion pub later on Monday night, John and I joined our group, including Minki and Ernst, with me still blithely unaware at that point that she was indeed THAT Minki.

I’ve just stopped at their table in the Chart Room where I’m writing this to tell them I have a very funny story to tell them later. At my expense. DM

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