THE chairman of Cunard, is to leave ''by mutual agreement'' just five
months after the disastrous Christmas voyage of the shipping line's
flagship, the QE2, it was announced yesterday.
Trafalgar House, Cunard's parent company, said Mr John Olsen was
leaving its board and that of Cunard ''to pursue other interests''.
A Trafalgar House spokesman said yesterday: ''Mr Olsen joined on a
two-year contract with an option to review it for an extra year. The
two-year contract was due to be completed on May 31 and by mutual
agreement Mr Olsen will not be staying on after that.''
The chairman of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Mr Peter Ward, will replace Mr
Olsen on the Trafalgar and Cunard boards.
Cunard suffered a #6.9m loss for the six months to the end of March
1995.
Trouble for both Mr Olsen and the 66,000-tonne QE2 began when the
vessel went to Germany for a #30m refit last year.
Cunard was confident the 27 days set aside for the refit would be
adequate. But the vessel returned with much still to be done, including
vital plumbing.
A cruise to the Bay of Biscay was cancelled and the Christmas cruise
to New York on December 17 suffered flooding due to plumbing problems.
Mr Olsen joined the ship at New York to discuss passengers'
grievances. But later US coastguards prevented the liner sailing to the
Caribbean because of fire hazards and safety violations.
Cunard had to set aside #7.5m to compensate passengers.
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