GUEST SPEAKER
DES COX
Des CoxHe is without question one of the most popular maritime guest speakers in the world today. Using very rare maritime archive film, his talks are an absolute delight - informative - enthusiastic - hilariously funny, creating one of the most fulfilling and entertaining performances available, be it for a special occasion, club meeting or as a guest speaker aboard cruise ships.

Des has had a very chequered career: Boy Rating - Asst Purser - Pop Star - Star of the original Candid Camera television series Writer, Producer and Director of television programmes, all of which is reflected in his talks.

He first went to sea as a 16 year old Boy Rating with The New Zealand Shipping Company Ltd, part of the P&O Group and rose to the dizzy heights of Assistant Purser.  He was the youngest officer in the British Merchant Navy at the time.  He also served with Cunard and one of the things that helps to make his talks so interestingly different is, he is one of the few recognised maritime guest speakers in the world to have had actual sea-going experience, enabling him to draw on a wealth of anecdotal stories that often have his audiences falling in the aisles with laughter.

He also takes the subject of his talks very seriously and, with the aid of very rare archive film, most of which is unique to Des and never screened in public before, takes his audiences back to those halcyon days of merchant shipping.  He shows you our seaports and estuaries in the days when they were crammed with ships of every shape and size, mostly flying the Red Ensign with pride.  He takes you aboard the ships of such famous companies as P&O - Cunard - Blue Funnel - Port Line - Ben Line - Shaw Savill - Royal Mail - Furness Withy - Union Castle - New Zealand and Federal Steam Ship Co - Palm Line - Elder Dempster - Brocklebank - British India - Ellerman Lines etc., etc and you sail with them on their voyages around the world.

(Check out Snowbow Productions Ltd. Website for Maritime Films produced by Des Cox.)

His talks are approximately 1 hour long - often extended by public demand and include:

1.  Pre-war cruising - 1920/3's This talk uses film showing just what it was like to have sailed on cruise ships all those years ago.

2.  Post-war cruising - 1940/70s  Archive film shows what it was like to have sailed on many of the early and great post-war liners, including the fleets of P&O and the Orient Lines and Cunard.

3.  What it was like to have served in the British Merchant Navy - 1950/60s  Using a combination of transparencies and rare archive film, Des tells of his own days at sea and just what it was like for a young boy, all those years ago, to go away to sea. There are few holds barred and some of the stories are absolutly hilarious and all the better for being true.

4.  The Great Atlantic Liners -1900/1970s  Pure archive film dating buck to the turn of this century, helps to illustrate und tell of the great international rivally that took place amongst nations to dominate the lucrative North Atlantic.  Some of the film is stunning and inclades a complete crossing of the Atlantic aboard the old "Queen Elizabeth" from London's Waterloo Station to New York.

5.  P&O and the Orient Lines - 1940/70s  More rare archive film shows P&O and Orient Liners when they sailed on their line voyages to the Far East und Australasia.  How they were responsible for some of the very earliest cruises, extending their line voyagcs to the West Coast of the USA and surviving whilst other shipping companics went under.

6.  Ships to Africa - 1950/70s.  More archive film allows us to see just what it was like to have sailed to Africa aboard cargo passenger ships, sailing to West Africa with Palm Line and then to South Africa with Union Castle.  The talk ends with the very moving scenes of Union Castle's flag ship the "Windsor Castle" making her final sailing from Capetown.

7.  Ships through the Panama Canal - 1920/90s  This talk covers the busic information re the building and running of the Panama Canal, coupled with rare archive film showing many famous ships of yesteryear travelling through it.

8.  The Great Port of London - 1920/90s  The films take us back to the days when London was the biggest and busiest seaport in the world.  For anyone interested in nostalgia and ships, the film is ahsolutely staggering, show many of the 60,000 ships that used to sail in and out of the Port of London every year.

9.  The Great Port of Liverpool - 1900/5Os  The River Mersey was home to many ports, the greatest being the Port of Liverpool.  Rare old archivc film takes us right back to the turn of the century showing us ships we never ever thought we would see again.

10.  Ships of the Mersey - 1950/70s  In this talk we get the opportunity to experience just what it was like to have sailed aboard ships belonging to some of the most famous shipping companies to have sailed out of the Mersey: Blue Funnel - Brocklbanks - Harrisons - Elder Demspster and Palm Line.

11.  Sailing around the world on Cargo Ships. - 1950s  In this talk we actually sail around the world in both directions abhoard cargo ships of the P&O fleet 1950s.  How different things were then, when ships were away for ages and stayed in port ofter for months at a time.  As well us being able to see just what it was like to have heen at sea in those days, just for good measure, we sail through an Atlantic Hurricane perhups the best ever film footage of a ship in such a storm.

12.  The decline of the Red Ensign 1900/70s   The story of the decline of the British Merchant Navv from when, just a few years ago, we had over 55% of the world's fleet to the present day when we have less than 5%.

13. British India - 1920/70s.  The British India Steam Navigation Company was once the largest shipping company in the world and a major player in the story and long term success of the P&O group.  Rare archive film enables us to be able to see many of their most famous ships and experience just what it was like to have sailed on them.

Des will also give talks covering other aspects of his life:

14.  The confusing, hectic and often very funny life of being a Pop Star in the Swinging 60s.  The 1960s were heady days indeed and none more-so than for a young Pop Star.  Des Cox became a Pop Star with EMI Records after leaving the sea.  They were great days but, few artists ever got paid or received any royalties from the sales of their records.  Every show concert / cabaret was a farce in one way or another and when you hear what actually went on, it's a wonder anyone ever survived to tell the tale.

15. Funny, behind the scene stories of "Candid Camera" - 1960s  Des Cox wrote and starred in the original "CandidCamera" when it was the top rated television series in the country.  In those days they didn't hve the benefit of micro technology and to record even the simplest of stunts, a full camera crew had to be used, making it even more difficult to carry them out.  Many of the stunts the Candid Camera team filmed could never be broadcust for various reasons.  Des Cox tells you of how they made some of the funniest and most memorable and, why some couldn be broadcast.

16. How to create, write and market children's stories for television and radio.  Des Cox has written and created two series for Children's television and radio.  In this talk he discusses the problem involved with such work and gives advice on how best to set about doing it succcsfully.

For further information and enquiries
Email or telephone - International Dialing Code 00.44.1273 585391 - UK dialing: 01273 585391. Fax (01273) 584470