Your first cruise ship

[Copper10-8]

Ocean Monarch - 1961. I was 13. My parents and I sailed one way to Bermuda out of NY. Stayed at Elbow Beach and flew home.

 

tss Ocean Monarch (1951-1981) Built in 1951 as tss (turbine steam ship) Ocean Monarch by Vickers-Armstrong Shipbuilders, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England for UK-based Furness, Withy & Company. She was launched on 27 July 1950 and after technical trials, delivered to her owners on 24 March 1951. She was the first postwar-built ship designed especially for the American cruise market. Ocean Monarch was awarded a gold medal by the American Institute for Designing for her "outstanding beauty and unusual design features of a cruise ship". On 18 April 1951, the single-stack steamship departed the United Kingdom bound for New York City on her maiden voyage.

 

Furness Withy was incorporated as a company in 1891 upon the amalgamation of Christopher Furness' business in West Hartlepool and London with Edward Withy's shipbuilding yard in Hartlepool. By 1914 the company had acquired interests all over the world in liner and tramp shipping and in shipbuilding, but from 1920 they concentrated on liner services. In addition to the North Atlantic service, they developed other American routes based principally on New York and including Bermuda in 1919 and the West Indies.

 

 

Furness, Withy & Co. based Ocean Monarch out of New York City and used her on the New York - Bermuda service operated by the Furness Bermuda Line. She made this run for the first time on 3 May 1951 and operated alongside the older and larger Queen of Bermuda. Throughout the 1950s, the two ships were dubbed the "Honeymoon Ships", their Saturday departures from New York fitting in well with the week-long honeymoons of many couples. The celebrity list of both ships included former United States of America president Harry Truman, motion picture star Cary Grant, British playwright and actor Sir Noel Coward and Princess Soraya, former wife of the Shah of Iran.

 

She would earn her keep for fifteen years carrying passengers and fresh water supplies to the island's hotels. (Bermuda has no fresh water supply at that time). Ocean Monarch and Queen of Bermuda also shared longer trips from New York south to the Bahamas and West Indies and pioneered cruises from Port Everglades/Ft. Lauderdale, Fl.

 

On 22 September 1966, following the end of sea passenger services to Bermuda, Ocean Monarch crossed back over to Great Britain but this time to be laid up in the River Fal, Cornwall, awaiting disposal.

 

 

In August 1967, she was sold to Bulgarian-based Balkantourist (owned by Sofia-based Navigation Maritime Bulgare) and renamed Varna to earn foreign currency by cruising in the Black Sea and from Montreal, Quebec. She did this for three years, spending time in lay-up during each winter season.

 

 

In 1970, she was laid up at Perama, Greece. In 1973, the ship was chartered by Sovereign Cruises however only made two voyages with them. She was then laid up again. Her name was changed to Venus in 1977 and to Riviera in 1978. In 1979, she was refurbished for use by Italy-based Trans-Tirreno Express for Mediterranean cruising.

 

Later in 1979, she was purchased by Greek-based Dolphin (Hellas) Shipping S.A., who had her refurbished for full-time cruising. She was then chartered by German-based SUR-Seereisen who announced a series of Mediterranean cruises to take place in the summer of 1981. Her name was once again changed, this time to Reina del Mar. Before these summer cruises were to take place, the ship was to be overhauled and renovated at Ambelakia, Greece.

 

On 28 May 1981, while at Ambelakia on the central-east coast of Salamina (Salamis) Island, engine running trials led to an engine room fire which completely gutted the ship's passenger acommodation. The next day, 29 May 1981, found Reina del Mar, still burning, so a decision was made to tow her out to sea by the tug Titan. However, the tow parted and the ship ran aground on the coast of Salamina Island. On 1 June 1981, she was reloated and towed off but again burst into flames and was scuttled at Kynosoura, also on Salamina Island, where she fell onto her side, became a total loss and was scuttled.

[Copper10-8]

May, 1975, seven days aboard Sitmar's Fairwind to Haiti, San Juan, St. Thomas & Nassau. Italian crew who pampered and spoiled us. Room stewards sat outside our door 24/7 to anticipate any desire we might request. Outstanding food. Comedy week---Red Buttons & Henny Youngman performed, each doing two shows, with non-stop monologues for over 2 hours, never repeating a joke, nor ever inserting a curse word. Laughed until tears rolled down our cheeks. Still fondly remember the day in St. Thomas where we rented a dune buggy as one of the best of our 40 years together. Heaven to me would be to spend eternity reliving that day on St. Thomas with my dearest best friend and generous love of my live, my husband.

 

That cruise turned us into cruise fanatics. Since then we taken 9 cruises, (Carnival, RCCL, Celebrity & Holland America) about to go on #10 next year. HAL comes closest to giving us the same level of service & overall pleasure. We've morphed into HAL zealots. Our retirement wish is to sail on every HAL ship. We have 1 down, Maasdam, and many more to go.

 

 

ss Sylvania (1957-2004) Built by John Brown & Company Ltd, Clydebank, Scotland and delivered in June 1957 to the Cunard Steamship Company as ss Sylvania for "secondary" North Atlantic (Liverpool-Eastern Canada) service. She was the last Cunard Line vessel built specifically for transatlantic crossings. In addition to their more prestigious run from Southampton to New York, Cunard also operated other services, including one from Liverpool to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. On that run, their main competitors were Canadian Pacific Steamships. In order to strengthen their position on this service, Cunard decided to order a series of four identical liners, eventually referred to as the Saxonia class, for the run in 1951. Per Cunard's tradition, all four ships were named using the Latin names of provinces of the Roman and Holy Roman Empires; Saxonia (1954), Ivernia (1955), Carinthia (1956) and last but not least, Sylvania in 1957.

 

The new ships reflected the economics and travel patterns of the post-war world; they were not built exclusively as passenger liners, but also included cargo-carrying facilities. Their passenger accommodation were divided into just two classes, first and tourist, with the tourist class occupying the majority of the ship. The outer dimensions of the ships were defined by the Saint Lawrence Seaway, as they had to be able to navigate from the Atlantic Ocean up river to Montreal.

 

Sylvania started on her maiden voyage from Greenock, Scotland to Montreal on 5 June 1957. On 26 June 1957 she joined her sisters on their northern hemisphere summer service from Liverpool to Montreal via Greenock and Quebec City. By the time she entered service the growth of passenger numbers in transatlantic liner service had ceased, while the amount of passenger transported by jet airliner was growing.

 

In 1958, Sylvania made one crossing from Liverpool to New York via Cobh, Ireland and Halifax, Noca Scotia. In April 1961 she was moved permanently to the Liverpool - New York service, replacing RMS Britannic. At some point during her career with Cunard, she also served on the Rotterdam, the Netherlands 0 Southampton - Le Havre, France - Quebec City - Montreal route.

 

When the North Atlantic passenger operation became unprofitable in the early sixties, Sylvania was used on more and more cruises. In early 1965 she received a refit to make her accommodations more cruise-friendly. In November 1966 her transatlantic service was altered back to the Liverpool—Montreal route. Due to heavy losses Cunard withdrew the Sylvania and her her sister ship Carinthia from service in December 1967. They were subsequently laid up in Southampton and put up for sale.

 

 

On 2 February 1968, Sylvania and Carinthia were purchased by the Italian cruise company Societa Italiana Transporti Marittimi S.p.A aka Sitmar Line, managed by the Russian Vlasov family. The sisters were renamed Fairwind and Fairland, respectively, with the intention of converting them into immigrant liners for the Europe to Australia and New ZEaland service. Sitmar had held the immigrant service contract by the Australian government from 1955, but the Australians were asking for new tenders for the period of 1970 onwards so Sitmar needed more ships. However, despite the purchase of the Fairwind and Fairland, Sitmar lost the contract to the Greek Chandris Line, resulting in Fairwind and Fairland staying put at Southampton.

 

Sitmar then decided to convert the two sisters for cruise service instead. Fairwind received a year-long refit at the Arsenale Triestino San Marco shipyard at Trieste, Italy between January 1970 and January 1971 where her appearance was radically altered. Her forward superstructure was rebuilt to a sleek, streamlined form, her funnel rebuilt to a more modern, slightly conical form with a smoke deflector fin on top, and her cargo cranes eliminated and removed. In keeping with the then-current Sitmar livery, the Fairwind had a yellow funnel with a large V (for Vlaslov) painted on it. In addition to the funnel, the topmost decks of her superstructure and her radar mast were painted yellow.

 

 

She emerged from the yard to join her sister (having her refit completed some two months earlier and renamed Fairsea instead of Fairland) on the North American cruise market, on which she proved highly popular. During the northern hemisphere winter season, Fairwind made cruises to South America from Ft. Lauderdale, FL, while during the summer season she sailed from San Francisco, CA to Canadian west coast and to Alaska.

 

In 1988, Sitmar decided to change their brand identity with a new external livery and a new naming policy. That livery consisted of an entirely white superstructure, a dark blue funnel with Sitmar's new Swan logo, and three wave-like ribands painted on her hull.

 

Her career as Sitmar Fairwind proved short however, when on 14 September 1988, Sitmar Cruises was sold to the British P&O (Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company) Group. P&O closed down the Sitmar brand and just eight days after the acquisition, Sitmar Fairwind was renamed Dawn Princess and transferred to the fleet of Los Angeles-based Princess Cruises.

 

 

As Dawn Princess, the ship continued cruises mainly aimed at the North American market. Princess Cruises would be investing heavily in new tonnage, and in early 1993, the popular Dawn Princess was sold to V-Ships, a subsidiary of the the Vlasov Group or "V" Group of Monte Carlo. the original owners of Sitmar.

[Copper10-8]

 

Under that ownership starting on 27 March 1993, German tour operator Phoenix Seereisen started operating her initially under a five-year charter as Albatros for world-wide cruising for mainly German tourists. On 18 August 1993, she departed on her first cruise for Phoenix from Germany to North Cape, Norway.

 

On 22 May 1995, during a cruise in the Red Sea, an engine-room fire broke out forcing her passengers to be evacuated to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. After the fire was contained and eventually extinguished, Albatross, without her passengers, travelled via the Suez Canal to Livorno, Italy for temporary repairs. She then continued on to Germany, arriving at the Lloyd Werft, Bremerhaven in June for more permanent repairs. She returnred to service on 30 June 1995.

 

 

In November 2003, her charter contract having been extended, Albatros suffered severe machinery problems. As a result, Phoenix Seereisen decided to terminate the contract. Owners V-Ships, in turn, concluded that the price of repairing the the 46-year old ship was too high.

 

 

As a result, Albatross was sold to Indian scrappers in December 2003. She was renamed ss Genoa and departed Genoa, Italy on 21 December 2003 on her final journey to India. She arrived at Alang on 16 January 2004 where she was beached and subsequently broken up.

 

[Copper10-8]

My first cruise was on the Zaandam in 2006. We were heading for Alaska out of Vancouver for the last cruise of the season. It was my first time on anything larger than a speedboat (which I hated) and I was going to be sailing as crew. I was excited and terrified all at once, I was petrified that I'd hate it just as much as I hate small boats.

 

After a small bout of sea sickness heading up to Alaska (we were not taking the inside passage), I found my sea legs and continued to work onboard various HAL ships for the next two years. And what did I do on "vacation"? Sailed the Ryndam, NCL's Spirit, the Veendam and now I'm planning on visiting the Eurodam for a week. Yep, guess you could say I'm hooked

 

ms Zaandam (2000-present) Built in 2000 as ms Zaandam by Fincantieri - Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A., Marghera (Venice), Italy for Holland America Line. Her keel was laid on 26 June 1998 and she was floated out of her building dock on 30 April 1999.

 

 

After running successful technical trials in the Adriatic, Zaandam was delivered to Holland America Line on 6 April 2000. She then crossed the Atlantic via the Adriatic and Mediterranean under the command of Captain Jean “Jack” van Coevorden. Uniquely, Zaandam was originally intended to serve as Holland America's bid to attract younger passengers. Consequently, upon her arrival in Ft. Lauderdale, FL she was christened by her then 13-year old godmothers, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, known to television viewers of the late 80's and early 90's from the sitcom "Full House",in a ceremony on 4 May 2000. She departed that afternoon on her maiden voyage to the Caribbean, alternating Western and Eastern itineraries.

 

 

Zaandam was named after the city of Zaandam located in the Dutch province of Noord Holland (North Holland), the main city in the municipality of Zaanstad. Zaandam, the city, was once a small settlement built on the river Zaan near a dam. ms Zaandam is the third ship in HAL history to bear the name Zaandam and also the third ship of the four vessel “R” class, Rotterdam (1997), Volendam (1999), and Amsterdam (2000) are her sisters. The “R” class really should be divided into two separate classes due to internal and external differences; Rotterdam & Amsterdam as one class and Zaandam & Volendam as the other. Holland America Line, however, considers the four ships as one class.

 

The first Zaandam, built by the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij/Netherlands Steamboat Company, at Rotterdam, the Netherlands, was launched on 20 July 1882 as a 3,063 ton combination steam and twin-masted sail ship. Zaandam I, HAL’s first ship built in the Netherlands, would sail between Rotterdam and New York through 1897 and also opened HAL’s new route to Buenos Aires, Argentina. In June 1897, she was purchased by the Austro-Americana Steamship Company and renamed Styria. In 1902 she was sold to the New York-based Luckenbach Steamship Company, renamed Julia Luckenbach, and converted into a petroleum carrier. In January 1913 while in Chesapeake Bay, she collided with another steamer and subsequently sank.

 

The second Zaandam was laid down on 22 December 1937 at Wilton-Feijenoord at Schiedam, the Netherlands. She was a 10,909 ton combo cargo-passenger vessel which departed Rotterdam for New York on her maiden voyage on 7 January 1939. When the Netherlands were invaded and occupied by Germany in May 1940, Zaandam was repainted in camouflage colors. In 1942 she was requisitioned by the British Ministry of War Transport and then assigned to the United States War Shipping Administration. In November 1942, Zaandam was torpedoed by a German U-boat, some 300 miles off the coast of Brazil and sank, tragically with 130 of her occupants killed or missing at sea. There were 169 survivors.

 

 

 

Essentially a stretched-out and slightly larger version of HAL’s “S” class, Zaandam has three design changes that distinguish her from that earlier class: Her aft swimming pool was moved from Navigation Deck up one level to Lido Deck, an alternate restaurant, at the time of her delivery called the Marco Polo, later changed into the Pinnacle Grill, was incorporated, and a mid-ship elevator bank and stairwell was added. Zaandam is similar to the lead ship of the “R” class, Rotterdam, but is slower (she basically has the same speed as the four “S” class ships). Zaandam also has a single funnel, however the stack is of a different design than the “S” class funnels. Rotterdam and Amsterdam have a twin-funnel, side-by-side arrangement. Unlike Rotterdam, one of HAL’s two flagships designed for longer, world-wide cruises, Zaandam was designed for yeoman duty in the Caribbean and Alaska but has also found her way to Hawaii, the South Pacific, Australia and Asia. Her home ports so far have been Ft. Lauderdale and Port Canaveral, Fl, San Diego, CA and Vancouver, BC.

 

The basic layout of Zaandam’s public rooms are the same as that of ms Volendam, including her two-tier Rotterdam dining room, Lido buffet-style restaurant, an alternate 88-seat Marco Polo (Pinnacle Grill) restaurant, as well as a Club HAL children’s room on her Sports Deck that can also be used as a meeting or reception room. Her main two-story show lounge is named after Dutch abstract painter Pieter Cornelis “Piet” Mondriaan. The lounge glitters with bright white, gray, and silver decor with somewhat darker furniture providing contrast (the tables feature lamps with miniature musical instruments). Zaandam’s trade mark Ocean Bar attracts the pre- and post-dinner cocktail crowd and her 205-seat Wajang theater, the place for movies, meetings and presentations. The Crows Nest observation lounge has a 320-degree view for taking in port departures and arrivals. She has an Ocean Spa fitness center with a gymnasium and separate massage, sauna and steam rooms. Zaandam also came out with an Explorers Lounge, Java Café coffee bar, Piano Bar, a 24-seat Erasmus Library, an Internet center, shops stocked with duty-free goods, and a Casino with Casino Bar which doubles as the ship’s sports bar.

 

 

 

 

Zaandam’s theme is loosely tied to the world of music with related memorabilia scattered throughout the ship in fabrics, posters and real instruments. Zaandam’s center piece is a giant 22-foot high Baroque-style Dutch pipe/street organ with mechanical figures “playing” violins, drums and horns that can be found in her three-deck high atrium. The organ “performs” on sea days at 11:00 am and at 12 Noon and at 2:00 and 4:00 pm.Zaandam sports a collection of rock 'n' roll memorabilia that would do credit to a Hard Rock Cafe: a Fender Squire Telecaster guitar, signed by the Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood and Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, is located in a glass display case on the Deck 4 staircase. An Ariana acoustic guitar signed by David Bowie and Iggy Pop, a Fender Stratocaster guitar signed in silver ink by the members of Queen and a Bently Les Paul-style guitar signed by various artists, including Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, BB King, Robert Cray, Keith Richards and Les Paul can also be found in the hallway near the lower entrance to the Rotterdam dining room. The rear wall of the Explorers lounge has a Conn saxophone with a mouthpiece signed by former U.S. President Bill Clinton. There are two somewhat unusual piano art pieces on board that have been painted by modern Dutch artists; one by Henk van Vessem painted in a colorful abstract design located in the ship’s Lido Restaurant, the other, made to look like “shipwreck wood” is located in the Seaview Lounge (outside the Piano Bar).

 

 

The artwork and artifacts onboard Zaandam are valued at more than U.S. $2 million, including antiques, paintings, prints and photography centered around a theme of Dutch and Holland America Line seafaring exploration and cruise travel. There are a series of black & white photos of the line’s early cruise ships in some of the passenger corridors. Zaandam also exhibits works created specifically for the vessel by world-class artists and has a collection of Egyptian artwork (including a wooden model of the third coffin of King Tutankhamen) permanently displayed in the Art Gallery. Usually an “eye catcher” is the large reproduction of the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Yellow Jasper”, actually a fragment of an Egyptian queen’s face (commonly referred to as “the yellow lips”) located on the outside of the Explorers Lounge. Like all other HAL ships, great paintings of the line’s ships by Captain Stephen Card can be found in the forward stairwell, and some public rooms are decorated in Dutch colonial motif. A bronze sculpture of a group of five leaping white-sided Pacific dolphins by British artist Susanna Holt is located at Zaandam’s mid-ships magrodomed Lido pool. A pair of boldly colored life-size ceramic cows by Dutch artist Jackie Bouw lie contently by the ship’s rear/Sea view swimming pool.

 

Zaandam’s Java Café, originally found outside her Wajang Theater, has been converted into a wine tasting bar and her original Marco Polo Italian alternate restaurant into the Pinnacle Grill serving Pacific Northwest fare. In November, 2003, Holland America Cruise Line announced a U.S. $225 million program of up-scaling their cruise ships, cruise line image and passenger cruise experience called the 'Signature of Excellence program'. This enhancement program included stateroom amenities (luxury beds and bed linens upgrades, Euro-style mattresses, waffle-weave bathrobes and Egyptian cotton towels to all cabin categories), new massage-type showerheads and professional-grade hair dryers in all bathrooms, new flat-screen LCD televisions with DVD players, make-up mirrors with halo lightning, fresh flowers and complimentary fruit baskets in all cabins, a Culinary Arts Center (inside the Wajang Theater) presented by Food & Wine magazine, with an on-stage kitchen for gourmet cooking demonstrations and interactive classes; an Explorations Café (taking in the Erasmus Library and original internet center and adding a coffee bar); a Neptune concierge lounge for the exclusive use by Deluxe Verandah and Penthouse suite occupants; an expanded Greenhouse Spa and Salon offering thermal suite treatment, a hydrotherapy and thalassotherapy pool and heated ceramic lounges; and the ”Loft” and the “Oasis”, respectively, an interior and exterior area designed exclusively for teens (ages 13-17). Zaandam had her SOE part 1 enhancements installed while in dry-dock in January 2005 at Freeport, the Bahamas.

 

During the first week of February 2005, Zaandam, her sister Volendam, HAL's Vista class Zuiderdam, Carnival Miracle and Radisson's Seven Seas Navigator were chartered by the Jacksonville, Fl. Super Bowl Host Committee as accomodations/hotel ships. Jacksonville, the smallest market ever to host a Super Bowl, rented the five ships for U.S. $11.5 million and "parked" them along the St. Johns River for five days to assist with hotel room space for National Football League affiliates and sponsors for Super Bowl XXXIX. The three HAL ships were berthed at the city's newly upgraded Talleyrand Marine Terminal. Rooms aboard the five ships cost $200 to $550 a night.

 

 

On 21 January 2009, Zaandam gained a Digital Workshop program by Microsoft which is comprised of complimentary classes led by a Microsoft-trained “techspert”. As part of the program, located in the Queen’s Room, her passengers can learn to use computers to enhance photos, produce and publish videos onto a DVD and create personal web pages or blogs. In addition, one-on-one coaching, called “Techspert Time” is available for more than 20 hours each week. On 18 November 2009, on the east-bound portion of her Circle Hawaii cruise, Zaandam also gained a second alternate restaurant, "Canaletto", serving Italian cuisine. Canaletto, named for the famous 18th century Venetian artist, which debuted on the ms Eurodam in 2008, will come to life for dinner nightly between 5:30 and 9:30 pm when a section of the ships' Lido restaurant is transformed into the Italian restaurant. Canaletto's menu begins with an antipasti plate that changes nightly, followed by soup choices, salad, four pasta dishes and entrees like veal Milanese, chicken Marsala

 

[Copper10-8]

What a coincidence. I was just going through my photo albums and came across my first cruise album. It was Song of America - RCCL in 1986! It had sample menus that they sold in miniature and a drink menu from one of the lounges. An average cocktail was $1.95, with a Crown at $2.25. The next year on the Nordic Prince - RCCL the drink prices went to $2.45 and $2.65! Wow did we look young. We sat at the First Officers table on our first cruise. It was such a good time. The ships didn't even look like they had balcony rooms. We had port holes. I remember having to book far in advace to get a room where the bed would be configured to a double!

 

ms Song of America (1982-present) Built in 1982 as ms Song of America by Oy Wärtsilä Ab (Wartsila New Ship Yard), Helsingfors (Helsinki), Finland, for (then) Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL). At 37,584 grt, she was one of the largest cruise ships built at the time.

 

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line had operated throughout the 1970s with three ships; Song of Norway, Nordic Prince and Sun Viking, that had been built at the same yard in Finland, two of which (Song of Norway in 1978 and Nordic Prince in 1980) had been lengthened. Due to increased demand, RCCL decided to order a new and larger ship, again from the Wärtsilä shipyard, which was to become Song of America.

 

 

For the interior layout of this new ship, RCCL decided to adapt a system with cabins stacked towards the front, furthest away from engine noise, with public spaces to aft. This layout, widely used on large ferries built by Wärtsilä at the time, had rarely been seen on cruise ships. The public spaces on decks five and seven were built with one and a half times the standard deck height, leading to deck six only existing in the forward part of the ship. Unlike Song of Norway, Nordic Prince and Sun Viking, Song of America's Viking Crown Lounge, the trademark of all Royal Caribbean ships, completely surrounded her funnel providing passengers with a 360 degree view

 

She was delivered to her owners on 11 November 1982 and after a transatlantic crossing arrived in Miami, Fl. from where she operated a cruise to nowhere for media and travel professionals. On 3 December 1982, she was christened by her godmother, American opera soprano Beverly Sills, in a lavish ceremony. On 5 December, she departed Miami on her maiden voyage, a seven-day Eastern Caribbean cruise to Nassau, the Bahamas, San Juan, Puerto Rico and St, Thomas, USVI with former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalyn among her guests. During the early part of her RCCL career, this seven-day itinerary from Miami would be her staple. Later on, she would make several trips to the U.S. west coast via the Panama Canal, operating on the Alaska run in the summer season and down to the Mexican Riviera out of Los Angeles during the winter months.

 

 

She was sold in May 1998 for $94.5 million to Sun Cruises, a subsidiary of UK-based travel company Airtours. Sun Cruises immediately chartered the ship back to RCCL until March 1999. Unlike earlier ships sold by RCCL, her Viking Crown lounge had not been removed when she was handed over to her new owners. Sun Cruises had her refitted with additional suites on deck nine, renamed her ms Sunbird, and operated her for cruising around Europe, mainly in the Mediterranean. Later on during her Sun Cruises career, she received MyTravel colors.

 

 

When Airtours decided to pull out of the cruise vacation and ship ownership business, she was purchased by Cyprus-based Louis Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Cyprus-based travel and tourism group Louis plc, on 26 July 2004. History repeated itself when Louis chartered her back to Sun Cruises until February 2005 when she was laid up in Pireaus, Greece.

 

 

On 3 May 2005, she was placed on long-term charter (until 2011) by UK-based Thomson Cruises who renamed her Thomson Destiny. Thomson has used her for cruising in the Mediterranean as well as Red Sea, to the Canary Islands and to the west coast of Africa. She recently returned to the Caribbean, her initial area of operations with RCCL back in the early eighties.

 

Edited February 26, 2010 by Copper10-8

[Copper10-8]

Some add'l pics of the former Song of America in her RCCL days:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Copper10-8]

nice one, "song of america"

 

 

I remember it well i went on her in 1998 from los angeles to san juan (she is of couse the THOMSON DESTINY) which i have also been on.

 

MY 1ST CRUISE was CROWN DYNASTY in 1994 i left british rail was wanted to try a different kind of holiday(i did not even like the sea,but soon got hooked!

the DYNASTY is of course "BRAEMAR" for fred olsen.

dave

 

Crown Dynasty (1993-present) Built as Crown Dynasty by Union Naval de Levante, S.A., Valencia, Spain in 1993 for Scandinavian (Finland/Sweden)-owned Effjohn International's subsidiary Crown Cruise Line. She was launched on 31 January 1992 however, on 23 February 1993 a fire broke out in her dining room while still under construction at the Valencia shipyard which delayed her delivery by approximately three months. She was ultimately delivered to her new owners on 25 June 1993.

 

By that time, EffJohn had entered into cooperative marketing agreement with Cunard Line and sent Crown Dynasty to the British line. Under their flag, Cunard named the ship Cunard Crown Dynasty and used her for North American and Caribbean mass market cruising. She departed Southampton for the east coast of the United States on 3 July 1993. In the summer of 1994, Cunard Crown Dynasty was sailing in Alaska from 19 May through 11 September. She sailed seven-night cruises from Vancouver, BC north-bound and from Juneau, Ak south-bound. Those cruises were offered as two-week packages that included land tours in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and/or as a two-week back-to-back. The fall of 1994 and winter of 1994-1995 found Cunard Crown Dynasty operating ten-night Panama Canal cruises from Ft. Lauderdale to Acapulco on the west coast of Mexico.

 

 

In 1995, the alliance between Crown Cruise Line and Cunard came to an end due to Crown's owner EffJohn changing strategy by putting their primary emphasis on Baltic ferry operations. As a result, in May 1995, Cunard Crown Dynasty was bare boat chartered to the British line. Cunard took her right back to Alaska for her summer season there between 18 May and 10 September 1995 and on Panama Canal cruises for that fall and following winter. For 1996, Cunard Crown Dynasty repeated the same schedule, the only full year that she sailed under Cunard management.

 

In November 1996, Cunard Line reached a charter agreement with Majesty Cruise Line: the ship would be delivered on 1 March 1997 and renamed Crown Majesty until the charter concluded in late 1999. The ship fulfilled her complete 1997 Cunard program of Alaska and Trans-canal cruises, her last Cunard cruise departing Ft. Lauderdale on 5 May 1997 and concluding in Los Angeles on 17 May 1997. She was then delivered to Majesty Cruise Line and returned to Alaska as Crown Majesty. However history would repeat itself and her proposed career with Majesty was short lived.

In February 1997, Norwegian Cruise Line appeared on the scene with her new owners, NCL Holdings, who were looking to expand their cruise business and re-establish their position of strength. On 5 March 1997 an agreement was announced whereby NCL Holdings would lease Crown Majesty for a period of two years with a delivery in September 1997 under her new name Norwegian Dynasty.

 

 

After being renamed Norwegian Dynasty in late September, she operated trans-Panama Canal cruises in the winter of 1997-1998 but this time from Montego Bay, Jamaica to Acapulco, Mexico. After some cruises to and from Hawaii in the summer of 1998, Norwegian Dynasty found herself once again based in Vancouver, BC sailing to Alaska. However, the delivery of larger panamax cruise ships to NCL meant that the smaller 19,093 grt Norwegian Dynasty was no longer a good fit with the remainder of the fleet, so the writing was on the wall that NCL woud not extend or renew her lease.

 

 

On 1 March 1999, Commodore Holdings Ltd. announced that they would bare boat charter Norwegian Dynasty effective November 1999 with an option to purchase her. Commodore Holdings also announced that the ship would be operated by their newly formed upscale subsidiary, Crown Cruise Line, resurrecting the brand name that was once part of Effjohn International. Crown Cruise Line had plans to operate their new ship from Philadelphia, Pa to Bermuda in the summer and on southern Caribbean cruises from Oranjestad, Aruba in the winter. On 2 December 1999, She regained one of her prior names when she was christened Crown Majesty in New Orleans. She then sailed her first Caribbean cruise from Aruba on 18 December 1999.

 

Her passenger bookings were good and in January 2000, Commodore soon decided to purchase Crown Majesty outright from her Scandinavian owners for U.S. $86.2 million. While under that last charter, Crown Majesty had undergone a U.S. $5 million upgrade and refit. Crown marketed the ship to those seeking a somewhat more sophisticated and higher quality cruise experience at a moderate price. Her winter itinerary had her sailing every Saturday on 7-night cruises from Oranjestad to five "hidden harbor'' ports of call, visiting Bridgetown, Barbados, Castries, St. Lucia, St.George's, Grenada, Kralendijk, Bonaire, and Willemstad, Curacao, before returning to Aruba the following Saturday.

 

On 10 May 2000, Crown Dynasty started her exclusive operations from Philadelphia, Pa and Baltimore, Md to Bermuda for twenty-two 7-night cruises. After that summer season, she sailed back to Aruba from where she continued her seven-night Caribbean cruises. However, on 28 December 2000, Commodore Holdings Ltd. had run into financial trouble, requested Chapter 11 protection and declared bankruptcy. The main creditors of the company were Scandinavian banks.The fully booked 2000-2001 winter season of the Crown Dynasty was cancelled, and she was laid up at Oranjestad, Aruba, and put up for sale.

 

On April 2001, it was known that the UK-based Fred. Olsen Cruises was in the market for a third cruise ship to join their fleet. At the time, Fred Olsen operated two ships, the 1966-built Black Prince and the 1972-built Black Watch. That search ended with the GBP 52 million purchase of Crown Dynasty on 11 May 2001 from banks acting as liquidators for Commodore Holdings Ltd.

 

After a transatlantic voyage, and a small refit at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, she was sent to the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg. Germany. Upon arrival there on 20 June 2001, she underwent a comprehensive refit and refurbishment, both on the hotel and technical sides of the vessel, and she emerged on 22 July 2001 almost as a new ship with the name Braemar. She is named after a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Most of her public rooms were gutted and totally rebuilt and her cabins were refurbished using high quality fabrics and carpets. A major area of refit work was the conversion of a number of cabins from double to single occupancy, reducing her overal passenger capacity to around 750.

 

 

 

In early August 2001, Braemar sailed to Dover, England where she was provisioned and where her crew was given a chance to get accustomed to their new home. After a number of public functions, the ship set sail for the first time in Fred Olsen house colors on 9 August 2001 on a 2-night pre-inaugural cruise to Antwerp, Belgium.

After her return Braemar departed Dover on 11 August 2001 on her sold-out maiden voyage to Northern Europe. Later that year, she was switched to Southampton for fall departures to the Mediterranean. The 2001-2002 winter season found her back in familiar territory, sailing cruises in the Caribbean. She has also visited the Amazon region of Brazil. Since that time, she has repeated this schedule year after year, with the vast majority of her passengers being multiple repeaters.

 

 

13 May 2008 found her back at the Blohm + Voss shipyard in Hamburg for a massive overhaul and facelift including a mid-ship lengthening by 102' 3". Along with this addition came 70 new cabins, including 18 balcony cabins, a new lounge, the Observatory, a second restaurant, The Grampian, and an expanded sun deck with one new pool and plenty of room for sunbathers. Her capacity was increased from 900 to 950 passengers. At the beginning of July 2008, Braemar departed the German shipyard for a short sea trial and was then handed back over to Fred Olsen Cruise Lines in Southampton to continue her cruises for them.

Edited February 26, 2010 by Copper10-8

[Copper10-8]

First cruise was 1953 on the US Army Transport General Simom B. Buckner - Japan to Hawaii.

Admiral E. W. Eberle AP-123 (1943-1997) laid down on 15 February 1943 under a Maritime Commission contract (MC hull 681) by the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Alameda, CA. She was the fourth of what ultimately would be eight P2-SE2-R1 "Admiral" class troop transports. She was launched on 14 June 1944, when she was sponsored by Mrs. Earl Warren, the wife of the Governor of California who later became Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. She was acquired by the United States Navy when she was commissioned on 24 January 1945, Capt. G. C. Carlstedt, USCG, in command.

 

The ship was named after Admiral Edward Walter Eberle, who commanded the U.S. Navy Atlantic and Pacific Fleets and was Chief of Naval Operations from 1923 to 1927. The transport displaced 20,120 tons, had a length of 608’11”, a beam of 75’6” and a draft of 26’11”. Her top speed was rated at 19 knots; she had a ship’s complement of 618 and a troop capacity of 5,200. Her war-time armament consisted of four single 5” dual purpose gun mounts and four twin 40mm guns.

 

 

The transport was operated by the Naval Transportation Service and manned largely by Coast Guard personnel. On 6 March 1945, she departed San Francisco with troops and supplies bound for New Guinea. She made stops at Finschhafen and Hollandia before dropping anchor at Manus Island on 25 March. While there a U.S. Navy plane crashed into the starboard side of the ship. Both occupants of the plane were killed, and casualties on board Admiral E. W. Eberle numbered one dead and five wounded.

 

On 26 March, the ship sailed in convoy for the Philippines. After loading boons at Leyte, USS Admiral E. W. Eberle proceeded to Manila. There, she embarked over 2,000 civilians for transportation to the United States. These passengers were mainly American citizens who had been interned in the Philippines since Japanese forces captured the islands in the spring of 1942. Admiral E. W. Eberle returned to Leyte on 13 April to pick up U.S. Army personnel, then sailed, via Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands, for the west coast of the United States and reaching Los Angeles (San Pedro) CA. on 2 May 1945.

 

The ship's next voyage took her via the Panama Canal across the Atlantic to Italy. Arriving at Naples on 4 June 1945, she embarked U.S. Army personnel and baggage for transportation to Trinidad. The transport reached Trinidad on 18 June and soon reversed her course, bound for France. At Le Havre, Admiral E. W. Eberle embarked over 4,000 homeward-bound troops whom she put ashore upon her arrival at Norfolk, VA on 6 July.

 

Admiral E. W. Eberle stood out to sea again on 14 July 1945 for yet another voyage to France. She called at Marseilles and took on board troops destined for the Philippines. Admiral E. W. Eberle steamed via the Panama Canal and Ulithi, arrived at Luzon on 29 August 1945 where she debarked part of her passengers and then moved on to Manila. The transport returned to the United States in September and put into Seattle, Wash., for upkeep. Between October 1945 and March 1946, Admiral E. W. Eberle made three voyages to Japan and Korea.

 

Admiral E. W. Eberle was decommissioned on 8 May 1946 and returned to the Maritime Commission for transfer to the U.S. Army. Her name was struck from the Navy register in June 1946. The Army acquired the transport that same month and subsequently renamed her General Simon B. (Bolivar) Buckner.

 

 

Now USNS General Simon B. Buckner T-AP-123, the ship was once again transferred to the U.S. Navy on 1 March 1950 and assigned to the Military Sea Transportation Service. The transport, now with a civilian crew, steamed across the Pacific throughout the Korean conflict, transporting troops and equipment to Japan and other staging areas. General Simon B. Buckner continued operations in the Pacific until 15 February 1955, when she departed San Francisco, CA bound for New York, NY.

 

Upon her arrival there two weeks later, she was assigned to the New York-Bremerhaven, (West) Germany runs. During the next 10 years, General Simon B. Buckner made over 130 Atlantic voyages from New York to Bremerhaven, Southampton, England and ports in the Mediterranean.

 

Departing New York on 11 August 1965, she returned to the west coast, arriving at Long Beach Naval Base, CA on the 27th to assist in the movement of troops and equipment to southeast Asia. After two cruises to South Vietnam, the veteran transport resumed operations in the Atlantic, arriving at New York on 3 December 1965.

 

During the next eight months, she steamed across the Atlantic 10 times, making stops at Bremerhaven and Southampton. Returning to the west coast in August 1966, General Simon B. Buckner was once again pressed into service to carry war material to Vietnam. She departed San Francisco on 8 September and reached Da Nang, South Vietnam twenty days later. Following her return to San Francisco on 16 October, she continued to support American operations in Southeast Asia until President Nixon's Vietnamization program decreased the Navy's need for transports. She was returned to the Maritime Administration on 24 March 1970.

 

Laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet at Cavin Point Army Deport, NY during the following two decades, USNS General Simon B. Buckner was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 20 August 1990. On 14 July 1993 her title was transferred to the Maritime Commission and she was sold by that body in June 1997 for scrapping. Her final journey took her to the International Shipbreaking Company at Brownsville, TX where she was dismantled in May 1999.

[Copper10-8]

1988 maybe 1989..my 50 year old brain cannot remember the exact year. However it was cruise to Bermuda rt NYC on Chandris Fantasy Crusies which would evolve into Celebrity. Enjoyed the cruise but did not cruise again until 2003 and became addicted at that time. Making up for lost time and have been on 11 since 2003 and 2 booked for 2010!

 

Interesting one! In both the 1988 and 1989 summer seasons,

Chandris Cruises' Amerikanis and Galileo were doing Bermuda cruises from east coast cities. Chandris marketed both ships (plus two more, but there was no "Fantasy") in North America under the Chandris Fantasy Cruises name. Here's Amerikanis. Galileo is on page 74/1435.

 

ss Kenya Castle (1951-2001) Built in 1951 as passenger liner ss Kenya Castle by Harland & Wolff Ltd, Belfast, Northern Ireland for the UK-based Union Castle Mail Steamship Company, Ltd. aka Union Castle Line. She was the second of a three sister class, the others being lead ship ss Rhodesia Castle and ss Braemar Castle, and she was delivered to her new owners at Southampton on 18 February 1952. From there, she departed on her maiden voyage, a 14-day cruise to the Canary Islands before settling in on the line's London (Southampton) - Cape Town, South Africa via Suez service.

 

 

The Union-Castle Line, at the time, was a prominent shipping line that operated a fleet of passenger liners as well as freighters between Europe and Africa from 1900 to 1977. Union-Castle named most of their ships with the suffix "Castle". They were well known for their lavender-hulled liners with black and red funnels, running on a rigid timetable between Southampton and Cape Town. Every Thursday at 4:00 PM, a Union-Castle Royal Mail Ship would leave Southampton bound for Cape Town. At the same time, a Union-Castle Royal Mail Ship would leave Cape Town bound for Southampton.

 

 

In 1958, Kenya Castle had her funnel remodeled and in 1960 her accommodation altered to cater for 442 one-class passengers. The British National Export Council considered using her as an exhibition ship in 1966 but the plans did not proceed. On 22 April 1967 she was laid up in the River Blackwater.

 

 

In August 1967, she was purchased by the Greek-based Chandris Line who renamed her Amerikanis (“American Maiden”) and intended to use her for summer Atlantic Ocean liner service. They had her converted into a one-class, 920 passenger vessel at Piraeus. On 8 August 1968, she departed for New York City from Piraeus on her maiden voyage for her new owners with calls at Messina and Naples, Italy, Lisbon, Portugal and Halifax, NS. She became somewhat famous for being the first passenger ship to have a television in every cabin. After three additional line voyages, Chandris decided to base her out of New York City for cruises to the Caribbean during the following winter. This operating pattern was repeated in 1969.

 

 

 

In 1970 she was transferred to a cruising-only operation with a passenger complement of 617. She operated inexpensive 3, 4 and 7-day cruises out of U.S. East coast ports and the Bahamas to Bermuda and Caribbean ports. In April 1981, Amerikanis was leased to Italy-based Costa Crociere/Costa Cruises (no name change) who used her on year-round 3 and 4-day cruises to the Bahamas out of Miami, Fl. This charter ended in December 1983. Chandris then arranged a dry-dock for Amerikanis and, afterwards, they put her up for sale. When a proposed sale to a west coast operator fell through, Chandris took her off the market and decided to charter her out to Fantasy Cruises, a small company that already another Chandris ship, Britanis, under charter.

 

Effective 4 May 1984, Amerikanis replaced Britanis on the run from Miami to the Bahamas and to Mexican east coast ports. In October of that year, she switched her home port to Port Everglades and started operating 5-day cruises to Nassau as well as Ocho Rios, Jamaica plus 2-day cruise to nowhere. Both of these proved unsuccesful however. In January 1985, Chandris teminated Amerikanis' Fantasy charter and home ported her out of San Juan, PR until sending her back to Miami in May. In October 1985 however, Chandris bought out Fantasy Cruises and immediately started marketing their four North American ships (Britanis, Galileo, Amerikanis and The Victoria) under a new Chandris Fantasy Cruises label.

 

Beginning with the 1986 summer season, Chandris home based Amerikanis in New York City for 7-day cruises to Bermuda, along with her fleet mates Britanis and Galileo. Winter season found her doing Caribbean cruises out of San Juan. Amerikanis and Galileo would repeat these itineraries for 1987, 1988 and 1989 (see below) while Britanis went elsewhere. In 1988 and 1989, Amerikanis changed to 6-day Bermuda cruises, berthed in St. George's, plus a 1-day cruise to nowhere. 1989 would be here last year in Bermuda, however as Chandris had decided to replace her with their new-built Horizon. Amerikanis was subsequently transferred to, and home based at, San Juan for year-round cruises.

 

 

 

In 1996 she was laid up at Eleusis Bay, Greece while decisions were made about her future. Although there were plans to use her as a floating hotel in London, nothing materialized and she was sold for scrap in either 2000. In early June 2001, a Russian skeleton crew took Amerikanis to Alang, India where she was subsequently broken up.

 

[Copper10-8]

Some add'l pics of Amerikanis

 

 

Amerikanis in San Juan, PR in 1987

 

 

Same place (San Juan, PR) at night in 1987

 

 

Amerikanis in New York harbor in 1988

[sjmarante]

My first cruis was on Royal Caribbean's, Majesty of the Seas! We left from Miami and went to Nassau, and RCI's private island. Loved the cruise. Always staying with Royal Caribbean!

[travel girl23]

My first ever cruise was back in 1962 when my college roommate and I boarded the S.S. Yarmouth, that was brought around from Miami to San Francisco to sail to the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. The Yarmouth was with Eastern Steamship Lines. I have tried to discover what ever happened to her with no luck. Her sister ship, the Yarmouth Castle burned but no mention of the Yarmouth. Here is a picture :

Quite a bit smaller than today's ships.

BTW, I also sailed on the Jubilee out of Galveston. Here she is docked in Cozumel.

 

 

Our first cruise on a large ship was back in 1999 when DH and I sailed on the Celebration out of New Orleans. From then on, we were addicted.

[Copper10-8]

My first ever cruise was back in 1962 when my college roommate and I boarded the S.S. Yarmouth, that was brought around from Miami to San Francisco to sail to the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. The Yarmouth was with Eastern Steamship Lines. I have tried to discover what ever happened to her with no luck. Her sister ship, the Yarmouth Castle burned but no mention of the Yarmouth. Here is a picture :

Quite a bit smaller than today's ships.

BTW, I also sailed on the Jubilee out of Galveston. Here she is docked in Cozumel.

 

Our first cruise on a large ship was back in 1999 when DH and I sailed on the Celebration out of New Orleans. From then on, we were addicted.

 

ss Yarmouth (1927-1979) Built in 1927 as ss Yarmouth by William Cramp & Sons Ship And Engine Building Company, Philadelphia, PA for Eastern Steamship Lines (formerly Eastern Steamship Company), one of the last companies to specialize in short-haul ocean voyages with United States-flagged vessels. Yarmouth was put to use on the seasonal (summer) coastal service between Boston, Mass and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. During the winter months she operated on the New York-Bermuda and New York-Nassau (Bahamas) service. Her older sister, but only by months, would be the ill-fated Evangeline, later renamed Yarmouth Castle.

 

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Yarmouth was delivered to the U.S. government for wartime service in 1942. She would be pressed into action as a troopship transporting thousands of soldiers and Marines to their areas of operation. When the war concluded, Yarmouth was converted from wartime to peacetime service by being refitted and refinished at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's shipyard between 1946 and 1947 at a cost of U.S. $1.5 million. She returned to passenger service in May of 1947 on her old summer run to Nova Scotia.

 

 

In April 1954, Yarmouth, her sister Evangeline as well as the company name, were acquired by Frank Leslie Fraser, a Scottish-Jamaican businessman. Fraser renamed Yarmouth the Yarmouth Castle, and started cruising her out of Miami, FL. He then negotiated a contract with the Government of the Bahamas. As a result, he again renamed the now Yarmouth Castle as the Queen of Nassau and began operating her on short cruises between Miami and Nassau. When the contract ended after two years, the ship reverted back to Yarmouth Castle and received some modernization. She ultimately reverted back to her original name of Yarmouth.

 

After Fraser passed away in 1962, both ships were purchased by Florida businessman W.R. Lovett. He changed the company's name to Eastern Steamship and began operating both ships, dubbed the 'twin fun ships', in tandem on twice-weekly three and four-night pleasure cruises between Miami and Nassau, using the old downtown Miami seaport as their point of departure.

 

In 1962, Yarmouth was acquired by Stanley B. McDonald, a Canadian businessman and the subsequent founder of Princess Cruises, who brought her to the United States west coast by sending her via the Panama Canal to Pacific Northwest. She operated ten-day package tours from San Francisco, CA to the Seattle World Fair and back (with a stop at Victoria, BC as a result of the Passenger Vessel Services Act). After the Fair closed down, Yarmouth retraced her route back to Miami.

 

By the end of 1964, Yarmouth Castle was operated by the Yarmouth Steamship Company, Inc. aka Yarmouth Cruise Lines. The ship once again ran pleasure cruises on the 186-mile stretch between Miami and Nassau.

 

Yarmouth' sister, by now renamed Yarmouth Castle, departed Miami for Nassau on 12 November 1965 with 376 passengers and 176 crew aboard for a total of 552 individuals. The ship was due to arrive in Nassau the next day. Shortly before 1:00 AM on 13 November, a mattress stored too close to a lighting circuit in a storage room caught fire. The room was filled with mattresses and paint cans, which fed the flames. The fire swept through the ship's superstructure at great speed, driven by the ship’s natural ventilation system. The flames rose vertically through the stairwells, fueled by the wood paneling, wooden decks and layers of fresh paint on the walls. The whole front half of the ship was quickly engulfed, causing passengers and crew to flee to the stern of the ship.

 

Two ships that came to Yarmouth Castle's aid, the passenger liner Bahama Star and the freighter Finnpulp, were able to rescue 240 passengers and 133 crew and 51 passengers and 41 crew respectively. The aftermath of this tragedy at sea resulted in eighty-seven casualties plus three of the rescued passengers who later died at hospitals, bringing the final death toll to ninety souls.

 

Yarmouth was scheduled to begin her own cruise to Nassau on the afternoon of 13 November 1965 but due to the disaster involving Yarmouth Castle that morning, her cruise was canceled. She would eventually cruise again but the damage had been done, The Yarmouth Castle tragedyhastened the demise of the company.

 

After a period of lay-up and yet another name as San Andres, she was sold in 1966 to Greek interests which, upon her arrival in Piraeus, renamed her Elisabeth A. Whatever plans her new owners had never reached fruition. Elisabeth A. never operated again and after a lay-up of some thirteen years, was sold for scrap and broken up in 1979.

 

As a side note, the Yarmouth Castle disaster led to the creation of the Safety of Life at Sea law, or SOLAS, in 1966. This law brought new maritime safety rules, requiring fire drills, safety inspections and structural changes to new ships. Under SOLAS, any vessel carrying more than 50 overnight passengers is required to be built entirely of steel. This is because Yarmouth Castle's largely wooden superstructure was found to be the main cause of the fire's rapid spread.

[CruiseAdict218]

Some additional pics of the former Jubilee:

 

 

As P&O Australia's Pacific Sun at Lyttelton harbor (Christchurch), New Zealand

 

 

As P&O Australia's Pacific Sun in Darling harbor, Sydney

 

 

As P&O Australia's Pacific Sun departing Sydney

 

 

As P&O Australia's Pacific Sun departing Fremantle in new (all-white) house colors

 

 

As P&O Australia's Pacific Sun departing Brisbane in new (all-white) house colors

 

Why did she go from such beautiful colors to white?

[annieandbillyb]

Can you trace a ship named the Oceanic: probably Italian line for us? Thanks, Ann

[Copper10-8]

Can you trace a ship named the Oceanic: probably Italian line for us? Thanks, Ann

 

 

 

s/s Oceanic (1965-present) Built in 1965 by Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico in Monfalcone, Italy. She was the first newbuild to be purpose-built for Home Lines and was designed as a two-class liner. Planned in the twilight years of the age of the ocean liner, she had many features that are commonplace in cruise ships today, like an engines-aft design, balcony suites, and a midships swimming pool with a "Magradome", a retractable roof over the pool.

 

She was to operate in summer on the Homes Lines' Canadian route from Cuxhaven, Germany, Le Havre, France and Southampton, England to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. However, by the time of her delivery and due to the increasing popularity of the jet airliner, the company had dropped the their regular trans-Atlantic line voyages. So, she headed for New York instead, where she operated seven-day cruises to Nassau, the Bahamas throughout the summer, whilst in the winter she operated extended cruises throughout the Caribbean. When leaving from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada for New York City on her maiden voyage, an interesting incident occurred when she arrived in NYC. The stevedores happened to be on strike and thus would not accept the ropes required for docking. They were there on the wharves, but they just kept throwing them back in the river. However, her captain was able to dock Oceanic just the same.

 

 

 

After 21 years of service, Home Line decided to sell the Oceanic, and she was sold to Premier Cruises in 1985, renamed StarShip Oceanic and in 1986 was initially placed on three and four-day cruises from Port Canaveral, Fl to Nassau, the Bahamas. This cruise could be combined with a stay at Walt Disney World.

 

 

Later during her career with Premier Cruises she was often marketed as "The Big Red Boat", and in 2000 she was renamed Big Red Boat I, with no change to her itineraries. When Premier folded in the fall of 2000, the ship was detained by port authorities and then laid up. Premier Cruises was forced to put the ship up for sale.

 

The ship was purchased by the Spanish-owned Pullmantur Cruises in late 2000. Her hull was painted white and she reverted back to her original name, beginning service with Pullmantur in May 2001 on cruises around the Mediterranean with Barcelona as her starting port.

 

 

In March 2009, Pullmantur sold Oceanic to Japanese interests. She left the Pullmantur fleet in April 2009 and is currently on charter with the slightly ajusted name of "The Oceanic" to the Japan-based Peace Boat organization for world wide cruising. On 23 April 2009, she departed Yokohama, Japan on Peaceboat's 66th "Global Voyage for Peace" which, for the first time, featured extensive visits to various ports in Scandinavia. During that voyage, The Oceanic was detained by the U.S. Coast Guard in New York City on 26 June 2009 for having 16 deficiencies, including a cracked hull. After being released, she was detained again, this time by the Canadian Coast Guard in Vancouver, BC on 30 July 2009 for having discharged a large quantity of heavy oil in the harbor. The ship is currently conducting the 68th "Global Voyage for Peace"

 

[travel girl23]

ss Yarmouth (1927-1979) Built in 1927 as ss Yarmouth by William Cramp & Sons Ship And Engine Building Company, Philadelphia, PA for Eastern Steamship Lines (formerly Eastern Steamship Company), one of the last companies to specialize in short-haul ocean voyages with United States-flagged vessels. Yarmouth was put to use on the seasonal (summer) coastal service between Boston, Mass and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. During the winter months she operated on the New York-Bermuda and New York-Nassau (Bahamas) service. Her older sister, but only by months, would be the ill-fated Evangeline, later renamed Yarmouth Castle.

 

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Yarmouth was delivered to the U.S. government for wartime service in 1942. She would be pressed into action as a troopship transporting thousands of soldiers and Marines to their areas of operation. When the war concluded, Yarmouth was converted from wartime to peacetime service by being refitted and refinished at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation's shipyard between 1946 and 1947 at a cost of U.S. $1.5 million. She returned to passenger service in May of 1947 on her old summer run to Nova Scotia.

 

In April 1954, Yarmouth, her sister Evangeline as well as the company name, were acquired by Frank Leslie Fraser, a Scottish-Jamaican businessman. Fraser renamed Yarmouth the Yarmouth Castle, and started cruising her out of Miami, FL. He then negotiated a contract with the Government of the Bahamas. As a result, he again renamed the now Yarmouth Castle as the Queen of Nassau and began operating her on short cruises between Miami and Nassau. When the contract ended after two years, the ship reverted back to Yarmouth Castle and received some modernization. She ultimately reverted back to her original name of Yarmouth.

 

After Fraser passed away in 1962, both ships were purchased by Florida businessman W.R. Lovett. He changed the company's name to Eastern Steamship and began operating both ships, dubbed the 'twin fun ships', in tandem on twice-weekly three and four-night pleasure cruises between Miami and Nassau, using the old downtown Miami seaport as their point of departure.

 

In 1962, Yarmouth was acquired by Stanley B. McDonald, a Canadian businessman and the subsequent founder of Princess Cruises, who brought her to the United States west coast by sending her via the Panama Canal to Pacific Northwest. She operated ten-day package tours from San Francisco, CA to the Seattle World Fair and back (with a stop at Victoria, BC as a result of the Passenger Vessel Services Act). After the Fair closed down, Yarmouth retraced her route back to Miami.

 

By the end of 1964, Yarmouth Castle was operated by the Yarmouth Steamship Company, Inc. aka Yarmouth Cruise Lines. The ship once again ran pleasure cruises on the 186-mile stretch between Miami and Nassau.

 

Yarmouth' sister, by now renamed Yarmouth Castle, departed Miami for Nassau on 12 November 1965 with 376 passengers and 176 crew aboard for a total of 552 individuals. The ship was due to arrive in Nassau the next day. Shortly before 1:00 AM on 13 November, a mattress stored too close to a lighting circuit in a storage room caught fire. The room was filled with mattresses and paint cans, which fed the flames. The fire swept through the ship's superstructure at great speed, driven by the ship’s natural ventilation system. The flames rose vertically through the stairwells, fueled by the wood paneling, wooden decks and layers of fresh paint on the walls. The whole front half of the ship was quickly engulfed, causing passengers and crew to flee to the stern of the ship.

 

Two ships that came to Yarmouth Castle's aid, the passenger liner Bahama Star and the freighter Finnpulp, were able to rescue 240 passengers and 133 crew and 51 passengers and 41 crew respectively. The aftermath of this tragedy at sea resulted in eighty-seven casualties plus three of the rescued passengers who later died at hospitals, bringing the final death toll to ninety souls.

Yarmouth was scheduled to begin her own cruise to Nassau on the afternoon of 13 November 1965 but due to the disaster involving Yarmouth Castle that morning, her cruise was canceled. She would eventually cruise again but the damage had been done, The Yarmouth Castle tragedyhastened the demise of the company.

 

After a period of lay-up and yet another name as San Andres, she was sold in 1966 to Greek interests which, upon her arrival in Piraeus, renamed her Elisabeth A. Whatever plans her new owners had never reached fruition. Elisabeth A. never operated again and after a lay-up of some thirteen years, was sold for scrap and broken up in 1979.

 

As a side note, the Yarmouth Castle disaster led to the creation of the Safety of Life at Sea law, or SOLAS, in 1966. This law brought new maritime safety rules, requiring fire drills, safety inspections and structural changes to new ships. Under SOLAS, any vessel carrying more than 50 overnight passengers is required to be built entirely of steel. This is because Yarmouth Castle's largely wooden superstructure was found to be the main cause of the fire's rapid spread.

 

Thank you for this information. I already had the pictures and some of the info but not all of it. I have searched the internet for it so appreciate your finding it for me.

BTW, Semper fi to you as I am a Marine Mom and my DH is a Marine vet.

Joan

[Copper10-8]

Thank you for this information. I already had the pictures and some of the info but not all of it. I have searched the internet for it so appreciate your finding it for me.

BTW, Semper fi to you as I am a Marine Mom and my DH is a Marine vet.

Joan

 

Semper Fi to you Marine Mom, and to your DH and son; awesome!!

[annieandbillyb]

Can you trace a ship named the Oceanic: probably Italian line for us? Thanks, Ann

 

Your research is great, thanks for all your work. Ann

[Copper10-8]

Mine was Carnival Tropicale back in 198?. We went to the Mexican Riviera. Had a nice time but the one that really got me hooked was my second cruise on the RCCL Sovereign of the Seas to the Eastern Caribbean back in 89 or 90 I think. What a difference between these two ships.

 

ms Tropicale (1981-present) Built in 1981 as Tropicale by Aalborg Værft A/S, Aalborg, Denmark for Carnival Cruise Line. She was delivered on 4 December 1981 as the first of Carnival’s “new builds”, as all Carnival ships before her were older ships, either purchased or chartered from other companies. Carnival commissioned naval (interior) architect Joe Farcus to handle the design and layout of the ship's passenger accomodation and the first true "Fun Ship" was born.

 

Tropicale became the prototype of all future Carnival ships and was also the first Carnival ship to feature their trademarks, a distinctive tall and winged “whale-tail” funnel painted red, white and blue, as well as a water slide into the midships pool.

 

After a transatlantic crossing, Tropical was christened in Miami, Fl by Madeleine Arison, her godmother and wife of Carnival Corporation president and CEO Micky Arison. In January 1982, she departed Miami on her maiden voyage into the Caribbean. 17 September 1982 found her on the west coast in Los Angeles (San Pedro) from where she sailed a maiden cruise under charter to Westours, an Alaska-based tour operator. In 1983 she operated her first Alaska season on seven-day cruises from Vancouver, BC.

 

As the company expanded and acquired larger ships, Carnival decided that Tropicale would be their 'test ship' for new or revised cruise itineraries. As a result, in 1990 she was the first Carnival ship to be based in San Juan, Puerto Rico and in 1994, the first Carnival ship to sail from New Orleans, La.

 

In September 1996, Carnival signed an agreement with the South Korea-based Hyundai Chaebol conglomerate in order to start to offer cruises in Asia. In February 1997, this initiative was christened Carnival Cruises Asia, and it was announced that Tropicale would be assigned to that joint venture. However, in August 1997, that enterprise was dissolved due to disagreements between the two parents over developments in the Asian market. Instead, a new market was opened from Tampa, Fl from where Tropicale began offering four-day cruises to Key West, Fl and Cozumel, Mexico and five-day cruises to Grand Cayman and Cozumel in April 1998.

 

On 27 September 2000, after the demise of Cape Canaveral Cruises, Carnival announced that Tropicale would begin operating two and three-day cruises from Cape Canaveral, Fl as well as a series of Panama Canal cruises from Port Everglades (Ft. Lauderdale) at the conclusion of her 2001 Tampa summer season. On 7 December 2000 however, Carnival Corporation announced the cancelation of the entire Cape Canaveral-based cruise program and the internal transfer of Tropicale to Italy-based Costa Crocieri/Costa Cruises in 2001 instead.

 

After her last cruise for Carnival on 10 February 2001, Tropicale crossed the Atlantic and entered the Mediterranean on her way to the Cantieri Temistocle Mariotti S.p.A. shipyard at Genoa, Italy for an extensive 30 million Euro refit (interior/exterior and technical) by Costa's own techical department. Over the course of the first half of 2001, Tropicale was customized there for a European client base including new fittings, furniture, carpets and toilets to all of her cabins. Her public rooms were renovated and a new alternative restaurant, the Bahia Club, and an internet/coffee lounge were added. On the technical side, her propulsion system (main motors, shaft lines, propellers, etc.) were overhauled and an additional aft thruster and new cylindrical stack installed.

 

 

On 23 June 2001, Costa Tropicale (her new name) was once again christened by Madeleine Arison. The complexity of the refit delayed her first commercial cruise by two weeks until 14 July 2001. Costa Tropicale sailed every Saturday from Venice to the Aegean Sea and the Greek isles, calling at Bari, Italy, Dubrovnik, Croatia, Kusadasi, Turkey and Katakolon, Santorini and Mykonos, Greece. In the winter of 2002, Costa Tropicale sailed from Brazil on cruises designed for the South American market and in the summer of 2003 she operated on year round 7-day Costa Riviera cruises from Savona, Italy

 

She served with the company until 2005, when replacement by larger, more modern cruise ships prompted yet another internal transfer to P&O Cruises Australia.

 

 

Before departing for down under, she was given another refit at Fincantieri's yard in Palermo, Sicily to the tune of $20 million in order to make her suitable for the Australian cruise market. Her new name would be Pacific Star and entered service as Queensland latest cruise liner in December 2005. Her home port was Brisbane and her itinerary included cruises along the tropical Queensland coast to various islands in the South Pacific, New Caledonia and to New Zealand.

 

[Copper10-8]

 

In March 2008, the ship was acquired by Spain-based tour operator (and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd subsidiary) Pullmantur Cruises and after a refit in Singapore, began cruising for them in May 2008 under her new name Ocean Dream.

 

 

Her home port for Pullmantur is Barcelona, Spain from where she offers 7-day itineraries with port calls at La Goulette/Tunis, Tunesia, Valetta, Malta, Messina/Sicily, Civitavecchia, Italy and Villefranche-sur-Mer, France.

 

[Copper10-8]

Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas, 1997, parents 50th anniversary cruise. 36 of us went to Western Caribbean, Cozumel, Jamaica, Grand Caymans. What a trip!! Been hooked ever since. Did Viking Serenade in 1999 too.

 

ms Majesty of the Seas (1992-present) Built in 1992 as ms Majesty of the Seas by Chantiers de l'Atlantique, St. Nazaire, France for Norwegian-based Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL). She is one of three Sovereign-class vessels, Sovereign of the Seas (1987) being the lead ship of the class, followed by Monarch of the Seas (1991) and then Majesty of the Seas (1992). Those three vessels became RCCL's third generation of cruise ships and theirfirst modern megaships to be built. They were also the first series of cruise ships to include a multi-story atrium with glass elevators. They have a single deck consisting entirely of cabins with private balconies as opposed to ocean-view only cabins.

 

At the time, the three sisters were the among the largest modern cruise ships ever to sail during the late eighties and early nineties. During that time, other major cruise lines followed RCCL's lead in building their ships to include many of the same features and dimensions that the Sovereign Class debuted with.

 

 

After being christened by HRH Queen Sonja of Norway, Majesty of the Seas departed on her maiden voyage on 26 April 1992.

Majesty OTS' features include the line's trademark Viking Crown Lounge overlooking the pool and sun decks. She has an onboard casino and eleven passenger elevators, two of which are glass-walled. Onboard bars include the Schooner Bar, the 'A Touch of Class' Champagne Bar, the Blue Skies Lounge, the Boleros Latin Bar/Night club, the 'On Your Toes' Night Club, the Windjammer Café, and the Pool Bar. Majesty of the Seas also has two outdoor swimming pools, two hot tubs, a basketball court, and the famous RCI rock climbing wall.

On 12 January 2007, Majesty of the Seas entered a four-week dry-dock period where she underwent a multi-million dollar refurbishment of her pool decks, all public areas, restaurants, shops, centrums, and cabins. Additions include Johnny Rockets, The Compass Deli, Seattle's Best Coffee, Freeze Ice Cream Parlor and the previously mentioned Boleros Latin Bar/Night Club). She departed Freeport for Miami on 8 February 2007 and on 10 February sailed on a two-day preview cruise. Two days after that, Majesty OTS she settled back into her regular schedule.

 

Royal Caribbean International (RCI) currently operates her on a seven-day cycle that includes two weekly voyages. Four-night cruises operate every Monday through Friday from the Port of Miami, Fl. with ports of call at Nassau, the Bahamas, Coco Cay, RCI's private island in the Bahamas and Key West, Fl. A three-night cruise follows from Friday through Monday, stopping at Nassau and Coco Cay.

Edited March 5, 2010 by Copper10-8

[Copper10-8]

My first cruise was onboard Epirotiki lines Oddyseus in 1990. It was a school cruise round the Med including Israel and Egypt.

 

Yes it got me hooked even though she was extremely small and the crossing to Port Said was rough

 

 

 

ms Princesa Isabel (1961-2008) Built as ms Princesa Isabel by Societa Espanola de Construccion Naval, Bilbao, Spain in 1961 for Brazil-based Companhía Nacional de Navegação Costeira. She would have a younger sister by the name of Princesa Leopoldina (1962). Named after the town and municipality in the state of Paraiba in northeast Brazil, Princesa Isabel at 9,696 gross registered tons, could carry 200 passengers in her First Class accommodation plus another 250 in Tourist Class. She was fitted with air conditioning and a wide selection of public places such as a gymnasium, writing room, children nursery, hair salon, etc. She also came with two swimming pools at her stern and two small cargo holds forward. She was propelled by two slow speed B&W motors and had Denny-Brown fin stabilizers. During her technical trials, she had reached a speed of 17.5 knots.

 

Princesa Isabel was delivered to her new owners on 30 August 1962 and, after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, operated on Brazilian coastal routes (Rio de Janeiro, Vitoria, Salvador, Recife, Fortaleza, Belem and Manaus) and some departures from Buenos Aires, Argentina. However, competition from commercial aviation made the two ships increasingly uneconomic. After Companhia Nacional de Navegação Costeira ran into financial problems, they were fully integrated with Brazilian state controlled Companhia de Navegação Lloyd Brasileiro in 1967. However, Lloyd Brasileiro showed little enthusiasm for coastal passenger ships and soon decided to lay up the eldest of the two sisters resulting in Princesa Isabel being “parked” at Rio in early 1968 and offered up for sale. In October 1969, a new owner was found in the Australia-based Dominion Navigation Company aka Dominion Line. Dominion had her towed by the Dutch ocean-going tug Goes Jacob van Heemskerck from Rio to the Barclay Curle shipyard in Glasgow, Scotland for a much needed refurbishment.

 

When she emerged from the yard in June 1970 after a seven month refit in which, among other things, her machinery was repaired, she had been renamed Marco Polo resplendent in a now light blue hull, white superstructure and red funnel with black top (in Brazilian service, she had been an all-white ship). Her new, all First Class, passenger accommodation had been brought back to 363 souls. She then journeyed to Australia, arriving in Melbourne in later that month. Shortly thereafter, Dominion Line put her in service on cruises to the South Pacific and Asia, first from Melbourne and then remaining for eight years in the Hong Kong – Singapore – Pacific area. In 1973, she underwent yet another refit in Hong Kong where she gained a move theater. Due to competition from larger ships belonging to well-established lines, primarily from the UK and Italy, Marco Polo was sold in May 1978. Her final cruise for Dominion turned out to be one to remember after she was caught in a typhoon in the China Sea for five days in June 1978, resulting in injuries to many of her passengers.

Her new owners were the Kavounides Shipping Company (Arley Navigation Co.) from Piraeus, Greece and they had her brought from Sydney to Greece. Upon arrival there, she was placed in dry-dock at the Khalkis shipyard on the island of Evia where she received a comprehensive refit. She came out as Aquamarine with a new and extended forward superstructure. She then sailed back to the Far East where on 16 April 1979, she began sailing fourteen-day cruises from Hong Kong to Kobe, Japan and ports in China for a newly set-up company by the name of Aquamarine International. As a side note, while in Hong Kong, she was competing against her sister and former fleet mate Princesa Leopoldina, operating under her new name, Coral Princess, for the China Navigation Company also out of Hong Kong. Things did not work out for Aquamarine in the Far East however, and after just one season, the ship was laid up in Hong Kong. On 27 April 1980 local authorities took the ship into custody for outstanding debts and, as a result of public auction, her new owners became the Commercial Bank of Greece.

 

When attempts to sell and/or charter her did not pan out, she left Hong Kong on 24 July 1981 and was brought back to Greece where she was laid up at Piraeus. Seven years of lay-up later in 1988, she was sold to Piraeus-based Epirotiki Lines S.A. Epirotiki's operations stretched back to 1830, when it was founded as a shipping company by George Potamianos, making it one of the world's oldest continuously operating shipping lines. Epirotiki went on to develop a leading position in the Greek cargo and passenger transportation trade, and began operating cruises among the Greek islands in the 1930s. In the 1950s, Potamianos's grandson, Anastassios, took over the direction of the company and focused it entirely on the cruise ship market, which was then undergoing a transformation from being a privilege of the wealthy to becoming a common vacation option affordable to the larger, middle-class traveling public.

 

Aquamarine once again entered dry-dock, this time in Perama, and emerged as Odysseus with an enlarged aft superstructure, some additional passenger accommodation increasing her total to 496 pax. Commencing in April 1989, Epirotiki operated her on three, four and seven-day cruises in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. In the early nineties, Odysseus also made cruises to the Caribbean and South America and was chartered out to make some educational cruises.

By 1993, however, the company seemed unable to resist the prevailing mood of consolidation sweeping the cruise ship industry, which was hard hit again by the global recession and by the collapse of the tourist industry following the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War. With less tourists travelling due to wars and recession, and other pressures on the company, Epirotiki sought to solidify its position through partnerships and mergers. In August 1995 Epirotiki agreed to merge its operations with domestic rival and fellow Greece-based Sun Line, creating a new company named Royal Olympic Cruise Lines, Inc. (ROC) effective 1 December 1995. ROC initially maintained its two brand names, with Sun Line orientated towards a more affluent, older, and primarily American customer base, and Epirotiki attracting a younger, more diversified passenger. Under the ROC umbrella, Odysseus was internally transferred to the “blue” fleet of Sun Lines and was repainted, gaining a dark blue hull and funnel with the blue concentric rings of Sun Lines and the yellow Byzantine Cross of Epirotiki on a white disc attached to the funnel. In 1996, Odysseus continued operating Aegean/Easter Med cruises but, for the first time, sailed to Scandinavia in the summer. The two lines were amalgamated in 1997.

The year 2001 found Odysseus operating seven-night cruises from Piraeus calling at Thessaloniki, Patmos, Rhodes, Heraklion and Santorini, Greece as well as Istanbul and Kusadasi, Turkey from April through October. In 2003, the name of the company was changed to Royal Olympia Cruises after a protest from the International Olympic Committee which was not enamored by the first name. By this time, Royal Olympia had run into financial difficulties, however and on 17 December 2003, due to being unable to reach agreement with its creditors, the company filed for bankruptcy protection and ceased operation. All six of their ships, including Odysseus, were laid up.

In February 2005, a court in Piraeus ordered the struggling operator to auction off its last three ships, Triton, World Renaissance and Odysseus, all laid up at Piraeus, thereby dashing any hope that the company might survive. On 6 April 2005, Odysseus was sold at public auction to Panamanian-based Mantovana Holding Ltd., a subsidiary of Monaco-based V-Ships. They leased her out to Everis Capital Holdings who renamed her Lucky Star and after one year in Macau as a casino ship, moved her to Singapore running gambling cruises.

Her time was running out however, and in 2008 she was purchased for scrap by Indian breakers. For her final voyage to the breakers she was given the transport name of ‘Lucky’. She arrived off the infamous Alang, India beaches in January 2008 and was ultimately broken up there.

Edited March 8, 2010 by Copper10-8

[wfgm]

My first experience with sea travel was as a child travelling on the Union Castle liners from South Africa during the 1960s. In those days you still had first class and tourist class. Sailed on Windsor Castle, Blomfontein Castle, Edinghborough Castle, Orange Castle, and Vaal, Pendennis Castle. Have also sailed LLoyd Trestino, P&O, Sitmar, Princess,Cunard, RCC and HAL. Must admit I prefer the ships now but miss the grandure I grew up with on the old ships.

[rp23g7]

Havent read the whole thread yet.

 

Ours was the Carnival Jubilee in 92, Mexican Riviera, man, that ship was junk back then and it was only 4 yrs old.

 

It lost power twice, the carpet was all old and faded, the paint was peeling, but the food was still good.

 

Glad we gave cruising a second chance. Best vacations ever since then.

 

Anyone know if she still around?

Edited March 25, 2010 by rp23g7