Last legendary liners: a handful of traditional and classic vessels still serve the North American market - The Passing Breed - cruise ships

Cruise Travel, Jan-Feb, 2003 by Allan E. Jordan

With each passing year it seems a little more of the heritage of the cruise industry passes from the scene. For years ship aficionados and curious travelers have been warned that the traditional ocean liners and classic cruisers would soon be gone. Now with current world events and the continuing mergers and competition in the multi-billion-dollar cruise industry, it seems the time has come when nearly all the historical ships have passed from the American market.

The changing economic realities of the past few years and the general slowdown in travel in the past year have taken their toll on the shipping industry. The CostaRiviera, which in many ways was the last of the Italian liners of the 1960s, is now on the beach in India being ripped apart steel plate by steel plate. In Europe the Topaz (former Empress of Britain, Queen Anna Maria, and Carnivale) will this spring end her service for British tour operator Thomson, while closer to home the bankruptcy filing of American Hawaii Cruises sent the Independence to the backwater of a government lay-up, unlikely to ever emerge again. Furthermore, the planned charter for the Big Red Boat III (former IslandBreeze, Festivale, S.A. Vaal, and Transvaal Castle) failed to materialize, leaving her laid up with most of the former Premier Cruises' fleet, including the Rembrandt (ex-Rotterdam) and Big Red Boat II (ex-EugenioCosta). There is even talk that now with the death of her latest owner that the long idled United States finally may be sold for scrap.

It is not just the ocean liners turned pleasure ships that helped invent the modern cruise industry that are passing from the scene. Many of the first-generation cruise ships, ranging from NCL's "White Ships" to RCI's Song of Norway and her sisters, are also now gone, and more are leaving the American market. The famed Pacific Princess (ex-Sea Venture), which is best recognized as the "Love Boat," has ended her service for Princess Cruises, sold for possible operations in Europe. Even Carnival's first purpose-built ship, the Tropicale, has been switched to Europe and now operates as the CostaTropicale.

Against this backdrop a handful of classic ships continues to survive--and even thrive. While most of them are ships with quirky histories, and many have lost much of their classic designs in a series of refits, they nonetheless represent the last of a breed. Built at a time when ships were unique in their designs, featuring the soul of their nations and the pride of their owners, designers, and shipyards, these were ships with character. Often they were either one of a kind or at most one of a duo or trio. Never in the history of passenger shipping were fleets of five, six, or even seven identical large liners built and operated by one or more companies at the same time, as is the modus operandi of today's large cruise lines.

To many people it might seem that the older ships that continue in the industry today are unremarkable. There are, of course, a few grand ships, namely the Queen Elizabeth 2 and the Norway, which everyone recognizes as great ships of their era and ships that have a direct lineage from the grand era of trans-Atlantic travel. Yet many of the others are often overlooked or taken for granted, and it will only be When they are retired that people will say, "I wonder whatever happened to that ship. We sure had a grand time aboard her."

While the handful of older ships ,actively marketed to the American market each has her own odd story, and generally a little twist of fate that has permitted her to survive, collectively they also represent some of the finest points of cruising during the growth of the industry in the 1950s to the 1970s.

Several of the ships that survive today, for example, are part of the switch to cruising by the grand liners. Of course, the Queen Elizabeth 2 was built to go cruising, yet she likely holds the title for the ship to have gone through the greatest number of transformations for one owner. She was re-engined from steam turbines to diesel motors, plus she has had penthouses added, not to mention the gray hull paint scheme, a Magrodome, lounges, and even launches, which were all added and removed. Somehow the 160 years of traditional Cunard spirit continues on, and if you ask around long enough, you can even find a few crew-members that remember the old Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, or can tell you where the Lookout Bar was on the Queen Elizabeth 2!

No owners envisioned their ship, when on the drawing boards, to be an economic failure. Yet if there was one ship that was doomed before her first hull plate was laid, that was the France. Conceived as the successor to the legendary liners Normandie, Ile de France, and Paris, the France took to the waters just as the jet airplane firmly took over the trans-Atlantic business. Yet her owners were confident that she would be a success, despite the early critics that ridiculed her interior design as cold and impersonal and famed culinary critic Craig Claiborne who lambasted the cuisine in an article entitled "Ship's Cuisine Is Found Not in French Tradition." He complained of a fish course served not piping hot, tough langousta tails, string beans possibly frozen before cooking, and worst of all, a comical "double serving of tomatoes during a single course" at a preview luncheon hosted at the 1962 maiden voyage call in New York.