TSS Awatea racing the SS Mariposa across the Tasman Sea.
Painting by W.W. Stewart of the TSS Awatea (Union Steamship Company) overtaking the S.S. Mariposa ( Matson Lines) on 13th August 1938 at 2pm in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. In her day the Awatea was regarded as one of the most luxurious and fastest liners of the period. Her history was brief and she was destroyed in World War2 like so many wonderful liners.
The New York Times book review follows.
Nothing Can Go Wrong By Capt. John H. Kilpack with John D. MacDonald. 305 pages. Harper and Row. $15.95.
Here is a vacation post card, a valentine and a lament. Captain Kilpack was the skipper of the S. S. Mariposa when, in May 1977, it undertook one of its last long cruises – in this case a 77-day voyage from San Francisco to Leningrad and back again, with two transits of the Panama Canal and a dozen stops in between. Mr. MacDonald, best known as the author of a series of detective stories that always have a color word in the title, was a passenger on that trip. Together, they have produced a story of the voyage that is amusing and eventually touching.
Each man speaks – or writes – in his own voice. In general, Mr. MacDonald, a veteran of many cruises, provides a straightforward narrative of the voyage, while Captain Kilpack adds an apposite yarn or two. The arrangement is less schizophrenic than it might be; for clarity’s sake, Captain Kilpack’s words are set in italics. [Read more...]
Watch our new video and see what it was like aboard a 1954 sailing to ALASKA on the SS Alaska.
This a great retro 1950s look at a style of cruising and travel now vanished.
Views of the ship leaving the Port of Seattle, with streamers, confetti and visitors waving goodbye — something rarely seen today. See the ship sail up the inside passage… with passengers dancing, dining, playing shuffleboard and man nostalgic scenes of an Alaska steamship far different from the massive ships sailing the Inland Passage today.
The Alaska Steamship Company operated passenger service from Seattle to all ports in Alaska from 1895 until 1954. During the summer weekly sailings visited the Inside Passage. The line challenged all kinds of winter conditions and operated year round offering regular sailings as far north as Nome.
These are family films and commercial footage of the Alaska Steamship Company.
The Sydney Morning Herald featured this website in their travel section. In response we’ve done a feature on the wonderful Union Steam Ship Lines AWATEA. Check it out in the next listing. This was a jewel of a liner and provided a wonderful service cut short by World War 2.
June 28, 2008 – The Sydney Morning Herald Travel Section
The way we were…
Older cruising enthusiasts who fondly remember when life at sea was more about social interaction and less about eating and day-long organised entertainment will enjoy a new website called Cruising the Past.
It’s edited by an American who began cruising with his parents as a teenager.
Michael Grace, an author and writer for television and film, has since travelled on more than 50 ships and circled the globe three times. [Read more...]
The T.S.S. AWATEA
Far away from the Trans-Atlantic services – “Down Under” – Union Steam Ship Company operated a fleet of excellent passenger ships between Australia and New Zealand until 1960.
The Awatea was the ultimate statement in luxurious service and was the only way to cross the Tasman Sea in the late 1930s. Unfortunately, this beautiful jewel of a liner’s life was very brief but will always be remembered as an elegant experience while it lasted.
The fast way to cross.
In August 1936 the Union Steam Ship Company took delivery of its new trans-Tasman liner, Awatea. In September the ship began a new express service between Australia and New Zealand.
The Awatea (meaning Eye of the Dawn) was one of the most famous and beautiful ships under the Union flag and the only way to cross the Tasman Sea. She also made several voyages from Sydney to Vancouver via Honolulu.
Awatea passing Sydney’s Harbor Bridge 1936.
She accommodated 566 passengers (377 in First Class, 151 in Tourist Class and 38 in 3rd Class).
Awatea seen in Vancouver, Canada. She made six voyages in 1940-41 from Sydney to Canada when Australasian airmen were conveyed for training. A year later she would be sunk while serving as a troop transport.
She was built to the company’s design by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness and was a handsome vessel with a high standard of accommodation. Her length was 527 ft, with a beam of 74 ft, and a gross tonnage of 13,482.
The Awatea’s first class public rooms rivaled many liners operating from New York to Europe.
Her speed, comfort, and ability to keep going with the minimum of time in port, together with the publicity sense of her master, Captain A. H. Davey, made her a popular and well-known ship. In the summer of 1937 she made 11 Tasman crossings in 41 days and in the same year she brought the times for the Auckland-Sydney and Sydney-Wellington passages to less than 56 hours. Her best day’s run was 576 miles, an average speed of 23.35 knots.
The tourist class dining salon.
She was also known as “The Queen of the Tasman Sea” and in October 1937 set a record between Auckland and Sydney of 55 hours, 28 minutes. In achieving this, no less than 23,881 shaft horsepower was unleashed at an average speed of 22.89 knots. In recognition of this, she was presented a stainless steel greyhound that was mounted on the foremast of the ship. Captain Davey was the Master most associated with Awatea and on his retirement in 1941, he took (or was presented with it) the greyhound with him and had it mounted on his home in Auckland.
At the outbreak of war she was undergoing her annual survey and was fitted with a 4 in. gun aft. She continued to cross the Tasman until July 1940 after which she made several trips to Vancouver and, in addition, was used for transporting troops and refugees. In September 1941 she was requisitioned by the British Government for use as a troop transport and did three voyages. Then she was fitted out to take part in Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. She carried the 6th Commando group to off Algiers where she dropped them early on 8 November 1942. Eventually the Awatea anchored off Bougie, but as she was leaving German bombers attacked her and despite good anti-aircraft fire she was hit several times and sank during the night. The master, Captain G. B. Morgan, was awarded the D.S.O. and several of the crew were decorated for the ship’s part in the operation.
The Awatea’s wheelhouse and bridge.
During her six years of life the Awatea steamed 576,132 miles, slightly more than half in peacetime, including 225 Tasman crossings. In its day the Awatea provided the acme of maritime speed and comfort.
The all-Pullman SUPER CHIEF… the media covered all the stars arriving on this famous train.
The Super Chief was one of the named passenger trains and the flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. It was often referred to as “The Train of the Stars” because of the many celebrities who traveled on the streamliner between Chicago, Illinois and Los Angeles, California.
An elegant all-Pullman train dining car. Passengers didn’t wear t-shirts or baseball caps.
The train was also one of America’s “boat trains” — connecting Hollywood with New York City and the trans-Atlantic steamship liners such as the NORMANDIE, QUEEN MARY, QUEEN ELIZABETH, UNITED STATES, AMERICA… from New York to Europe in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Through Pullman cars operated from Los Angeles to New York via Chicago on the Santa Fe and New York Central deluxe all-Pullman trains. Services included barbers, maids, train secretaries and Fred Harvey dining service on the Super Chief.
The Super Chief’s schedule in the Official Railway Guide – 1958.
The streamlined Super Chief (assigned train Nos. 17 & 18) was the first Diesel-powered, all-Pullman sleeping car train in America, and it eclipsed the Chief as Santa Fe’s standard bearer. The extra-fare Super Chief-1 commenced its maiden run from Dearborn Station in Chicago on May 12, 1936. Just over a year later, on May 18, 1937 the much-improved Super Chief-2 traversed the 2,227.3 miles (3,584.5 kilometers) from Los Angeles over recently upgraded tracks in just 39 hours and 49 minutes (averaging 60.8 miles-per-hour (98.0 km/h), often exceeding 100 miles-per-hour in the process).
Pullman service and Super Chief style will never be achieved by Amtrak…
From that day forward the Super Chief set a new standard for luxury rail travel in America. With only one set of equipment, the train initially operated but once a week from both Chicago and Los Angeles. However, at the height of its popularity, and with added equipment, the trains of the Super Chief made daily departures from both ends of the line. Adding to the train’s mystique were its gourmet meals and Hollywood clientèle.
“Top of the Super” — next to the stars!
Union Pacific’s THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES – competing with the SUPER CHIEF.
Direct competitors to the Super Chief during its lifetime were the City of Los Angeles, a streamlined passenger train jointly operated by the Chicago and North Western Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad, and (to a lesser extent) the Golden State, a streamlined passenger train jointly operated by the Rock Island and Southern Pacific railroads.
SUPER CHIEF at Albuquerque…
Santa Fe’s route from Chicago to Los Angeles was the lengthiest of the high-speed; long distance trains of the day, making its way through mostly sparsely populated areas (which enhanced the train’s already distinctive aura).
The SUPER CHIEF and other Pullman trains provide deluxe service due to their excellent crews. Pictured here is the Pullman Conductor, Porters, Maid and the Barber. Additional crew aboard these great trains would have included the train Conductor, Brakeman, Chefs, Cooks, Kitchen staff, Dining Car Waiters and Stewards along with a Nurse-Stewardess and train Secretary.
The Santa Fe Super Chief was one of the last passenger trains in the United States to carry an all-Pullman consist, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Broadway Limited, Pittsburgher and Illinois Central’s Panama Limited survived longer. The train maintained its legendary high level of service until the end of Santa Fe passenger operations on May 1, 1971.
In Alfred Hitchcock’s wonderful thriller “Strangers on a Train” – Robert Walker and Farley Granger are having lunch in Walker’s Pullman compartment. The vialed homosexual relationship between Walker and Granger’s characters in Patricia Highsmith’s novel were censored in Hitchcock’s film.
Classic trains were seen in hundreds of films up until the late 50s. One of the last films featuring a major train was Hitchcock’s “North By Northwest” – Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint are seen in her compartment aboard New York Central’s 20th Century Limited ready to spend the night.
When Amtrak took over operation of the nation’s passenger service on May 1, 1971 it ended the 35-year run of the Super Chief on the Santa Fe, though Amtrak would continue to use the name along the same route for another three years. In 1974 the Santa Fe forced Amtrak to drop the train’s name due to a perceived decline in service.
The Lounge Car on Amtrak’s SOUTHWEST CHIEF. Notice the trash barrel in the foreground. This would never have been found on the Super Chief or any other classic train.
Amtrak replaced the train over the same route with its Southwest Limited. Following the delivery of new Superliner equipment, the Santa Fe compromised with Amtrak and the train became known as the Southwest Chief in 1984.
Watch this extraordinary color film of the French Line’s SS NORMANDIE premiering today on youTUBE.
Normandie was unquestionably the most beautiful ocean liner ever built. The world’s largest at the time, she also became the world’s fastest. Her art deco interiors were unrivaled: capacious, elegant, and chic, decorated by teams of France’s most talented artists. Yet Normandie was plagued with frustrations—never attracting more passengers than the competition and tragically ending her days in flames at New York’s Pier 88.
Celebrated maritime historian John Maxtone-Graham confesses to a hypnotic fascination with Normandie. In this comprehensive volume, enriched by over 200 photographs and illustrations, he documents every aspect of the vessel’s decorative antecedents, design, construction, and service. Always articulate, entertaining, and devastatingly well informed, Maxtone-Graham has created the definitive Normandie panegyric, a comprehensive and, at times, heartbreaking account of this fabled liner. 30 color and 175 black-and-white illustrations.
About the Author
John Maxtone-Graham has written numerous works, including The Only Way to Cross—”the bible of the ship buffs.” He spends half the year lecturing aboard ocean liners. Ashore, he lives in New York City.
“If there’s a better or more lovingly displayed collection of S.S. Normandie material in the world (and that includes France), I don’t know of it. What Crash has assembled here is nothing less than the history of a legend. For people interested in transatlantic shipping in general and the Normandie in particular, it is the mother lode.”
Harvey Ardman, Author: “NORMANDIE HER LIFE AND TIMES”
S.S. NORMANDIE
When the French Line decided to supplement the revolutionary Ile de France of 1926 with a record-breaking super-liner in early 1930, they turned to naval designer Vladimir Yourkevitch to design the new ship. It was intended that the ship would be France’s contender for the Blue Ribband of the Atlantic, and it would be a floating showcase for the talent of French artisans and craftsmen. In designing the ship, Yourkevitch incorporated turbo-electric engines and the relatively new and innovative bulbous bow. The French Line also announced with much fanfare that new ship would be the first liner to exceed 1000 feet in length, and it would have a gross tonnage of 60,000 tons—making it the world’s largest ship.
On October 29, 1932, Madame Lebrun—wife of the French President—launched the new ship. By this time, however, the economic >When construction was completed on Normandie, she was the longest and largest ship afloat—measuring 1,028 feet in length with an initial tonnage of 79,280. To the pride of her owners and countrymen, she claimed the Blue Ribband from the Italian Liner Rex on her maiden crossing in May 1935. Keen on keeping the title “longest, largest, and fastest” ship in the world, it did not escape her owner’s attention that the British had announced the tonnage of their new super-liner Queen Mary that was nearing completion at 81,235. So during the winter refit in 1935, a deckhouse was added to her aft deck increasing her final tonnage to 83,423, allowing her to maintain title of world’s largest ship. And though she eventually lost the Blue Ribband to Queen Mary in August 1938, her top speed of 31.2 knots was only a fraction slower.
The magnificent First Class Dining Salon.
Though she was the world’s largest ship, the enormous size of Normandie did not mean she carried more passengers than any ship had ever carried. Her grandeur meant that each passenger had more space. The dimensions of her dining-salon—walled in molded glass, air-conditioned and decorated by the foremost artists and craftsmen of France—were breath taking. The sun deck, clear of all obstructions, stretched two city blocks in length. She was equipped with a permanent theater, seating nearly 400, and a beautiful chapel. Staterooms aboard Normandie—virtually all with luxurious bath or shower facilities—afforded a new scope for the kind of gracious living that French Line passengers had come to expect while on board ship.
Her cruiser bow and the turtleback extending over the foredeck enabled Normandie to take the roughest seas smoothly, without loss of speed. Her electric drive reduced vibration to an absolute minimum—though she was plagued with terrible vibration because of inappropriately designed propellers during her early crossings. Radios onboard allowed her to be in constant touch at all times with both Europe and America. Normandie was truly a wonder-ship that one could not see without wanting to travel onboard.
Regrettably the service career of what is arguably the most superb liner to ever sail was tragically short. Scheduled to sail the day before war started in Europe, she was detained at New York as U.S authorities checked to ensure she did not have munitions or arms aboard. She would spend the remainder of her days in New York, and with the fall of France to the German armies, her fate seemed uncertain. However, with America’s entry into the war, the U.S. Coast Guard seized Normandie in May 1941. In December, the U.S. Navy took control of the vessel and renamed her USS Lafayette.
On February 9, 1942, while undergoing the major refit to accommodate thousands of U.S. troops, sparks from a workman’s welding torch set her ablaze. Firemen were able to extinguish the blaze, but tragically the liner capsized as a result of the tons of water used to fight the fire. She would be salvaged, but ultimately was scrapped at Port Newark, New Jersey—truly an ignominious end for perhaps the greatest liner to ever sail.
1925: American actress Gloria Swanson (1899 – 1983) and her husband, Marquis Henri de la Falaise on board the SS Paris.
The SS Paris leaving New York.
The SS Paris was a French ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire, France for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. The French Line’s Paris was built by Chantiers de l’Atlantique of St. Nazaire. Although the Paris was laid down in 1913, her launching was delayed until 1916 and she was not completed until 1921, due to World War I. When the Paris finally completed, she was the largest liner under the French flag, at 34,569 tons.
The grand stairway/entrance and the dining salon of the SS Paris.
The Paris’s interior reflected the transitional period of the early twenties, between the earlier preferred Jacobean, Tudor, Baroque, and Palladian themes in favor of the sleekness and simplicity of her Art Deco arrangements. The Paris had something of a magic touch, with every possible kind of interior. Passengers could choose to travel in the standard conservative palace-like cabins, but the ship also featured Art Nouveau and hints of the Art Deco that the Ile de France would boast six years later.
Poster advertising the SS Paris services from New York to Europe.
The luxury of the Paris was something no other liner could claim to have. For starters, most first class staterooms had square windows rather than the usual round portholes. In a first-class cabin you were able to have a private telephone, which was extremely rare on board a ship. A valet on the Paris could be easy to summon in his adjacent room, rather than in a cabin in the second class, uncomfortably far away.
Dining on the Paris was excellent, her service was superb, and the living spaces were divinely comfortable and luxurious. French Line ships had enormous appeal in the twenties-”Floating bits of France itself”, as one brochure aptly stated. Service and accommodation were fine but the cuisine was its most outstanding feature, it is said that more sea gulls followed the Paris more than any other ship in hopes of grabbing scraps of the haute cuisine that were dumped overboard. The French Line’s success took off when a third ship joined the relay: the Ile de France.
With the onset of the Great Depression, even these stylish French beauties were sailing only a third full. The French Line avoided the possibility of “laying-up” by pressing the ship into cruise work. To some, it seemed scandalous to have such ships lazily roaming the Mediterranean or Scandinavia with a mere 300 passengers on board. On 18 April 1939 the Paris caught fire while docked in Le Havre and temporarily blocked the new superliner Normandie from exiting dry dock. She capsized and sank in her berth where she remained until after World War II, almost a decade later.
The SS Liberte steams past the capsized SS Paris.
A year after the war had ended, the 50,000-ton German liner Europa was handed over to the French Line as compensation for the Normandie and renamed Liberté. While the Liberté was being refitted in Le Havre, a December gale tore the ship from her moorings and threw her into the half-submerged wreck of the Paris. She settled quickly, but fortunately in an upright position. Six months later she was refloated and by spring 1947 she was in St. Nazaire for her final rebuilding.
