Liner and Cruise Line History: Does Madona know that Eva Peron had two ships named after her?  The Argentine cargo-passengers liners were called the MV EVITA and the MV EVA PERON. They were similar in design to the MV JUAN PERON. The ships operated from Argentina (South America) to Europe and the USA.  The ships were streamlined and yacht like.  They carried limited number of first class passengers and cargo.

Three views of the MV EVA PERON (later renamed the MV URUGUAY). Cia Argentina de Nav Dodero’s EVA PERON was launched in 1949. Named in honor of dictator Juan Peron’s wife, the ship was 12,627 GRT, 530 feet in length and 71 feet in width, carrying 96 first class passengers with a crew of 145. The ship was very deluxe and used by a lot of Peron’s cronies. Her maiden voyage was from London to Buenos Aires and later from Hamburg to Buenos Aires. After the fall of the Peron government in 1955 the ship was named the URUGUAY. She was broken up in 1973.

Left: Eva Peron “Mother of Argentina, the MV EVITA and MV EVA PERON”

Argentina was the only South American country to operate long distance intercontinental ocean liners, although always with ships of moderate size and speed.

While ruling Argentina, Eva Peron had dictator Juan Peron, her doting husband, name two-passenger ships after her. The Argentine liners were called the MV EVITA and the MV EVA PERON.

They were similar in design to the MV PRESIDENTE PERON. The ships ran from Argentina (South America) to Europe and the USA.

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MS PILSUDSKI docks in New York – 1938…

On November 26 1939, over seventy years have passed since the Polish legendary ocean liner M/S Pilsudski, one of the largest and most modern passenger ships that sailed under the Polish flag, sank off the English coast. Today, the ship herself is shrouded in mystery, probably comparable with that of the legendary ‘Titanic’.

Newsreel footage of the MS Pilsudski… 

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Cruise and liner history: Matson Lines and the Pacific Far East Lines.

The SS Mariposa on a South Pacific cruise in the 1960s.  Great video aboard one of the last American flag cruise and passengers ships crossing the Equator.  When class and style were king.

The elegant all first class liner SS MARIPOSA – sailing in the South Pacific of Pago Pago on a Matson Line Cruise in the 1950s.

If you can find a copy on Ebay or Amazon, rush to buy Nothing Can Go Wrong By Capt. John H. Kilpack with John D. MacDonald.

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. [Read more...]