In the 1950s, you could cruise from Miami to Havana, Cuba for $42.00 per person aboard the S.S. Florida. This fare included all transportation, two nights aboard ship, a day in Havana and all meals.
YouTube video of cruise ship arriving in Havana – this was recent – but it would have been the same view in 1958 aboard the S. S. Florida. Nothing much has changed including the cars which are mainly American – vintage 1950s. [Read more...]
Wonderful historical youTube video of P&O Line’s S.S. HIMALAYA.
SS Himalaya was a passenger liner of 27,955 grt built for the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company by Vickers Armstrong’s Barrow Yard and delivered to them in 1949. She was initially employed solely on the Company’s service from the UK to Australia but was latterly also employed on crusing duties as well. She served the Company well until 1974 when she was sold for scrapping in Taiwan. This shot is taken from an early 1960s PLA Handbook and shows “Himalaya” sailing from Tilbury Landing Stage
In 1946 P&O Lines had ordered its first new passenger liner of the postwar period. The Himalaya finally emerged in 1949 and was a splendid ship and the fastest and largest ship P&O had ever owned until that time. She had a top speed of 25 knots.
The Himalaya was a contemporary of Orient Line’s Orcades and these ships marked a gradual coming together of the new liners of each company in the postwar era.
She was a record breaker and cut the UK to Bombay passage by 5 days and reduced the overall voyage to Australia from 38 days to just 28 days.
Indeed the six ships worked closely together on their Australian service with their sailing schedules organized so that sailings alternated between P&O and Orient. Thus they formed a Southern Dominions “Big Six” fleet.
In January 1958 P&O and Orient services to Australia were extended across the Pacific in a joint service marketed as Orient & Pacific Line.
The Himalaya inaugurated the operation and sailings continued from Sydney to Auckland, Suva, Honolulu, Vancouver and San Francisco. In 1974 the venerable Himalaya was finally retired from service.
Video of 1950s sailing aboard RMS ORCADES – Tourist class pool area.
The RMS Orcades (later SS Orcades) was built by Vickers Armstrong Ltd in Barrow-in-Furness as Yard Number 950. She was launched on the 14th October 1947 and completed on the 14th November 1948. Orcades replaced her predecessor, Orcades II, which had sunk during the war when she was only five years old.
Orcades, the first ship built for Orient Lines after the war, shared her hull design with P&O Line’s Himalaya, but her superstructure was different with her having a new look with her bridge located amidships crowned with a tripod mast and a upright funnel sitting high directly aft of the mast. She was a contemporary of P&O’s Himalaya.
(Left: Orcades sailing from Sydney) As a two class ship, she provided accommodation for 773 First Class and 772 Tourist Class. Later, in 1964, she became a one class ship accommodating 1635 passengers. Her specifications are as follows. 28,164 GRT (tons), length 706ft (216m), width 60ft (27.6m), Draft 30ft 5in. With twin screws and steam geared turbines Orcades achieved 24.7 knots during her sea trials in November.
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CRUISING THE PAST: THE SS CANBERRA – THE LAST GASP OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
A great BBC youtube video of the SS CANBERRA returning from the Falklands.
For 37 years the SS Canberra was a very familiar sight in Southampton’s Western Docks and in ports the world over, particularly Sydney which, it could be said, has been her second home. In April 1982 the unthinkable happened when Britain went to war in hopefully the last colonial campaign in her history and for the first time in 42 years a P&O liner was requisitioned for service as a troop transport.
During the three months of the Falklands campaign she made headlines the world over, and she became a household name as she continued her peacetime role. However, her career had not always been so secure and for a few months in 1972 it seemed she was destined prematurely for the scrapyard. Had that come about she would probably be remembered today as P&O’s `great white elephant’, the liner which it had been thought would shape the future but, instead, had fallen victim to the age of the jet airliner and steeply rising oil prices.
The P&O liner Canberra (in my opinion one of the most beautiful ships to come out of Harland & Wolff) when the ship was leaving Belfast for Southampton, to begin her maiden voyage.
Arrival in Adelaide, Australia.
THE SS CANBERRA AND THE FALKLANDS
After the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982, which initiated the Falklands War, the Ministry of Defence requisitioned the “Canberra” as use as a troopship.
Nicknamed the “Great White Whale”, the “Canberra” proved vital in transporting the Parachute Regiment and Royal Marines to the islands more than 9,000 miles from the UK. Whilst the “Queen Elizabeth 2″ was held to be too vulnerable to enter the war zone, “Canberra” was sent to the heart of the conflict. “Canberra” anchored in San Carlos Water on 21 May as part of the landings by British forces to retake the islands. Although her size and white colour made her an unmissable target for the Argentine Air Force, the “Canberra”, if sunk, would not have been completely submerged in the shallow waters at San Carlos. However, the liner was not badly hit during the landings as the Argentine pilots tended to attack the Royal Navy frigates and destroyers instead of the supply and troop ships.
SS CANBERRA SAILING WAY FROM SYDNEY
When the war ended, Canberra was used to repatriate the Argentine Army, before returning to Southampton to a rapturous welcome. After a lengthy refit, Canberra returned to civilian service as a cruise ship. Her role in the Falklands War made her very popular with the British public, and ticket sales after her return were elevated for many years as a result.
SS CANBERRA BEING SCRAPPED
CRUISING THE PAST: SS CHUSAN – P&O LINES – THE LINER WAS KNOWN AS “THE HAPPY SHIP”
CRUISE LINE HISTORY: The SS CHUSAN was a smaller version of the Himalaya and was designed as the principal element in the postwar regeneration of the Indian and Far East service.
Indeed in some ways she was a long overdue replacement for the celebrated Viceroy of India that had been tragically lost during the Second World War.
Like her celebrated predecessor she introduced superior standards on the route to the Orient and the Far East.
Public Rooms on the “The Happy Ship”
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ORCADES in Sydney
Cruising Line History: The Orient Steam Navigation Company, also known as the Orient Line, was a British shipping company with roots going back to the late eighteenth century. From the early twentieth century onwards an association began with P&O that eventually culminated in the Orient Line being totally absorbed into that company in the 1960s.
Ten Pound Sterling immigrants from the UK to Australia during the 1950s. A family only had to pay 10 Pounds to travel to a new country.
The Beginnings (1797 – 1900):
The Orient Line’s beginnings can be traced back to the formation of a shipbroking company by James Thomson in 1797. The company was operating a small fleet of sailing ships by the early 1800s, and by the middle of the century they were sailing on routes all over the world.
In 1828 Thomson was joined by James Anderson, and the company was renamed Anderson, Thomson and Company in 1863. The inauguration of a liner service to Australia with the packet Orient in 1866 saw the company renamed Orient Line of Packets, regularly shortened to Orient Line.
The transition to steam saw another name change in 1878- the Orient Steam Navigation Company.
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P&O Cruise Line History: MS Azura will be the newest ship in P&O’s fleet when she sails on her maiden voyage next April, but the cruise line want to make sure she carries on the traditions of the company’s 172-year history.
Cruise History: The RMS Viceroy of India was an ocean liner that was owned and operated by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company Ltd. of Great Britain. During World War II she was converted to and used as a troopship. The Viceroy of India was sunk in November of 1942 by German U-boat U-407. Her service was succeeded by SS Chusan from 1950 to 1978.
The RMS Viceroy of India was P&O’s crowning achievement of the 1920s. While she was stately and traditionally styled externally, her engines were a radical departure from contemporary practice.
She was fitted with turbo-electric machinery, making her only the third passenger ship in the world to have such an installation. The Viceroy of India went a long way towards elevating the quality of service on the India route to the standard by now established for the service to Australia.
The Viceroy of India was a revolutionary ship and aboard her, for the first time, all first class passengers had cabins to themselves.
She also was used as a cruise liner in the off-peak period and soon became very popular in this role. Sadly after being requisitioned as a troopship during the Second World War the Viceroy of India was sunk off Oran in North Africa in 1942 during “Operation Torch” landing troops in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria to drive out the Axis forces from North Africa.
The S.S. Chusan replaced the Viceroy of India after World War 2.
1960s – Photo from Cruise History – San Francisco, California – P&O liners SS CANBERRA (docked at the Matson Line pier) and the SS ARCADIA (in background) sailing away.
In the 1950s, you could cruise from Miami to Havana, Cuba for $42.00 per person aboard the S.S. Florida. This fare included all transportation, two nights aboard ship, a day in Havana and all meals.
YouTube video of cruise ship arriving in Havana – this was recent – but it would have been the same view in 1958 aboard the S. S. Florida. Nothing much has changed including the cars which are mainly American – vintage 1950s. [Read more...]
