SS Canberra was an ocean liner, which later operated on cruises, in the P&O fleet from 1961 to 1997. She was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland at a cost of £17 million. The ship was named on 17 March 1958, after the federal capital of Australia, Canberra. She was launched on 16 March 1960, sponsored by Dame Pattie Menzies, wife of the then Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies. She entered service in May 1961, and made her maiden voyage starting in June. She appeared in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. In the 1982 Falklands War she served as a troopship. In 1997 the singer and songwriter Gerard Kenny released the single "Farewell Canberra" which was specially composed for the last voyage.
Chandris Line was a Greece-based shipping company founded in 1960 by Anthony Chandris to operate ocean liners between Greece and Australia. Initially the company also traded under the names Greek Australian Line, National Greek Australian Line and Europe-Australia Line. Following a period of expansion, in 1974 Chandris Line merged with Chandris Cruises—a separate company founded in 1960 by Anthony Chandris' brother Dimitri Chandris to operate cruises in the Mediterranean—to form Chandris Line Chandris Cruises. After 1977 the company concentrated solely on cruising and was rebranded Chandris Cruises. In 1985 Chandris Cruises acquired Fantasy Cruises, and subsequently their North American operations were rebranded as Chandris Fantasy Cruises. The company ceased trading in 1996. The funnels of all of their ships were emblazoned with the Greek letter chi, the first letter of the name Chandris in Greek (Χανδρή). The chi acted as a logo for both Chandris and their subsidiary and ultimate successor, Celebrity Cruises.
SS Himalaya was a British passenger ship of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, launched in 1948, which operated mainly between Britain and Australia. She was withdrawn from service in 1974 and scrapped the next year.
SS Southern Cross was an ocean liner built in 1955 by Harland & Wolff, Belfast, Northern Ireland for the United Kingdom-based Shaw, Savill & Albion Line for Europe—Australia service. In 1975 she was rebuilt as a cruise ship and subsequently sailed under the names Calypso, Azure Seas and OceanBreeze until 2003 when she was sold for scrap to Ahmed Muztaba Steel Industries, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
TSS Fairstar was a popular Australian-based cruise ship operating out of Sydney for 22 years. Originally completed in 1957 as the British troopship Oxfordshire, it was converted to become the Fairstar in 1964 for immigrant voyages and from December 1974 was permanently engaged in cruising.
Ambience is a cruise ship delivered to Princess Cruises in 1991 by the Fincantieri shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy as Regal Princess, sailing on their North American routes. After 2000 she was deployed on the company's Australian routes, then later in the Mediterranean and Baltic seas.
The SS Mongolia was a steam turbine-driven twin-screw passenger-and-cargo ocean liner launched in 1922 for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) for service from the United Kingdom to Australia. Later in P&O service she sailed for New Zealand, and in 1938 she was chartered to a P&O subsidiary, the New Zealand Shipping Company, as SS Rimutaka.
HMAS Berrima was a passenger liner which served in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) during World War I as an armed merchantman and troop transport. Launched in 1913 as the P&O liner SS Berrima, the ship initially carried immigrants from the United Kingdom to Australia via Cape Town. In August 1914, Berrima was requisitioned for military use, refitted and armed, and commissioned into the RAN as an auxiliary cruiser. The ship transported two battalions of the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force to the German New Guinea colonies in September.
SS Oronsay was the second Orient Line ship built after World War II. A sister ship to Orcades, she was named after the island of Oronsay off the west coast of Scotland.
RMS Strathaird, later TSS Strathaird, was an ocean liner of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O).
RMS Orion was an ocean liner launched by the Orient Steam Navigation Company in 1934 and retired from the water in 1963 after carrying about 500,000 passengers. A 23,371 ton passenger ship, the Orion was built to carry 486 first class, 653 tourist class and 466 crew passengers from Europe through the Pacific to Australia. The construction of the ship was documented in Paul Rotha's 1935 film Shipyard.
SS Orsova, was a British ocean liner, built by Vickers Armstrong in Barrow-in-Furness, England for the Orient Steam Navigation Company for their Great Britain-to-Australia services via the Suez Canal. She was the final development of the 28,000 ton class which began with the SS Orcades of 1948 and continued with the SS Oronsay of 1951. In 1960, in conjunction with the introduction of the new larger and faster Oriana and Canberra, the fleets of Orient and P&O were combined as P&O-Orient Lines, although the Orient ships retained their corn-coloured hulls and sailed under their own house flag. In 1966, P&O acquired the balance of the Orient shares and the Orient Line was discontinued, with Orsova and her fleet mates being transferred to the ownership of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), painted white and under the P&O houseflag.
RMS Carinthia was an ocean liner built in 1956 as one of the four Saxonia class ships. She sailed for Cunard Line from her completion until 1968 when she was sold to Sitmar Line, rebuilt into a full-time cruise ship and renamed SS Fairsea. She sailed with Sitmar until 1988, when Sitmar was sold to P&O. She was renamed SS Fair Princess and sailed for Princess Cruises and P&O Cruises until 2000. She was then sold to China Sea Cruises and renamed SS China Sea Discovery. In 2005 or 2006 she was scrapped in Alang, India.
The SS Chusan was a British ocean liner and cruise ship, built for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company's Indian and Far East Service in 1950. She was named after Chusan, a small island off China. A smaller version of the SS Himalaya, the Chusan had a gross register tonnage of 24,215; and a capacity of 1,565 passengers and crew. She was built as a replacement for the RMS Viceroy of India, lost in the Second World War. She was 646.5 feet (197.1 m) long. The Chusan is said to have brought new standards of shipboard luxury to India and the Far East. She was the last passenger liner built for P & O by Vickers-Armstrongs.
Lavia was a cruise ship that caught fire and sank in Hong Kong Harbour in 1989. She was built for Cunard White Star Line in 1947 as the cargo liner Media. In 1961 she was sold to Italy, rebuilt as an ocean liner and renamed Flavia. In 1969, she was refitted as a cruise ship and renamed Flavian. In 1982 she was sold to Panama and renamed Lavia. She was undergoing a refit when the fire occurred. The damage to her was so great that she was scrapped.
SS Iberia was an ocean liner completed in 1954 for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). Along with her fleetmates Himalaya, Arcadia and Chusan, Iberia mainly provided passenger service between the United Kingdom and Australasia.
Sitmar Cruises and its predecessor Sitmar Line were company names derived from the acronym for the Societa Italiana Trasporti Marittimi. SITMAR originally was an Italian shipping line founded by Russian émigré Alexandre Vlasov, however the company's headquarters were later transferred to Monaco. Vlasov initially operated cargo services from 1937, gradually replacing these with passenger services from 1947 until 1988, when SITMAR was sold to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). After the sale, most of the former SITMAR ships were transferred to the fleet of P&O subsidiary Princess Cruises, while one, TSS Fairstar, became the sole vessel of the newly created P&O-Sitmar Cruises. As of July 2018, one briefly named former SITMAR ship was still operational, as Cruise & Maritime Voyages's Columbus. However, two other vessels originally ordered by SITMAR but delivered to P&O, sailed under the Princess banner before operating from Australia for a number of years, as Pacific Jewel and Pacific Dawn. As of 2021, Pacific Dawn, set to become Ambience is the only survivor, with Columbus and Pacific Jewel being sold for scrap.
RMS Parthia was the second of two all first class transatlantic passenger cargo liners built for the Cunard Line. She later served on the London to Auckland route for the New Zealand Shipping Company under the name Remuera, and still later as a Pacific cruise ship under the name Aramac. She was scrapped in 1969–70.
RMS Strathmore was an ocean liner and Royal Mail Ship of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), the third of five sister ships built for P&O in the "Strath" class. Launched in 1935, she served on the company's route from London to India until 1940, when she was requisitioned for war service as a troop ship, and redesignated as SSStrathmore, until being returned to her owners in 1948. After a long re-fit, she resumed service with P&O from 1949 until 1963, when she was sold to Latsis Lines and renamed Marianna Latsi, then Henrietta Latsi, before being laid up in 1967 and finally scrapped in 1969.
SS Katoomba was a passenger steamship that was built in Ireland 1913, spent most of her career in Australian ownership and was scrapped in Japan in 1959. McIlwraith, McEacharn & Co owned her for more than three decades, including two periods when she was a troopship. In 1946 the Goulandris brothers bought her for their Greek Line and registered her in Panama. In 1949 she was renamed Columbia.
United Kingdom
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