Jamaica Queen???

Until a friend asked me to identify this ship for him, I had never heard the name "Jamaica Queen".

This brochure is circa 1968.

Her profile tells me that she is a mid sized transatlantic liner that has been converted into a cruise ship........but which one?

I've received some emails indicating that the cruise line which ran the Jamaica Queen was either called Continental Cruise Line or Continental Cruises.

There is also talk that Jamaica Queen might have been sailing on behalf of National Airlines as part of their Fly and Save Vacation packages.

Still no word on which ship the Queen was converted from, however.

I found this on www.Timetableimages.com, but not much else......

HELP!

Here some info for ya...

1964 Launched.

Delivered in May 1965 to Nili Somerfin Car Ferries Ltd.., Haifa, Israel.

1968 Was scheduled to enter service between Southampton - Algeciras.

1965 - 1966. Chartered to Finnlines Oy, Helsinki, Finland. Sailed between Helsinki - Travemünde with the name "HELSINKI EXPRESS</B>".

1965 Chartered to Pan American Cruise Lines. Inserted into cruise service between Miami - Nassau.

1966 Chartered to Arison Shipping Co., Miami, USA.

1966 Arrested because of financial problems.

1967 Seized Kavim Hevrat Oniyat BM, Haifa, Israel. Renamed JAMAICA QUEEN</B>.

1967 Chartered to Continental Cruise Lines. Deposited on Caribbean cruises

1969 Sold to Weston Shipping Co.. Ltd.., Haifa, Israel. Renamed Nili</B>.

1969 Inserted between Israel - Greece - Italy - France.

1975 Sold to Maritime Company Of Lesvos, Mytilene, Greece. Renamed ARION</B>.

1981 On the trip from Piraeus from Rhodes - Limassol to Haifa with 250 passengers on board, exploded bomb on board when the ship was in Haifa, the ship was towed out and was grounded off the port. A total loss.

1983 Vessel was removed and towed to Piraeus, and traveling on to a shipbreaking yards

Harvey

Wow, Harvey, thanks a million.

So, this was the Ship that Ted Arison almost started Carnival Cruise Lines with......

What a difference a few unpaid bills made......especially to the Empress of Canada :rolleyes:

Here are some additional pictures and deck plans. Also an additional link on information on the Nili/Arion. Also a link to a picture for sale of the ship burned out on ebay. I went to Jamaica on this ship when I was 10 years old in 1967.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/6X4-PHOTO-ARION-LAID-UP-EX-NILI-/400186373198

http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=839

Another link to a video when the Greeks purchased the ship in 1975

http://www.ert-archives.gr/V3/public/pop-view.aspx?tid=12802&tsz=0&act=mMainView

Wow! Thank you for the amaziing information!

I can understand why Carnival downplayed this fascinating story in the early days, but now that they are such a force in the market, it becomes even more interesting.

They really did start up on a wing and a prayer.

Another interesting artifact on the Nili thanks to ebay. Unfortunately it sold just a few days before I found this thread I would have loved to have this. It also sold for quite a high price and had NINE bidders.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350425617447&nma=true&rt=nc&si=O68sesYpIjloCAEjqRJ%252F2qX1AlA%253D

Another interesting artifact on the Nili thanks to ebay. Unfortunately it sold just a few days before I found this thread I would have loved to have this. It also sold for quite a high price and had NINE bidders.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350425617447&nma=true&rt=nc&si=O68sesYpIjloCAEjqRJ%252F2qX1AlA%253D

UNBELIEVABLE! That seller is my local Ocean Liner Memorabilia Dealer :mad:

I should have asked if he had anything Nili related before this!

Who knows when something like this will come up again?

UNBELIEVABLE! That seller is my local Ocean Liner Memorabilia Dealer :mad:

I should have asked if he had anything Nili related before this!

Who knows when something like this will come up again?

I know, I was going to contact him to see if he might have photo copied it before selling it. The auction literally ended 3 days before I found this thread and learned the Jamaica Queen was really the Nili.

More interesting stuff. Funny I'm finding more about the Nili doing a Bing search than a Google search...

http://openjurist.org/407/f2d/549/stern-hays-lang-inc-v-mv-nili

More interesting stuff. Funny I'm finding more about the Nili doing a Bing search than a Google search...

 

http://openjurist.org/407/f2d/549/stern-hays-lang-inc-v-mv-nili

Interesting stuff, indeed!

The gist of this seems to be that a big Advertising Agency publicized the "Jamaica Queen" under the assumption that Arison was an Agent of the Israeli conglomerate that owned the Nili.

When they billed Arison, after the work was done, they learned that he had only chartered the ship.

The Admen went to court, asking that the revenue that the ship earned in the Caribbean be used to pay for their services BEFORE any of it was used to pay the Israeli Mortgages that had financed the construction of the ship.

This proposed interuption of the revenue stream violated the forclosure clause in the mortgages, so the state of Israel requested that the Jamaica Queen be arrested to protect their collateral.

Exit Jamaica Queen, enter Sunward

Interesting stuff, indeed!

 

The gist of this seems to be that a big Advertising Agency publicized the "Jamaica Queen" under the assumption that Arison was an Agent of the Israeli conglomerate that owned the Nili.

 

When they billed Arison, after the work was done, they learned that he had only chartered the ship.

 

The Admen went to court, asking that the revenue that the ship earned in the Caribbean be used to pay for their services BEFORE any of it was used to pay the Israeli Mortgages that had financed the construction of the ship.

 

This proposed interuption of the revenue stream violated the forclosure clause in the mortgages, so the state of Israel requested that the Jamaica Queen be arrested to protect their collateral.

 

Exit Jamaica Queen, enter Sunward

 

I have never been on the Sunward but I have traveled on its sort of sister ship the Southward that was a very nice boat.

This is from Wikipedia, are they talking about the Jamaica Queen here?

The company was founded as Norwegian Caribbean Line in 1966 by Knut Kloster and Ted Arison, with just one 830-ton cruise ship/car ferry offering low-cost Caribbean cruises. Arison soon left to form Carnival Cruise Lines, while Kloster acquired additional ships for Caribbean service. NCL pioneered many firsts in the cruise industry like: the first Out Island Cruise, the first combined air-sea program (marketed as "Cloud 9 Cruises") which combined low cost air fares with the cruise, first shipline to develop new ports in the Caribbean, like Ocho Rios in Jamaica. Like the original Sunward of 1966, NCL's second ship, the Starward had the capability to carry automobiles through a well concealed stern door. Later, this area was turned into cabins and a two deck movie theater, which is now a casino. NCL was responsible for many of the cruise innovations that have now become standard throughout the industry.

From what I understand, Arison had 6 months worth of solid "advance bookings" sold when the Jamaica Queen got repossessed from under him.

At that same moment, a Cruise Trade Newspaper reported that Kloster had an out of work cruise ship/Ferry on his hands in Europe (the Sunward).

Arison & Kloster agreed to combine their situations, at a time when Miami was just about to explode into being the #1 cruise port of the World.

The ship, the port and the timing were all perfect for each other.

Unfortunately, these "partners of convenience" both still itched to own a company of their own, and their partnership, although successful, was not a happy one.

By the early 1970's, Arison was very much looking for a way out, but memories of the Jamaica Queen taught him to be sure that he had plenty of financing before jumping into anything.

He approached a wealthy travel consolidator friend, who already had a subsidiary named Carnival Tours.

Using Arisons marketing genius and negotiating savvy, they used the consolidators capitol to purchase their own ship, and she became the Mardi Gras

The moral or this story: If the Jamaica Queen had not been repossessed, the worlds largest Cruise line today might be called Continental Cruise Lines

So Arison was owner of Continental lines then? I guess what has me confused is the Jamaica Queen leaflet is for 1967-68 & 69 and when we were on her it was Christmas of 1967 so I'm guessing shortly after we were on her she was repossessed and there never was a 1968 and 1969 season. Wow the poor Nili was really kind of doomed all of her very short 15 year life then. I have very fond memories of her I even won the scavenger hunt on the cruise and was the only one that found the cruse directors room key, I even went into her cabin! :D I remember getting lost one night I was only 10 at the time and I wound up on the closed and empty car deck in the pitch darkness and couldn't find my way out and ended up opening a hatch and ended up on a cat walk over the engine room walking just above the two HUGE green engines they had glass windows on some part of each of them and you could see motor oil splashing over the glass from the inside of the engine. I thought I was in HEAVEN!

Later that night about 1am, we were up on the top deck by the funnel and there was a huge BANG! BANG! and everything went silent we drifted about 2 hours in fact a Cuban coast guard ship came out to see what was going on and why we we drifting for so long. We were told a fuel line broke and they had to make an emergency repair to get us going again and once in Kingston a repair crew was on board making permanent repairs.

I've received some emails indicating that the cruise line which ran the Jamaica Queen was either called Continental Cruise Line or Continental Cruises.

 

There is also talk that Jamaica Queen might have been sailing on behalf of National Airlines as part of their Fly and Save Vacation packages.

 

Still no word on which ship the Queen was converted from, however.

I found this on www.Timetableimages.com, but not much else......

HELP!

Notice on this leaflet and the one I have also, the blue funnel stripe has been inked over and the SomerFin "S" replaced with a Weston "W". These leaflets must have been Arison's and Continental Cruises sent them out to be re touched with the new owners markings.

Notice on this leaflet and the one I have also, the blue funnel stripe has been inked over and the SomerFin "S" replaced with a Weston "W". These leaflets must have been Arison's and Continental Cruises sent them out to be re touched with the new owners markings.

The saga of this ship is a fascinating and convoluted story. :p

It is interesting that Carnival always skips over this chapter and starts their story with the purchase of the Empress of Canada.

Do you suppose that SomerFin stockholders are off suicide watch yet? ;)

I sailed on the Nili out of Miami. It was the first of the 33 cruises I've taken. My mom and dad still have the pictures of their three "girls" onboard the Nili. It was a three day cruise.

When cleaning out my mom's house I found that she was using a dresser from what we were told was a cruise ship. She didn't know the name of the ship....said her brother picked this up in California (pix available upon request). Stenciled in a couple of places is the following: Cont. 1477, First Class, C-deswk, Room 226. Does this make any sense to anyone on the forums? I hope so.....would really like to find more information which would result in a new home for this dresser.

I took this cruise for my high school graduation present in Summer 1968. It was probably the last Israeli-flagged cruise ship sailing in the Caribbean (or perhaps, elsewhere!).

As it turned out, I was one of the earlier employees of Carnival, having been hired upon graduation from University of Miami in June 1972. I worked as a "junior purser" for that summer prior to graduate school.

Here is a copy of the dinner menu from the 1968 Summer cruise from Miami.

On 1/13/2011 at 9:15 PM, BetterMost said:

So Arison was owner of Continental lines then? I guess what has me confused is the Jamaica Queen leaflet is for 1967-68 & 69 and when we were on her it was Christmas of 1967 so I'm guessing shortly after we were on her she was repossessed and there never was a 1968 and 1969 season. Wow the poor Nili was really kind of doomed all of her very short 15 year life then. I have very fond memories of her I even won the scavenger hunt on the cruise and was the only one that found the cruse directors room key, I even went into her cabin! 😄 I remember getting lost one night I was only 10 at the time and I wound up on the closed and empty car deck in the pitch darkness and couldn't find my way out and ended up opening a hatch and ended up on a cat walk over the engine room walking just above the two HUGE green engines they had glass windows on some part of each of them and you could see motor oil splashing over the glass from the inside of the engine. I thought I was in HEAVEN!

Later that night about 1am, we were up on the top deck by the funnel and there was a huge BANG! BANG! and everything went silent we drifted about 2 hours in fact a Cuban coast guard ship came out to see what was going on and why we we drifting for so long. We were told a fuel line broke and they had to make an emergency repair to get us going again and once in Kingston a repair crew was on board making permanent repairs.

Hi, I appreciate  all the history.I cruised on this ship summer of 1968,With my parents  out of Miami, I was 16.

I was updating my cruise history. Carnival cruiser 13 of  18 cruises 

Thanks

Here two higher resolution pictures of deck plans of "Jamaica Queen" and as "Nili"

Awesome,thanks.I remember our cabin was window, forward,starboard. I remember the dining room,lounge and late night club.

They had a passenger talent show one evening.

Did the river raft and shopped at straw market.

1968was along time ago 

I was on the Nilli, the June of 1966.  It was wonderful.   Left on a Friday and returned on Monday