The ned of the Ocean Breeze (SS Southern Cross)

For those who travelled on this remarkable ship from her days in the late 1950's to 2003 I regretfully confirm that she has been completely scrapped on a beach in Chittagong in January 2004. A last ditch effort was made to save her but failed due to incompetence and lack of experience from protential buyers. Her story is on http://www.ssmaritime.com

The Ocean Breeze was the first cruise ship I sailed on in 1995. The food was wonderful. She was a Dolphin ship at that time. My daughter who was 11 at that time had the time of her life. I am looking at the photo of her right now , taken in one of the lounges on formal night. She carried around 800 passengers, it was OCt and only about 400 passengers were on board. We were upgraded to a porthole and it was great. Last summer I found out that my uncle who lives in England sailed on her as the Southern Cross back in the 1960's from Australia to Southampton. He also had the time of his life. In his 20's at the time, and the ship was full of female nursing students- LOL Made the long journey a little more bearable.

Hi Folks,

My grandmother sailed on that magnificent old Shaw Saville ship from Southampton to Auckland in 1955 for my Uncle's wedding in NZ. They say you could see her green paint job miles away.

Reminiscing, it makes one think where the design of the Canberra originated from.

Ciao for now!!!

My first cruise ever was on this ship in October, 1987, when she was the now defunct Admiral Cruise Line’s Azure Seas - the "party ship" to Baja. I went with 9 friends and family members and we had a wonderful time. I have since gone on to bigger and newer ships, but, will never forget my first. I am sad to hear of her fate.

My grandmother sailed on that magnificent old Shaw Saville ship from Southampton to Auckland in 1955 for my Uncle's wedding in NZ. They say you could see her green paint job miles away.

Well, it was a distinctive livery!

A member of ours, Pam Massey (her CC username is Magwa) has a wonderful gallery of photos from her round the world voyage on SOUTHERN CROSS in 1965 here which every fan of this ship should see.

Reminiscing, it makes one think where the design of the Canberra originated from.

Actually, all of these engines-aft designs stem from the ideas of one Matson Navigation of San Francisco, California, who devised it pre-war. Pre-World War One that is! How's that for Yankee ingenuity ;) !

Similarly, the Swedes like to claim that their GRIPSHOLM of 1925 was the first big motorship. Unfortunately, the facts do not bear them out as that came much earlier from Denmark's East Asiatic Company.

So go (friendly) national rivalries :) .

As for CANBERRA, her design is so beautiful it is hard to believe that there was no divine intervention involved. (After all, as Mies said, "God is in the details...") But we have to give at least some credit to the Dutch ROTTERDAM of 1959 (another impossibly perfect-looking ship, and a very fitting counterpart to CANBERRA in many, many ways). And yes, probably SOUTHERN CROSS and NORTHERN STAR too. There's no denying the resemblance, though SOUTHERN CROSS' aesthetics are decidedly unimpressive compared to the captivating CANBERRA.

We were on the Ocean Breeze when it was sailing for Dolphin and loved it. I knew she was gone, but it still sad to read it.:(

Douglas, Douglas, Douglas,

I am getting the feeling that you were completely enamoured by that old white whale!!! Cheers and...

Ciao for now!!!

I am getting the feeling that you were completely enamoured by that old white whale!!!

Well, I never experienced her as a passenger, but I was enamored of her exteriors indeed. But she's not the only one. There are certain ships, that to me, are just incredibly gorgeous externally - ships whose aesthetics one could just not improve on. CANBERRA is one of these. Others would be ROTTERDAM (V), LEONARDO DA VINCI, SAGAFJORD, KUNGSHOLM (III), QE2 (as built), FRANCE, EMPRESS OF CANADA... And there are more.

On the other hand I have never thought SOUTHERN CROSS a particularly attractive ship. Nice, but not in the same league as CANBERRA.

I guess certain ships for me just "click" and others don't. CANBERRA "clicked".

Wonderful thread. Thanks, all.

Loved that old tub. First cruise in Dec. 83 and second cruise in May 1990. In 83 she had a two level movie theater. By 90 they made a two level casino out of it and moved the movie theater to the old casino. the disco was on a very low deck at the bow of the ship and the dance floor tilted rather severely to midships and eventually if you were dancing you ended up at the bar! Nice public rooms, proposed to DW on the 83 cruise. She ended up doing a short turn for Imperial out of Ft Lauderdale before being scrapped. Our second, third, and fifth cruise was on Commadores Enchanted Isle twice out of San Diego and once out of New Orleans. Now that was a classic ship. Finally, the Azure Seas (southern cross) was replaced by Imperial with the Regal Empress which was originally the Olympia built in the early 50's. My wife immigrated to the U.S. from Israel in 1964 on her and she is still in service, I believe the oldest continuous service vessel afloat.

I believe the oldest continuous service vessel afloat.

She's up there in years, but her service has been far from continuous. She spent the better part of a decade - 1974 through 1982 - laid-up in Greece after the collapse of the Greek Line.

You can read her complete history here.

I don't know what the oldest passenger ship in service is, but whatever ship that might be, I'm sure she'd make REGAL EMPRESS look like a youngster. (For example, as I recall, there are lake steamers in Switzerland dating back to the 19th century and still in operation.)

The oldest passenger ship of any significant size in operation is technically DOULOS, dating to 1914, but she was built as a cargo ship and is now used as a missionary ship.

Some would consider her tied with the Norwegian tall ship STATSRAAD LEHMKUHL, which is only nominally a passenger ship since she operates almost as a sort of tall-ship fantasy camp where "passengers" pay to pretend to be crew on a tall ship from the pre-steam era. That said, they are still technically passenger since they are paying to be there... So I have to count her.

Then there is the riverboat DELTA QUEEN, built in 1926, and the sailing ship SEA CLOUD dating to 1931 but built as a yacht (as a gift from E.F. Hutton to his then-wife Marjorie Merriwether Post).

The oldest full-fledged, oceangoing cruise ship in service today is Classic International Cruises' ATHENA, built as STOCKHOLM way back in 1948 (yes, that STOCKHOLM, of ANDREA DORIA fame)... However she was completely rebuilt from the hull up in 1994 so is the newest-looking old ship you'll ever see.

And then, after that, is MSC Crociere's MONTEREY, built in 1952, so still a year older than REGAL EMPRESS. As a bonus, MONTEREY still has her original engines which REGAL EMPRESS doesn't. (But REGAL EMPRESS' interiors are probably more original, at least in parts.)

And REGAL EMPRESS, built in 1953, is tied with the small Baltic cruise ship BIRGER JARL for age.

I've compiled a list of all the present or former passenger ships in the world built before 1965 and over 1,500 GT - in service or not - which you can read here. REGAL EMPRESS is surprisingly quite a ways down the list, but if being in service as an actual passenger ship were a requirement, she would be near the top.

Doug-Thanks for the Info. Off to the Zuiderdam on May 14th

Great information, Host Doug. Thanks for the links.

We honeymooned on the Azure Seas in 1987, a 4 night cruise that visited San Diego and Ensenada. Loved it so much we went back exactly one year later and took the same cruise, although by then they had added Catalina Island. Absolutely loved it. So sad to hear she's gone.:(

Amanda