Cunard Ambassador

I can only find a sentence or two about this ship. That it was launched in 1972, caught on fire in 1974, and turned into a cattle ship in 1975. What caused the fire? Why dispose of it so quickly? Anyone know more scoop? Thanks!

Hi, first of all I have to say that I don't know what caused the fire, but here's what I have:

- 1974 12th September whilst on a voyage from Port Everglades to New Orleans without passengers a fire started in the engine room and quickly spread throughout the ship. On the 15th day towed by the salvage tug CABLE to Key West.

- 1975 declared a Constructive Total Loss (CTL) and sold to C. Clausen D/S A/S, Copenhagen, Denmark. Renamed LINDA CLAUSEN in March. 30th of April towed by the tug WILLEM BARENDZ to Landskrona, Sweden for conversion into a livestock carrier.

- 1976 January taken to Hamburg for further conversion. Taken into service between Australia and Persian Gulf.

- 1980 sold to Lembu Shipping Corp, Panama and renamed PROCYON.

- 1983 renamed RASLAN when sold to Qatar Transport & Marine Services Co Ltd, Doha. On July the 3rd a fire began in the engine room control-room, July 17th laid up in Singapore.

- 1984 7th of Sept. arrived at Kaohsiung where broken up by Chi Young Steel Enterprises.

That was what I could find, from Arnold Kludas' 'Great Passenger Ships of the World', volumes 5 & 6, partly transferred from German.

Hope this helps a bit!

Rgds,

Aleksi

P.S. I suggest Googleing with this: "Cunard Ambassador" "Linda Clausen"

As AJL posted above, they got rid of her so quickly because she was a "constructive total loss" - this means that it would have cost more to repair her than the value of the ship herself.

Think of the ship as a car that is only a few months old. It gets into a huge crash and the insurance company decides to "total" it becuause the damage would cost more to fix than the price of a new car. It is the same sort of situation.

The sister ship, CUNARD ADVENTURER, had a very successful life and was sold on by Cunard to NCL for whom she became SUNWARD II, then to Epirotiki as TRITON, later moved on to Royal Olympic (a joint-venture company owned partly by Epirotiki) and today she is CORAL with Louis Cruise Lines.

Interesting; thanks!