Caronia, Her Future Uncertain
Sails from City for Last Time
From New York Times - 18 November 1967
A fading, aging beauty of a luxury liner, Cunard's green-hulled Caronia, sailed out of the Port of New York for the
last time yesterday and into an uncertain future.
The 34,172-ton, 715-foot steamship, declared redundant by Cunard, the British steamship company last month, is slated for lay-up after she arrives at Southampton next week.
Her owners have put her on the second-hand ship market: but so far there have been no takers either for continued operation of the 19-year-old ship, or for scrapping.
Cunard's reasons for disposing of the Caronia and two other liners - the 22,000 ton Carinthia and Sylvania - were announced on 19 October 1967 by Sir Basil Smallpeice, the company's chairman.
He said that the Caronia was an aging ship designed and built solely for the high-cost luxury cruise market of the nineteen-fifties. Sir Basil added at the time that “no ship can be kept in being indefinitely running at a loss”.
Staff Captain Duncan C. Drummond, who left the ship here and will fly home for assignment, recalled that last month while the liner was at Constanta, Romania, a port of call on her final 61-day autumn Mediterranean cruise, a company representative, flown from London, had boarded the vessel to tell the ship's officers of the withdrawal decision.
“The announcement didn't come exactly as a shock to anyone since there had been rumours about her being withdrawn for some time,” Captain Drummond said.
As for the 530 man crew, the captain said that key personnel and those with considerable service with the line would be retained and assigned to other Cunard ships. For those no longer needed, a special employment bureau has been set up in their Southampton office.
The Caronia, which made her debut here in January, 1949, was built as an Atlantic and a cruise luxury liner. With the exception of a few transatlantic round trips during peak summer seasons she has spent practically her entire career with Cunard as a cruise liner.
She made 17 round-the-world voyages, one long Pacific cruise and at least one long Scandinavian and two long Mediterranean voyages each year.
The fully air-conditioned vessel has accommodations for 528 first class and 332 tourist class passengers and a speed of 22 knots. She sailed shortly before noon yesterday from West 52nd Street, without passengers.