The End of an Era
Compared to all of the excitements of 1958, events were very much quieter for the Caronia during 1959. Whilst it would not be until 1961 that both a summer and autumn Mediterranean Cruise would take place, during 1959 she sailed her now established pattern of World Cruise, Spring Mediterranean, North Cape and Autumn Mediterranean cruises, without major incident.
However, 1959 was the last year that Caronia sailed on regular service transatlantic crossings to and from New York. By this time, the introduction of jet airliners meant that maritime supremacy for crossing the Atlantic was at an end. The future for Caronia would be almost exclusively in cruising, but even so, later events would seal her fate long before her planned life expired.
In the original plan of things, Caronia had been intended to supplement the accommodation available on the RMS Mauretania when the Cunard Queens were out of service during overhauls. By the time that Caronia had completed her 4 transatlantic service crossings plus last positioning crossing in September of this year, the falling demand made this redundant.
From here on, Caronia would only be carrying passengers on Westbound trips to New York as positioning voyages before departure from there on her next major cruise. In 1960, the summer service transatlantic voyages would be replaced by two short cruises to the Caribbean.
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