The quadruple screw motor vessel Dominion Monarch was the most powerful motor liner in the world and in her time, the largest ship on the Australasian run. With a unique passenger to crew ratio, she offered a quality of service that has never been equaled. H design was basically that of a very large cargo-passenger liner, a factor emphasized by her comparatively small passenger complement. Although other vessels of her type had been built previously, and were ordered after her, Dominion Monarch was the largest liner of this format ever built.
Although larger, faster and more impressive ships were to serve on the Australasian service, it is still considered that the era of stylish traditional sea travel ended with the demise of Dominion Monarch. She made only one voyage down under before World War II broke out. In 1939 her usefulness as a troop transport was assessed. After much deliberation she was rejected on the grounds that her luxuriously appointed accommodation was unsuitable for large-scale transportation of military personnel and equipment. So Dominion Monarch set out again for Australia and New Zealand. In Sydney she was fitted with an old 6-inch gun, inscribed "HMS Venerable" and with "Obsolete" marked in red on the sights. It had a range of five miles at a time when modern guns of that calibre had twice the capability. She was also equipped with an anti-aircraft gun which had to be fitted with stops to prevent the funnels being shot away.
Dominion Monarch was finally seconded for troopship service in 1941 and refitted to carry 142 commissioned officers and 1,341 other ranks. This entailed stripping out most of her luxurious accommodation. Apart from thousands of Commonwealth troops bound for Europe and North Africa, during the war she had carried more than 90,000 military personnel, over 70,000 tons of cargo (including 51,500 tons of much needed butter, cheese and meat) between Australasia and Great Britain, and had travelled over 350,000 miles. Many Australia and New Zealand returning soldiers came home on the Dominion Monarch. In 1947, she was refurbished and returned to service as a passenger liner.
In her heyday, she would spend a month in London at the end of each voyage unloading and reloading cargo at the Royal Albert Docks. On leaving London the first port of call was Southampton to pick up passengers, commencing her 35 day voyage to Wellington via Las Palmas (to bunker fuel), Capetown, Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney then Wellington where she stayed for another month. Some passengers used her as their hotel while in Wellington. For the return voyage, she stopped at the same ports of call on the 35-day homeward trip.
Accommodation was provided on a lavish scale for 525 first class passengers (refitted to 508 in 1947), 160 being in single berth cabins. 38 of the cabins had private bathrooms; very generous for those days. The passengers had the use of six decks from the games deck, down through the lounge, promedade, 'A', B' and C' decks. The public rooms consisted of a lounge, drawing room, writing room, smoke room, palm court, verandah, cinema and restaurant. Most of the public rooms were on the lounge deck with the entrance foyer right forward. On the promenade deck was a swimming pool, a gymnasium and a popular palm court which gave excellent views over the bows and to both port and starboard. At the after end of the room there was a cocktail bar and painted mural decorations depicting English country landscapes.
Dominion Monarch was withdrawn from the southern seas route in 1962, a victim of the increasing demand for ships that were more economical. Replaced by the short-lived Northern Star (1962-74), she was sold for £400,000 to the Mitsui Company of Japan for scrapping in 1962. From June to November 1962, Dominion Monarch was leased as a hotel ship and entertainment centre for the Seattle World Fair and moored at Pier 51, Elliot Bay. Near the end of her stay the funnels were painted with the diamond shaped insignia of her new owners and she was renamed Dominion Monarch Maru. On 25th November, 1962, she arrived at Osaka to be scrapped.
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Operated between 1931 and 1939, for Furness, Withy & Co's on its New York-Bermuda service. Between November 1939 and 1946, she seved as a troopship. On 24th May 1947 the vessel was burned out at Hebburn-on-Tyne while being reconditioned for return to passenger service. Although declared a total loss, the wreck was reappraised and then purchased by the Ministry of Transport, who had her rebuilt by Thornycroft in Southampton as an emigrant ship; 20,256 tons; 553.2 x 76.7 feet; 1 funnel; 1600 passengers in one class. She was renamed New Australia.
On 15th August 1950, she embarked on her first voyage as a migrant ship, sailing between Southampton and Sydney, managed by the Shaw Savill Line. For a few years as a troopship, New Australia had played an important role in Australian military action in the Korean and Malayan conflicts. She continued as a migrant ship until January 1958 when she was sold to the Greek Line, and renamed Arkadia, at which time she was rebuilt and modernized by Blohm & Voss, Hamburg. Upon completion she was placed on the company's Bremerhaven-Cherbourg-Liverpool-Greenock- Quebec-Montreal service, commencing 22nd May 1968, leaving Bremerhaven for the last time on 16th August 1966. Arkadia was then laid up in River Fal in November 1966 before arriving at Valencia, Spain, on 8th December 1966 for scrapping.
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A daring and innovative ship, she was the first major engines-aft liner in around the world service, and establish "engines aft" as the new trend in passenger ship design. Her design was imitated by Holland America's Rotterdam (1959), P&O's Canberra (1961) and her sister ship, Northern Star (1962). Her first three outward voyages were fully booked before Southern Cross went into service, an indication of the considerable interest being taken in the liner by the travel trade and the public. Her maiden voyage, a round the world service from Southampton, commenced on 29th March 1955 and enjoyed a full compliment of 1,600 passengers.
Southern Cross made four annual 76-day voyages from Southampton to Las Palmas, Cape Town, Durban, Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Wellington, Fiji, Tahiti, the Panama Canal, Curacao, Trinidad and back to Southampton.
Fitted with stabilizers, Southern Cross was fully air-conditioned, had considerable uninterrupted open-air deck spaces, indoor and outdoor pools, a two deck high cinema, various public rooms and twin restaurants. She proved to be a very profitable ship for nearly fifteen years. After the introduction of the larger but similar Northern star in 1962, Southern Cross sailed westward from Southampton via Panama, while her sister assumed the eastbound route. My family and I sailed from Melbourne to Fremantle on her first westerly voyage.
On 30th June 1971, Southern Cross began cruising from Liverpool to the Mediterranean in response to the universal decline in round the world liner services. Her cruises enjoyed limited success and led to her being laid up in May 1971 in the River Fal for 15 months. Southern Cross was then sold to a Greek shipping company and renamed Calypso. She was used on cruises first in the Mediterranean and after 1978 in the Caribbean, and for seven day Alaskan cruises. In 1980 she was sold to the Easter Steamship Line of Panama and renamed Azure Seas. After cruising from Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico for a few years, she was sold again to the Imperial Majesty Cruise Line and operated under the name of OceanBreeze from Pompano Beach, Florida, cruising the Bahamas for five years. She was sold in the Bahamas in July 2003 for scrapping in India. After passing through the Suez Canal on 12th September 2003, as if she knew her fate, OceanBreeze encountered a severe storm, and was taking on a list and much water as she neared the breakers beach in Bangladesh. Originally headed for Alang, the venerable liner continued onward to Bangladesh where a higher scrapping price was tendered. Over the next few months she was gradually dismantled and by May 2004 there was nothing left of this once revolutionary ship.
The story of the Southern Cross
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When Shaw Savill and Albion Line replaced the magnificent, but aging Dominion Monarch, they did so with a sister ship to the radical, but highly successful Southern Cross of 1955. Northern Star was a refined version of the Southern Cross concept. The same engines-aft specifications were adopted, as was the overall layout of her decks and accommodation, but she was almost 5,000 tonnes greater than her sister and 15 metres longer. She also featured many updated details, including a flared bow, bulkier superstructure, streamlined funnel, and a cruiser stern.
Though Southern Cross and Northern Star became familiar sights throughout their itineraries, the latter represents the most obvious example of the decline in passenger shipping witnessed in the South Pacific during the third quarter of the 20th century. She was designed purposely to cash-in on the £10 assisted passage migrant trade to Australia and as Shaw Savill's response to rivals P&O and Orient Lines' brand new Canberra and Oriana. Sadly, Northern Star was a quick fix that backfired on her owners. Her "Formica and linoleum finish" was seen as cheap and nasty alongside Oriana, Canberra and Southern Cross' plush fittings and lacked the olde worlde luxury of earlier liners on the east of Suez run. Nevertheless, she become a favourite with economy minded Australians and New Zealanders - as well as the many thousands of assisted British emigrants who travelled aboard her to Australia and New Zealand in the 1960s. Her single class travel was a practical innovation, offering economy-fare passengers the 'full run' of the ship for the first time, instead of being restricted to the aft decks. With seven passenger decks, she was air-conditioned throughout. The deck layout and public rooms were very similar to Southern Cross, though her sun deck pools were larger. Forward of the bridge and 87 feet above sea level was an observation deck for the passengers' use.
The passenger decks were vast for a liner of her size - over an acre of open space. The tavern, so successful a feature of the Southern Cross with its continental atmosphere, was repeated in the new ship. The cinema lounge with its 18-foot high ceiling was exceptionally spacious, and seated 600. The same room was also used for dances, closed circuit television, concerts, and church services. Two swimming pools were provided. The main pool, 30 feet in length, was flanked on either side by a shallow pool for non-swimmers and children. The infants paddled in a small pool adjacent to their playroom. Even the crew had a pool on their own recreation deck at the forward end of the ship.
Northern Star had one of the shortest working lives of any passenger liner. She was plagued by mishaps from day one. When leaving the Tyne after her launch she had a narrow escape. A gust of wind swept her round at right angles and she nearly hit the pier at South Shields. After a struggle, her tugs managed to maneuver her away from danger, but she suffered the ignominy of leaving the river stern-first. On her maiden voyage, in mid-Atlantic, the starboard engine had to be stopped, due to a fault in the high-pressure turbine. It was disconnected and the engine re-started, only for the port engine to suffer identical problems. After making calls at Cape Town and Durban, Northern Star reached Fremantle two days late, on 11th August, 1962. She then went on to Melbourne and Sydney, where she remained for six days undergoing repairs and having the high-pressure engines reconnected. Her engine builders later stated that they thought the fault lay in the metal used in the construction of her main engines, rather than in their design. Engine problems were to plague the ship throughout its lifetime, and contribute to her early demise. Extensive boiler tube failure occurred in June 1974 North of Sicily after she had sailed from Venice. She put into Tunis on the following day, from where the majority of the passengers were flown home.
After temporary repairs she steamed back to Southampton at 17-18 knots where permanent repairs were carried out. Problems with either the low-pressure turbines or low bookings resulted in a cruise from Sydney being cancelled eight months later. During her return to Southampton in March 1975, her withdrawal from service was announced. Northern Star was sold for scrap to the Li Chong Steel & Iron Works of Taiwan. She was only thirteen years old; the youngest of a great fleet of doomed liners to make that last voyage to Taiwan during the seventies. The local TV network filmed her final departure from Southampton. With no passengers, the skeleton crew of about 50 was able to choose from any of the passenger cabins for the voyage. A crewmember later recalled, "I was a deck cadet on the Northern Star in November 1975 when she went to Kaohsiung for scrap. I remember seeing beautiful ships like the Oranje, Oronsay and Reina del Mar there. It was like an elephant's graveyard, if they could have put ships on top of each other (like a car scrap yard) they would have. It was such a sad sight to see, one that will remain with me all my life." The demolition of Northern Star marked the end of Shaw Savill's 125 year passenger service; and the sale of the container ship Dunedin in 1986 marked the end of the company as a ship-owning business.
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