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-
-
- Empress
of Britain
-
- Page 3: Career as Olympic and The Topaz
-
-
- This
is the third of three pages devoted to the Canadian Pacific Liner
Empress of Britain
- Page 1 covers her Canadian Pacific career between 1956-63
- Page 2 covers her career with Greek Line and Carnival
Cruises 1963-94
- This
page covers her subsequent career with Royal Olympic and Thomson
Cruises from 1995-
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- The Empress of Britain was built in 1956 by Fairfields
of Glasgow, preceding sister Empress of England into service by one year. She
was Britain's first fully air-conditioned liner. Initially running
on the North Atlantic from Liverpool, she ran her first winter
Caribbean cruise from New York in January 1960. As time passed,
more of her time was spent cruising as air travel hit the Atlantic
market, and her final Atlantic voyage was number 123, completed
in October 1963, only seven years after her maiden voyage.
-
- She was sold to the Greek Line, and re-entered service for them
as Queen
Anna Maria
in 1965, running a fortnightly service to New York calling at
Naples and Lisbon. Following the collapse of the Greek Line,
she was sold to Carnival, joining the Mardi Gras (ex-Empress of Canada) in 1975 as the Carnivale. Following the numerous new deliveries
to Carnival, she was transferred to subsidiary Fiesta Marine
Cruises as Fiesta
Marina. She
was sold again in 1994 to Epirotiki as Olympic, and has recently been on charter to British tour
company Thomson as The Topaz, having been bought by Topaz International. In
2002, The
Topaz received a new colour scheme. She is replaced in the Thomson fleet in the spring
of 2003, followed by a charter to Peace Boat, still under the name The Topaz. As in Thomson service, the actual
name carried is The
Topaz. The Topaz is due to be replaced at Peace
Boat by the Dream (ex-Song of Norway) in 2008
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-
- Empress of Britain details: 25500 Gross Tons, Length: 640ft, 160 first class,
894 tourist passengers (650 on cruising), Speed 20 knots,
Engines: Steam turbines, twin screw.
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- Carnivale details: 21716 Gross Tons, 950 Cruise Passengers (1350 maximum
berths)
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-
- Ship Names Carried:-
- Empress of Britain - Canadian Pacific Line 1956-63
- Queen Anna Maria - Greek Line 1963-75
- Carnivale - Carnival Cruise Line 1975-94
- Fiesta Marina
- Olympic - Epirotiki Line/Royal
Olympic Cruises 1995-
- The
Topaz
- Thomson Cruises 1998-2002
- The
Topaz
- Thomson Cruises - New Livery 2002-2003
- The Topaz - Thomson Cruises -
New Livery 2002-2003 (Photographs)
- The Topaz - Peace Boat 2003-2008
-
- Empress of Britain Pages:-
- Empress
of Britain - Page 1 - Canadian Pacific Line 1956-63
- Empress
of Britain - Page 2 - Career following sale by Canadian Pacific 1963
- Empress
of Britain - Page 3 - Royal Olympic, Thomson Cruises and PeaceBoat - this page
-
- Canadian Pacific Pages:-
- CP
Header Page
- CP - Page
1 - Ocean
Liners up to 1914
- CP - Page
2 - Ocean
Liners taken over from Beaver Line (1903) and Allan Line (1917)
- CP - Page
3 - Ocean
Liners 1915-1939
- CP - Page
4 - Ocean
Liners 1940-1970
- CP - Page
5 - West
Coast Local Services
- CP - Page
6 - East
Coast Local Services
-
- Associated Pages:-
- Carnival
Postcards
- Epirotiki
Line
- Royal
Olympic Cruises
- Thomson
Cruises
- Simplon Postcards
Home Page
-
- References:-
- Click on images
for details
-
-
-
-
-
-
- Empress
of Britain
- Page
3: Career as Olympic and The Topaz
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- Olympic
- (Epirotiki
Lines: 1995- )
-
-
- CT Publishing card No.71 of Epirotiki Lines Olympic at Patmos, 1995, photo
Richard Weiss.
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-
-
- A retouched
official card of Royal
Olympic Cruises
Olympic.
- She
appeared in these colours very briefly before charter to Thomson as The Topaz.
The ship has since been sold to The Topaz International, who
continue to charter to Thomson.
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-
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- The Topaz
- (Thomson
Cruises charter: 1998-2002)
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- Thomson official card of The
Topaz.
- The
additional cabins forward of the bridge are clearly visible,
along with the final removal of the remaining derricks.
- These
changes, plus the cheap and nasty Thomson colours make this fine ship look worse
than at any other point in her long career.
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-
-
- Scan
of postcard supplied by Dimas Almada.
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-
-
- Simplon
Postcards
sc2129, released July 1998, of The Topaz at Funchal, Madeira.
- Photo
by Rui Manuel Gouveia Sa.
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-
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- Chantry Classics CC/S289, released October 2001, of The
Topaz at Ajaccio, Corsica.
- Photo
by Clive Harvey.
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-
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- An Images
of Mexico card showing The Topaz at Cozumel. Printed in
Canada (s/n COZ34)
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- An enlargement
of part of the previous view.
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-
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- The Topaz - Postcards in New Livery
- (Thomson
Cruises charter: 2002-2003)
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-
- The
Topaz
received a new livery for 2002, as shown in this official postcard.
- An enlarged
view of the ship is shown below.
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-
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- Ribeiro
postcard of The Topaz in final colours.
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-
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- Ramsey postcard 148 of The
Topaz in final colours.
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- The Topaz - Photographs in New Livery
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- The
Topaz
received a new livery for 2002, as shown in this photograph taken
by Rui Manuel Gouveia Sa at Madeira on 8th January 2002.
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-
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- Photo:
© S.J.Hallahan, La Palma (Canary Islands) on 3rd April 2002
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-
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- Photo:
© Mike Ferenczi, Villefranche-sur-Mer on 11 August 2002
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- Photo:©
Mike Tedstone, January 2003.
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- Photo:©
Mike Tedstone, January 2003.
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- Photo:©
Mike Tedstone, January 2003.
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- Photo:©
Mike Tedstone, January 2003.
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- Photo:©
Mike Tedstone, January 2003.
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- Photos:
© Mike Tedstone, January 2003.
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- The Topaz
- (Peace
Boat: 2003-2008)
-
- The Topaz is due to be replaced by the Dream (ex-Song of Norway), which will be renamed Clipper
Pacific, in 2008. The Topaz arrived at the Oosanbashi pier, Yokohama for the last time at 11:30hrs
on 28th April, and the PeaceBoat logos were quickly removed.
She moved to the Daikoku pier the following morning, and left
Yokohama for the breakers at 20:00hrs on 30th April.
-
-
- Official
Peace Boat postcard of The Topaz.
-
-
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- A later
official Peace Boat postcard of The Topaz.
- Scan:
Ken Murayama
- Click to open larger image in new window
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- A later
official Peace Boat postcard of The Topaz.
- Scan:
Ken Murayama
- Click to open larger image in new window
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-
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- The
following photographs of the "Peace Boat" were
taken by ©Ken Murayama at Tokyo on 14th June 2003.
- Registered
name is The Topaz.
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-
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- The
Topaz
at Tokyo, 14th June 2003.
- Photo:
© Ken Murayama
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- The
Topaz
at Tokyo, 14th June 2003.
- Photo:
© Ken Murayama
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