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- Southern
Cross
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- Southern
Cross - Calypso - Azure Seas - OceanBreeze - Imperial Majesty
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- Page
1: Shaw Savill Service: 1955-1971
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- This page covers the history
of Southern Cross in Shaw Savill ownership. Page 2 covers her subsequent history.
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- The Southern Cross
was built by Harland & Wolff, Belfast, in 1955 for a new
round-the-world passenger service of Shaw Savill Line. She took
no commercial freight, carried 1100 one-class passengers, and
was one of the pioneers of the engines aft layout. The continuous
circuit took 76 days to complete from Southampton, calling at
Trinidad, Curacao, the Panama Canal, Tahiti, Fiji, Wellington,
Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Fremantle, Durban, Capetown, Las
Palmas and back to Southampton. From 1968, cruises were run between
circumnavigations. Escalating costs and competition from the
air caused her withdrawal in 1971.
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- She was laid up in the
River Fal for two years before sale to the Greeks in 1973. She
eventually reappeared in service for Ulysses Line in 1975, as
Calypso, for which many of the berths were sold by British
tour company Thomson, who have subsequently chartered
the Dolphin/Premier ship IslandBreeze (ex-Transvaal Castle).
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- Calypso was sold again to Western Cruise
Lines (the west
coast operation of Eastern
Cruise Lines) and
renamed Azure Seas in 1980. The company later became Admiral
Cruise Line, eventually being taken over by Royal Caribbean. However, Azure Seas was sold to Dolphin Cruise Line in 1991, and renamed OceanBreeze.
Dolphin later became part of Premier
Cruises, and the
dark blue Premier colours were applied, although in 1999 OceanBreeze
carried the duel identity of Imperial Majesty on her
stern whilst under charter to Majesty Cruise Line for short trips
out of Fort Lauderdale. All these ownership changes are illustrated
in the official and commercial cards shown below, which are only
available for sale if a price is shown.
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- Southern Cross details: 20200 Gross Tons, Length:
604ft, 1100 tourist class Passengers, Speed 20 knots, Engines:
steam turbines, total 20000shp, twin screw.
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- Shaw Savill Pages:-
- Shaw
Savill Header Page
- Shaw
Savill - Page 1
- up to 1899
- Shaw
Savill - Page 2
- 1900-1914
- Shaw
Savill - Page 3
- 1915-1939
- Shaw
Savill - Page 4
- 1940-1975
- Shaw
Savill - Page 5
- Cruise Brochure From 1971
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- Associated Pages:-
- Dolphin
Cruise Line
- Eastern/Western
Cruise Line
- Premier
Cruise Line
- Thomson
Cruise Line
- Ocean
Liner Postcard Galleries
- Cruise
Ship Postcard Galleries
- Simplon Postcards HomePage
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- Southern
Cross
- (Shaw
Savill: 1955-71)
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of Southern Cross, at Tahiti,
issued circa 1955 before the ship entered service (artist unknown).
- Scan:
Stephen Berry.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of Southern Cross.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of Southern Cross.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of Southern Cross, passing Calshot
Spit lightship in March 1955.
- Scan:
Stephen Berry.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of the main games deck on Southern
Cross.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of a single berth cabin on Southern
Cross.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of the cinema lounge on Southern
Cross.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of the lower swimming pool on Southern
Cross.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of the library on Southern Cross.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of the forward lounge entrance on Southern
Cross.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of the forward dining saloon on Southern
Cross.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of Southern Cross, passing under
Sydney Harbour Bridge, circa 1956.
- Scan:
Stephen Berry.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of Southern Cross, passing under
Sydney Harbour Bridge.
- Scan:
John E.Hoskin (alternative copy of the card above).
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of Southern Cross, outward bound
from Wellington, NZ, circa 1956.
- Scan:
Stephen Berry.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of Southern Cross, leaving her
berth at Wellington, NZ, circa 1956.
- Scan:
Stephen Berry.
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- Shaw
Savill Line official card of Southern Cross, berthing
at Suva, Fiji, circa 1956.
- Scan:
Stephen Berry.
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- Valentine's
commercial card of Southern Cross using the same photo
one of the official cards above.
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- Dearden
& Wade commercial card 691 of Southern Cross.
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- Dearden
& Wade commercial card 691 of Southern Cross.
- Variation
on the card above.
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- Photographic
card of Southern Cross.
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- J.Salmon
of Sevenoaks commercial card of Southern Cross, painted
by John Nicholson (s/n 5303).
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- Coastal
Cards of Clacton-on-Sea "Galachrome" commercial card
of Southern Cross. The artist is not shown.
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- J.Arthur
Dixon commercial card of Southern Cross, photo by Beken
& Son, Cowes (s/n SS.115). The message reads (sent to an
address in Ealing, London):- "Well here we are just nearing
Capetown. We expect to arrive tomorrow morning. The sea has been
very rough these last few days, and most of us have been seasick.
The ship is extremely nice, and the food is excellent. It does
get rather boring at times - day after day of just seeing nothing.
We stopped at Las Palmas for a day. There were the usual beggars
and scoundrels - still the scenery was beautiful. The weather
has been rather cold on board recently."
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- Stinson's
(of Fiji) commercial card of Southern Cross at Suva Bay,
Fiji.
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- John
Hinde commercial card of Southern Cross laid up 1971-73
in the River Fal, with two Cunarders (s/n 2DC 583). She was sold
to Greek owners in 1973, the subsequent history is shown on Page
2.
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- Shaw Savill Cruise Brochure
- 1971
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- Small images from the
1971 Shaw Savill cruise brochure - the only year when all three
ships Northern
Star, Ocean Monarch and Southern
Cross were in service together after
the rebuilding of Ocean
Monarch. Southern
Cross was withdrawn
at the end of this season, although I doubt that many people
expected her to continue cruise for more than 30 years longer.
Larger images of these and other pages are available on: Shaw Savill - Page 5.
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- Southern Cross - Page 2
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- Shaw
Savill Header Page - Shaw Savill - Page 1 - Shaw Savill - Page 2 - Shaw Savill - Page 3
- Shaw
Savill - Page 4 - Shaw Savill - Page 5
- Dolphin
Cruise Line
- Eastern/Western
Cruise Line
- Premier
Cruise Line
- Thomson
Cruise Line
- Ferry Postcards - Cruise Ship
Postcards
- Ocean
Liner Postcards
- Top
of Page - Simplon Postcards HomePage
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- ©1999-2005
Copyright Ian Boyle/Simplon Postcards (all pages on web site)
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