~History Animation~

SS America | ‘Intended Service’ | Flagship of America (3/5)

On November 10, 1946, after a multi-million dollar restoration process, the SS America sailed into New York Harbor to begin its long-delayed Transatlantic vessel. The Vessel became wildly popular with passengers who loved the bright beautifully decorated interiors and graceful designs and was widely considered the Queen of American Merchant Marine. But in 1952, the SS America was joined by its Longer and Faster Running Mate the SS United States but, despite, those advantages the SS America proved to be more widely popular with passengers, and some even preferred the vessel over the SS United States (Ouch). The SS America continued sailing its Transatlantic routes throughout the early 1960s but in 1955 the Vessel began sailing on tropical cruises to Bermuda and the Caribbean as time went on, Passengers slowly preferred to travel by Air, and at the end of 1963, the Vessel was laid up ending their time with the United States Lines with 18 Year's of Sailing with the company, the Vessel sailed over 2.8 Nautical Miles carrying 500,000 Passengers safely and reliably.

‘Chandris Lines’

On November 16, 1964, the SS America was sold to a Greek Shipping company called ‘Chandris Lines and renamed the Vessel to ‘SS Australis’ (Australis = Australia) the growing company was in the process of buying older ships to provide affordable travel on lucrative Europe to Australia route and went under extensive renovations to increase the vessels passenger capacity to 2,258 and include an outdoor swimming pool and the air conditioner was added onboard to make the vessel suitable for the hot climates of Australia and was painted White and with Blue Funnels sporting Lion's Logo with the Greek letter ‘kai’ the first voyage of the Chandris began on August 21st, 1965 like the Previous company the Voyages we're completely uneventful aside from a minor fire in 1970 and a minor collision with an Australian Aircraft Carrier in 1974.

Over 12 years the SS Australis completed 62 Global Voyages and carried 300,000 Passengers to Australia, but by 1977, the SS America was the last Vessel to provide regular service from Southampton to Australia to New Zealand route and the Vessel was beginning to show its age resulting higher maintenance costs and rising fuel costs and a drop of passenger demand and due to the newly introduced long-ranged flights the Chandris Lines decided to bring the SS Australis to be laid down and the last voyage was on November 18, 1977. And SS Australis was laid up a month later and this is where the steady and uneventful service to a messy and crappy one.

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