In 1910, a
31-year-old son of a shipping magnate from Wavertree, Liverpool became a director at
the Cunard Line.
By 1922 he was elevated to deputy director and by 1930, he became chairman when the company
was in the midst of a crisis brought on by the Great Depression.
Sir Percy Elly Bates was a decisive leader with strong connections to the British Admiralty
and the royal family.
With his company on the verge of collapse, he deftly negotiated a merger with Cunard’s
long-time rival, the White Star Line.
He leveraged his connections to ensure that Cunard would remain on top with two-thirds
control of the newly formed Cunard-White Star Line.
With Cunard’s greatest rival out of the way, Bates now had the resources he needed
to bring his vision to reality– a pair of great superliners, larger than any other ship
in the world and fast enough to operate a weekly transatlantic service with just two
ships.
A master of communications, Bates knew that the race to attain and hold the Blue Riband
would earn headlines for years.
He would build on Cunard’s relationship with the royal family by naming these premiere
liners after the royals, starting with the Queen of the United Kingdom at the time, Mary
of Teck.
This also further tied the company with British identity at a time when nationalist sentiments
were at an all-time high.
The RMS Queen Mary was launched on September 26th, 1934, and construction soon began on
her running mate, the RMS Queen Elizabeth.
Both ships would earn the company massive profits and they would prove vital assets
to the allies during World War 2, which would claim the life of Bates’s only child, Edward
Percy, who was killed in Germany in 1945 while serving as a pilot officer in the Royal Airforce.
Despite personal tragedy, Sir Percy Bates always kept an eye on the future, and seeing
trouble for his industry brewing after the war, he began looking for a long-term solution.
In the 1930s both Cunard and the White Star Line experimented with offering cruises on
some of their second-tier ships.
Even when operating these voyages in tropical ports using ships designed primarily for the
North Atlantic, pleasure cruising showed promise.
Bates recognized that advancements in aeronautics made during the war would eventually revolutionize
civilian transportation.
Decisive action was needed if the company was going to stay ahead through the second
half of the twentieth century.
As the war came to an end, Bates initiated the company’s first post-war building project.
He envisioned a great dual-purpose liner.
She would be fast and powerful enough to supplement the company’s premiere transatlantic routes
but from the keel up, every other aspect of her design would be tailored to pleasure cruising.
Bates recognized what the future held for his company and he was ready to act decisively
to maintain Cunard’s dominance even if the transatlantic passenger trade turned to the
sky.
But then, on October 14th, 1946, with the keel of his visionary new liner having only
been laid a few months prior, Sir Percy Bates suffered a massive heart attack in his office.
He died two days later at the age of 67, leaving the Cunard Line without the vision and leadership
that had shepherded the company through its greatest challenges as an existential threat
loomed on the horizon.
In the aftermath of World War Two, the Cunard White Star Line found itself in a strange
position.
War losses were limited to just a handful of secondary ships like the Lancastria and
the Laconia but all of the company’s premiere liners, including Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth,
survived.
The Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth easily lived up to the vision Sir Percy Bates had
for them in the early 1930s.
After extensive refits that restored their passenger configurations, the Queen Elizabeth,
completed during the war, was able to finally enter passenger service and the Queen Mary
was able to resume her already wildly successful career.
The burned-out hull of her greatest rival, the SS Normandie, was being scrapped in New
Jersey, and other rivals like Bremen and Rex met similar ends.
Virtually unchallenged, the two Queens quickly began generating massive profits for the Cunard
Line, which dropped White Star from its name in 1949.
And the company was able to coast through the 1950s on the investments made by Bates
almost two decades prior.
By the time of his passing in October 1946, the liner that represented his vision for
the future, was well into construction.
Designated hull N. 635 and laid down on February 13th, 1946, this new ship was constructed
by Cunard’s longtime partner, the John Brown and Company shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland.
The years immediately after the war proved challenging for the shipyard but a major contract
like the one for Caronia helped keep the yard in business but costly overages prevented
any profits.
Post-war material shortages and labor disputes presented major issues throughout her construction.
Special permission had to be granted to import her teak decking and she went months over
her original summer 1948 delivery date.
Her original fixed-rate contract was 3.4 million pounds but these excessive delays pushed her
final price to 5.3 million pounds, nearly 2 million over budget.
Now led by Sir Percy Bates’s brother, Frederick Bates, Cunard’s leadership was horrified
by the ballooning costs.
But most remained confident in the project, recalling the enormous debt incurred by the
company while recovering their fleet losses after world war I. Debt that was easily repaid
in the 1920s.
Now, in an even stronger position, it seemed inevitable that the company would easily recoup
the losses and Caronia would quickly build a loyal following.
Her design language echoed Cunard’s Queens and the second Mauretania, built just before
the war, but her hull took on a more yacht-like appearance with a dramatic clipper bow and
a massive single funnel, the largest ever installed on a liner at the time.
Most strikingly, she was painted in four different shades of green.
A color that made her instantly recognizable and helped keep her interiors cooler in tropical
destinations.
She quickly earned the nickname, the Green Goddess.
As built, she came in at 34,183 tons with a length of 715 feet or 218 meters and a beam
of just over 91 feet or 28 meters.
She had twin screws powered by geared turbines that generated 35,000 SHP, achieving a 22-knot
speed.
Cunard’s close relationship with the royal family was as strong as ever after World War
2 and Caronia was the largest passenger ship launched since the war.
To mark the occasion Princess Elizabeth was invited to christen the new liner in her last
public appearance before her marriage three weeks later to Lt. Philip Mountbatten.
The future Queen launched Caronia in a massive ceremony on October 30th, 1947.
Over the next year, she was outfitted with interiors fit for the wealthy passengers she
would soon carry all over the world.
RMS Caronia sailed her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York on January 4th, 1949.
During her first few years of service, she spent the majority of the year sailing transatlantic
crossings, while demand was high.
In the winter months, she would offer cruises.
On transatlantic voyages, she was given a two-class configuration with accommodations
for 581 first-class passengers and 351 cabin-class passengers.
On cruises she would be converted to an all first class configuration, accommodating a
maximum of 650 passengers.
Her designers were keenly aware that she would carry ultra-wealthy passengers on world cruises
that could last up to 100 days or more.
Because of this, she was given extra spacious cabins, and in a rarity for the time, every
single cabin was outfitted with full bathrooms and showers, something not even seen on Cunard’s
Queens at the time.
She was outfitted with a Carrier air-conditioning system throughout her passenger spaces.
Another almost unheard-of feature.
And she was also given a large outdoor swimming pool.
Her interior spaces featured a subdued mid-century version of Art Deco, similar to those found
on the pre-war Cunarders, but ever so slightly updated.
Her first-class cabins came in a variety of designs and were outfitted with fine furnishings.
150 were decorated with unique veneers featuring rare woods like flame maple, mazur birch,
and white sycamore.
Like both Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, Caronia featured an Observation Lounge in
her forward superstructure.
This curved room offered large windows with striking views and was paneled in a powder-blue
plastic with German-silver trim all centered around a large curved bar.
Her grand staircase featured wood veneers with German silver trim detailing and cozy
leather seating.
In keeping with her one-class cruise configuration, all of her main passenger staircases kept
a matching design scheme.
A centerpiece was her lounge, paneled in Canadian maple, prima vera, and zabrano veneer.
The huge, double-height room was lit with concealed fluorescent lighting and featured
a massive painting of Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, a gift suggested by
Princes Elizabeth herself, who took a great interest in the ship and cherished her involvement.
The painting was not ready in time for her maiden voyage so on her first few voyages
a signed photograph was hung in it’s stead.
The room also featured a large silver and gold lacquer-and-gesso art piece by F.H.
Coventry depicting a forest and wild horses.
Her two main dining rooms were designed to easily accommodate both a two-class and one-class
configuration.
Balmoral, the restaurant designated for first-class on transatlantic voyages could seat 280 passengers
and was decorated with a quilted birch and courbaril veneer and featured more art and
metalwork by F.H.
Coventry.
Roughly equal in size, Sandringham, served cabin-class passengers on transatlantic voyages
and first-class on cruises.
Paneled in paldao, ash, and eucalyptus burr, the room featured etched mirrored panels representing
each of the four seasons.
These panels were illuminated from their edges, highlighting their designs.
At the center of the room was another mirrored panel depicting Apollo and the Sun Chariot
by the artist John Hutton.
Her distinctive first-class smoking room was paneled in figured walnut and decorated with
small golden bronze plaques representing the signs of the zodiac.
The room was topped with a twelve-sided golden ceiling, with panels representing each of
the twelve months.
It was furnished with red, brown, and gold hide with walnut accent tables.
Caronia featured a large proportion of passenger space, even with her more crowded transatlantic
configurations.
All of her many bars, lounges, and restaurants were designed to easily convert to luxurious
first-class spaces on cruises and she featured many intimate alcoves and cozy nooks where
passengers on long world cruises could feel comfortable and at ease.
With a crew capacity of just around 600, most cruises offered a greater than 1:1 crew-to-passenger
ratio.
Cunard spared no expense building Caronia, sure that their lavish spending would endure
the new ship to a wealthy and exclusive class of travelers.
After her first handful of transatlantic voyages, Caronia would embark on her first cruise from
New York to the Caribbean, and Cunard would soon find out if they had just made a terrible
investment.
RMS Caronia was ahead of her time in almost every way and the traveling public immediately
took notice.
She was instantly one of Cunard’s most popular liners.
In her early years, when demand was highest, she spent most of the year operating transatlantic
voyages and operated cruises only in the winter.
She sailed her first world cruise in 1951.
The voyage was a hit and by 1952, her schedule was almost entirely devoted to cruises, only
sailing a handful of transatlantic crossings in August and September.
She typically started each year with a three-month-long world cruise originating from New York.
Some cruises would last even longer, 100 days or more.
In 1953, Caronia celebrated Queen Elizabeth’s coronation with what was dubbed the Coronation
Cruise, one of her most well-known and memorable voyages.
Cunard was known to rotate crew amongst their liners somewhat frequently during this period
and only the best were selected to serve on Caronia.
Positions on the ship were highly sought after.
Her cruises offered a calmer and more refined atmosphere than the schedule-driven slog on
the transatlantic liners.
Caronia visited ports all over the world, many of which were a first for a Cunard liner
and it offered crew a unique opportunity to see the world.
Plus, vacationing millionaires were fairly generous tippers.
While she was a pleasure to work on, she proved tricky to maneuver, especially in high winds,
which would catch her massive funnel.
She was surprisingly significantly less agile than the Queens, which were both more than
double her size.
In 1952, she ran aground in the Suez Canal (but like, who hasn’t?).
The in 1956 she did the same thing in Messina.
Both times resulted in minimal damage and she was refloated the next day.
Her most serious accident occurred on a world cruise in 1958, when she was leaving the harbor
at Yokohama.
As she maneuvered around a US Navy vessel, she was caught in high winds that sent the
liner into the harbor’s breakwater, significantly damaging her bow and demolishing a harbor
lighthouse.
Caronia stopped sailing regular transatlantic voyages in 1959 when... say it with me!
Air travel rapidly became the preferred way to cross the Atlantic!
Her schedule was now devoted to cruising throughout the year as Cunard faced a steep drop in passenger
numbers.
As the 1960s progressed, the highly profitable company was now bleeding money.
Caronia was one of the only profitable ships still operating in their fleet.
But like so much else, the 1960s made the once glamorous Caronia feel dated as other
companies launched new ships with numerous innovations geared toward the cruise market.
Cunard desperately made a series of updates to other liners like Mauretania 2, Franconia,
Carmania, and Queen Elizabeth in an attempt to offer more cruises and match the success
of Caronia but these had only mixed results.
In an attempt to keep Caronia competitive, a major refit was carried out in November
1965 that installed new passenger suites, a new lido deck, and other extensive interior
renovations to refresh the aging liner.
But the seaman’s strike of 1966 in Britain hit the company hard and upset many of Caronia’s
planned itineraries. 1967 was the first year Caronia failed to generate a profit.
Facing a dire financial situation, Cunard put Caronia up for sale that year and she
sailed her final voyage with the company, one last transatlantic crossing from New York
to Southampton.
From here it gets pretty sad.
In 1968 she was sold to a company called Star Shipping.
By this point, maintenance had lagged behind and she was in desperate need of an overhaul.
Her new owners carried out some work and renamed her first the SS Columbia and then the Caribia.
She was given an all white paint scheme and sent to New York in 1969 where she would offer
budget cruises to the Caribbean.
But these cruises were a disaster.
She suffered a number of mechanical failures and on only her second cruise an engine room
explosion killed one crew member and severely scalded another.
The ship lost all power for 20 hours before finally limping back to New York.
This was her final commercial voyage.
Over the next five years, plans for a revival came and went until her owners finally threw
in the towel and sold her for scrapping at a breaker in Taiwan in 1974.
Unable to sail under her own power, she would be towed from New York by a German ocean tug
called the Hamburg.
By the time she made it to Honolulu, she nearly capsized but she was finally righted and the
voyage sailed forward…
right into Typhoon Mary, a category 5 super typhoon.
On August 12th, near Guam, the Hamburg’s generators failed.
Her crew was forced to cut their tow lines to save their own ship.
Caronia was set adrift.
She eventually wrecked on the breakwater at Apra Harbour.
Her wreck blocked the entrance to the vital harbor making it impossible to resupply the
island of Guam with commercial or military vessels.
Caronia’s wreck would have to be removed immediately.
But complicated things, she came to rest near right beside the wreck of a Korean War landing
craft, loaded with munitions.
The wreck of one of the most innovative liners of her time was quickly and carefully cut
up and fully removed by the end of 1975.
Caronia represented what could have been if the Cunard Line continued to build for the
future once Sir Percy Bates’s leadership came to an end.
She was one of the first purpose-built cruise ships and perhaps the Cunard Liner best suited
for the changing market before they finally built the Queen Elizabeth 2.
Instead, the company cashed in on the wise investments made before the war and coasted
through the 1950s.
Some at the company thought air travel would be just a passing fad but most knew what was
on the horizon.
They lacked Percy Bates’s vision and decisiveness.
If it wasn’t for that complacency, Cunard could have defined the cruise industry we
know today.
Instead, they nearly collapsed.
Passengers and crew love RMS Caronia.
She was the best that Cunard had to offer at a time when the company was at its peak.
It was a time when a world cruise was not only an escape from your day-to-day life,
but an exciting adventure.
Long before tourism flooded the world’s landmarks.
A voyage on the Caronia was an experience you would remember for a lifetime.
Thank you so much for watching.
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I’d like to give a special shoutout to my supporters on Patreon.
I’m confident they could have saved Caronia.
All right crew, that’s all I’ve got.
Until the next one.
Be nice to people.