Ships often change hands - bought by new owners, for one reason or another,
the are often rebuilt and made over - to varying degrees of success.
Well you all seemed to love the first 5 terrible ship makeovers video that I did the other
week - so let's do it again and look at five more terrible ship makeovers for your morbid curiosity.
Number 5; the RMS Strathnaver Okay so just so you don’t think I’m
being biased in my choices for bad ship makeovers here I’m actually going to start with a ship which
I actually personally adore. This is the RMS Strathnaver, a P&O ocean liner introduced in
1931. I have a personal connection with this ship because it carried my family to Australia
in 1959 - but boy did P&O do a number on it. When the ship was first introduced in the 1930s it was
a massive step forward for the company; I’ve actually done a whole video on this,
it’s an interesting topic, you should go check it out. But suffice it to say, Strathnaver was a
huge departure from P&O’s previous ships which all kind of looked the same; like this. Old-fashioned,
with a drab dark paintscheme and thin, black funnels. Strathnaver was totally different
and radical; the ship was painted white and its funnels were painted a golden buff yellow colour.
But it was the ship’s exterior design that was the most notable difference; it was tall and blocky,
but beautifully balanced with three, round, squat funnels and a long, sweeping profile.
She served through the 1930s and was a really popular ship for the time, but then the second
world war came and Strathnaver did its bit sailing as a troopship. When the war ended,
P&O found itself with most of its prewar fleet surviving intact and Strathnaver was set to be put
back on the old route to Australia from England. But P&O wanted to modernise its appearance.
You see Strathnaver was built right at the very end of the era where the more funnels a
ship had signified its speed, safety and size; but by the 1940s and 1950s that era was long
gone and now it was all about modernity and minimalism. The fewer funnels; the better!
P&O had introduced a few running-mates inspired by Strathnaver’s design like the Stratheden here;
but they had been designed with only one funnel. Strathnaver, by 1945, looked like it belonged to
an older era. So the funnels had to come off. The ship went in for refit and when it re-emerged, it
looked…. Sadder. The first and third funnels were cut off because they weren’t actually functional,
only the middle on was. This left the ship looking unbalanced and a little ungainly;
the chunkiness of its bridge was kind of endearing when Strathnaver had the three, jolly funnels to
balance it out. But now the ship just looked like it had a massive forehead. The war had been hard
on the ship too; she had travelled millions of miles by the 50s so her machinery was a bit tired.
Her interiors were a bit of a shadow of their pre-war glory too; so P&O put Strathnaver to
work as a one-class migrant ship, a very far cry from the silver service the ship had offered in
the 30s. By the late 50s the ship was frequently breaking down, so much so that she earned the
nickname Scrapnaver, so in 1962 the grand old lady was pulled from service and scrapped in Hong Kong.
Number four; the Castelbianco. In the last video I introduced
you to Mr Alexander Vlasov, head of the Italian Sitmar line, who made some considerable success
in the Australian migrant trade. His MO - and that of many of his European competitors - was
simple. Buy one of the thousands of cargo ships built for the Allied war effort which
were no longer useful and just sitting around - and convert it into a humble
passenger liner to carry hundreds to new lives in the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand.
Some of these conversions were really extensive and resulted in some truly
gorgeous ships makeovers- but others just outright failed. Castel Bianco was one of these.
In 1947 Vlasov bought the almost brand-new SS Vassar Victory, a Victory-class cargo ship built
in 1945 right at the end of the Second World War. Her wartime service therefore consisted
only of repatriating American troops before she was laid up and sold off at a bargain.
First Vlasov employed the Vassar Victory as a cargo ship for service around South America and
renamed her Castel Bianco, but soon he had designs to use her for the migrant trade so he set out to
convert the ship. It hadn’t been smooth sailing though; on Castel Bianco’s first round-the-world
voyage in 1947 the ship collided with two other cargo ships, ran aground and then got caught in
a horrendous storm which badly damaged her. She limped into Sydney harbour and had to stay for
two months while repairs were carried out. It was here that the ship received its first
large scale passenger accommodation, with very humble quarters for 480 people being fitted.
The next few years Castel Bianco run a number of passenger voyages for poor migrants and refugees
and was rebuilt a couple of times; the first, in 1950 - didn’t look great- but it did the job and
the ship could now carry 1,132 passengers. But by 1952 it was seven years after the end of the
second world war and migrant passengers could be a little bit more discerning about how they
travelled to the new world; Vlasov and SITMAR realised they might have been a bit conservative
with the 1950 Castel Bianco makeover, so they got to work rebuilding her again. And boy, did
they take to their new task with gusto; two whole new decks were added on top of the superstructure
featuring promenades and sports decks. The clunky cargo masts and booms were got rid of;
the old cylindrical funnel was replaced with a slick modern one. Tall crane-like davits now
carried 24 huge lifeboats high up on the decks and even more passenger cabins were put into the hull.
Inside the ship received slick new interiors and comfy passenger lounges.
Basically the new Castel Bianco was almost recognisable and looked actually really nice.
But wait a minute. Mike - I hear you say - isn’t that ship kind of… I don’t know, too
tall? If you noticed that, then congratulations because you picked up on something the Castel
Bianco’s engineers didn’t; all the excess weight; the two new decks and the rows of lifeboats,
which all weighed tons each - caused Castel Bianco to become HOPELESSLY top-heavy, and the
ship became renown as a terrible roller in even a flat calm. So if you were travelling to Australia,
this probably wasn’t the ship you’d want to hop on if you had sea-sickness. The ship only lasted
two years with SITMAR before it was placed on the market and bought by Spanish Line who didn’t seem
to care too much about the top-heaviness and the bad rolling. The ship was again renamed Begona
and the ship sailed for another few years until being sold for scrap after an engine fire in 1974.
Number three; the MV Georgic. There are some shipping lines whose
names alone just inspire visions of luxury and glamour; names Cunard Line, French Line,
Italian Line - and White Star Line. But White Star Line’s MV Georgic, once the toast of its fleet,
was a mere husk of its former self by the 1950s. Here’s what happened.
In the late 1920s the White Star Line planned to introduce a superliner competitor to Cunard’s
Queen Mary and CGT’s Normandie. The ship was going to be a thousand foot long three-funnel
behemoth much in the style of White Star’s previous ships, prioritising luxury and comfort
over speed. But then the Great Depression hit and the plan came to a grinding halt. The new
ship who was supposed to be named Oceanic was cancelled due to the economic downturn
and White Star had to go back to the drawing board. The company had been building a smaller,
more economic diesel-powered ship to serve alongside Oceanic named ‘Britannic’.
Now with Oceanic having been cancelled, White Star instead decided to build a similarly-sized
running mate to Britannic using parts of Oceanic’s incomplete keel. The new ship was named ‘Georgic’,
and like Britannic she was a medium-sized, nicely appointed diesel-powered motor ship.
The ship had two squat funnels which were very in-vogue at the time, but only the second one was
actually functional; the forward funnel contained the radio room and the engineer’s smoking room.
Introduced in 1932, the Georgic proved to be a reliable and popular rival alongside her
running mate Britannic; but then in 1934 White Star Line merged with its old rival
Cunard who commanded the majority share of the new organisation known as Cunard
White Star. Regardless of the new ownership, Georgic and Britannic plied the transatlantic
trade until 1939 when the Second World War rudely interrupted things. In 1940 Georgic
was converted into a troopship and got to work, evacuating troops and civillians from France in
the wake of the nazi invasion, moving troops between the UK, Canada and the middle east.
In 1941 though the ship’s luck ran out; at anchor waiting to take on a load of Italian POWs,
German aircraft spotted the ship and bomber her. She was hit twice with bombs, the first which
glanced off her side and detonated in the water, damaging her hull plating and causing flooding.
The second plunging deep into the ship’s hull and detonating in a cargo hold, sparking a raging fire
that engulfed the ship’s stern section as oil and ammunition began to explode. Somehow though
the ship’s crew and captain Greig, who were absolutely madlads, realised they could still
start the ship’s engines and steer her so they got the blazing ship underway and beached it on a reef
so it couldn’t sink. She was abandoned and left to burn for two days; flooded, resting on the bottom,
with her blackened superstructure and her hull totally gutted by the fire.
That’s where the Georgic story should have ended; the ship was a write-off. Except; it wasn’t.
Surveys of the hulk found that while the ship’s interior was a gutted wreck, the basic structure
and machinery were still somehow intact so it was decided to salvage her. In what has been described
as one of the greatest feats in the history of salvage, the hulk of Georgic was strippped-down,
plugged and refloated. The ship was towed to Karachi where for eight months the ship was
repaired in the most basic sense of the word. Still gutted by the fire, the ship’s engines and
generators were brought back up to working order and some very basic crew accommodation was put
into her. In March 1943 Georgic was able to sail under her own power into Liverpool at an average
speed of 15 knots which is pretty remarkable. She was sent back to her builders Harland and Wolff
in Belfast for total overhaul and re-conversion into a troopship. The workers had to strip out
5,000 tons of fire-gutted and twisted steel; the superstructure had to be completely rebuilt.
The ‘new’ Georgic, completed in 1944, looked completely different to the elegant motor vessel
of the 1930s. This once-great lady of the sea was now a utilitarian workhorse and when the war ended
in 1945 the ship was actually owned by the British government and operated by Cunard White-Star.
She was converted again into a very basic migrant ship and her White Star Line
colours were reinstated, although that is just about where the makeover ended.
Sadly the ship’s profile had been totally ruined; the forward dummy
funnel was never replaced so the ship now had a strange, off-balance silhouette. Her
foremast was shortened to just a stump and the luxurious interiors were never re-fitted.
Instead the ship carried only one class of passenger in basic dormitory bunks. There was
one obvious telltale mark of the fire though; the ship’s hull plates had warped and bent and
never been replaced or straightened out so the side of the ship was all wobbly-looking so she
was nicknamed the ‘Corrugated Lung’ which I don’t think is exactly the PR Cunard White-Star was
looking for. Anyway this migrant trade didn’t last long for Georgic and she completed some
more trooping voyages for the Korean War before being pulled from service and scrapped in 1955.
Number two; SS Norway Oh boy, okay. I know this
one is going to upset a lot of you because people have really fond memories of the Norway. She was
a good and happy ship - but this video is all about vapid aesthetical judgements and dozens
of you brought this ship up in comments on the last makeover video so here she is.
Norway’s story as a cruise ship is as unlikely as it is triumphant; essentially she just wasn’t
designed with the role in mind. In the 1950s CGT, known as French Line, realised they needed
a superliner to replace the Normandie which had been lost during the second world war. To recreate
that ship in spirit the company built an enormous, sleek and elegant liner named France. Introduced
in 1960 the ship was the longest passenger vessel in the world, a record she held until 2004,
and was, quite simply, eye-achingly beautiful. The ship was so long and her profile perfectly
balanced by two, enormous funnels which had wings. Who doesn’t like wings? Just look at them.
Also the French Line’s paintscheme just looked stunning on France; the crimson
funnels and black and white hull really enhanced her swooping hull form. On introduction the ship
was one of the chicest afloat and the toast of France - except she’d just been introduced
a touch too late. The world was moving on and jet aircraft were taking over the transatlantic trade,
so French Line put France to work on some winter cruises and world cruises but it was
the 1973 oil crisis which doomed the ship and she was pulled from service and put up for sale.
The world’s longest passenger ship sat idle and unsealed for four years, basically a time capsule,
until 1979 when she was sold to the Norweigan Carribbean Line. The Norweigians took their new
purchase in for overhaul and renamed her SS Norway. Initially they didn’t do too much to
alter the massive ship’s external profile; many of the changes were internal. But the paintscheme
was changed and the ship was now all blue and white. She still looked pretty gorgeous though;
and stayed that way until 1990. The Norway had proved a smash hit and was
beloved around the world and NCL wanted to improve on their formula for success.
It was this 1990 makeover that damaged the ship’s external profile; on top of the old bridge a huge,
blocky structure was added; basically two new decks containing 135 new passenger cabins
and suites. Just like the Strathnaver, now Norway looked like it had a huge forehead;
but the plan worked. The new cabins were very popular and it kept the Norway in service for
a good few years yet. At the ship’s stern a new overhanging pool deck was installed which also
didn’t do much for the ship’s external appearance. All up by the late 90s the Norway’s squat exterior
was a far cry from the sweeping floating palace French Line had introduced in 1960.
But regardless she was a VERY popular cruise ship and is still remembered fondly by many. In 2004
Norway cruised for the last time before being sold for scrap and dismantled at Alang, India, in 2008.
Number one; the SS Ryndam II aka the Atlas. This one is a bit of a head-scratcher for a couple
of reasons. In the 50s, the Holland-America Line was really building and introducing a suite of
fine modern ocean liners and one of them was the SS Ryndam 2. The ship was originally intended to
be built as a freighter but was instead completed as a liner for the company, so her lines were a
little stout; but given the ship was converted mid-construction, the end result was quite
pleasing on the eyes. Ryndam was a pretty ship with a single tall funnel towering over a modern,
sleek superstructure. She wasn’t a big ship; 500 feet long and 15,000 GRT, but she was functional
and served as a reliable postwar migrant ship taking passengers for new lives in the US. When
that trade dried up, however, the ship was put on the market for sale and snapped up by a Greek
cruise line named Epirotiki Line and extensively rebuilt. The designers and engineers really leant
into a 1970s aesthetic for this one and what emerged from the shipyard in 1973 was… this.
They decided to make everything… curvy. A curve here, a curve here. Why not? It’s the 70s! Oh
and they turned the funnel into whatever this is. Why?It's the 70s! From the side
the ship now kind of looked like some kind of spaceship and… hold on a minute, what is that?
What is that? I’ve been researching this ship for a little while and still have no idea what
this is. It’s painted black at the top, maybe to hide soot, and in a few photos I swear I can see
smoke coming out of it. Was it a funnel? I don’t know - if you know, leave a comment. Anyway,
the newly named Atlas was introduced as a cruise ship with interiors that can only be described as
peak 1970s - it was eventually sold to become a floating casino and ended up named the Pride of
Galveston, which is funny because by the 1990s the ship was a neglected, floating wreck. Permanently
moored on the Mississippi and now named Copa Casino, the ship was run down and an absolute eye
sore. Port authorities ordered the ships removal so she was sold to the scrappers; under tow for
destruction in India however the ship decided to go out on its own terms and promptly sank in 2003.
Well what did you think of these 5 makeovers? Were they terrible? Do
you disagree with me? I am sure a lot of you will hate me for putting Norway on this list,
but uh - I kind of had to. Just look at that forehead! If you have other ideas
for terrible ship makeovers you’d like me to cover, leave a comment below and I'll go and
have a look. But until then, stay safe and stay happy and I’ll see you again next time!