RMS CARONIA – Cunard Line’s famed cruise ship during the 1950s. Promotional film on the ship’s annual Mediterranean Cruise.

Dining aboard the RMS Caronia from a 1950s World Cruise brochure.

RMS CARONIA docked in Manhattan with the French Line’s Ile de France sailing out of New York Harbor for Europe in the background.

RMS CARONIA – Cunard Line’s famed cruise ship during the 1950s. Promotional film on the ship’s annual Mediterranean Cruise.

A Cunard Line advertising film, the cruise of the ship RMS Coronia thru the Mediterranean with stops and side trips to many of the major cities with quick shots of interesting sights and maps showing route as the tour progresses. Great shots of the world famous cruise liner, passengers and the tour.

“The Green Goddess” sailing out of New York.

The cruise starts along the African coast at Madeira to Tangiers, Malta, Cairo, pyramids, Luxor and into Israel, Istanbul, Yalta, Athens ruins, Dubrovnik, Venice, Vienna, Florence, Rome, Sicily, Naples, Pompeii and Herculanium ruins, French and Spanish Riviera, Portugal, Gibraltar and other scenic stops.

Deck Games. Participants were middle-aged – which means that the cruisers weren’t all retired.

Various, appointments, activities, dining and Cunard Lines advertising their cruise opulent services. Footage from this subject is available for licensing from www.globalimageworks.com

The brand new RMS Caronia made her maiden voyage on 4 January 1949 between Southampton and New York. Two more transatlantic crossings followed before the ship embarked on her first cruises from New York to the Caribbean.

Meeting the Captain aboard the Caronia – pre-Love Boat – cruisers were mostly older and retired wealthy or rich Americans.  Many of the same passengers would make the World Cruise annually.

During her first years she spent most the year doing transatlantic crossings, only during the winter months she was engaged in cruising. In 1951 she made her first world cruise. From 1952 onwards she only made transatlantic crossings in August and September, with the rest of the year dedicated to cruising. In May 1953 the Caronia made perhaps her most famous cruise, associated with the coronation ceremony of Queen Elizabeth II (who had christened the Caronia six years earlier).

Great cutaway of the RMS CARONIA – large version by touching photo with cursur (the pointer).

The ship was used as a hotel as most of the accommodations in the UK were fully booked.

She was nicknamed the “Green Goddess” by the people of Liverpool because her livery resembled that of the local trams, also known as “Green Goddesses”.

She is credited as one of the first “dual-purpose” built ships.

After leaving Cunard she briefly served as SS Caribia in 1969, after which she was laid up in New York until 1974 when she was sold for scrap.

While being towed to Taiwan for scrapping, she was caught in a storm on 12 August.

After her tow lines were cut, she repeatedly crashed on the rocky breakwater outside Apra Harbor, Guam subsequently breaking into three.