SS Arcadia (1954)
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| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | SS Arcadia |
| Owner: | P&O |
| Port of registry: | London  United Kingdom |
| Route: | UK/Australia, and cruising |
| Builder: | John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland |
| Cost: | £6,664,000 |
| Yard number: | 675 |
| Laid down: | 28 June 1951 |
| Launched: | 14 May 1953 |
| Completed: | 20 January 1954 |
| Maiden voyage: | 22 February 1954 |
| Fate: | Scrapped at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 30 April 1979. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage: | 29,734 GRT |
| Length: | 721 feet 4 inches (219.9 m) |
| Beam: | 90 feet 8 inches (27.6 m) |
| Draft: | 31 feet (9.4 m) |
| Installed power: | 6 impulse reaction geared steam turbines, 42,500 shp |
| Propulsion: | Two shafts/propellers |
| Speed: | 22 knots |
| Capacity: |
1954: 670 1st class, 735 Tourist class 1973: 1,350 open class |
| Crew: | 716 |
| Notes: |
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SS Arcadia was a passenger liner built for P&O in 1954 to service the UK to Australia route. Towards the end of her life she operated as a cruise ship, based in Sydney, until scrapped in 1979.
[edit] History
The Arcadia was built for P&O by John Brown & Company at Clydebank in Scotland; her keel was laid in 1952 and she was launched on 14 May 1953. Her maiden voyage commenced on 22 February 1954, sailing from the UK to Australia via the Suez Canal. As the number of passengers travelling by ship to Australia reduced due to the increase in aircraft travel, so P&O was forced to diversify with the deployment of its ships. In 1959, she was refitted (with amongst other things complete airconditioning) and commenced operations on the trans-Pacific route, and from 1965 was placed on part time cruising duties out of Sydney. In 1970 she became a full-time one-class cruiseship.
In 1974, when Arcadia sailed up the Columbia and Willamette Rivers to reach Portland, Oregon, on the first leg of a cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii, she was the largest passenger ship ever to have visited Portland up to that time.[1] From 1975 until scrapped in Taiwan in 1979, her cruising role out of Sydney was full time. She was replaced by P&O's then newly acquired Sea Princess, formerly the Kungsholm.
[edit] References
- ^ Wohler, Milly (May 22, 1974). "'Largest' cruise ship visits Portland". The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), p. 24.
[edit] Sources
- HMS Arcadia (Clydebuilt Ships Database)
- Encyclopedia Peninsular website viewed 10 July 2006
- Arcadia of 1954 at Simplon Postcards
- Home and Back - Australia's Golden Era of Passenger Ships, Stuart Bremer, Dreamweaver Books, 1984
- Pictorial Encyclopedia of Ocean Liners, 1860-1994, William H. Miller, Dover Publications, 1995
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