CrownCast Cruise Articles

The ships that never were.

While I was doing all the research for the where are they now page, I discovered two ships that never made the Royal Caribbean International lineup after the merger of their two companies Admiral and RCCL. Emerald Seas and Azure Seas were both Admiral holdings and were sold almost immediately after the merger. Unfortunately both of these ships have met there ends in India. I thought it would be nice to remember them here.

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Eastern Cruise Lines official card of Emerald Seas.
History of the S.S. Emerald Seas:

• An unusual looking ship at various stages of her career, the Emerald Seas was originally built in Kearny, NJ in 1944 as the wartime troopship General W.P. Richardson.
• She was rebuilt after the war as the American Export Lines La Guardia, for services from the US to the Mediterranean.
• After further trooping to Korea in the 1950s, and a period as Hawaiian Textron Lines Leilani, she was sold to American President Lines as the President Roosevelt.
• In 1970 she was bought by Chandris Lines who cut her down to two decks above the waterline before completely rebuilding the upper hull and superstructure.
• She began cruising out of New York as the Atlantis, but was again found to be too expensive to operate.
• In 1972 she was sold to Eastern Steamship Lines as the S.S. Emerald Seas in exchange for their Ariadne, which moved to Chandris Lines to become their Bon Vivant.
• Eastern Steamship Lines, became Eastern Cruise Lines, then in 1986 changed names again to Admiral Cruise Line, both times with changes in funnel colors.
• Admiral Cruise Line was acquired by Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, who disbanded the company and disposed of the older ships, including the Emerald Seas in 1992.
• She has since operated as a hotel ship in various ports, including a short spell in Lisbon for their Expo 98 as the Ocean Explorer I.
• According to Captain Daniel Zenicazelaya, someone told him that the S.S. Emerald Seas was cemented somewhere in Greece as a hotel, although he was not sure how accurate this information was.

The most recent news of the S.S. Emerald Seas according to Captain Daniel Zenicazelaya from a reliable source

October 2004: The news about the fate of the Emerald Seas is very sad. She was sold to an Indian company for scrap metal. The Indian Engineers who came to Greece could not start the Engine Rooms and they asked for the help of Mr. John Skoularikis (1st Assistant Engineer). Right now she must be on her way to India

Western Cruise Lines official card of Azure Seas (also s/n P7366).

History of the S.S. Azure Seas:

• The Southern Cross was built after World War II on the keel of a cruiser that was laid in Scotland, but never built because of the wars end.
• She was refitted as a luxury cruise liner, and sailed for the same owners as the Calypso, finally laid up for years.
• Then repurchased by another company and cruised as the SS Azure Seas for at least ten years. (She was steam powered, so was never an MS actually.)
• In the early 1990s this ship was based in Aruba, and did a 7 day Eastern Caribbean up through Barbados and then leewards to St. Thomas, alternating with 1 week Panama Canal cruises with stops in Colombia and Costa Rica.
• In the early 1990s she was fully rebuilt for several million dollars and renamed Ocean Breeze.
• She cruised only one year for a branch of the Royal Caribbean Lines.
• Then was leased to Dolphin Cruise Lines until they went bankrupt in about 2001.
• She then was leased by a short-haul line, Imperial Majesty Lines, running only from Port Everglades, Florida to the Bahamas as a gambling ship, and although still well maintained and looking good,
• she was suddenly sold for scrap in 2003, when the gambling-ship company got a cheaper lease on an old Holland-America ship that had been running as the Big Red Boat.
• She was run aground at high tide in November 2003 on the coast of India, and broken.

Built in Belfast, Northern Ireland by the firm of Harland & Wolff, which was the same company that built the Titanic back in 1909, she was long and racer-like, and very unusual because her steam turbine engines were placed to the rear with the most aft of any smokestack of any liner ever built. Thus she rained no soot on passengers when moving.

There are many websites on these ships they were much beloved by there crews and passengers.

All of the wonderful pictures on this page are the property of Ian Boyle from his http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/. website where you can find Simplon Postcards, the passenger ship website, a fantasitic website which is devoted to images of passenger ships of all sizes. All images are copyrighted, Non-commercial websites may use many of the images for private use but permission must be sought prior to copying and the origin acknowledged accordingly. Please contact Ian Boyle for permission. Thank You