One of the more interesting cruise ship fleets of the past is certainly that of the Greek owned Epirotiki Lines.Most of their ships were second-hand well converted handsome ships.
Over the years I was able to photograph many of them, and include herewith two funnels taken in the 1980s and asking for the original names of both ships as a trivia...
Please leave your comments and do participate...
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia
16 comments:
World Renaissance e Neptune?
Fantástico Sailor Girl, esses são os nomes que estão nos ficheiros das imagens, mas o que se perguntou foi quais os nomes originais destes paquetes...
1) «World Renaissance» was built for the Paquet's subsidiary Cie. Francaise de Navigation as Renaissance, who used her on routes from Marseille to the Eastern Mediterranean. Ownership passed to Nouvelle Cie. de Paquebots in 1970. She was sold in 1977 to Epirotiki Lines, and was renamed Homeric Renaissance. Costa Lines took her on charter and renamed her World Renaissance. She later operated for Epirotiki themselves as World Renaissance, and also for a charter with Club Awani as Awani Dream. She returned to Epirotiki Lines and passed to Royal Olympic Cruises, again as World Renaissance. Following their collapse in 2004, she was sold at auction, becoming the Grand Victoria.
2) «Neptune» was built as the Meteor of Bergen Line in 1955. In 1971 she was badly damaged by fire, and the remains were sold to Epirotiki. She returned to service as the Neptune. She was laid up in later years and finally scrapped in 2001.
What's the prize, Sire?
Re the Epirotiki ships, I have tried to send a comment but I cannot get it to work - I'm very bright where computers are concerned! Anyway, I think NEPTUNE was built in 1955 as Bergen Lines' METEOR, and WORLD RENAISSANCE was built in 1966 as RENAISSANCE of Cie. Française de Navigation. No doubt you will give the correct answers on your website.
Best wishes,
Michael Sutcliffe
Lovely pictures - lovely funnels.
Those two ships began their lives as Renaissance of Paquet Lines and as
Flandre of French Line.
Clive Harvey
Clive, you are right on the first ship, the RENAISSANCE, but the
second is not the PALLAS ATHENA ex FLANDRE. She was also built in the
1950s however...
LMC
My guess is that the second one is Orpheus ex-Munster, but I am not
sure when the wings were added. Ted will know for sure.
Kevin
Kevin,
No, it is not the ORPHEUS...
It is another more modern ship...
LMC
Hi Luis,
I think that the second funnel is that of the Neptune.
Bill, in a warm and sunny Windsor, England
Yes, Bill, it is the NEPTUNE ex-METEOR of 1955. The original much
nicer funnel design can be clearly seen in the photo under the
modernized adds...
LMC
Thanks for yet another series of lovely photos, Luis. Epirotiki's
livery was one of the most distinctive and attractive around. What a
pity they daubed those hulls with dark blue paint in the end. Their
ships looked much better in corn.
Jonathan
Besides the fact that when you click on the photo the label at the top say
Neptune ... grin ...if you look at it closely you can still see the stripes from
when it was the Meteor. I do not remember Epirotiki's extension on the
funnel, that was interesting looking. Go the picture of the full ship from
that
period?
Thanks for posting ... interesting as always.
AJ
I have added more photos of the NEPTUNE ex METEOR taken in Lisbon in
1975 and later in 1988 and 1989 after her funnel was modernized.
There are also some photos of WORLD RENAISSANCE taken in 1987 after
the Costa charter was terminated in 1984 and the ship was slightly
built up over the bow.
Photos in my blog:
http://lmcshipsandthesea.blogspot.com
Enjoy...
LMC in Lisbon
Thank you all for participating in this small funnel trivia...
The Epirotiki funnels and livery were very nice and it is sad they have gone busted. It is the price paid by the smaller operator for their independence against the big cruise sharks based in Miami, building more larger and larger ships.
As history repeats itself in many ways, I just hope that one of those powerful large cruising groups is not going to implode. It did happen in the past in a spectacular way when the Royal Mail Group went bankrupt and Lord Kylsant had a free cruise to the jail...
Raquel Sabino Pereira,
The prize for your correct answer to this trivia is 100 years of free subscription to the SHIPS & THE SEA BLOG and a cruise to the fjords on a steam turbine passenger cruise ship about to be withdrawn...
Please contact the blog Editor for further details and many thanks for sharing your knowledge with so many passenger ship experts worldwide...
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