CONSTITUTION e INDEPENDENCE

Os paquetes norte-americanos CONSTITUTION e INDEPENDENCE foram s mais importantes navios de passageiros da companhia American Export Lines, construídos a seguir à Segunda Guerra Mndial. Inicialmente era para ter sido construído um terceiro gémeo, o que não se concretizou e acabou por levar à compra do ATLANTIC em 1960 à American Banner Lines.

Conheci bem estes navios, que visitavam Lisboa e o Funchal com frequência e no Tejo eram agenciados pela casa Pinto Bastos. Foram retirados do serviço regula e cruzeiros em 1967 e 1968 e venddos os três ao milionário chinês C.Y. Tung, de Hong Kong. Com bandeira americana o INDEPENDENCE esteve em Lisboa pela última vez em Outubro de 1968 mas regressou em 1975 com o nome OCEANIC INDEPENDENCE, quando andou a transportar retornados de Angola de Walvis Bay para Lisboa.

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. 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

American Export Lines' CONSTITUTION and INDEPENDENCE

Lives of the Liners: Wedding in Monte Carlo (By Bill Miller): When, in early 1956, American Export Lines heard that Hollywood film queen Grace Kelly was flying to Nice for her fairytale wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, my old friend, the late Fred Sarver was dispatched to Philadelphia to meet the mother of the bride & offer her 50 free tickets onboard the CONSTITUTION, which would be specially diverted for the bride & wedding party to a stop in Monte Carlo. 

Mrs Kelly hesitated, waited, took overnight and then wanted 100 free tickets. Fred and American Export settled on 75 and so Grace Kelly sailed off to her much publicized wedding that April. The 1,000-passenger CONSTITUTION was on the cover of every newspaper & magazine in the world.

“Grace Kelly was, of course, the most publicized passenger when she sailed on the CONSTITUTION for her wedding in Monaco to Prince Rainier in April 1956,” added Herb Maletz, a onetime comptroller in the Export main office along New York City’s Lower Broadway. “The ship was especially diverted to Monte Carlo just for her, her family and the American wedding party. Of course, we carried lots of reporters on that trip as well” John Scott remembered, “I was serving aboard a US battleship that made a courtesy call to Monte Carlo in 1957, the year after their much publicized wedding. “Prince Rainier & Princess Grace were coming aboard. Just before, the officer of the watch announced over the address system: ‘All hands on deck to welcome Princess Grace & Prince Reindeer’!”

“On several occasions, we also had Ibn Saud, the King of Saudi Arabia,” added Herb Maletz. “He would usually arrive or depart in Casablanca. He was an extraordinary passenger. He gave $1,000 tips and gold Rolex watches to the staff. Hassan II, the king of Morocco, crossed to New York in 1962 with an entourage of 100 aboard the CONSTITUTION. He and his party occupied all the suites and some first class staterooms. They had lots of trunks, gifts for the staff and were transporting a pony that to be a gift for little Caroline Kennedy. The captain was presented with a token of appreciation: a sword with a case emblazoned with hundreds of diamonds, rubies and emeralds.”

The Independence and CONSTITUTION also carried great numbers of Catholic clergy, businessmen, tourists and westbound immigrants. In 1962, tourist class rates for the 9 nights to Naples started at $289, in cabin class at $334 and in first class from $421. A 44-night mid-winter Mediterranean cruise was priced from $1245.

The Atlantic liner business began to collapse, however, soon after the first crossings on commercial jets in the fall of 1958. By the early ‘60s, the airlines had over 95% of all traffic. The INDEPENDENCE and her sister lost money, then lots of money. Even a last-ditch attempt at inexpensive cruising ($98 and up for a week to the Caribbean, but minus food in the dining room) failed. The two ships were laid-up in 1968 as American Export pulled out of the passenger ship business altogether. Amidst rumors that included sales to the Chandris as well as the Lauro lines, the two ships sat idle for six years before C. Y. Tung, a Taiwanese shipping tycoon and who liked older, out-of-work passenger ships, bought them but for uncertain roles. Fuel oil prices had tripled in 1973-74 and so it was not an especially good time for big, oil-hungry, steam turbine-driven liners. For the next six or so years, the Independence and CONSTITUTION were moored in quiet backwater bays near Hong Kong. By 1980, however, Tung had foresight. Filling a void left by the old Matson Line passenger ships, the INDEPENDENCE was refitted, re-flagged as an American ship (she had changed to Liberian registry in 1974 as the Oceanic Independence) and entered 7-day, inter-island service out of Honolulu. The CONSTITUTION followed two years later.

The INDEPENDENCE & CONSTITUTION sailed almost always at Noon ... and I can just "see" one of them coming down the Hudson as they passed Hoboken at about 12:15. They had a great stance, a sense of power, ocean liner majesty about them!

This photo, from January 1997, shows the CONSTITUTION laid-up at a Portland, Oregon shipyard; months later, in November, she would "mysteriously" sink while empty, under tow & on the way to Far Eastern scrappers.

Sometimes one of the Italian liners was sailing from the same berth, Pier 84, at the foot of West 44th St, or the UNITED STATES or the AMERICA was going from adjacent Pier 86. It was usually at 12 Noon -- and what a sight, memory, those thunderous whistles, the streamers, the happy crowds & of course the Moran tugs. Three liners at the same time! It was just magic!

Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright Bill Miller. Favor não piratear. Respeite o meu trabalho / No piracy, please. 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

THE OCEANIC INDEPENDENCE in 1975

One of the most interesting passenger liners I was able to photograph in 1975 was the Orient Overseas Lines' OCEANIC INDEPENDENCE.
She made three round voyages between Walvis Bay and Lisbon in September, October and November 1975 with refugees from Angola who had crossed the Desert of Namibia following the independence of Angola. The Government of South Africa chartered the ship but later the bill was sent to the Government of Portugal for payment...
The b&w picture shows the OCEANIC INDEPENDENCE berthed at Rocha terminal with her beautiful classic counter stern very much in evidence. This magnificent liner had been built in USA for the New York - Mediterranean express service in 1951 with her sister ship CONSTITUTION. Both ships visited Portuguese ports of Lisbon, Ponta Delgada and Funchal many times during the fifties and sixties until laid up in US waters.
By 1974 both were sold to C. Y. Tung's Orient Overseas Lines of Hong Kong and after a short spell of cruises out of South Africa, the former INDEPENDENCE returned to Lisbon and then sailed for Hong Kong and a long period of lay up. However by 1980 she was refitted and positioned in Honolulu under the U.S. flag for Hawaii cruises and her original name was reinstated again in 1983. She was very successful in the Pacific and remained in service until 2001 when her owners American Hawaii Cruises went bankrupt. The former INDEPENDENCE has been laid up in San Francisco since late 2001 and now belongs to the NCL Group.
The photos show the ship in Lisbon in October 1975, an original post card in black hull livery, another company card in white livery and a nice post card depicting the two sisters in Honolulu late in their careers.
Words and b&w photo copyright L. M. Correia. Post cards from the LMC collection, except the final one that belongs to L. Guthrie - 15 February 2007