18,254 grt; 4,264 dwt; 1,780 passengers.
Operator: Ajax Navigation Corp (Chandris Lines), Piraeus, Greece.
Built 1932 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp Ltd, Quincy, Massachusetts, USA. Yard no. 1441.
Propulsion: twin-screw with six Bethlehem Steel steam turbines producing a total of 25,000 shp and a speed of 21.5 knots.
1932 delivered as MONTEREY to Matson Navigation Co, San Francisco, USA for service San Francisco - Honolulu – Sydney.
1941 (Dec)-taken over by US Army as troop transport.
1952 laid up Suisun Bay (reserve fleet).
1959-sold back to Matson Navigation, renamed MATSONIA for service San Francisco-Los Angeles-Honolulu.
1963-renamed LURLINE.
1970-sold to Chandris Group, renamed BRITANIS, rebuilt in Piraeus and then introduced on service between Southampton and Sydney and later on cruises.
1982-sold to Fantasy Cruises, Panama (Chandris subsidiary) for cruises New York to Bermuda.
1994-six-months charter to US Military Sealift Command for use as accommodation ship at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
1995-Laid up at Tampa.
1998-sold/renamed BELOFIN-1 for voyage to breakers but this was delayed by slump in scrap prices. There were then plans to use the ship as a hotel in San Francisco but these came to nothing.
2000-sank 50 miles from Cape Town while under tow to breakers at Alang, India.
Photo: Tilbury Landing Stage, Port of London , 1976.