Queen of the cruise

trade to set sail again

A dowager queen of the South Pacific luxury cruise trade, the veteran SS Monterey, of the Matson Navigation Company and then of Pacific Far East Lines, may soon be leaving her backwater berth in San Francis co Bay for renovations and a return to cruise service.

For more than two decades, the Monterey and her twin sister, the Mariposa, made 42day cruises from San Francisco to Los Angeles, Papaeete, Pago Pago, Suva, Auckland, Sydney and Honolulu and thence home.

There were occasional diver sions to Rarotonga, Tin Can Island and other South Pacific destinations for the ships and their wealthy American passen gers, customarily dominated by rich, silver-haired widows.

The twin vessels were laid down as Mariner class freighters at Portland in 1952. But Mat son decided they would be ideal as comparatively small, but elegant, cruise liners.

They had accommodations for 365 passengers, were 564 feet long with 76-foot beams.

Mariposa made her maiden voyage in the South Pacific in 1956, Monterey the following year.

The ships were the first in the American merchant marine to go to sea with waitresses, an innovation adopted when Mat son found himself unable to recruit enough first class waiters in San Francisco.

The jobs were much sought after because tips were gen erous at the end of the six-week cruises.

The sister ships also offered a mechanical innovation. They were the first vessels equipped with Sperry Gyrofins, which jutted from the hulls like aircraft wings and were credited with reducing the effects of ocean swells by 80 to 90 per cent.

The leisurely vacation jaunts for the super-affluent were only possible because of a rather preposterous assumption. The ships were built and heavily subsidised by the US Federal Government because of their potential value in wartime.

There was little criticism of this until the vessels were finally laid up a decade ago.

The government’s operating subsidy was fixed by law at 25 years. When the subsidy ran out, Pacific Far East Lines lost no time laying the ships up.

The sea-going resort trips for hundreds of grey-haired ladies of wealth were no longer an important matter of US national defence.

The Mariposa is now thought to be busily employed running between Hongkong and Shanghai.

For the past six years the Monterey has been the proper ty of the Masters Mates and Pilots Union, whose officers borrowed $3 million to purch ase the vessel and have been heavily criticised over the $lOO,OOO monthly mainten ance bill.

Captain Robert Lowen, the union president, told FIM from his headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, that the Monterey has passed a marine survey and may be moved shortly to the Pacific Northwest for mechani cal work.

Then, he said, the plan is to sail the vessel under its own power to Finland for major modernisation, including the in stallation of a swimming pool and increasing the passenger capacity to about 600.

The Monterey has one bonus written into US tax law which is expected to be of substantial benefit. American businessmen and financial types may deduct up to $2,000 in income from their taxes if they attend con ventions held on such Amer ican flag ships.

This may make cruising around Oahu, MauL Kauai, Molokai and Hawaii painless for the pocketbook. from Ralph Craib in San Francisco.

The Monterey at her US berth may soon be sailing in Hawaiian waters again after a US$45 million refit, photo Ralph Craib.