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» Cruise Talk   » Cruise Ships   » the end for the Topaz nearby??

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Author Topic: the end for the Topaz nearby??
buddhaJoe
First Class Passenger
Member # 4356

posted 02-04-2008 02:23 PM      Profile for buddhaJoe   Email buddhaJoe   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
hi there,

i just read on seatrader that ISP group has finilized the
charter for Clipper Pearl (to be renamed Clipper Pacific) to the Peace Boat organisation

will this be the end for the Topaz (former Empress of Britain, Queen Anna Maria, Carnivale, Fiesta Marina, Olympic) or will there be another twist in her life???

best regards
b. Joe


Posts: 366 | From: De Goorn, small village in The Netherlands | Registered: Jan 2004  |  IP: Logged
r.fiebig
First Class Passenger
Member # 5240

posted 02-04-2008 05:17 PM      Profile for r.fiebig   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I have little hope, Joe.


Best,

Raoul


Posts: 775 | From: Paderborn, Germany | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged
Linerrich
First Class Passenger
Member # 4864

posted 02-04-2008 05:25 PM      Profile for Linerrich   Email Linerrich   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
It seems that this will finally be the end of the TOPAZ; I don't see how she could survive SOLAS 2010 without being totally rebuilt. But what a fine run she's had, over 50 years of nearly continuous service. She was my home for a portion of the 1980s, as CARNIVALE, and she holds a special place in my heart.

Rich


Posts: 4210 | From: Miami, FL | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged
dmwnc1
Cruise Director
Member # 3785

posted 02-04-2008 06:09 PM      Profile for dmwnc1   Email dmwnc1   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Just curious...everytime a liner gets ready to retire and then heads for Alang we gingerly discuss, debate, get mad, and argue the benefits of keeping it around or sending her to the breakers. We reminisce, share pictures and experiences, and then actually witness as bit by bit they are demolished. Modern technology allows us to do this.

But in the decades before mass media and internet, as these same events were happening to the great liners that at that time we due for retirement, I wonder if the same types of conversations occured?

Imagine sitting around a fireplace and sipping a sherry, cognac, brandy, or ale and discussing the demise of Mauretania, Leviathan, Berengaria, Nieuw Amsterdam, Paris, Bremen, Olympic, Rex and the Conte di Savoia, Empress of Britain, Normandie, and many others. I wonder how liner enthusiasts back then 'handled' it? I wonder if it was just an 'accepted' next step in the life and death of a liner?


Posts: 5650 | From: Clarksburg WV | Registered: Apr 2003  |  IP: Logged
Linerrich
First Class Passenger
Member # 4864

posted 02-04-2008 06:23 PM      Profile for Linerrich   Email Linerrich   Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by dmwnc1:

Imagine sitting around a fireplace and sipping a sherry, cognac, brandy, or ale and discussing the demise of Mauretania, Leviathan, Berengaria, Nieuw Amsterdam, Paris, Bremen, Olympic, Rex and the Conte di Savoia, Empress of Britain, Normandie, and many others. I wonder how liner enthusiasts back then 'handled' it? I wonder if it was just an 'accepted' next step in the life and death of a liner?


I'm sure there were many traditionalists who bemoaned the passing of these ships, but like everything else in older times, thoughts and discussions were more private and not instantly shared with the whole world as the Internet lets us do now. Some of the old liners were lost in WWII, also, and the news may have been slow to reach a lot of people, unlike today's instant information.

A bit later than that, in the early '70s, I was a teen who was very interested in ships. That was during the Energy Crisis, and so many liners were being taken out of service that it seemed a real tragedy to me. Hardly a week went by without one or two ships going to the scrapyards, usually at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in those years.

And the prospect for passenger shipping was grim, too. Airliners had replaced passenger liners all over the world; everyone was sure that the QE2 was the last of her kind, and the modern cruise industry had yet to get really developed. I still recall that feeling of dismay, that I had missed all the ships by a few years--how times have changed!

Rich


Posts: 4210 | From: Miami, FL | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged
TBirdFrank
First Class Passenger
Member # 2280

posted 02-04-2008 07:31 PM      Profile for TBirdFrank     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
But this really is Armageddon for real ships designed by marine architects rather than bean counters

There are around a dozen real lookers left on the high seas, and then the ocean will look just like another high street with the inevitable blocks of flats on barges.

Topaz, The Sagas, Maxim Gorky, Oceanic, Ausonia, Marco Polo, the CTC fleet - and not much more!


Posts: 158 | From: Manchester, England | Registered: Aug 2001  |  IP: Logged
dougnewman
First Class Passenger
Member # 11349

posted 02-04-2008 08:02 PM      Profile for dougnewman   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
dmwnc1 - I am sure people always mourned the loss of their favorite ships, though mourning every single old ship as is done today may not have been, once.

I know FDR was among MAURETANIA's very distinguished fans who quite publicly mourned her loss.


Posts: 2072 | From: Long Island, NY, USA | Registered: Sep 2007  |  IP: Logged

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