Visit Ellinis photopage with pictures taken on board during one of her last cruises in the Mediterranean in 1980

Ellinis started her career as the Lurline being one a quartet of luxury liners, Malolo, Mariposa and Monterey. Ordered by the Matson Line to be operated on their famous San Francisco-Hawaii service, Lurline was designed by famous naval architect Francis William Gibbs (well known for his masterpiece the ss United States) built by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation of Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched in July 1932 and delivered in January 1933. Known for her beautifully appointed interiors with public spaces done Hawaiian-style as well as for her classy accommodations she had capacity for just 715 guests, 475 in first class and 240 in cabin class. Driven by twin geared steam turbines Lurline could manage a top speed of just over 22 knots, her service speed was 20.5 knots.

She served on her familiar route to Hawaii for the next eight years. In December 1941 she was just two days out of Honolulu on her way to San Francisco when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, she had left Hawaii in the nick of time. Shortly thereafter, she returned to Hawaii with her sisters Monterey and Mariposa ferrying troops to the war zone, being requisitioned by the US Navy and converted to a troop ships for service the Pacific war. During this period she made several trips to Australia and had her moment of fame when Prime Minister John Curtin sailed with her to America to meet with President Roosevelt in April 1944. It took a lengthy two-year refit before she returned to her familiar route to Hawaii in April 1948. Her luxurious interior fittings needed restoration and she was technically upgraded at a cost of a staggering 20 million dollars.

During the following years Matson started to employ her and her sister Monterey more and more as five-star cruise ships having seen the success Cunard’s famous Caronia was having at the time, serving the top-end of the market. At the time, the Lurline was regarded the premier liner sailing the Pacific.

Matson Line was not doing too well financially during the early sixties mostly because of dwindling passenger loads as the jet airliners became increasingly popular with travellers and only the necessary maintenance was done on its ships. As a result Lurline suffered serious engine problems and was subsequently laid up. After investigations, it proved too costly to repair her troublesome port turbine, the source of the problems and she was quickly listed for sale. Her sister Monterey, which had already been taken out of service was reactivated and quickly renamed Lurline (the name of one of Matsons’ first ships and since then reserved for its current flagship) as Matson hoped to continue the impeccable reputation of her predecessor.

In February 1963 she was acquired by the Chandris Line. She later replaced their Brittany, which had caught fire in April 1963 during maintenance in a Greek shipyard and became a total loss. She was renamed Ellinis meaning “the Greek Lady”. Chandris had a strong preference  for acquiring US-built vessels which were extremely well constructed, required minimum maintenance and just seemed to keep going forever. She was sent to Smith’s Dock, North Shields to be refitted and have her engines overhauled and was given a more modern streamlined look with two great looking funnels. Her passenger capacity grew considerably to 1668 passengers in one single class. Although Ellinis’ exterior was modernised somewhat, her famous Hawaiian-style interiors were mostly retained as they were still in great shape.

On 30 December 1963, RHMS (Royal Hellenic Mail Ship) Ellinis left Piraeus bound for Australia, her first departure on the migrant service to Australia which she would from then on serve out of Southampton as Chandris had secured the contract to ferry British migrants to Australia. She sailed on several round the world voyages, returning to the UK from Australia and New Zealand via the Panama Canal and New York.

But sadly, like on all other liner routes, Ellinis lost the battle with the aeroplane as more and more travellers decided to fly out to Australia, the migrant trade dried up and her passenger loads plummeted. So Chandris decided to end the Australian service and on 30 August 1977, Ellinis left Southampton for her last voyage to Australia.

From now on, Ellinis became a full-time cruise ship and then spent the next six months cruising out of Sydney. During one of her cruises to Japan in April 1974 she suffered engine problems once again and she managed to return to Europe. Luckily at the time, her one-time sister-ship the Mariposa, which had passed on to Home Lines ownership and had been renamed Homeric, had just been sold to the scrappers in Taiwan. Chandris Lines reacted immediately and purchased one of her engines which were transported to Rotterdam, where it was installed in the Ellinis. She returned to service in March 1975.

The remaining years of her career, she sailed as a cruise ship in the Mediterranean.

During her last season in the Mediterranean in 1980, I was aboard during a 14-day cruise out of Genoa to Barcelona, Sicily, Naples, Alexandria, Haifa, Kusadasi, Piraeus, and Naples before returning to Genoa. She really showed her age now after half a century of service. Her former splendid interiors had been replaced with much simpler fittings or had been poorly maintained. The three of us shared a very large six-bed cabin, left over from her liner days. Only the lower ones of her bunk beds were in use when she sailed as a cruise ship. Part of the metal doorframe had rotted away. During a visit to the engine room we were wondering how it was possible that her engine room staff could survive the intense heat here, it must have been at least 40 degrees Celsius… A plaque referring to her wartime duties in the Pacific was still in place.

In the fall of 1980 she was laid up in Perama Bay near Piraues where she silently sat between the Noga, the former America and later Chandris’ Australis and the Ariadne (former Bon Vivant).  Plans of returning the old girl to service or using her as a floating hotel in San Francisco didn’t materialize and the worn out and decaying vessel was finally scrapped of all usable parts which were reused to keep her former Matson-sister Monterey (now also owned by Chandris and sailing as their Britanis) going. In 1986 she was sold for scrap to Taiwanese breakers. She left Perama on December 3, 1986 for Taiwan, but after a long, slow three-month voyage she had come as far as Singapore when she started taking on water causing a significant list to starboard. However, the problem was rectified and she arrived in Kaohsiung on April 15, 1987 to finally be broken up after a long and impressive 55-year career.