S.S. MONTEREY  1956
       
RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE                                                                                                                                                                                                                               THE OCEAN LINERS

 

Welcome to our Monterey website celebrating this fine ship. She was originally built in 1952 by Bethlehem Steel, Quincy, Massachusetts, USA as the Free State Mariner, a fast freighter, for the US Marine Corps. In 1955 she was purchased by Matson Line along with her sister Pine Tree Mariner (later to become Mariposa) and were rebuilt as attractive all first class ocean liners. Indeed the Monterey was the last passenger ship built for Matson Line.

In this new look, the Monterey sailed on her maiden voyage for Matson Line in 1957 on the San Francisco to the South Pacific and Australia service. She continued in this service until 1978 when she was laid up. Various new owners came and went but she remained laid up. In 1987 she was finally purchased by Aloha Pacific Cruises and rebuilt as a cruise ship. However sadly in 1989 the company went bust. She then was purchased by Star Lauro Line and she found stable service for them as a cruise ship. This continued when Star Lauro became MSC Cruises. Eventually after a long and varied career she was retired from service in 2006 and scrapped at Alang in India.

This website aims to record the history of this fine ocean liner and act as a virtual home to honour and celebrate this fine ship. We hope you enjoy this website and when you leave we hope you will visit again soon.


   

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Her Regular Service Route: The United States of America (USA) to the South Pacific and Australia

San Francisco - Los Angeles - Bora Bora (Tahiti) - Auckland - Sydney - Noumea (New Caledonia) - Suva (Fiji) - Niuafo’ou (Tonga) - Pago Pago (American Samoa) - Honolulu (Hawaii) - San Francisco "South Pacific" service

"THE SOUTH PACIFIC SERVICE"

 THE MATSON NAVIGATION COMPANY INC., SAN FRANCISCO

(MATSON LINE)
This Website is based on content from the SS Maritime website (www.ssmaritime.com) with the kind permission of Reuben Goossens

(c) The AJN Transport Britain Collection 2007                                                                                                                                                                                 A Edward Elliott