CUNARD LINER ‘SYLVANIA’ OF 1957

Built by John Brown & Co. Ltd. at Clydebank in 1957. Yard No. 700.

Official Number: 187164     Signal Letters:  G V T F

Gross Tonnage: 21,989,  Nett: 11,665.   Length: 608·3ft,  Breadth: 80·4ft.

Owned by the Cunard Steamship Co. Ltd.  Registered at Liverpool

4 steam turbines, double-reduction gearing to twin screws.

            In March 1955 the Cunard Line gave John Brown at Clydebank the confirmation of its order for the final ship in what the shipping press was describing as ‘a brilliant quartette’. This was to be the Sylvania and she was launched by Mrs Norman Robertson, the wife of the Canadian High Commissioner in London, on 22^nd November 1956. The Cunard directors remained convinced that for another decade at least there would always be sufficient passengers who would wish to travel in a certain degree of luxury and style which would keep the new liners viable.

The new Sylvania was ready for her trials on the Arran Mile on 27^th May 1957, and two runs were made, at 5.am and 9.30am. The Cunard Line took the opportunity to announce that following the successful completion of its building programme for the Canadian service, a berth had been reserved at Clydebank for a further passenger liner to replace the ageing Britannic.

            The new ship left Greenock on 5^th June 1957 on her maiden voyage to Quebec and Montreal. Industrial troubles at Liverpool had prevented the new liner visiting her home port prior to the maiden voyage.

            Mr Frank H. Dawson, director and general manager of the Cunard Line, speaking at a luncheon held on board the Sylvania prior to her maiden voyage, commented: “The last fifteen months have probably been the most difficult of my 45 years’ service with the Company. In that time, up to March 1957, we suffered from trials and tribulations, mostly from labour”. In spite of this, Mr Dawson spoke mainly of achievement and hope and said: “We may go on and build other ships in the future because we have a great and abiding affection for our Canadian cousins. Canada has developed and is going to be increasingly important to our daily life. There is an enormous potential there and we, as a Company, have tried to be of service to it. Cunard’s total share of the Canadian passenger trade since 1947, both westbound and eastbound, has totalled 614,000 passengers.”

            The Sylvania operated the Canadian service from Liverpool in company with her sister the Carinthia during the summer and autumn of 1957 until the end of the St  Lawrence season. Her maiden arrival at New York was on 17^th December 1957 and she then sailed on a Christmas cruise to the West Indies. This was purely a token gesture and on 10^th January 1958 she resumed trans-Atlantic service, and on 5^th April returned to the Canadian run.

            In the Sylvania’s first full year in service (1958), some 1,036,000 passengers crossed the Atlantic by sea. However this was also the year when the first commercial jet service was introduced between Europe and New York and there was immediate effect, in 1959, on the number of passengers who chose to cross by sea. For the Sylvania and her sisters, built without any real thought toward even occasional use as cruise ships, this was bad news indeed.

            The Sylvania served the Canadian run for only a relatively short time. In November 1960 it was announced that she would replace the Britannic on the Liverpool – New York service. Any thoughts about building a proposed replacement for the Britannic had been abandoned due to increasingly poor results from Cunard’s passenger liners, and the general manager’s ‘gung ho’ comments on the eve of the Sylvania’s maiden voyage just three years earlier now sounded rather hollow.

            During her annual refit in January 1964, eighty of the Sylvania’s tourist class cabins were refitted and equipped with private bathrooms. Whilst this was a welcome move, it was far from enough to make her competitive with other liners then in service. It was a token gesture – after all there were in total 250 tourist-class cabins.

            It was becoming clear to the Cunard Line directors that the demand for trans-Atlantic passages during mid winter was in terminal and rapid decline and on 10^th February 1965 the Sylvania made a 27-day cruise from Liverpool to the Mediterranean. The following winter saw the Sylvania more extensively employed on cruising until 20^th April, 1966. Hardly had she settled back on the Atlantic than the six-week seamen’s strike commenced in mid-May and the Sylvania was caught up in the dispute shortly after it had begun when she docked in Liverpool.

            Three weeks after the end of the strike, on 22^nd July 1966, Cunard’s chairman Sir Basil Smallpeice informed the company’s employees, both afloat and ashore, just how serious the financial situation had become. The seamen’s strike had cost Cunard

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