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Empress of Britain was the first
liner built for the Canadian Pacific Line
after World War Two. The launch of her
near identical sister ship Empress
of England followed at
Vickers-Armstong/Newcastle May 9th 1956.
Empress of Britain
set new standards on the Canadian run, as
she was the first liner to be operated on
that route with full air-conditioning.
Along with her sister ship Empress
of England, they provided a
service from Liverpool or Greenock -
Quebec and Montreal. Empress
of Britain set out on her
first winter cruise from New York -
Caribbean in January 1963. She was used
more as a cruise ship from that time as
jet aircraft were beginning to attract
more of the Trans Atlantic trade.
Empress of Britain had only
been in service for seven years when the
Canadian Pacific Line sold her to the
Greek Line in 1963. She underwent an
extensive refit at that time before
entering service for the Greek Line in
1965. Under the name Queen
Anna Maria, the Greek Line
operated her between Naples, Lisbon and
New York. The collapse of the Greek Line
in 1975 led to her being sold to the
newly formed Carnival Cruise Line to be
operated under the name Carnivale,
this giving Carnival two ships at that
time. After Carnival’s new purpose
built cruise ships began entering
service, she was transferred to their
subsidiary Fiesta Marine Cruises and
renamed Fiesta Marina. The
Greek ‘Epirotiki’ line
acquired Fiesta Marina in
1994 to be operated under the name
Olympic. They then chartered her
to the British tourist firm Thomson
Cruises to be operated on Caribbean and
Mediterranean cruises under the name
Topaz. The Japanese Peace Boat
organisation has since chartered
Topaz from 2003 untill 2006.
Empress of England
was sold to the Shaw Savill & Albion
Line in 1970 to be operated under the
name Ocean Monarch. She was
taken out of service after only five
years with that company and scrapped at
Kaohsiung/Malasia in 1975.
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