S.S. Lurline (Matson Line)
SS Lurline was the third Matson vessel to hold that name and the last of four fast and luxurious ocean liners that Matson built for the Hawaii and Australasia runs from the West Coast of the United States. Lurline's sister ships were SS Malolo, SS Mariposa and SS Monterey. As USAT Lurline (aka USS Lurline), she served as a troopship in World War II.
Rechristened in 1963 by Chandris Lines as the MS Ellinis, the ship became one of the most important luxury cruise ships on the Australian and New Zealand services. She operated in Australasia and Oceania until 1980.
In 1932, the last of four smart liners designed by William Francis Gibbs and built for the Matson Lines' Pacific services was launched: the SS Lurline christened on 12 July 1932 in Quincy, Massachusetts by Lurline Matson Roth (who had also christened her father's 1908 steamship Lurline as a young woman of 18). On 12 January 1933, the SS Lurline left New York City bound for San Francisco via the Panama Canal on her maiden voyage, thence to Sydney and the South Seas, returning to San Francisco on 24 April 1933. She then served on the express San Francisco to Honolulu service with her older sister with whom she shared appearance, the Malolo.
Lurline was half-way from Honolulu to San Francisco on 7 December 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. She made her destination safely, travelling at maximum speed, and soon returned to Hawaii with her Matson sisters Mariposa and Monterey in a convoy laden with troops and supplies.
She spent the war providing similar services, often voyaging to Australia, and once transported Australian Prime Minister John Curtin to America to confer with President Roosevelt.
Lurline was returned to Matson Lines in mid-1946 and extensively refitted at Bethlehem-Alameda Shipyard in Alameda, California in 1947 at the then huge cost of $US 20 million. She resumed her San Francisco to Honolulu service from 15 April 1948 and regained her pre-war status as the Pacific Ocean's top liner.
Her high occupancy rates during the early 1950s caused Matson to also refit her sister ship SS Monterey (renaming her SS Matsonia) and the two liners provided a first class-only service between Hawaii and the American mainland from June 1957 to September 1962, mixed with the occasional Pacific cruise. Serious competition from jet airliners caused passenger loads to fall in the early 1960s and Matsonia was laid up in late 1962.
Only a few months later, the Lurline arrived in Los Angeles with serious engine trouble in her port turbine and was laid up with the required repairs considered too expensive. Matson instead brought the Matsonia out of retirement and, characteristically, changed her name to Lurline. The original Lurline was sold to Chandris Lines in 1963.
The Lurline was bought by Chandris Lines in September 1963 to replace the SS Brittany, wrecked by fire earlier in the year. The Ellinis sailed under her new name from California to North East England for repairs in North Shields and was refitted with increased accommodation for 1,668 passengers in one class.
She was given new Chandris livery and a modernized superstructure with new funnels and embarked on her maiden voyage from Piraeus to Sydney on 30 December 1963. Her homeward voyages were alternately routed east via the Panama Canal to Southampton. The ship took occasional cruises.
In April 1974, cruising to Japan, Ellinis developed major problems in one engine. Fortunately, Chandris were able to buy a surplus engine from her sister ship Homeric (ex-Mariposa) which was being broken up in Taiwan at the time. The replacement was carried out in Rotterdam, finishing in March 1975.
Ellinis provided mainly cruise services from 1975 and, in October 1981, she was finally laid up in Greece after providing passenger services for nearly fifty years. Despite various plans to utilize the ship whole, she was sold in 1986 and scrapped in Taiwan in 1987. Some of her fittings were installed in other Chandris ships; her engine parts were stored against future need by her aging sister Britanis (ex-Monterey).
Like many ships, the Lurline contained asbestos, a hazard for mesothelioma. Those who worked or sailed on the Lurline are at risk for the disease as well as other asbestos-related illnesses.
Asbestos disease such as lung cancer or malignant mesothelioma is relatively rare, but invariably deadly. Diagnosis is difficult; such forms of cancer usually do not show symptoms for many years, even decades after initial exposure. Instances of the disease related to the ships like the Lurline are common and referred to as mesothelioma navy cases.
Sources
Bowker, Michael. Fatal Deception: The Terrifying True Story of How Asbestos is Killing America. New York: Touchstone, 2003.
Maritime Matters. “Lurline, Ellinis.”
http://www.maritimematters.com/lurline32.html
