A Cunard poster from the late 'fiftes depicts the entire fleet at that time.

The ships are (front row): Caronia, Mauretania, Britannic, Queen Elizabeth, Queen Mary
(middle row) Ivernia, Saxonia, Sylvania, Carinthia
(back row) Scythia, Media, Parthia

Debuting in 1948, the Caronia was one of the first Cunarders to be built with cruising in mind from the start. From the start, she was very popular and profitable for most of her eighteen years. She was popularly known as the "Green Goddess" because, for a time, she was painted four different pale shades of this colour, which did not include her traditional red-and-black funnel (incidentally, the Carmania also wore this colour scheme for a time).

Becoming too expensive to operate, she ended Cunard service in 1967. After a series of ill-fated operators and name changes, she was on her way to the breakers in Taiwan when she ran aground and broke up at Guam in the summer of 1974.

A Cunard-commissioned print of Caronia in her
trademark green. Gift of Hans and Karen Segboer.

These four ships were built in the 50's for the Cunard Canadian service. Each was 608 feet long and drew 21,947 GRT when built. By 1962, the Carinthia was the only one of the four remaining on the route. In 1968, both the Carinthia and the Sylvania were sold to the Italian line SITMAR and renamed first Fairland then Fairsea (Carinthia) and Fairwind (Sylvania). Both were extensively modernised. The Fairsea had another major refit in 1984, including the replacement of the public rooms on the boat deck. When SITMAR was bought by P&O in 1988, the ships returned to British hands. The Carinthia/Fairsea became known as the the Fair Princess and the Sylvania was renamed Dawn Princess. The Dawn Princess was later sold to went to a German company and is now the Albatros, while the Fair Princess replaced the Fairstar in year-round budget cruises for the Australian market. She was sold again, this time to Asian interests, and is now known as the China Sea Discoverer.

The other two ships, the Ivernia and Saxonia were renamed in the 'sixties, the Ivernia became the Franconia, and the Saxonia became the Carmania. Both were painted in Caronia green. They continued to cruise with Cunard until 1972, when they were both sold to Russian interests. The Franconia was renamed Fedor Shalyapin and the the Carmania became the Leonid Sobinov. After some years of cruising to Australia, both were laid up. The Leonid Sobinov was broken up in India in 1999.

 

The China Sea Discovery

The Albatros