SS Northern Star (1961)

Northern Star
History
United Kingdom
Name	Northern Star
Owner	Shaw, Savill & Albion Line
Port of registry	Southampton
Route	Southampton – Las Palmas – Cape Town – Durban – Fremantle – Melbourne – Sydney – Wellington – Auckland – Rarotonga – Tahiti – Acapulco – Panama – Curacao – Trinidad – Barbados – Lisbon – Southampton
Builder	Vickers-Armstrongs, High Walker
Yard number	175
Launched	27 June 1961
Completed	26 June 1962
In service	10 July 1962
Out of service	1975
Identification	5257543
Fate	Scrapped 1975
General characteristics
Type	Ocean liner
Tonnage	24,731 GRT (1968, 23,983 GRT)
Length	650 ft (200 m)
Beam	83 ft (25 m)
Installed power	22,000 shp
Propulsion	Geared turbines, twin screw
Speed	22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph)
Capacity	1,437 tourist class

SS Northern Star was an ocean liner completed in 1962 for the United Kingdom-based Shaw, Savill & Albion Line's tourist class round the world service via South Africa and Australia. She was essentially an enlarged version of the Southern Cross, built seven years earlier. Northern Star sailed out via the Cape and home via Panama, while her fleet mate sailed out via Panama and home via the Cape.

History

From the early 1970s she spent most of her time cruising, but was continually beset with mechanical problems due to inadequate maintenance. With the great increase in oil prices in 1973/4 she became uneconomic and would have required an expensive and time-consuming refit to make up for the deferred maintenance and so was withdrawn from service at the end of her 1975 summer cruise programme. In spite of being only twelve years old her poor mechanical condition made her unattractive to other operators and she was sold for scrapping. On 11 December 1975 she arrived at Kaohsiung to be broken up by Li Chong Steel and Iron Works.

Ship on the slipway prior to launching