ssMaritime.com - Enter a world of Classic Passenger Liners

 

 

A short Introduction:

For me personally the “S.S. America” story is quite unique, as this truly great ship was designed the one of the great in naval/maritime design William Francis Gibbs of “Gibbs & Cox” of New York. And later in her career I just happened to manage her and another of Gibbs great masterpieces, as he also was the designer of those great Matson Liners, such as the Lurline and Monterey, etc, but all that will come later in this very special multi faceted feature!

I am in such awe of the late great William F. Gibbs that I have and image of his bust proudly hanging in my gallery, and we should also remember that he was also the designer of the greatest of all American liners the S.S. United States, a ship that remained with us until her tragic demise in 2025, when she was towed to Mobile to be sunk to become “World’s Largest Artificial Reef”. ssMaritime, together with my Save the Classic Liner Campaign fully supported being restored, etc, but that is now just a very sad dream that will never happen!

However, my WebPages on her covers her forerunner, the wonderful S.S. America which from her very conception in the mid 1930s to her sale to Chandris Lines in 1964. Thus you will note the relevant are links below. In addition you will also find a Photo Page showing so much more of her interiors, and another Page with a complete Deck Plan of the S.S. America as built, revealing the ship with her original Cabin Class, Tourist and Third Class! In addition you will discover that you are able to click on each deck in order to enlarge it (opens on a separate page) providing a greatly improved view. Thus, I believe that is feature will have much for all classic ship lovers, but especially those who love and admire this amazingly great Liner, the S.S. America!

S.S. America & Australis INDEX:

Page One …………… …S.S. America History Page 1940 to 1967.

Page Two                Photo Page.

Page Three …………… 1940 Deck Plans.

S.S. Australis INDEX:

Page Four ……………….S.S. Australis History Page from 1964 to her sad end in 1994.

Page Five ………………. Brochure & Photo & Page One.

Page Six ………………….Brochure & Photo Page Two.

Page Seven …………….Deck Plans.

Enjoy!

Dr. Reuben Goossens.

Maritime Historian, Author & Lecturer & Cruise'n'Ship Reviewer.

Working for almost 65 years in the Passenger Shipping Industry,

And as a Maritime Historian, author and lecturer.

Parts of this page has been written by Samuel Elisha.

Due to Dr. Reuben Goossens having been forced to retire, due to his old age and illness, and as I am an old friend since the early 1980’s, of both Reuben and his late wife Betty, may she rest in peace, I will be writing parts of this page, whilst some other parts will still be by Dr. Reuben Goossens. However, I will always sign off as follows. S.E.

Introduction:

ssmaritime.com features countless Classic Liners and the occasional cruise ship or so, as during my extended illness, I was in hospital, when fees were due for “CruiseAustralia” site. Although being a lover of genuine Liners of days now long gone, I am not fond of these modern cruise (apartment blocks) ships which are presented as a part of a ‘New World of Cruising’! I did add some time ago a new page on the new CUNARD cruise ship M.S. Queen Anne. In the past I was a firm supporter of Holland America Line, P&O, and certain other cruise lines, etc. And I cruised with them countless of times, be it on a good number of around world voyages or one way world sailings, etc. Also countless cruises on almost all P&O ships (par the Pacific Sky) and my favourite ship based in Australia was the Ex Holland America ship, renamed the “Pacific Aria” on which I had countless voyages on! Sadly she is now gone from our shores, thanks to that rotten Covid. However, my old time favourite at the time was Sitmar’s and then P&O Australia’s T.S.SFairstar, I sailed on her second ever voyage from Melbourne, Australia to Italy, as well as later countless cruises from Sydney. I have a great dislike of these huge hiddious big giant floating hotel’s that look more like a building on a pontoon, with (what an actual designer of a number of fine liners told me) a sort of hull below these vessels are dimply terrible. You may ask me, “what was the worst cruise ever”, I have a very simple answer for that. I sailed on Princess’ first ever around the world cruise with Princess Cruises on the Pacific Dawn. The ports were very great, however, some of the ships crew were beyond belief the worst ever, especially the female entertainment director who was more like a walking foul mouthed monster, calling passengers all sorts horrible things, even telling them to (f) something off. Overall the Pacific Dawn voyage was extremely poor and I wrote about it and I will not sail with Princess even if they gave me a free Suite! However, I only pay in full for a de-Luxe suite, whenever I go on a cruise, as I never ask for favours, even though I have provided massive online support, and free Maritime lectures onboard free of charge!

Dr. Reuben Goossens.

**********************

Please Note: by S.E.

All ssmaritime and other related maritime sites are 100% non-commercial and privately owned, thus ssmaritime has NEVER been financially associated with any shipping company or any other organisation! Although the author has worked and been involved in the passenger shipping industry for now over 63 years, and he has been a Managing Director of a major shipping company, as well as an Owner of a Cruise Company. Over countless years cruise companies would come to him for advice, and that was from various countries, and he was always happy to assist. Dr. Reuben has been a very close friend of mine, but sadly he is now 80 years of age and in rather poor health, thus he forced to retire. Yet, by now he has written on around 1,750 Great Classic Liners, Passenger-Cargo Liners as well as those humble converted C3 converted Migrant ships, which transported countless thousands of migrants to the new world! However he also wrote about countless Cruise Ships’ on his “CruiseAustralia” site that is sadly no longer online. Amazingly, ssmaritime.com has received 7,579 Billion visitors up to late 2024. Considering this site has been online since 1991 (although he was writing long before that) and countless people have visited this site hundred’s of times. This makes up that huge (to the globe’s number population) of visits, and it is officially the most visited maritime site in the world! Cunard’s most famous Commodore from the QE2, Holland America Line Captains and officers, as well as P&O Captain’s, and countless crew from the S.S. Oriana, S.S. Canberra, and countless others well known ships have contacted him. This includes some of the greatest nautical designers, architects who worked for Cunard, P&O UK, and other companies from, Holland, Germany, America, Italy Greece, as well as the Israeli designer of the S.S. Shalom, have written to Reuben. Many companies desired to place advertising on “ssmaritime.com”, as well on “CruiseAustralia”, but he always refused, for his main desire was to retain all his sites as non-profit sites, and desired it to be 100% unbiased! He has been gifted some amazing personally signed liner designer’s books which are simply amazing (from the actual designer), and he has always appreciated their kindness and their great appreciation of his work of almost of so long and being a worldwide known shipping expert!

However, I trust the features Reuben has online will continue to provide all Classic Liner enthusiast’s, Crew, those who have sailed on any of the ships that he has online, and those who simply love sailing on those wonderful ships that were real Liners, and those who are true ship enthusiasts and those who are just seeking information. I trust that ssmaritime.com will in one way or another provide a great deal of pleasure and that many will relive many happy memories!

S.E.

**********************

I was given permission to state; that over the years I have been greatly honoured by some of the most famous people on earth, including an email from the now late H.R.H. Price Philip, who wrote me to thank Reuben for the feature on the Royal Yacht “Gothic” on which He and the Her Majesty sailed on in 1952 to 1954.

Some time ago, Dr. Reuben Goossens discovered a number of ships which he had already started and they were either close to being completed or they needed to be finished, to date some still required some work to be done in order to be completed. Of course these were completed and are all listed on the ssmaritime Index. Thus with my assistance Reuben was able to bring the last added ships online, for as I would not have been able to do this all by myself, due to my lack of knowledge. S.E.

There are many emails/letters thanking Dr. Reuben online, and they can be found on Dear Mr. Goossens, there was also an email from Buckingham Palace, which sadly he was unable to publish it, for obvious privacy reasions.

There are countless amazing ships to be found on the ssMaritime Index (another link is located at the bottom of this page). However, apart from the S.S. United States above, sadly there are now no more ships to come as Dr. Reuben Goossens can no longer write any further. I have been his friend and assistant since the early 1980’s, yet sadly I do not have much knowledge in regard to the world of shipping, but glad to assist in a small way and finish what he really had already done. Reuben became a good friend of then P&O (Carnival’s) Australia’s director Sture Myrmell almost from when he arrived in Australia from the U.S.A. Since 1958 Reuben has been on many world voyages and cruises. In addition he was also invited on various ships to lecture with several companies, however he always paid for his cruise, and yet he would still give lectures as a paying guest. For he enjoyed living in a De-Luxe suite, since 2002, he had to use his scooter. I have lost count of his countless voyages/cruises, but it is well over 200 plus?  S.E.

*****************************

In Conclusion by Dr. Goossens:

My dear Friends, this will be my very last Notice. I hereby whish to say a very special thank you to all my dear ship lovers from all over the world, for I have been simply astounded that there have been so many of you reading ssmaritime over and over again, for the numbers of reader’s simply have more than blown me away! There are so many who have been reading this site up to a hundred of times for a good 33+ years. In fact this site has now reached over 7.5 Billion visitor’s, that is really the globe’s entire population, (and my online counter can’t be wrong), however some ships has some 24 pages, etc. Thus during all these many years you have been reading and reading, I am always completely amazed. But I have been so thankful for the countless thousands of the amazing letters and emails which I have been receiving over the many years, including one from Prince Philip, may He Rest In Peace, as well a good number of Lord’s and Sirs. However his H.R.H. wrote me regarding my feature, (which I am currently updating) on the Royal Yacht ‘Gothic’, on which H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth and He sailed on. The voyage was certainly a joy to them both! At this point I can reveal that I was bestowed with a certain honour when I was in England, but I will not reveal anything else, for my own reasons, I have also received letters from those who were famous designers of ship’s and or their interiors, but Naval Architect’s were most interesting, especially all the details provided me. There were some of the world’s most famous designers; one of these was a designer of the S.S. Oriana, and another of the S.S. Canberra. The list just goes on. Some of the most famous interior was designers such as my dear friend Sir. Hugh Casson, may he rest in peace, who has not only designed the interiors of the Canberra, but also Buckingham Palace, as well as the Royal Yacht “Britannia”.

It is simply beyond my belief that my early rather basic ssmaritime.com became the one of the largest and famous Maritime website in the world, and I certainly feel greatly honoured. Many Captain’s are well known to me, and they have written to me countless times. World famous ship designers who have not only contacted me, but given me their wonderful book’s including the designer of the S.S. Oriana and many other world famous ships! And please remember, that all my maritime & (now past cruise sites) have always been and will remain 100% non-commercial. In addition ssMaritime has been paid well into the 2030’s, thus you can continue to view it and hopefully provide wonderful and joyful memories for past passengers and crew from around the world, as well as those who simply love passenger liners and older cruise ships!

It certainly has been a great joy for me to present these all the aforementioned for viewers of ssMaritime, and it has been a joy to have been able to write for so many years having commenced writing in 1982, and I finally went online in 1991.

Thus please enjoy the around 1,750+ wonderful maritime memories that are online, and I pray that after a lifetime of sharing my love of all these fine ships with you, that they will live long after I am gone, as this site will give knowledge to future and new of generations and provide them, God willing, wonderful memories to those who remain. Enjoy.

Dr. Reuben Goossens, PhD.

As I stated earlier Dr. Reuben Goossens is now retired due to his poor health, being disabled in addition he also has poor eyesight, the last item shown at the top of this page, on the ex S.S. America, and later as the “Australis” was done with great difficulty. Over the years Reuben has received thousands oDear Dr. Goossens emails of thanks and today that page contains a good number of them, but there were countless more.

Best wishes - S.E.

*************************

 “Blue Water Liners sailing to the distant shores.
I watched them come, I watched them go and I watched them die.”

Or ENTER THE SITE's INDEX HERE

Amazingly: ssmaritime.com has received 7,579 Billion reader’s over 30 plus years.

The last update was on: Sunday November 24, 2024.

Remember many readers have read different pages & ships hundreds of times

Also certain features have up to 12 pages and that is a great deal of reading!

 

Email: rg@ssmaritime.com

 

**************************

ssMaritime.com

Where the ships of the past and the Luxury Cruise Ships of today make history.

 

The author has been in Passenger Shipping & the Cruise Industry since 1960.

Having been a “Managing Director”, and has “Operated a Cruise Company”

In addition he was founder of “Save the Classic Liners Campaign” in 1990.

Please Note: ssmaritime and associated sites are 100% non-commercial and the author seeks no funding of any shape or form, never have and never will!

Photographs on ssmaritime and associate pages are by; the author or from the author’s private collection. In addition there are some images that have been provided by Shipping Companies and private photographers or collectors. Credit is given to all contributors. However, there are some photographs provided to me without details regarding the photographer/owner concerned, so sorry if this is the case.

This notice covers all pages; although, and I have done my best to ensure that all photographs are duly credited and that this notice is displaced on each page, that is, when a page is updated!

ssMaritime is owned & © Copyright by Reuben Goossens - All Rights Reserved.