Ships often change hands - bought by
new owners, for one reason or another, the are often rebuilt and made over
- to varying degrees of success. Well you all seemed to love the first 5 terrible
ship makeovers video that I did the other week - so let's do it again and look at five more
terrible ship makeovers for your morbid curiosity. Number 5; the RMS Strathnaver
Okay so just so you don’t think I’m being biased in my choices for bad ship makeovers
here I’m actually going to start with a ship which I actually personally adore. This is the RMS
Strathnaver, a P&O ocean liner introduced in 1931. I have a personal connection with this
ship because it carried my family to Australia in 1959 - but boy did P&O do a number on it. When
the ship was first introduced in the 1930s it was a massive step forward for the company;
I’ve actually done a whole video on this, it’s an interesting topic, you should go check
it out. But suffice it to say, Strathnaver was a huge departure from P&O’s previous ships which all
kind of looked the same; like this. Old-fashioned, with a drab dark paintscheme and thin, black
funnels. Strathnaver was totally different and radical; the ship was painted white and its
funnels were painted a golden buff yellow colour. But it was the ship’s exterior design that was the
most notable difference; it was tall and blocky, but beautifully balanced with three, round,
squat funnels and a long, sweeping profile. She served through the 1930s and was a really
popular ship for the time, but then the second world war came and Strathnaver did its bit
sailing as a troopship. When the war ended, P&O found itself with most of its prewar fleet
surviving intact and Strathnaver was set to be put back on the old route to Australia from England.
But P&O wanted to modernise its appearance. You see Strathnaver was built right at the
very end of the era where the more funnels a ship had signified its speed, safety and size;
but by the 1940s and 1950s that era was long gone and now it was all about modernity and
minimalism. The fewer funnels; the better! P&O had introduced a few running-mates inspired
by Strathnaver’s design like the Stratheden here; but they had been designed with only one funnel.
Strathnaver, by 1945, looked like it belonged to an older era. So the funnels had to come off. The
ship went in for refit and when it re-emerged, it looked…. Sadder. The first and third funnels were
cut off because they weren’t actually functional, only the middle on was. This left the ship
looking unbalanced and a little ungainly; the chunkiness of its bridge was kind of endearing
when Strathnaver had the three, jolly funnels to balance it out. But now the ship just looked like
it had a massive forehead. The war had been hard on the ship too; she had travelled millions of
miles by the 50s so her machinery was a bit tired. Her interiors were a bit of a shadow of their
pre-war glory too; so P&O put Strathnaver to work as a one-class migrant ship, a very far cry
from the silver service the ship had offered in the 30s. By the late 50s the ship was frequently
breaking down, so much so that she earned the nickname Scrapnaver, so in 1962 the grand old lady
was pulled from service and scrapped in Hong Kong. Number four; the Castelbianco.
In the last video I introduced you to Mr Alexander Vlasov, head of the Italian
Sitmar line, who made some considerable success in the Australian migrant trade. His MO - and
that of many of his European competitors - was simple. Buy one of the thousands of cargo
ships built for the Allied war effort which were no longer useful and just sitting
around - and convert it into a humble passenger liner to carry hundreds to new lives
in the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. Some of these conversions were really
extensive and resulted in some truly gorgeous ships makeovers- but others just
outright failed. Castel Bianco was one of these. In 1947 Vlasov bought the almost brand-new SS
Vassar Victory, a Victory-class cargo ship built in 1945 right at the end of the Second World
War. Her wartime service therefore consisted only of repatriating American troops before
she was laid up and sold off at a bargain. First Vlasov employed the Vassar Victory as a
cargo ship for service around South America and renamed her Castel Bianco, but soon he had designs
to use her for the migrant trade so he set out to convert the ship. It hadn’t been smooth sailing
though; on Castel Bianco’s first round-the-world voyage in 1947 the ship collided with two other
cargo ships, ran aground and then got caught in a horrendous storm which badly damaged her. She
limped into Sydney harbour and had to stay for two months while repairs were carried out.
It was here that the ship received its first large scale passenger accommodation, with very
humble quarters for 480 people being fitted. The next few years Castel Bianco run a number of
passenger voyages for poor migrants and refugees and was rebuilt a couple of times; the first, in
1950 - didn’t look great- but it did the job and the ship could now carry 1,132 passengers. But
by 1952 it was seven years after the end of the second world war and migrant passengers could
be a little bit more discerning about how they travelled to the new world; Vlasov and SITMAR
realised they might have been a bit conservative with the 1950 Castel Bianco makeover, so they
got to work rebuilding her again. And boy, did they take to their new task with gusto; two whole
new decks were added on top of the superstructure featuring promenades and sports decks. The
clunky cargo masts and booms were got rid of; the old cylindrical funnel was replaced with
a slick modern one. Tall crane-like davits now carried 24 huge lifeboats high up on the decks and
even more passenger cabins were put into the hull. Inside the ship received slick new
interiors and comfy passenger lounges. Basically the new Castel Bianco was almost
recognisable and looked actually really nice. But wait a minute. Mike - I hear you say -
isn’t that ship kind of… I don’t know, too tall? If you noticed that, then congratulations
because you picked up on something the Castel Bianco’s engineers didn’t; all the excess weight;
the two new decks and the rows of lifeboats, which all weighed tons each - caused Castel
Bianco to become HOPELESSLY top-heavy, and the ship became renown as a terrible roller in even a
flat calm. So if you were travelling to Australia, this probably wasn’t the ship you’d want to hop
on if you had sea-sickness. The ship only lasted two years with SITMAR before it was placed on the
market and bought by Spanish Line who didn’t seem to care too much about the top-heaviness and the
bad rolling. The ship was again renamed Begona and the ship sailed for another few years until
being sold for scrap after an engine fire in 1974. Number three; the MV Georgic.
There are some shipping lines whose names alone just inspire visions of luxury
and glamour; names Cunard Line, French Line, Italian Line - and White Star Line. But White Star
Line’s MV Georgic, once the toast of its fleet, was a mere husk of its former self
by the 1950s. Here’s what happened. In the late 1920s the White Star Line planned
to introduce a superliner competitor to Cunard’s Queen Mary and CGT’s Normandie. The ship was
going to be a thousand foot long three-funnel behemoth much in the style of White Star’s
previous ships, prioritising luxury and comfort over speed. But then the Great Depression hit
and the plan came to a grinding halt. The new ship who was supposed to be named Oceanic
was cancelled due to the economic downturn and White Star had to go back to the drawing
board. The company had been building a smaller, more economic diesel-powered ship to
serve alongside Oceanic named ‘Britannic’. Now with Oceanic having been cancelled, White
Star instead decided to build a similarly-sized running mate to Britannic using parts of Oceanic’s
incomplete keel. The new ship was named ‘Georgic’, and like Britannic she was a medium-sized,
nicely appointed diesel-powered motor ship. The ship had two squat funnels which were very
in-vogue at the time, but only the second one was actually functional; the forward funnel contained
the radio room and the engineer’s smoking room. Introduced in 1932, the Georgic proved to be
a reliable and popular rival alongside her running mate Britannic; but then in 1934
White Star Line merged with its old rival Cunard who commanded the majority share
of the new organisation known as Cunard White Star. Regardless of the new ownership,
Georgic and Britannic plied the transatlantic trade until 1939 when the Second World War
rudely interrupted things. In 1940 Georgic was converted into a troopship and got to work,
evacuating troops and civillians from France in the wake of the nazi invasion, moving troops
between the UK, Canada and the middle east. In 1941 though the ship’s luck ran out; at
anchor waiting to take on a load of Italian POWs, German aircraft spotted the ship and bomber her.
She was hit twice with bombs, the first which glanced off her side and detonated in the water,
damaging her hull plating and causing flooding. The second plunging deep into the ship’s hull and
detonating in a cargo hold, sparking a raging fire that engulfed the ship’s stern section as oil
and ammunition began to explode. Somehow though the ship’s crew and captain Greig, who were
absolutely madlads, realised they could still start the ship’s engines and steer her so they got
the blazing ship underway and beached it on a reef so it couldn’t sink. She was abandoned and left to
burn for two days; flooded, resting on the bottom, with her blackened superstructure and
her hull totally gutted by the fire. That’s where the Georgic story should have ended;
the ship was a write-off. Except; it wasn’t. Surveys of the hulk found that while the ship’s
interior was a gutted wreck, the basic structure and machinery were still somehow intact so it was
decided to salvage her. In what has been described as one of the greatest feats in the history of
salvage, the hulk of Georgic was strippped-down, plugged and refloated. The ship was towed to
Karachi where for eight months the ship was repaired in the most basic sense of the word.
Still gutted by the fire, the ship’s engines and generators were brought back up to working order
and some very basic crew accommodation was put into her. In March 1943 Georgic was able to sail
under her own power into Liverpool at an average speed of 15 knots which is pretty remarkable. She
was sent back to her builders Harland and Wolff in Belfast for total overhaul and re-conversion
into a troopship. The workers had to strip out 5,000 tons of fire-gutted and twisted steel;
the superstructure had to be completely rebuilt. The ‘new’ Georgic, completed in 1944, looked
completely different to the elegant motor vessel of the 1930s. This once-great lady of the sea was
now a utilitarian workhorse and when the war ended in 1945 the ship was actually owned by the British
government and operated by Cunard White-Star. She was converted again into a very basic
migrant ship and her White Star Line colours were reinstated, although that
is just about where the makeover ended. Sadly the ship’s profile had been
totally ruined; the forward dummy funnel was never replaced so the ship now
had a strange, off-balance silhouette. Her foremast was shortened to just a stump and
the luxurious interiors were never re-fitted. Instead the ship carried only one class of
passenger in basic dormitory bunks. There was one obvious telltale mark of the fire though;
the ship’s hull plates had warped and bent and never been replaced or straightened out so the
side of the ship was all wobbly-looking so she was nicknamed the ‘Corrugated Lung’ which I don’t
think is exactly the PR Cunard White-Star was looking for. Anyway this migrant trade didn’t
last long for Georgic and she completed some more trooping voyages for the Korean War before
being pulled from service and scrapped in 1955. Number two; SS Norway
Oh boy, okay. I know this one is going to upset a lot of you because people
have really fond memories of the Norway. She was a good and happy ship - but this video is all
about vapid aesthetical judgements and dozens of you brought this ship up in comments
on the last makeover video so here she is. Norway’s story as a cruise ship is as unlikely
as it is triumphant; essentially she just wasn’t designed with the role in mind. In the 1950s
CGT, known as French Line, realised they needed a superliner to replace the Normandie which had
been lost during the second world war. To recreate that ship in spirit the company built an enormous,
sleek and elegant liner named France. Introduced in 1960 the ship was the longest passenger vessel
in the world, a record she held until 2004, and was, quite simply, eye-achingly beautiful.
The ship was so long and her profile perfectly balanced by two, enormous funnels which had
wings. Who doesn’t like wings? Just look at them. Also the French Line’s paintscheme just
looked stunning on France; the crimson funnels and black and white hull really enhanced
her swooping hull form. On introduction the ship was one of the chicest afloat and the toast
of France - except she’d just been introduced a touch too late. The world was moving on and jet
aircraft were taking over the transatlantic trade, so French Line put France to work on some
winter cruises and world cruises but it was the 1973 oil crisis which doomed the ship and
she was pulled from service and put up for sale. The world’s longest passenger ship sat idle and
unsealed for four years, basically a time capsule, until 1979 when she was sold to the Norweigan
Carribbean Line. The Norweigians took their new purchase in for overhaul and renamed her SS
Norway. Initially they didn’t do too much to alter the massive ship’s external profile; many
of the changes were internal. But the paintscheme was changed and the ship was now all blue and
white. She still looked pretty gorgeous though; and stayed that way until 1990. The
Norway had proved a smash hit and was beloved around the world and NCL wanted
to improve on their formula for success. It was this 1990 makeover that damaged the ship’s
external profile; on top of the old bridge a huge, blocky structure was added; basically two
new decks containing 135 new passenger cabins and suites. Just like the Strathnaver, now
Norway looked like it had a huge forehead; but the plan worked. The new cabins were very
popular and it kept the Norway in service for a good few years yet. At the ship’s stern a new
overhanging pool deck was installed which also didn’t do much for the ship’s external appearance.
All up by the late 90s the Norway’s squat exterior was a far cry from the sweeping floating
palace French Line had introduced in 1960. But regardless she was a VERY popular cruise ship
and is still remembered fondly by many. In 2004 Norway cruised for the last time before being sold
for scrap and dismantled at Alang, India, in 2008. Number one; the SS Ryndam II aka the Atlas.
This one is a bit of a head-scratcher for a couple of reasons. In the 50s, the Holland-America Line
was really building and introducing a suite of fine modern ocean liners and one of them was the
SS Ryndam 2. The ship was originally intended to be built as a freighter but was instead completed
as a liner for the company, so her lines were a little stout; but given the ship was converted
mid-construction, the end result was quite pleasing on the eyes. Ryndam was a pretty ship
with a single tall funnel towering over a modern, sleek superstructure. She wasn’t a big ship; 500
feet long and 15,000 GRT, but she was functional and served as a reliable postwar migrant ship
taking passengers for new lives in the US. When that trade dried up, however, the ship was put
on the market for sale and snapped up by a Greek cruise line named Epirotiki Line and extensively
rebuilt. The designers and engineers really leant into a 1970s aesthetic for this one and what
emerged from the shipyard in 1973 was… this. They decided to make everything… curvy. A curve
here, a curve here. Why not? It’s the 70s! Oh and they turned the funnel into whatever
this is. Why?It's the 70s! From the side the ship now kind of looked like some kind of
spaceship and… hold on a minute, what is that? What is that? I’ve been researching this ship
for a little while and still have no idea what this is. It’s painted black at the top, maybe to
hide soot, and in a few photos I swear I can see smoke coming out of it. Was it a funnel? I don’t
know - if you know, leave a comment. Anyway, the newly named Atlas was introduced as a cruise
ship with interiors that can only be described as peak 1970s - it was eventually sold to become a
floating casino and ended up named the Pride of Galveston, which is funny because by the 1990s the
ship was a neglected, floating wreck. Permanently moored on the Mississippi and now named Copa
Casino, the ship was run down and an absolute eye sore. Port authorities ordered the ships removal
so she was sold to the scrappers; under tow for destruction in India however the ship decided to
go out on its own terms and promptly sank in 2003. Well what did you think of these 5
makeovers? Were they terrible? Do you disagree with me? I am sure a lot of you
will hate me for putting Norway on this list, but uh - I kind of had to. Just look at
that forehead! If you have other ideas for terrible ship makeovers you’d like me to
cover, leave a comment below and I'll go and have a look. But until then, stay safe and
stay happy and I’ll see you again next time!
