Henry Harr Shipyard

An oft overlooked line is the Grace Line. Grace Line was founded in the late 1800s, with a history lasting almost 100 years. They’re most famous for their “Santa Ships”, like the Santa Rosa and Santa Sofia, and the “Four M’s”. Their passenger and cargo vessels made voyages and cruises to South America, accommodating mostly 1st class patrons. For the time, their vessels were fuel efficient, and unique in that their staterooms had promenades, and some of the dining rooms had retractable ceilings that opened the room to the tropical air (which sounds somewhat unpleasant to me). Like most shipping lines, they did their part in WWII, their ships seeing wartime service, some not surviving. Those that did survive returned to passenger/cargo service after the War, and received new refits. In the early 1950s, Grace Line made all new ships, keeping the names of their former vessels, now more modern and sleek.

The most recognizable and thus most famous of their liners is the Santa Rosa, featuring the aforementioned characteristics, she was built in 1932 and received a post-war refit that added “wings” to her forward funnel only - an experimental design that would later be iconic features on the SS America and United States. She, like all other vessels of Grace Line, was sold to Greece, and renamed Athinai. She was also used as a floating prop for the 1970s film, Raise the Titanic.

So I saw this photo allegedly from the mid-1950s, and of course, me being me, I had to figure out what ship this was.

This is the SS Monterey, which was built in 1938, and was renamed SS Matsonia in the late 1950s. She was owned and operated by the Matson Line, which had a few cruise ships in its service, and still operates a fleet of cargo vessels today. Back in the day they owned several of the famous and popular hotels in Hawaii at the time.

They don’t get much attention but Japan also had some ocean liners. They weren’t quite as big as some of the Western ones but some were pretty slick nonetheless.

Some looked to be cargo ships, or cargo ships converted into passenger liners, based on their structure.