The Fleets

Chandris Line / Charlton Steam Shipping Company / Celebrity Cruises

The Founder of Chandris, Mr. John D. Chandris was born in Chios, then part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1915, after years of experience in the shipping industry, he bought his first ship, the sailing vessel Dimitrios (1).
By World War I his fleet comprised three steam ships: Dimitrios (2), Vlassios and Eugenia with his scope of trade, in and around the Greek islands.
In 1922 he started passenger shipping with the steamer Chimara, a 300-tonner that ran a coastal service between Piraeus and Corinth.
In 1936, he bought his largest ship so far, the 1,306-ton Corte II from the French owners Fraissinet and renamed her Patris (1). This was actually the very beginning of a Chandris passenger service, although the Patris (1) was not operated under the Chandris Lines name. Carrying 161 all one class passengers, she operated a combination passenger / cruise service out of Venice to other Adriatic ports, the Greek islands and Piraeus, and as far as the Holy Land. Under British flag, the Patris was sunk by bombing in Piraeus on 16 April 1941. Following the outbreak of World War II, John Chandris followed the exodus of shipowners from Greece. He moved to London were he died in 1942, but his two sons, Anthony and Dimitri, then living in London, continued the company.

At the end of World War II in April 1945 the Charlton Steam Shipping Company dating back to 1892 was acquired by Chandris with the purpose of starting emigrant services from war weary Europe to South America, Australia, Canada and the United States in cooperation with Swiss based International Refugee Organization, and two ships the Prince David and Prince Robert which had been built in 1930 and 1931 for Canadian National Steamships were purchased in 1946, they were towed to Belgium and converted into passenger ships renamed Charlton Monarch and Charlton Sovereign.
The Charlton Monarch was plagued by mechanical problems and was laid up in 1948 and scrapped in 1951. The Charlton Sovereign went to Fratelli Grimaldi Lines in 1951.
In 1950 a slightly larger ship the 8,178gt Empire Bure ( ex- Elisabethville for Compagnie Maritime Belge) was purchased from the British Government, she was also refitted in Belgium and renamed Charlton Star. She was mostly used transporting troops. In 1957 the Charlton Star was laid up at La Spezia and was sold to Maristrella Naviera S.A., Liberia and renamed Maistrella and scrapped in 1960.
In 1959 Chandris bought the Union Castle motor ship Bloemfontein Castle with the intention of inaugurating a service to Australia. Operating under the name of the Greek Australia Line the company sent the ship to Newcastle-On-Tyne, England, for an extensive refit. Renamed the Patris (2) (16,259 tons ) she made her first voyage from Piraeus via Suez to Freemantle, Melbourne and Sydney in November 1959.
The Bretagne (16,644 tons) a twin-screwed, single-reduction geared turbine vessel built in 1952 by the Penhoet, St Nazaire, France was first chartered by Chandris, in 1960 she was later refitted and began her service from Piraeus, Greece, to Australian ports in 1961 as the Britanny. This was the beginning of the company's long association with the Australian migrant and tourist trades.
Another major purchase was the American Lurline, which became the highly popular Ellinis, and which started the Chandris around-the-World service in 1963.
Sailings to Australia went outbound via the Suez (and later South Africa) and then returned via the Panama Canal. After this, more and more attention was given to developing cruise services as part of the Chandris operation. More purchases and so more conversions followed.

Chandris lines bought the Queen Frederica in 1966 and after fully modernising her with room for 1200 one-class passengers she left for Southampton in October 1966 to join the rest of the Australian fleet. She left service in January 1971, and was scrapped in 1977. But perhaps the biggest expansion came in 1969-1970 when four ships joined the fleet within a matter of months: the Fiorita, the Romanza, the Atlantis and the Britanis. A few years later, by 1976, Chandris had the largest passenger-cruise fleet in the world, surpassing the prior records held by the likes of Cunard, P&O and Union Castle. That year, there were thirteen active Chandris passenger ships in all: The Australis, Britanis, Ellinis, Patris, The Victoria, Amerikanis, Romanza, Regina Prima, Bon Vivant, Fiorita, Romantica, Fiesta and finally the little Radiosa.

While Chandris turned to Greek hotels on shore in 1973, they also began to strengthen their American cruise operations.
In 1975 the Victoria ex- Dunnottar Castle was purchased from the bankrupt Incres Lines, refitted and renamed The Victoria, she started her Mediterranean service in June 1976, she served Chandris well until sold in 1993.
A partnership called Chandris-Fantasy Cruises started in the early 1980s and later was divided into two separate arms of the Chandris Group, Fantasy-Cruises and then the more up-market Celebrity Cruises.

In the mid eighties, the third generation Chandris Chairman John Chandris foresaw the growth of the cruise trade world-wide especially concerning the upper class of the USA's mass market.
This segment was the most competitive on the market, with well established operators such as Royal Caribbean, Princess, HAL, etc.
For Chandris Cruises, as budget cruise operator, it was quite difficult to follow the marketing strategy of its Chairman.
A new image had to be created and so Chandris formed with the Overseas Shipholding Group Celebrity Cruises. Later Chandris bought OSG out and became sole owner of Celebrity Cruises.

The Italian Liner Galileo was chartered in 1980 and 1981 and was finally purchased in 1983, refurbished and started on 1-7 days cruises out of New York and Miami and became a very popular ship. In 1988 when Chandris founded Celebrity Cruises she was rebuilt and renamed Meridian for Celebrity Cruises.
In 1990, Chandris commissioned their first brand new in Germany purposely-built ships, the sisters Horizon and Zenith.
The Horizon soon developed fame as one of the most elegant, spacious and best designed third generation cruise ship.
But they were rather small in the era of 70,000 GRT fourth generation cruiseship.
The early nineties were years of strong growth in the cruise industry as well, specially in the American market, and the need for more and bigger cruiseship for the Celebrity fleet soon become evident.
And so three even larger luxury cruise ships were followed in 1995 (Century), 1996 (Galaxy) and 1997 (Mercury) for Celebrity Cruises. This was the big step of the Celebrity expansion, after which they became the fifth cruise operators in 1997. By the mid 90s, Celebrity began to loose money in the face of a slowing down of the American market and heavy discounts, its future became uncertain. Celebrity was too small to compete with the three big cruise players: Carnival, RCI and P&O-Princess.

Celebrity Cruise Line was sold to Royal Caribbean International in June 1997 (some months before the delivery of the third Century's series cruiseship, the Mercury). This $1,3 billion operation formed the second largest cruise operator, with a combined fleet of 20 ships, in total over 38,000 berths by the year 2000. RCI maintained Celebrity as a separate branch, and soon began to design the next generation of Celebrity's cruise ship, the Millennium series ( Millennium 90,228 gt, 2000, Summit 90,280gt, 2000, Infinity 90,228gt, 2001 and Constellation 90,280, 2002).

In May 2007 Azamara Cruises was founded by Celebrity Cruises as a new venture in the luxury cruise segment.

Many thanks to Henk Jungerius and Ted Finch for their assistance in collecting this data. The following list was extracted from various sources. This is not an all inclusive list but should only be used as a guide. If you would like to know more about a vessel, visit the Ship Descriptions (onsite) or Immigrant Ship web site.

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Last updated: January 17, 2008 and maintained by and M. Kohli