1960–1974 Chandris Line In 1959
Antonios J. Chandris, son of the Greek freight shipping company owner
John D. Chandris, decided to establish a new passenger shipping company to carry
migrants from Europe to Australia. Together with his brother
Dimitri Chandris, Antonios Chandris had previously been involved in
Charlton Steam Shipping Company's failed migrant service in the 1940s, but now wanted to attempt entering the migrant trade again. In October 1959 Antonios Chandris purchased from
Union-Castle Line for
£1.5 million as the first ship of the new Chandris Line. Following delivery to Chandris Line on 19 November 1959 the
Bloemfontein Castle was renamed
Patris and rebuilt with increased passenger capacity for migrant service. Initially the
Patris’s operator was marketed as Greek-Australian Line, later National Greek-Australian Line. In November 1960 Chandris Line chartered the from
Société Générale de Transports Maritimes. During the
Northern Hemisphere summer seasons of 1961 and 1962 the ship was chartered to
Caribbean Cruise Line for cruises out of
New York City, spending the rest of the year in liner service between the
United Kingdom and Australia. In April 1962 the
Bretagne was renamed , but she was destroyed by a fire while in drydock in April 1963. The
Brittanys UK-Australia version was marketed as Europe-Australia Line. A second
United States -built liner joined the Chandris Line fleet in November 1964 when was purchased from the
United States Lines. Following rebuilding she entered service with Chandris Line in August 1965 as , joining
Ellinis on the UK-Australia service. The
Australis particularly proved to be an extremely popular ship on the run from United Kingdom to Australia, usually operating at full capacity. For some time the
Queen Frederica was marketed as a Chandris Lines/National Hellenic American Line ship. The
Queen Fredericas cruise service from New York proved short, as new legislation came in effect in the US at the end of 1967, aimed at improving safety standards on cruise ships. Bringing the
Queen Frederica in-line with the new requirements would have been extremely costly, and as a result she was withdrawn from the North American cruise service in September 1967. As a replacement Chandris Line acquired the former Union-Castle liner , which was renamed and entered cruise service for Chandris Line in August 1968. In 1970 Matson Line offered another of their ships—the second 1932-built
Lurline, originally named
Monterey and a sister ship to the
Ellinis—for sale in 1970, Chandris Line were quick to purchase the ship. Soon the popularity of Chandris grew tremendously low, with more focused needed on Celebrity, so it was decided to dissolve all other assets. After almost 37 years, Chandris Lines began to stop all operations in 1996, this plan ending with the phasing out of their Fantasy Cruises branch and layup of the
Britanis in 1998. To this date only one Chandris ship, the cruise ferry
The Azur, has not been scrapped. ==Ships==