Lives of the liners: Silver coloring

[Doc Vernon]

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They were great examples of a very basic cargo ship, a standardized wartime Victory ship, redesigned and made over as first-class passenger-carrying ships. The 8,481-ton trio Alcoa Cavalier, Aloca Clipper and Alcoa Corsair sailed on a three-week rotation: New Orleans to Caribbean ports and then return to Mobile. They were fully air-conditioned, had private bathrooms in every room (for the ninety-five maximum passengers) and even an outdoor pool. Owned by the Alcoa Steamship Co (Alcoa for Aluminum Company of America), these ships used lots of exterior silver coloring -- a reminder of their owners' main product.


They sailed from 1947 until 1960, and appear in our new book First Class Cargo and also will have co-starring roles in my talk about passenger-cargo ships on Fri Mar 31st at the Word Ship Society in Manhattan.

[Ivan Cloherty]

They were lovely looking ships remember seeing them around the Caribbean