MV ''Cunard Ambassador'' was a

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports of call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours k ...

planned as one of a class of eight ships for the charter airline

Overseas National Airways Overseas National Airways (ONA) was a supplemental air carrier (also known as an irregular air carrier or a non-scheduled carrier) during the period in which the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), a now defunct United States Federal agency, tightly ...

. At the same time, the

Cunard Line The Cunard Line ( ) is a British shipping and an international cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its four ships have been r ...

was moving into the cruise market because the increasing popularity of international flights meant that its transatlantic passenger services were no longer viable.

Ship history

Because of the cost of the eight-ship project,

soon ran into financial troubles and was forced to abandon it. Cunard saw the opportunity and quickly took the project on, soon reducing the order to two ships, which it christened '' Cunard Adventurer'' (1971) and ''Cunard Ambassador'' (1972). Both ships were intended for seven-day cruises, including

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

to other

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

ports, and

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

during the summer seasons. The two ships were less successful than intended. ''Cunard Adventurer'' was soon sold and became ''Sunward II'' and later ''Triton''; ''Cunard Ambassador'' was withdrawn from

Cunard The Cunard Line ( ) is a British shipping and an international cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its four ships have been r ...

service on September 12, 1974 after a fire on a positioning trip. There were no passengers on board and no fatalities but, after being towed to

Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...

, the ship was declared a total loss. The hulk was sold as a gutted hull and refitted to become the Danish sheep carrier, ''Linda Clausen'' later the same year. In 1980, she was sold again and became ''Procyon''. In April 1981 she again caught fire, whilst bunkering in Singapore; the salvors Smit, SISEA and SELCO successfully fought the fire. The ship was again repaired and, in 1983, renamed ''Raslan''. In 1983, only a year after being rechristened ''Raslan'', she suffered another devastating fire in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

. The ship was deemed was beyond economic repair so after thirteen years of service the hulk was sold to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

ese ship breakers and scrapped.

Influence

Shortly after the sale of ''Cunard Adventurer'' and the first fire on ''Cunard Ambassador'',

planned two new ships, '' Cunard Countess'' and ''Cunard Conquest'', later changed to '' Cunard Princess''. The design incorporated many features of the failed ''Adventurer'' and ''Ambassador'' including a similar sleek profile and angular funnel and the white-painted hull.

References

*“Picture History of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth”, William H. Miller Jr., Dover Publications Inc., 2004 *“Picture History of the Cunard Line 1840–1990”, Frank O. Braynard and William H. Miller Jr., Dover Publications Inc., 1990 *“Doomed Ships; Great Ocean Liner Disasters”, William H. Miller Jr., Dover Publications Inc., 2006

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cunard Ambassador Cruise ships Ships built in Rotterdam 1972 ships Ship fires Ships of the Cunard Line