The Eastern Steamship Line (later Eastern Cruise Line), was a cruise line operating second hand ships on short

Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of its population. ...

and

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 ...

cruises from the 1960s to the late 1980s. The name was a revival from the famed original

Eastern Steamship Lines Eastern Steamship Lines was a shipping company in the United States that operated from 1901 to 1955. It was created through successive mergers by Wall Street financier and speculator Charles W. Morse.Robert F. Bruner and Sean D. Carr, ''The Panic ...

that sailed the eastern seaboard in the early to mid twentieth century.

History

In 1954 Frank L. Fraser purchased the two final ships of the original

, ''Yarmouth (Queen of Nassau,'' and later renamed ''Yarmouth Castle)'' and ''

Evangeline ''Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie'' is an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in English and published in 1847. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel during the e ...

'' both for what's then known as the Eastern Shipping Corporation. In 1958 the ''Yarmouth'' sailed to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, for one last summer season, going on government subsidies. They would be joined by the SS ''Bahama Star'' in 1959, and SS ''Ariadne'' in November 1960. In May 1961, owner Frank L. Fraser had passed full control of the company to William R. Lovett (of Winn-Dixie supermarkets), with the name being changed to Eastern Steamship Corporation. In 1963, the original Eastern ships would eventually be sold off. The '' Yarmouth Castle'' would go to the Chadade Steamship Company, which formed a new subsidiary line, Yarmouth Cruise Line, and the ''

'' sold to Caribbean Cruise Line. In 1965, Eastern's owner Lovett would rename the company Eastern Steamship Line, reviving the former Eastern Steamship Lines company name. In 1968 the line acquired the even larger ''Miami'' from the Peninsular & Occidental Steamship Co and renamed her ''New Bahama Star''. In 1970 The Eastern Steamship Line was bought out by Gotass Larsen, who was one of the owners of the new

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Royal Caribbean International (RCI), formerly Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL), is a cruise line founded in 1968 in Norway and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Caribbean Group since 1997. Based in Miami, Florida, it is the Lis ...

. In 1972 the ''Ariadne'' would be sold, and replaced with the larger TSS ''Emerald Seas'', which was purchased from

Chandris Line Chandris Line was a Greece, Greek shipping company founded in 1960 by Antonios Chandris to operate ocean liners between Greece and Australia.#Plowman, Plowman (2006–1). pp. 5–6. Initially the company also traded under the names ''Greek Austral ...

as the ''Atlantis''. In 1981 the company was renamed again to the more modern Eastern Cruise Line.

Merger

In 1986, Eastern Cruise Line was merged along with Western Cruise Lines and Sundance Cruises to form

Admiral Cruises Admiral Cruises was a cruise line that operated cruises on the Eastern and Western coasts of the United States. It was formed in 1986 as a merger of three small cruise lines and was acquired by Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in 1988. The brand was di ...

. The line would later be dissolved by partner line

in 1991, with most of the ships sold off, and the first planned new build, '' Future Seas,'' being transferred to Royal Caribbean as the '' Nordic Empress,'' the last legacy of the Eastern Steamship Lines''.''

Fleet List

* SS ''Bahamas Star'' * SS ''Ariadne'' * ''SS New Bahama Star'' * TSS ''Emerald Seas''

References

{{Reflist

External links

Emerald Seas Film (1978)
Cruise lines Defunct cruise lines Defunct companies based in Florida Defunct shipping companies of the United States