SS Flandre (1952)
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''Flandre'', later called ''Carla C'', ''Carla Costa'', and ''Pallas Athena'', was an
ocean liner An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). The ...
and
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 ...
that took passengers on transatlantic voyages and on
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 ...
and
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...
cruises from 1952 to 1994. She was operated by the
Compagnie Générale Transatlantique The Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT, and commonly named "Transat"), typically known overseas as the French Line, was a French shipping company. Established in 1855 by the brothers Émile and Issac Péreire under the name ''Compagnie ...
(CGT),
Costa Cruises Società per Azioni, S.p.A. (), operating as Costa Cruises, is an Italian cruise line founded in 1948 and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc since 2000. Based in Genoa, Italy, the cruise line primarily caters to ...
, and the
Epirotiki Line Epirotiki was a shipping company that began in 1850. Epirotiki Line operated cruise vessels, cargo and tanker vessels. Foundation Anastassios Potamianos began his first shipping venture in 1850 transporting cargo and passengers along the Riv ...
.


Building

Ateliers et Chantiers de France The Ateliers et Chantiers de France (ACF, Workshops and Shipyards of France) was a major shipyard that was established in Dunkirk, France, in 1898. The shipyard boomed in the period before World War I (1914–18), but struggled in the inter-war p ...
built her in
Dunkirk Dunkirk ( ; ; ; Picard language, Picard: ''Dunkèke''; ; or ) is a major port city in the Departments of France, department of Nord (French department), Nord in northern France. It lies from the Belgium, Belgian border. It has the third-larg ...
as yard number 206. She was launched on 31 October 1951 and completed in 1952. Her registered length was , her beam was and her depth was . As built, her
tonnage Tonnage is a measure of the capacity of a ship, and is commonly used to assess fees on commercial shipping. The term derives from the taxation paid on '' tuns'' or casks of wine. In modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a cal ...
s were and . ''Flandre'' had twin
screws A screw is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to the screw head, head. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and there are many forms for a variety ...
.
Ateliers et Chantiers de Bretagne Ateliers et Chantiers de Bretagne was a French shipbuilding company of the late 19th and early 20th century, renamed from ''Établissement de la Brosse et Fouché'' in 1909. The shipyard often built destroyers for the French Navy The French ...
built her original engines, which were two sets of
steam turbine A steam turbine or steam turbine engine is a machine or heat engine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work utilising a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Par ...
s, four driving each screw. CGT
registered Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...
''Flandre'' at
Le Havre Le Havre is a major port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy (administrative region), Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the Seine, river Seine on the English Channel, Channe ...
. Her
call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally as ...
was FNRY.


Career


CGT

''Flandre'' was the CGT's first new ocean liner since
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. She began her maiden voyage on 23 July 1952. It was considered a failure, as she suffered mechanical failures throughout the voyage. First, impurities in her
bunker oil A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...
clogged her fuel lines. This rendered her essentially "dead in the water" for four hours while her fuel filters were cleaned out and her boiler furnaces restored to normal. This was repeated later in the voyage, after which 's captain chose to reduce speed for the remainder of the voyage. On arrival at the Quarantine Station at New York, she suffered a short circuit in her main electrical switchboard causing a near-complete loss of power. Nearly three hours later, she had enough power restored to raise her port anchor. A further three hours were required to raise the starboard anchor for her to continue. Unlike most ocean liners' maiden arrivals, where they receive the traditional fireboat welcome while sailing under their own power, arrived in
New York Harbor New York Harbor is a bay that covers all of the Upper Bay. It is at the mouth of the Hudson River near the East River tidal estuary on the East Coast of the United States. New York Harbor is generally synonymous with Upper New York Bay, ...
and received the traditional welcome while under tow by four Moran tugs, and running only one of her own twin propellers. Her funnel put out thick clouds of smoke, seeming to almost be straining as it was doing so. She was initially blowing her whistle as she arrived under tow, but after the whistle failed due to her limited power, the ship's siren was substituted. This lacklustre arrival garnered her the nickname "Flounder" by Manhattan dockers. 's return voyage was delayed to allow engineers to repair her engines. Following her return to France, all of her 1952 sailings were cancelled, and she returned to her builders for thorough repairs. Repairs would take six months, and she returned for the 1953 sailing season. In her CGT career, her passenger configuration was changed several times, with running on the transatlantic route for nine months out of the year, and three months cruising with her near-sister . In 1967, she was withdrawn completely, and was sold to the Italian firm Costa Cruises, who renamed her ''Carla C''.


Costa Cruises

The first assignment for the newly refitted ''Carla C'' was a charter for
Princess Cruises Princess Cruises is an American cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. The company headquarters are in Santa Clarita, California and is incorporated in Bermuda. As of 2025, it is the List of cruise lines#List of cruise lines by size, s ...
, which marketed her as "''Princess Carla''" (the ship was not renamed). It was at this time that a set of producers originated the idea of the popular television-series ''
The Love Boat ''The Love Boat'' is an American romantic comedy-drama television series created by Wilford Lloyd Baumes that originally aired on ABC from September 24, 1977, to May 24, 1986. In addition, three TV movies aired before the regular series pre ...
'' aboard ''Carla C''. Consequently, the first scripts were written on board the ship. The ship proved problematic at first, after problems were found with the
boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...
s. In 1974 and 1975, Costa replaced the boilers with Stork-Werkspoor
diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...
s and ''Carla C'' was returned to service around the Caribbean, where she served until 1992. In 1984, the ship underwent another major refit, to ensure safe travel for its passengers for many years to come. In 1986, ''Carla C'' was renamed ''Carla Costa''. No other changes occurred with the name change. ''Carla Costa'' was a common sight on the San Juan ship dock on Saturdays in that era, and her regularly scheduled route included
Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...
,
Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...
,
Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...
,
Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...
, and
Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands Saint Thomas (, , ) is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. Along with surrounding minor islands, it is one of t ...
.


Epirotiki Line

In 1992, ''Carla Costa'' was sold to the
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
Epirotiki Line Epirotiki was a shipping company that began in 1850. Epirotiki Line operated cruise vessels, cargo and tanker vessels. Foundation Anastassios Potamianos began his first shipping venture in 1850 transporting cargo and passengers along the Riv ...
, and renamed ''Pallas Athena'', after the Greek goddess
Pallas Athene Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress o ...
. For the Epirotiki Line, she ran seven-day cruises from Athens to the Aegean Islands and
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
. On 23 March 1994, ''Pallas Athena'' was destroyed by fire, which caused the superstructure and funnel to cave in on itself. She arrived at the Aliaga Company scrapyards on 25 December 1994, one of only two surviving CGT ocean liners.


In popular culture

or ''Antilles'' appeared as stock footage in the 1964 ''
Perry Mason Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and four short stories, all of which involve a ...
'' episode ''Nautical Knot'', set near
Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , ; ), is a city and Port of Acapulco, major seaport in the Political divisions of Mexico, state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Located on a deep, semicirc ...
,
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
. The scenes on board were filmed on a studio set. P&O Line's equally popular also appears in the episode.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Flandre (1952) 1951 ships 1990s fires in Europe 1994 fires March 1994 Maritime incidents in 1994 Ocean liners Passenger ships of France Passenger ships of Italy Passenger ships of Panama Ship fires Ships built in France Ships of Costa Cruises Ships of Princess Cruises Ships of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique Steamships of France