SS Lurline (1932)
SS Lurline at Honolulu in the 1930s
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| History | |
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| Name: | Lurline |
| Owner: | |
| Builder: | Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Fore River Shipyard |
| Laid down: | 1931 |
| Launched: | 1932 |
| Christened: |
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| Maiden voyage: | 12 January 1933 |
| Fate: | Scrapped in Taiwan in 1987 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ocean liner |
| Tonnage: | 18,163 GRT |
| Length: | 632 ft (193 m) |
| Beam: | 79 ft (24 m) |
| Speed: |
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| Capacity: |
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| Crew: | 359 |
SS ("screw steamer") Lurline was the third Matson Lines vessel to hold that name and the last of four fast and luxurious ocean liners that Matson built for the Hawaii and Australasia runs from the West Coast of the United States. Lurline's sister ships were SS Malolo, SS Mariposa and SS Monterey. Lurline served as a troopship in World War II operated by War Shipping Administration agents serving Army troop transport requirements.
Rechristened in 1963 by Chandris Lines as the (Royal Hellenic Mail Ship) RHMS Ellinis, the ship became one of the most important luxury cruise ships on the Australian and New Zealand services. She operated in Australasia and Oceania until 1980.
William Matson had first come to appreciate the name in the 1870s while serving as skipper aboard the Claus Spreckels family yacht Lurline (a poetic variation of Lorelei, the Rhine river siren) out of San Francisco Bay. Matson met his future wife, Lillie Low, on a yacht voyage he captained to Hawaii; the couple named their daughter Lurline Berenice Matson. Spreckels sold a 150-foot brigantine named Lurline to Matson so that Matson could replace his smaller schooner Emma Claudina and double the shipping operation which involved hauling supplies and a few passengers to Hawaii and returning with cargos of Spreckels sugar. Matson added other vessels to his nascent fleet and the brigantine was sold to another company in 1896. Matson built a steamship named Lurline in 1908; one which carried mainly freight yet could hold 51 passengers along with 65 crew. This steamer served Matson for twenty years, including a stint with United States Shipping Board during World War I. Matson died in 1917; his company continued under a board of directors.
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