SS OCEANIC
Oceanic
was an ocean liner built by Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico,
Monfalcone in 1962. She was delivered to Home Lines on
March 1, 1965. Oceanic departed on her maiden voyage
to New York on April 3 1965.
What
really set the Oceanic apart from most other ships at
that time was the combination cruiser and transom stern.
The main purpose of this transom design was to increase
propulsion efficiency by improving water flow below the
stern. Four decades later, the same design patented by Nicolo Costanzi was echoed in the stern architecture of
the QUEEN MARY 2.
SS Oceanic was designed as a combined two-class ocean
liner and one-class cruise ship, running line voyages
from Cuxhaven, Southampton, and Le Havre to Canada
during the northern hemisphere summer and cruising
during the winter. As built, she accommodated up to
1,600--230 first class and 1,370 tourist class. For
cruise duties, her capacity was lowered to 1,200
passengers.
Intended for trans-ocean service,
Oceanic was
constructed with the stringent requirements of North
Atlantic wear and tear in mind. This included a hull
strengthened for navigation through ice and having the
shell plating below the waterline of the welded variety.
A vast number of "firsts" had been implemented in
Oceanic. One was that Oceanic was constructed without
any sheer line in the passenger areas, and only a slight
sheer in the bow and stern section of the hull. Now, no
modern cruise vessel is build with a sheer line. Other
forward-looking features that are still included in
present-day cruise ships: a magrodome covering the pool
area, life-boats located not on the top of the ship, but
on separate lifeboat bays, lower on the hull. Also, the
dining room had no space and view interupting columns.
In 1982, Home Lines took delivery of the
new MS Atlantic, which supplanted the Oceanic as the
company flagship. Oceanic was sold to Premier Cruise
Line in 1985, after 21 years of service.
After an extensive refit, Oceanic was renamed StarShip
Oceanic and commenced cruising for Premier in 1986.
Departing from Port Canaveral she undertook mostly three
and four night cruises to Nassau and Salt Cay.
Renamed
Big Red Boat I,
the ship became known for offering
the best cruise value to the Bahamas, which could be
combined with a Walt Disney World vacation.
Following the collapse of Premier in September 2000,
Big Red Boat I was acquired by a Pullmantur Cruises who
renamed her Oceanic once again. She successfully cruised
for this company to the point they have now acquired a
good number of other excellent ships.
In February/March 2009 Pullmantur Cruises negotiated a
bareboat charter of the superb SS Oceanic to the well
known Japanese Peace Boat organization. Although she was
the Big Red Boat I for a short time, but they never
removed the Oceanic from her hull completely. Usually
most ships are renamed when they join a new company.
However, Peace Boat did make a very minor alteration;
they added “The” before her name “Oceanic.”
On Friday 5 May 2012, the SS Oceanic sailed to Yokohama
on its last cruise for Peace Boat. The vessel returned
to Pullmantur Cruises in exchange for the Ocean Dream,
which became the new Peace Boat vessel. The Oceanic was
sent to Zhoushan, China for scrapping in July 2012.
This primarily wood model of the
SS Oceanic features:
- Authenticity: we build
the model from the ship's plans. Other companies build
their models from photos and made many wrongs. One
serious error on their model is the waterline which is
too low. A ship with a waterline like
that would capsize easily. Another 'deadly' error
happens at the sun deck, near the mast.
- Home port's name under
the ship's name on the stern. This is basic yet many mediocre
producers miss.
- The dome is correctly
comprised of many overlapped pieces.
- Bulbous bow.
-
Plank-on-frame hull
that allows and beautiful curves. Windows and portholes are uniform and
aligned.
- Captivating
lighting, with different colors and green/red navigation
light that will light up your special evenings.
We are the only one in the world whose
ships have realistic multiple light colors. LED light powered by standard 9v battery for your
convenience.
We buil three sizes for
the SS Oceanic model:
27"
long (1/350 scale)
$3,125 Shipping and insurance in
the contiguous USA included.
Other places: $300 flat rate.
47"
long (1/200 scale)
$5,070
Shipping and insurance in the contiguous USA included.
Other places: $500 flat rate. Red hull StarShip
Oceanic version as showed.
65" long
(1/144 scale)
$6,900 Shipping and insurance in
the contiguous USA included.
Other places: $700 flat rate.
We accept
commissions to built this model as Home Lines or Peace
Boat versions.
Learn more about the
SS Oceanic here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Oceanic_(1963)
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