Augustus (ship, 1952)
 The Augustus as a hotel ship Philippines in Manila
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The Augustus was a liner of the Italian Italia Società di Navigazione ( Italian Line ), which was in service for the shipping company from 1952 to 1976. After several renaming and changes of ownership, the ship had been a hotel under the name Philippines in the port of Manila since 1999 until it was sold for scrapping in December 2011.
The construction
After the end of the Second World War , the Italian Line had lost its two largest ships, the Rex and Conte di Savoia , so it was decided to build two new ships: the Augustus and her sister ship Giulio Cesare . The two ships should be almost 30,000 GRT and embody both strength and luxury at sea. The ships had an elegant design and should become "floating grand hotels" according to the Italian Line. The launch of the Augustus took place on November 19, 1950 in Trieste. The ship's godmother was Francesca De Gasperi, the wife of the Italian Prime Minister at the time.
The two double-acting twelve-cylinder diesel engines used in the construction were built in 1941 by the Turin-based manufacturer Fiat Grandi Motori .
Service time for Italian Line
The Augustus started her maiden voyage from Genoa to Buenos Aires on March 4, 1952. In 1957 she was relocated to the North Atlantic route because she had to represent the Andrea Doria , who sank in 1956 . In 1960 she switched back to her old route, since the new transatlantic liner Leonardo da Vinci was now completed. Shortly afterwards she was renovated and modernized together with her sister ship. On January 15, 1976, was Augustus decommissioned and Naples launched .
Service time for Hong Kong and the Philippines
In the spring of 1976 the Augustus was sold to Hong Kong and renamed the Great Sea . In 1980 it was renamed Ocean King . In 1983 the ship was sold to Manila as a floating hotel under the name Philippines . In 1985 she was renamed President , but the ship was launched two years later in Kaohsiung. After ten years of lay, the ship was renovated in 1997 and renamed the Asian Princess in order to be used as a cruise ship . However, these plans proved to be inefficient, so it was reissued. In 1999 she was bought by the hotel group Manila Hotel, renamed again to her old name Philippines and used as a hotel ship in Manila. In 2000, however, the unprofitable hotel ship was put up for sale again.
The last few years
Since the Philippines was the last remaining passenger ship of the famous Italian Line, which was dissolved in 2002, there were many efforts to keep the ship as a museum or hotel. Even so, nobody bought the former luxury liner, so it was in Manila for years. In December 2011 it was announced that the Philippines had been sold for scrapping in India, where the ship arrived that same month. Scrapping began in January and was completed by October 2012.
The sister ship
The Giulio Cesare had a much shorter period of service than her sister ship. She remained successfully in service for over 20 years, but suffered an engine failure during a voyage in January 1973 and had to return to port. The Italian Line decided not to put the ship, which is over 20 years old, back into service. Instead, the Giulio Cesare was towed to La Spezia and scrapped there in 1974. This made her the first post-war Italian passenger ship to be scrapped.
Web links
- Information about the ship (ssMaritime.com)
Individual evidence
- ^ Ruben De Pascale: Save The Augustus. Retrieved July 3, 2015 .
- ↑ Peter Knego: MS PHILIPPINES. Retrieved July 3, 2015 .