LAST VOYAGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 138, 14 June 1938, Page 6

LAST VOYAGES.

An exceptionally large number of famous liners seem to be ending their ocean-going careers about now. The average life of a liner is about a quarter of a century, and many vessels wliicli, as comparatively new [craft, earned fame during the war, .are now about to be broken up. Among ocean-going favourites who have gone in recent weeks, to the scrapper's yard are the Berengaria, Moldavia and Kaiser-i-Hind. The last-named met more German submarines during the war than any .other British merchant craft, and earned a reputation for luck, since she got away with it every time and without suffering damage. She fetched only' £28,000 as her breaking-up : price. ,Tlie Berengaria was the last of the ' German liners tal.jn over by Great Britain Lifter the Armistice, and she now goes the way of the Leviathan (ex-Vaterland), Majestic (exBismarck) and Homeric. The Moldavia is only sixteen years old—young to be scrapped; but changes in tlie Australian and Indian trades have led to a complete reorganisation of the P. and 0. fleet. The Moldavia (and her sister ship the Mongolia) arc not now regarded, as economical. The procession of famous ships to the scrap* yards has been continuous during the last few weejes, and, many more are making their last voyages. Each carries a cargo of travellers' memories.