Cunard, a household name among the great ocean liners of the past. While many other companies troughout history went bankrupt by the time aviation was kicking in, Cunard managed to survive somehow, even trough troubled times, the company managed to continue to operate some of the finest ships afloat. While the history of the company and some of the best known ships like the Queen Elizabeth 2 and later the Queen Mary 2 can be found on multiple pages on the internet and some on this site, here we 're going to see a somewhat underdog of a ship ... the Caronia.
Nope ... we 're not talking about the green goddes of 1948! By Caronia I mean the former Vistafjord. She was built for Norwegian America Line (later Norwegian American Cruises) in 1973 and was based on the older Sagafjord of 1965. By 1983 Trafalgar House (owner of Cunard line) acquired NAC and both of these ships were transferred to the Cunard fleet under the same names. By 1999 the Vistafjord was renamed Caronia in tradition with other Cunard names, she was the 3rd ship in the Cunard fleet to carry the name. Later both ships would sail for Saga cruises under the names Saga Rose (former Sagafjord) and Saga Ruby (former Vistafjord) before eventually being sold for scrap.
In early 2004 I cruised on the Caronia out of Southampton, below is an album of the photos I took on this trip.