Canadian Pacific's third Empress of Britain was built by Fairfield
Shipbuilding and Engineering of Glasgow. Launched by Queen Elizabeth II
in 1955, she and her sister Empress of England were reportedly the first
North Atlantic liners to be completely air-conditioned. Her maiden
voyage, on 20 April 1956, was on Canadian Pacific's Liverpool-Montréal
service.
The ship's Canadian Pacific service was short-lived, however, as the age
of transatlantic ocean travel was rapidly coming to an end. She made
her final Liverpool-Montréal trip on 3 September 1963 and was then
chartered to Travel Savings Association for cruising. In November 1964
she was sold to Transoceanic Navigation Corp., a Greek Line company.
Renamed Queen Anna Maria, she was placed on a Piraeus-New York route and
later also served Haifa-New York.
The ship was again sold in 1975, this time to Carnival Cruise Lines, and
renamed Carnivale. She became the FiestaMarina in 1993, and is still in
service as of April 2000 as Epirotiki Cruises' Olympic.
Sources: Haws' Merchant Fleets; Bonsor's North Atlantic Seaway;
Fielding's CruiseFinder
(http://www.fieldingtravel.com/cgi-bin/waisfetch?20103.0+1+1)
