It is back to the Clyde again this week with news that The Topaz, the only surviving transatlantic passenger liner built at Glasgow by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, is to be broken up at Alang.
The ship is also the last of the popular Empress liners built for Canadian Pacific Steamships to remain afloat.
As the 25,516gt Empress of Britain , the ship was laid down on September 30, 1953, and launched on June 22, 1955.
Fitted with berths for 160 first and 894 tourist class passengers, the ship commenced its maiden voyage from Liverpool to Quebec and Montreal on April 19, 1956.
The third Canadian Pacific ship of the name, the 20-knot, twin screw, steam turbine vessel was notable in being the first British-built liner to be completely air-conditioned.
In April, 1957, it was joined by its 25,585gt sister ship, Empress of England.
It was built at Newcastle by Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd, which in March, 1961, delivered the last Empress to be built, the larger 27,284gt Empress of Canada.
After being withdrawn from service in April 1970, this ship was sold to the Shaw, Savill Line.
Renamed Ocean Monarch, the ship was employed on the round-the-world service to Australia and New Zealand, and also for cruising.
It was still a relatively young ship when it arrived at Kaohsiung for demolition on July 17, 1975.
Empress of England remained in the fleet until 1972.
The ship served as Mardi Gras, Olympic (twice), Star of Texas, Apollon (twice) and ended up as Apollo by the time it arrived at Alang for breaking up on December 5, 2003.
Although it was sold out of the CP fleet in 1964, Empress of Britain has outlived its two younger running mates.
It operated as Queen Anna Maria until 1975, when it became Carnivale, Fiestamarina from 1993-94, then Olympic, before being renamed The Topaz when bought by Topaz International Shipping Inc in 1998.
Since 2003, the ship has been chartered from time to time by the Japanese-based non-governmental, non-profit Peace Boat organisation, for global voyages.
The latest of these was an 80-day voyage that ended at Yokohama on April 28.
And two days later, the ship left there on its final voyage to the breakers yard.
One is now accustomed to visits in the cruise ship seasons by ships operating under the Holland-America Line and P&O banners.
Like Cunard and other lines, they are now all part of the Carnival Corporation.
Now the largest cruise ship group in the world, it was founded in 1972 as Carnival Cruise Lines.
Interesting, then, that the first ship acquired was the above-mentioned Mardi Gras, ex Empress of England.
Second unit of the fleet, the former Empress of Britain, was renamed Carnivale after being bought from the Greek Line in 1975.
The ship was converted for cruising in 1976.
MSC Rugby, here for the first time last week, has only carried this name, its sixth, since last month.
The 31,356gt, 1822TEU, Cypriot flag vessel is on charter from the Tsakos Shipping and Trading group of Athens.
Delivered from the IHI yard at Aioi in October 1983, the ship was originally the Japan Line's Japan Alliance.
