(later USS West Point, America, Australis, America, Italis, American Star, America) Liner (2f/2m).
L/B:
723 loa × 93.5 (220.4m × 28.5m). Tons:
26,594 grt. Hull:
steel. Comp.:
1st 516, cabin 371, tourist 159. Mach.:
steam turbine, 2 screws; 22 kts. Des.:
William Francis Gibbs. Built:
Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Va.; 1940.
Designed for the North Atlantic passenger trade, America was intended to take the place of the recently retired
Leviathan as the flagship of the United States Lines' prewar fleet. Laid down in 1938, she was launched on August 31, 1939, one day before the German invasion of Poland plunged Europe into World War II. Rather than enter the prestigious North Atlantic passenger trade, America first sailed from New York for cruises to the Caribbean and California. Recalled to Newport News in May 1941, she was commissioned as the troopship USS West Point (AP-23) in June, with a capacity for 8,750 troops. In November 1941, she sailed as part of a convoy of Canadian troops bound for Singapore via Cape Town, where she arrived two days after Pearl Harbor, and Bombay. She evacuated 1,276 people from Singapore two weeks before the fall of the port in February. Thereafter she saw extensive service between the Mediterranean and Australia and New Zealand, followed by trooping duties to the Pacific and Europe.
In 1946 West Point was dropped from the Navy list and after a $6 million refit entered the service for which she was originally intended, leaving New York for her first peacetime voyage from New York to Cobh, Southampton, and Le Havre on November 10. America later called at Cherbourg and, after 1951, Bremen. But as passenger jets began to cut into North Atlantic passenger traffic, in the early 1960s, America was forced to augment her North Atlantic service with cruises to the Caribbean. In 1964 she was withdrawn from North Atlantic service, sold to the Chandris Group's Okeania S/A, and renamed Australis for service in the immigrant trade from Britain to Australia. She carried 2,658 passengers in one class, more than any other passenger ship then in service, departing from Southampton and proceeding via Piraeus and the Suez Canal, Australia, the Panama Canal, Port Everglades, and Southampton. (Following the closing of the Suez Canal during the Arab-Israeli War in 1967, she sailed via Cape Town.)
After 1976, the fate of the former flagship of the United States merchant marine became increasingly frenetic. She was transferred from Panamanian to Greek registry, and made her last voyage from Southampton to New Zealand, where she was laid up at Timaru. In 1978, she was sold to New York-based Venture Cruise Lines, which went bust after two incompetently managed cruises of the now renamed America. Repurchased by Chandris in 1978, she was renamed Italis, her forward dummy funnel was removed, and she entered service as a cruise ship from Barcelona. Laid up for most of the 1980s, she was eventually renamed American Star and purchased by Thai interests for conversion to a floating hotel. While under tow to Ahuket in January 1994, she was blown ashore by a hurricane on the island of Fuertaventura, Canary Islands, and split in two.
Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway. Miller, SS "United States." U.S. Navy, DANFS.
