AUG 1958 FIRST & TOURIST CLASS LIST OF PASSENGERS SS MAASDAM HOLLAND AMERICA for Sale

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AUG 1958 FIRST & TOURIST CLASS LIST OF PASSENGERS SS MAASDAM HOLLAND AMERICA For Sale

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AUG 1958 FIRST & TOURIST CLASS LIST OF PASSENGERS SS MAASDAM HOLLAND AMERICA:
$22.00

1958 FIRST & TOURIST CLASS LIST OF PASSENGERS SS MAASDAM HOLLAND-AMERICA LINE
Areas of light staining. Passenger hand plotted progress on last page. Please see photos for details. Note lighting variations may alter colors of item in photos.
FP18
From the Great Oceanliners website:
On April 5th 1952, the day of launch had finally arrived. Christened Maasdam by Mrs. Adriaan Gips, the new ship was the fourth HAL vessel in history to be given that name. But she was not completed yet, as she still had her fitting-out in front of her. This, however, went along at a rapid pace and after having gone through her sea trials satisfactory, the ship was officially handed over to the company on August 10th 1952, which was ahead of schedule. Subsequently, her maiden voyage, which had been scheduled for September 24th, was pushed back by a little more than one month. And so, on August 11th, Maasdam slipped her moorings and left Rotterdam for the first time. Her final destination was New York, with calls at Le Havre and Southampton along the way. This premiere sailing was a bit special though, as it also included a call at Montreal, which was arranged in recognition of ‘the ever-closening ties between Canada and the Netherlands’. On August 27th, Maasdam arrived at New York where she was greeted as the last of three new ships in 1952, the other two being the United States and the French Line’s Flandre.

As with the Ryndam a year earlier, Maasdam gained much attention because of her revolutionary design. Except for some differences in décor, the two sisters were virtually identical. For the first time on the North Atlantic run, the ships had been designed almost exclusively for Tourist Class business. There was a First Class, but this had only 39 berths, and was mainly incorporated in order to comply with the two-class requirement of the trans-Atlantic Passenger Steamship Conference. First Class was secluded on Boat Deck, while the rest of the ship was devoted to Tourist Class. There was no doubt for whom these ships had been designed, and the budget travellers were given plenty of space on these new liners. 63% of the cabins were two-berth, and although they were mainly inside cabins without sea view and only a washbasin, they were all completely air-conditioned and public facilities were ample and conveniently placed. Furthermore, there was a large number of public areas to choose from; the large Palm Court forward, a library, a card room and the Smoking Room, which was located aft. Both ships were also equipped with an outdoor swimming pool aft on the Promenade Deck, since they were also intended for cruising in the winter season.

Outwardly, there were a few ‘firsts’ as well. Ryndam and Maasdam were the first passenger ships to sport the new Holland America livery, namely a dove grey hull with a yellow band. The buff, green and white funnel colours introduced back in 1898 were retained, but the funnel design was a new one. Although they had initially been designed with a conventional funnel like that of the Noordam, Ryndam and Maasdam were ultimately fitted with a Strombos Aerofoil funnel, which had been introduced on the French liner President de Cazalet in 1950. This type of funnel was very thin, which resulted in reduced wind resistance and created a slipstream that conveniently carried away the smoke. In all, the two ships might have appeared a bit stocky, with their large superstructure placed on hulls of freighter dimensions. In addition to this, Ryndam and Maasdam were certainly not very fast ships. Their freighter engines (two cross-compound General Electric steam turbines built in 1945) gave them a service speed of only 16.5 knots. This resulted in a crossing time of eight days from Britain to New York, but on the other hand it meant a daily fuel consumption of just 53 tons.

However, this seemed to matter very little when attracting passengers. Marketed as ‘The Economy Twins’, Ryndam and Maasdam became highly popular vessels. During her first year in service, Maasdam achieved an average load factor of 85% on crossings and 96% on cruises, on which the two classes were merged into a single one. Thanks to their low running costs, the two sisters could offer passages at very affordable costs. Indeed, other shipping companies would soon adopt the economy concept, for instance Cunard who later introduced their Saxonia class in 1954.

In the summer of 1991, the old liner once again found herself standing in the spotlights for a brief time when an Italian-French company used her for a production, in which she was given the script name Las Delicias. In August that summer, following her short stint as an actress, the ship was once again towed to Piraeus, this time to undergo a conversion into a modern cruise liner.

But, once again fate intervened. The ambitions conversion plans were soon shelved, and not much happened to the old vessel. Spending nearly eight years in lay-up at Chalkis in Greece, the Stefan was finally sold for demolition in 2000. On March 22nd that year, she arrived at the beach of Aliaga in Turkey, and the local shipbreakers started the task of cutting her up. Before the year was over, the former Maasdam had been completely dismantled. With that, a career that had lasted for nearly half a century came to a definite end.