The T.S.S. North Star at Bonne Bay, Newfoundland
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CHAPTER 7 The t.s.s. North Star at Bonne Bay, Newfoundland CRUISING YEARS: NASSAU, A NEW FLAGSHIP AND THE WEST INDIES The "New Northland" Returns to Nassau The New Northland had now been laid up at Quebec for two winters, a situation that the cost-conscious company had wanted to correct for some time. Meanwhile, Munson Lines, now being run by trustees, had reduced its Miami-Nassau service to a fortnightly connection, with just ten sailings by the Munargo during the winter of 1934. Finally, over that same winter Canadian National's Prince David had not been a success and it was not of a mind to send her back to Nassau. This all meant that conditions were now ripe for the New Northland to return. The Government of the Bahamas had now agreed to grant Clarke a subsidy to operate the New Northland between Miami and Nassau, starting in 1935. Although she had not called at Nassau since February 1932, when Governor Sir Bede Clifford had gone aboard, Bahamians remembered the high standards and friendly service that had been her trademarks on the route until 1931. There had still been one area of contention, however. Until now, all ships that had operated between Miami and Nassau had done so strictly as night boats, with passengers leaving the ship on arrival and staying in hotels ashore. But Clarke wanted to offer stay aboard cruises as well. A new kind of subsidy was thus required to protect the tourist trade. Desmond Clarke finally came to an agreement with the Bahamians whereby they would pay a subsidy of only £2,000 (or about $10,000) for a winter season of twice-weekly sailings, but this would rise to £3,000 (or about $15,000) if the New Northland matched or exceeded the number of tourists carried by the Prince David the year before. While Clarke wanted to introduce cruises to Nassau, the Bahamians wanted to increase their tourist trade. Thus, only tourists, and not cruise passengers, were to be counted. But this at least guaranteed a minimum subsidy to Clarke, while keeping the Bahamians happy that they would pay the full amount only if its tourist trade grew, or at least did not diminish. The "New York Times" signalled the start of the new Nassau season on January 13, 1935: - The Nassau tourist season will reach its full stride next week, when several major activities are scheduled to take place. A championship tennis tournament will be held on the courts of the British Colonial Hotel from Wednesday - the day after the hotel is opened - to Sunday... Besides the British Colonial, the Fort Montagu Beach Hotel will be opened this week, on Monday. The New Northland of the Clarke Steamship Company will inaugurate a tri-weekly service between Nassau and Miami on Thursday. To look after the new service, Clarke opened a sales and ticketing office in the twelve-story Ingraham Building, at 211 South East First Street, and a dock office at Pier 2. The Ingraham Building, a 1927 product of the firm that had built the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach in 1926, had been designed by the firm that had been responsible for New York's new Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. It was also the location of the main ticket office for the Florida East Coast Railway Co. Meanwhile, the Miami piers were assigned to the various steamship lines as follows: - NE 9th St: Munson Line to New York, Nassau and Havana. NE 10th St: Clarke S S Co to Nassau, Clyde-Mallory S S Co to New York, Jacksonville and Galveston, and P&O S S Line to Key West and Havana. NE 11th St: Merchants & Miners Line to Jacksonville, Savannah, Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston. Clarke now controlled its own affairs, operating the New Northland's Miami-Nassau service for its own account rather than chartering her to Munson Lines as in the past. Munson meanwhile carried on, with the Munargo sailing from Nassau to Miami one week and from Miami to Nassau the next. Nassau agents for both lines were R H Curry & Co, the company that had represented Clarke in its first cruising season, when representatives had travelled on the New Northland's first Caribbean cruise in 1927. Cruising from Miami With the New Northland back on the run, sailing for Clarke's own account once again, the company went about re-introducing cruising to Miami. The difference was clear. In 1931, the New Northland's last season with Munson Lines, the Nassau brochure had read "Overnight from Miami" and "Sailing List and General Information." And although the "New York Times" had talked about a tri-weekly service, Clarke had in mind something different. The cover of its 1935 Miami-Nassau brochure carried a colour portrait of a handsome white-hulled New Northland, offering "Inclusive cruises" with fares from $29.50 for three nights or $35 for four nights. These were in addition to the usual one-way and round-trip fares. The basis of the cruise fares was explained inside: - Passengers making round trip to Nassau on same sailing may purchase inclusive tour tickets which will enable them to use the ship as their hotel during the stay in Nassau, and which include all meals and stateroom accommodation from Miami back to Miami; these inclusive rates effect a considerable saving for passengers. Monday sailings provide a 30-hour stay in Nassau; Thursday sailings provide a 54-hour stay. Meanwhile, Clarke's New York office, which had been opened in the late 1920s to market Gulf of St Lawrence cruises in the United States, would now be active selling both summer cruises to Labrador and winter cruises to the Bahamas, particularly as most of the company's passengers tended to come from the US northeast. In 1935, 83,000 passengers would cruise from United States ports. And although not all that travelled would be cruisers, the New Northland, with 149 berths over twenty-eight sailings that winter, would be able to carry more than 4,000 to Nassau. Miami's White Cruise Ship For her new role, the New Northland, under the command of Capt Boucher, was refitted in the St Lawrence before proceeding to Nassau in December. There, she received the final touches to her new livery, conditions there being better for painting than in the increasingly wintery St Lawrence. Her black hull and funnel had now given way to a resplendent cruise ship garb of shiny white hull, green boot-topping, thin blue riband around her hull at main deck level, and buff funnel carrying four blue bands. White reflected heat but black absorbed it, something that had caused the United Fruit Company to paint its ships white since it began carrying bananas and passengers in 1899. The "Miami Daily News" recorded her arrival on January 16, under "New Northland Docks in Miami": - Bearing a new coat of white paint to withstand the semi-tropical sun, the s.s. New Northland of Clarke Steamship Co Ltd, arrived at Pier 2, municipal docks, at 11:30 am today to inaugurate a bi-weekly sailing service between Miami and Nassau tomorrow. The vessel has just completed sailings between Montreal and Quebec, Canada, and Newfoundland and Labrador. It was used here in 1927 in a Palm Beach-Miami-Nassau-Havana service. Desmond Clarke, president of the company, was host to mayors of Miami, Miami Beach and Coral Gables and other officials and business men in a luncheon aboard the vessel at noon. The vessel will be open to public inspection between 8:30 and 10:30 pm tonight with attendants on hand to serve as guides, and an orchestra in the Pirate's Den, after-deck salon, for dancing... Full booking was indicated for the vessel's maiden departure from Miami at 4 pm tomorrow... Sir George Johnson, president of the Nassau Development board, was aboard the vessel as it docked this morning and outlined coming Nassau activities: "First arrival of the New Northland at 9 am on Saturday," he said, "will coincide with the opening of Colonel Henry L Doherty's British Colonial hotel. Montagu Beach hotel opened last Monday. A dinner and ball at the British Colonial hotel ... will be held Saturday night. Montagu Park race horse track will open in the afternoon. Paradise Beach, bathing strip, will also be open... Sir George said Nassau expects its best season this year, particularly welcoming Colonel Doherty, "who has succeeded so wonderfully in Florida," in his purchase of the British Colonial hotel. An obvious influence on Clarke's new livery was Canadian Pacific, whose "Empresses" carried the same colours but without the four funnel bands. Canadian Pacific's first "White Empresses" had sailed the Pacific in 1891, but more recently the company had brought the colour scheme to the Atlantic. There had also been a recent tendency to paint ships white when they went cruising, something that had been encouraged in 1931, when Cunard Line's Mauretania, that other Swan Hunter product that had now been sent cruising, emerged with a white hull. Thus, on January 17, after an absence of three seasons, save for a solitary Nassau call in 1932, the New Northland found herself once again in Miami, casting off her lines and setting course for the Bahamas in a new winter cruise service. Among her 170 passengers that day were Desmond Clarke, Sir George and Lady Johnson, representing the Government of the Bahamas, and Mrs Sewell, wife of the Mayor of Miami, plus other dignitaries. The year was a signal one for Miami, as New Years Day had seen the first playing of footballs Orange Bowl.