The lovely SS Nassau, a very popular and ground breaking vessel.
These are some of the daily shipboard activities pamphlets. All from September of 1954.
This is one of programs of the daily activity on the ship.
The SS. Nassau was the first of her kind. A full time cruise ship that traveled all over the islands and in the tropics. Much of her voyages were on the ship, enjoying the ship, not the various ports of call. They called it cruising and that is truly what is was. No big hurry to get anywhere, just to enjoy a vacation on a ship.
Before this time there were a number of ships that would take cruises. But they were not made to be full time cruise ships. When the Nassau was remodeled for her career as a cruise liner. All of her many storage and cargo holds were removed and made into areas to deal with making the voyage more user friendly. More places to do things and enjoy.
She was the first of many ships that have and do follow her. This was not her first career. In fact she was nearly 30 years of age when she took on this role. Here is a list of the five names that this vessel had over the years.
1 SS Mongolia, 1922–1938
2 SS Rimutaka, 1938–1950
3 SS Europa, 1950–1951
4 SS Nassau, 1951–1961
5 SS Acapulco, 1961–1963
Her last days were as a floating hotel at the Seattle Worlds Fair in 1962-63. Sadly after that she was not acceptable to the new shipping and safety laws in the United States and was brought to the scrappers.