BY THEODORE W. SCULL

The following photographs were taken during a two-night cruise out to sea aboard the ISLAND BREEZE
leaving New York on May 31, 1996 and returning two days later.
Premier Cruise Lines’ ISLAND BREEZE was originally completed in 1961 by John Brown & Co. (Clydebank) as Union-Castle’s final mail ship, the 32,697-ton, 22.5-knot TRANSVAAL CASTLE for passenger, cargo and Royal Mail service between England and South Africa. She carried up to 728 passengers in one class and a crew of 426 and was known as the Grand Hotel of the South Atlantic. In 1966, she was transferred to South African Marine Corporation and renamed S.A. VAAL. She maintained the same route until 1977 when the South African route closed down. Carnival Cruises Lines had the ship rebuilt in Japan into the full-time 1,431-passenger cruise ship FESTIVALE, eliminating the vast cargo spaces and extending the superstructure. After 20 years operating for Carnival, she passed to Dolphin Cruise Line as the ISLAND BREEZE. Dolphin then became Premier Cruise Lines, the ship’s last operator. Finally renamed BIG RED BOAT III, she sailed on until Premier’s bankruptcy in September 2000, and after being laid up for nearly three years, she was sent to the scrap yard at Alang, India in 2003.