page_title: SS Southern Cross (1954)
section_title: 1991-2003
hierarchical_section_title: SS Southern Cross (1954) / Service history / 1991-2003
caption_attribution_description: English: Imperial Majesty Oceanbreeze in Nassau, Bahamas, 2000.
context_page_description: SS Southern Cross was an ocean liner built in 1955 by Harland & Wolff, Belfast, Northern Ireland for the United Kingdom-based Shaw, Savill & Albion Line for Europe—Australia service. In 1975 she was rebuilt as a cruise ship and subsequently sailed under the names Calypso, Azure Seas and OceanBreeze until 2003 when she was sold for scrap to Ahmed Muztaba Steel Industries, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
  The Southern Cross was the first passenger ship of over 20,000 gross register tons to be built that had the engine room located near the stern, rather than amidships. She started a trend of aft-engined ships, and today most passenger ships are built this way. Southern Cross was also the first major liner to have no cargo space, other than for ship's stores and passenger luggage.
context_section_description: Renamed SS OceanBreeze and sporting a new white-funnelled livery with curving blue stripes along the hull, the now 36-year-old ship started cruising on a seven-night itinerary from Aruba in 1992. In 1996 OceanBreeze was moved to cruising from New York and Florida. Another change of ownership was in order for the ship in 1997 when Dolphin Cruise Line, Premier Cruises and Seawind Cruises merged to form Premier Cruise Line. OceanBreeze was re-painted in the new company's colours, with a dark-blue funnel and a blue-and-yellow hull, but otherwise her service continued as it had before.
  In 1999, Premier Cruise Lines chartered OceanBreeze to the newly founded Imperial Majesty Cruises. Her old name, crew and hull colours were maintained, only the company name (on the hull) and the logo on the funnel was changed. Imperial Majesty placed OceanBreeze on two-night cruises from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau. The ship proved to be very popular on this route, and later in 1999 (some sources state early 2000) Imperial Majesty Cruises decided to buy her. In October 2000 she was remodeled at Newport News at the cost of $3,500,000 with more up to date interiors.  OceanBreeze was expected by many to continue sailing until the new SOLAS-regulations came into effect in 2010, but this proved not to be, as OceanBreeze - while popular - was actually not at all well suited for the itinerary she was used for. Running a steam turbine–powered ship on two-night itineraries was highly expensive, and an additional $5 million would have been needed to convert the ship to conform to the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition to this the ship, not having bow thrusters, needed costly assistance from tugs every time she visited a port. When another more profitable lease agreement presented in June 2003 for the MS Regal Empress, being a less restrictive ship than the OceanBreeze, Imperial Majesty Cruises decided to sell OceanBreeze for scrap. A campaign entitled "save the Southern Cross" commenced immediately thereafter, but in spite of many offers of assistance and months of hard work by an Australian-based, she was beached on 5 November 2003 at the Ahmed Muztaba Steel Industries yard located approximately 18 kilometres from Chittagong, Bangladesh and broken up for scrap metal, by late 2004 the scrapping was completed.
caption: OceanBreeze docked in Nassau, Bahamas, 2000.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2009:11:19 15:56:28", "Image ExifOffset": "172", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "310", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2515", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1130", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "530"}