Excalibur
1948
(Carlo Marquardt CMKR-471)
- Type: Passenger / general cargo
- Displacement: 9,644 grt
- Dimensions: 473 x 66 x 20 ft.
- Machinery: Steam turbines, single screw = 17 knots
- Passengers: 125 all first class
- Builder: Bethlehem Steel Company, Sparrows Point, Maryland, 1944
- Service: One of American Export Lines' postwar "Four Aces", which included Excalibur, Excambion, Exeter. and Exochorda. They were built as type C3-S-A3 Navy attack transports USS Dutchess (APA-98), USS Queens (APA-103), USS Shelby (APA-105), and USS Dauphin (APA-97), respectively. All converted to combi-liners in 1948. First fully air conditioned commercial passenger ships; all cabins had private bath. The ships ran a popular six-week round-trip service from New York Harbor (Jersey City, later Hoboken) to the Mediterranean (Cadiz, Barcelona, Marseilles, Naples, Alexandria, Beirut, Naples, Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, Barcelona, and home via Boston). On June 27, 1950, Excalibur collided with the Danish-flag freighter Colombia off Brooklyn and nearly sank. She was refloated, repaired, and returned to service. Excambion and Exochorda were withdrawn in 1958; the former becoming the cadet training ship Texas Clipper for Texas A&M University, and the latter a floating student dormitory for Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken. Excalibur and Exeter were retired in 1964 and later sold to C.Y.Tung's Orient Overseas Line. Engaged in passenger-cargo service between San Francisco and the Far East before being broken up in 1974.
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