According to Bill Miller's "The Chandris liners", the ATLANTIS left San Francisco as seen above, on April 12, 1970.

To be fair to the USN, Chandris should have known this, after all she was built as a naval vessel and fuel economy would have been the last thing on the mind of the ship designer, Chandris probably assumed she would be comparable to the Ellinis, Quee Frederica and Britanis built for commercial US owners who did care about fuel economy, which had been a great success in his fleet.

Well, my only Chandris experience was aboard The Victoria and it was a cruise experience that could not have been faulted. The food and service was superb and the ship was stunning. I regretted then not having experienced several of their other ships.

I always remember what Gary Bannerman once told me about Chandris cruises, the big X on the funnel meant 'don't go' they have refined their art of cruising since those early days! mrdot.

Ah yes, it's Chandris livery. I thought the "X"s were an indication of the painter's disapproval of the silly looking funnels. Too reminiscent of the Achille Lauro for my liking.

This is a good example of how important funnel livery could be. In the Chandris colours yes, the funnels look somewhat too large. However, looking at her with the APL colours, and even though there is more colour and design they appear smaller. The red band with the white eagle helps to lessen the over all mass.

Great classic lines...aren't these funnels a bit large for the size of this ship, though?

The original slide which is scanned here was taken by San Francisco-based ship photographer George Lamuth in April 1970. I have both bow and stern views taken on original Kodachrome slides by George during the same photo shoot. He regretfully passed away in June 2005. He was the penultimate photographer in the Bay area and traded slides with many people worldwide including myself (for 30 years as we were great friends).

A superb shot. Irrespective of her performance, personally I think she looks at her best here, before her rather lumpy looking conversion, but with the simpler and lighter-coloured Chandris funnels. I always thought the darker APL funnel colours looked rather heavy on her, though I'm sure there are many who would disagree !

"ATLANTIS, being an overengineered US-built ship, was very heavy and burned way too much fuel..."

This ship was not originally built to be a commercial passenger liner. She was built for the U.S. Navy during World War II specifically to serve as a troop transport. Some of them subsequently were converted into liners and, so far as I know, they were generally fairly successful.

This picture must have been taken directly after her sale to Chandris, as she is not rebuilt yet. For those who do not know what Mr.DOT is talking about: ATLANTIS, being an overengineered US-built ship, was very heavy and burned way too much fuel to the liking of Chandris. However, Chandris only discovered this AFTER completely rebuilding the ship. Chandris then swapped her with Eastern Cruise Lines for their ARIADNE (ex-PATRICIA).

Chandris was pritty sherwd with his vessels, this one not so much! mrdot.