40214 P&O CRUISE LINE PROMOTIONAL FILM "A CITY GONE TO SEA" SPIRIT OF LONDON
“A City, Gone to Sea,” is a circa 1972 film discussing the cruise ship Spirit of London. (At the time the vessel was being operated by P&O Cruises). At mark 00:24, Pulitzer Prize-winning travel writer Stanton Delaplane (who is credited with introducing Irish coffee to the United States) is introduced as the narrator with an explanation that he would be sharing some of the things he saw and wrote about while on a cruise. British cruise ships, Delaplane explains, are all about service, and at mark 01:36 the film introduces cruise director Brian Langston-Carter, who endorses that idea as the camera pans the faces of happy travelers. There are scenes of exercise classes aboard this “floating city” followed by a seemingly endless buffet (mark 04:23). Delaplane explains (starting at mark 05:00) how passengers typically fall into different categories during a cruise, including “walkers,” “dressers,” “swimmers,” and “eaters.” A series of scenes follows with men and women playing cards, swimming, and playing shuffleboard. or spending time in a salon, sauna, or on a massage table. There are scenes from ports of call including Mexico (mark 08:00) and cocktail parties back onboard (mark 11:00) where “you’ve invited the people you like and you’ve snubbed the people you don’t like,” as well as formal dinners. Nighttime entertainment follows as the film captures onboard entertainers starting at mark 12:55. A young passenger explains what she likes best about the cruise at mark 17:50 followed by more several more scenes of shuffleboard, snacks, swimming, and sunbathing. “For some reason the British have gotten a reputation for being a stuffy race,” Captain Gerald McGowan states at mark 25:05. “I don’t think this is true. In recent years London has acquired a reputation as a swinging city and we’ve got a swinging city right here.”<p><p>Spirit of London was an Italian built cruise ship put into service in 1972. In January 2012, Runfeng Ocean Deluxe Cruises took over as operator, renaming the ship Ocean Dream. In 1974, P&O bought Princess Cruises and transferred Spirit of London to their fleet, with Princess operating her as Sun Princess, alongside Island Princess and Pacific Princess.<p><p>1988 saw the sale of Sun Princess by P&O to Premier Cruises, where it was initially named Majestic, becoming Starship Majestic in 1989 which included refurbishment of her interior. The majority of the Columbo episode "Troubled Waters" was filmed in the interior of the ship, creating a video time capsule (1975) of the ships history before her refurbishment. In 1994, she was purchased by CTC and was renamed Southern Cross. She was renamed again in 1998 when Festival Cruises began operating her as Flamenco.<p><p>When Festival Cruises collapsed in 2004,[citation needed] she was sold for $12.25 million at a bankruptcy auction to Cruise Elysia, who renamed her New Flamenco. In 2007 Club Cruise acquired New Flamenco. Club Cruise had New Flamenco serve as a hotel ship in New Caledonia until they failed in late 2008. The vessel was sold for scrap after over a year of lay up off Singapore.[8] In 2012 the ship was saved from the scrapyard and was renamed Ocean Dream with a dragon painted on her bow. Now owned by Runfeng Ocean Deluxe Cruises, she began operating cruises from Haikou, China to Halong Bay, Vietnam. The ship capsized and sank off Laem Chabang, Sri Racha,Thailand in shallow water on 27 February 2016 after having been abandoned without crew or maintenance for about a year.<p><p>We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example like: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference."<p><p>This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com