Following delivery to Chandris Line on 19 November 1959 the Bloemfontein Castle was renamed Patris and rebuilt with increased passenger capacity for migrant service.

[9] In November 1960 Chandris Line chartered the Bretagne from Société Générale de Transports Maritimes.

[2][12] The Australis particularly proved to be an extremely popular ship on the run from United Kingdom to Australia, usually operating at full capacity.

Although the Queen Frederica was a relatively old ship, Antonios Chandris considered her to be well suited for the North American cruise market.

Bringing the Queen Frederica in-line with the new requirements would have been extremely costly, and as a result she was withdrawn from the North American cruise service in September 1967.

[9] A similar fate befell Ellinis in 1973, when she was taken off the declining UK-Australia liner service and reassigned for cruising on European waters.

This occupation lasted for only a year, after which a radically new use was found for the ship: she was converted into a ro-ro car/passenger ferry and used on services linking Ancona in Italy to Patras and Piraeus in Greece.

[9] In 1988 Chandris founded a subsidiary, Celebrity Cruises, transferring the ex Italian liner Galileo to this new line.

[16] Soon the popularity of Chandris grew tremendously low, with more focused needed on Celebrity, so it was decided to dissolve all other assets.

After almost 37 years, Chandris Lines began to stop all operations in 1996, this plan ending with the phasing out of their Fantasy Cruises branch and layup of the Britanis in 1998.