RMS Empress of Canada was an ocean liner launched in 1960 and completed the following year by Vickers-Armstrongs of Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne, England for Canadian Pacific Steamships Ltd.

Three Foster Wheeler boilers fed steam (operating at 690 psi) to two Pametrada double reduction geared turbines, one for each of her two propellers.

[1] As it had proven popular with the other two new "Empresses" her aluminium funnel (which was of a different design to them) was placed amidships with divided uptakes, thus ensuring a 210 feet (64 m) long view through the public rooms.

On 24 April 1961 the Empress of Canada left Liverpool bound for Montreal on her maiden voyage, arriving on the 2 May having become the largest passenger ship to sail up the St Lawrence River.

The ship then returned to the transatlantic service for the rest of the year during which she and her sister Empresses made a total of 33 round voyages between Liverpool and Montreal.

For this cruise which offered single-sitting dining the passenger capacity was limited to 570 guests with 70 extra catering staff employed to look after them.

The ship's first cruise from Britain departed from Liverpool on 21 December 1962 and called at Madeira, Tenerife, Sao Vincente, Las Palmas, Casablanca and Tangier, before ending at Southampton on 7 January 1963.

[1] Her next voyage from Liverpool was disrupted by a strike of St Lawrence longshoremen, which prevented her from berthing following her arrival off Quebec on 8 October 1963.

[1] In 1968, Canadian Pacific modernised her look, changing their house flag, colour schemes and introducing a new funnel design.

As the 1960s progressed transatlantic passenger crossings began to dramatically decrease due to the impact of increased air traffic following developments in aviation design which resulted in faster flights across the ocean.

The decline in profitability on the transatlantic route resulted in a number of famous ships leaving or never sailing again such as the SS United States and RMS Queen Mary.

On her last New York departure, she sailed on a four-day mini-cruise to Montreal on 5 April 1970, before commencing the first of the 11 Atlantic crossings that she undertook in 1970 during which the liner maintained an 82 per cent load factor.

On 9 November 1971 Canadian Pacific unexpectedly announced that they were immediately withdrawing the Empress of Canada from service, claiming that she was becoming economically unviable.

Also contributing to the decision had the impact of a devalued US dollar which had reduced the profitably of the cruise voyage as well as continuing labour troubles among her British crew and in Canada.

[1] She made her final arrival at Liverpool on 23 November 1971 having completing 121 transatlantic voyages and 82 cruises for the Canadian Pacific line, thus closing for good the Liverpool–Canada link.

Instead she was sold in January 1972 to then-startup Carnival Cruise Lines and after being renamed Mardi Gras on 14 February 1972 she underwent a few internal changes and an update of her colour scheme.

Despite her age the Empress of Canada was a good choice for the new company as she had been well-maintained and was in better condition than a number of the vessels offering cruises from Miami.

As the newly established company was in a very weak financial position the ship soon after departed Miami on 11 March 1972 with 530 passengers and 200 crew on board, on her first cruise without any major refurbishments in order to bring in some income.

At that time she was the largest passenger ship using the port of Miami and fully laden her draft caused her to run aground as she departed.

By 1993 Carnival wanted to update their fleet by ordering new tonnage so she was sold to Epirotiki in that year, and was initially renamed Olympic.

The company soon found itself in financial difficulties, and the ship was relocated to Miami, where she provided short cruises under the name Lucky Star.

[2] Gold Star Cruises stopped operating in December 1994 and the ship was laid up in the Bahamas for a short period before sailing to Piraeus, where she arrived on 10 May 1995.

In May 2001 the Apollon was put back in service for three- and four-day cruises out of Piraeus due to the late delivery of Olympic Explorer.

She operated alongside the new Olympic Countess with a break as an accommodation ship in July 2001 for delegates and press attending the G8 summit being held at Genoa.