She was shortly joined by her similarly graceful counter sterned sibling, the pair sharing the Hawaiian islands together for the better part of two decades until their retirements.

That destination was later changed to Dubai, and in 2009 the aged liner left there under tow as the Platinum II for the shipbreaking yards in Alang, India.

According to Life magazine, "It will house passengers in Henry Dreyfuss-designed cabins, apartments, and 'penthouses,' keep their shipboard spirits up with branches of Fifth Avenue shops, handsome public rooms and bars decorated with old tattoo designs, collections of ships in bottles and Early American silver.

Late American devices include 125 feet (38 m) of picture windows in the observation lounge, polarized glass in portholes to control light and glare, and bedside telephones from which a passenger can phone anyone within 5,000 miles.

On February 10, 1951, Independence departed from North River Pier 84 at the foot of West 44th St in New York on a 53-day, 13,000 plus mile maiden voyage cruise to the Mediterranean during which the ship visited 22 ports in Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Sicily, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Cyprus, Israel, France, Gibraltar and Portugal before returning to New York on April 4.

They also carried high-profile passengers such as President Harry Truman, Alfred Hitchcock, Walt Disney, even King Saud.

On September 24, 1981, the cruise ship sustained minor damage off the coast of Nawiliwili, however passengers were safely taken ashore and flown home.

In April 1996, however, American Hawaii Cruises decided to retire the then 46-year-old Constitution due to high running costs and required renovations.

In July 2007, Norwegian Cruise Line announced that Oceanic had been sold with later reports claiming the ship had been purchased by an American company.

[9] Global Marketing Systems, the last owner of Oceanic, was fined $518,500 for exporting the ship for scrap without prior removal of toxins such as asbestos and PCBs.

[2][11] In a dramatic turn-around, the Ministry of Environment and Forests intervened and gave their approval, granting Platinum II permission to be beached at Alang's shipbreaking yard.

After much controversy and with demands that the ship be returned to the U.S. for being illegally exported, Platinum II was abandoned at Gopnath in a region south of the Alang on the Gujarat coast.

The tug that delivered the ship into Gujarat waters had likely already been beached for scrapping, so another vessel would have been required to pull Platinum II off the embankment for the short trip to Alang.

Later news reports from India claimed the ship, aground and abandoned at Gopnath, some ten miles south of Alang, was beginning to suffer structural cracks and would never be able to be moved from there.

[3] While under investigation by the Gujarati anti-terrorist unit for smuggling radioactive, hazardous, and toxic waste to organized crime, the former Independence was looted in May–June 2010 during a cyclone.