Posted on Wednesday, August 1, 2012 by Peter Knego
At 6:00 PM this Saturday (August 4) in the Caronia Room (former 3rd class cinema — “B” Deck fwd.) on board the QUEEN MARY in Long Beach, California, Peter Knego will helm a Keynote presentation entitled “AUGUSTUS: The Ecstasy, The Agony And The Aftermath”. The show will feature images of the 1952-built Italian liner in her heyday and during a visit in 1999 while she was moored as the MS PHILIPPINES (Manila Floating Hotel and Restaurant) at Manila.
Knego recently took a series of poignant images of the ship on the beach at Alang, India, just prior to the start of her demolition (which is still in progress). Many of the AUGUSTUS’ treasures have been salvaged, some of which will be available for sale on Knego’s MidShipCentury website.
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For those wishing to enjoy a full day aboard the QUEEN MARY, Dr. Nelson Arnstein will be doing a presentation on Royal Caribbean’s ALLURE OF THE SEAS earlier that day at 1:00 PM.
Please note, as this is a quarterly meeting of the Steamship Historical Society of America’s Southern California Chapter, a small donation for non-members may be requested.
Here are a few outtakes from “AUGUSTUS, The Ecstasy, The Agony And The Aftermath”:
MV AUGUSTUS launch at Trieste’s San Marco shipyard..
MV AUGUSTUS First Class Ballroom as built.
MV AUGUSTUS First Class Dining Room by Gustavo Pulitzer-Finale.
MV AUGUSTUS First Class Stairtower.
The Ecstasy: AUGUSTUS was at the time of her building, the epitome of a modern Italian ocean liner, with a futuristic and sleek exterior styling that was far ahead of its time. Internally, the ship featured Midcentury artwork, furniture and fittings by some of Italy’s finest artists, artisans and designers, employing a roster of names that included: Gustavo Pulitzer-Finale (a rival and contemporary of Gio Ponti), Ugo Carra (top designer), Tranquilio Marangoni (artist), Carlo Sbisa (ceramist), Arte Luce (lighting) and Cassina (renowned Italian furniture maker), among others. She and her sister GIULIO CESARE (scrapped in 1973) were the pair of ships built just prior to the ANDREA DORIA (sank in a collision off Nantucket in 1956) and CRISTOFORO COLOMBO (eventually scrapped), considered by many to be among the most beautiful ships ever built. Much of the latter two ships’ architecture and styling was a development of the prior twins’. For several years after the loss of the DORIA, AUGUSTUS and GIULIO CESARE were diverted from their Italy to South America service to the North Atlantic run.
MS PHILIPPINES at Manila in 1999.
MS PHILIPPINES Rajah Bar (ex First Class Bar). Note colorful insets by Trieste-based ceramist and sculptor, Carlo Sbisa.
MS PHILIPPINES (ex AUGUSTUS) Fiat diesels, the most powerful in the world at the time of their installation.
AUGUSTUS was sold to Asian interests and led a life of obscurity at various anchorages for decades, outlasting nearly every ship of her era. In 1998, she became the MS PHILIPPINES and was intended for use as a floating hotel adjunct to the famed Manila Hotel but the crash of the Asian economy and various social upheavals in the region rendered the plans largely unrealized. Peter Knego spent a week documenting her in Manila in 1999, amazed to find most of her Italian Line interiors intact.
PHILIPINE (ex AUGUSTUS) under demolition at Alang this past June.
The Agony: Beautifully maintained, the ship remained in Manila until finally being sold off for scrap in 2011. Removal of fittings and the demolition of AUGUSTUS (by then named just PHILIPPINE) commenced in December of 2011. Peter Knego paid a final visit to the ship in India just as the process began, taking a series of dramatic images just prior to her demise.
Peter Knego and MS PHILIPPINES “welcome” sign in Moorpark, CA.
AUGUSTUS bell and first class dining room chairs by Gustavo Pulitzer-Finale ready to be unloaded from container in Moorpark.
Shawn Dake, Mark Grimm, Bruce Lyons and Tom Chirby transfer the former first class dining room lobby mirror from the container to a safe haven.
Glass panel set from MV AUGUSTUS’ First Class Dining Room, designed by Gustavo Pulitzer-Finale.
Carved wooden panel by Tranquilio Marangoni safely stowed after its removal from ship.
Burled wood panels from the AUGUSTUS First Class stairtower landings.
The Aftermath: Soon, there will be nothing left of the mighty shell of the AUGUSTUS but much of her beauty will live on in the remnants that have been preserved. A forty foot container full of AUGUSTUS treasures arrived at Knego’s home in Moorpark, California this past May. Many items will be soon offered for sale on the MidShipCentury website.
Knego will bring a selection of smaller items from the AUGUSTUS with him to the QUEEN MARY.
End
Brad Harris
August 2, 2012 at 3:50 pm
What’s very cool is that you can see the wood panel in the far left of the picture at Peter’s house in the original B&W of the Augustus’ first-class stairtower. Wherever they end up, I hope someone mounts them in the corners of a room and lights them from behind like in their original setting, because that is a beautiful effect. If I had room somewhere in my apartment I’d do it myself to at least one of those stunning wood panels.
Justin Higner
August 2, 2012 at 9:38 pm
My God, Peter–you could provide so much valuable history to a museum. The loss of the Augustus is sad, but the fact that you’ve preserved it’s art treasures is astounding, and I give credit for that. I have done the same with local landmarks, such as the old Melody Fair music arena, from whom a number of artworks, chairs, and decor have ended up at the North Tonawanda History museum in NY. Melody Fair, like the Augustus, is an icon of cultural history here, and this ship was an amazing artwork of the Italian People to the world’s benefit. These posts are as heart warming as they are heart breaking to me. thanks for the efforts you and your friends do for thees lost ships. They should not be forgotten.
Peter Knego
August 2, 2012 at 9:47 pm
Dear Justin,
What an incredibly kind message. I would love one day for there to be a museum of decorative arts dedicated solely to the great ocean liners and cruise ships of the past. I certainly have enough to fill a few galleries and hope that by keeping together what I can, one day it will actually happen. A little more distance tends to make people appreciate things more, so perhaps it will be tangible in a few years or a decade or two. Right now, most maritime museums are focusing on warships and canoes. In the meantime, I cherish these objects and enjoy seeing how others also enjoy saving whatever bits they can.
Thank you for the post,
Peter
Dan
August 3, 2012 at 1:22 am
It’s so tragic that the Augustus was scrapped. All those wonderful artwork are amazing. Although, I am saddened that she couldn’t find a home where people would appreciate her like the SS Rotterdam. I simply hope that the Big U is not the next ship to join her at Alang.
Mage Bailey
August 4, 2012 at 1:42 pm
I so wish I could be up there today. Hope it went well.
Peter Knego
August 5, 2012 at 7:36 pm
Just a quick note of thanks to those who came to the presentation last night. It was such a pleasure to share the adventure with you.
All my best,
Peter
Hank
August 6, 2012 at 6:12 pm
Peter,
I wish that I could have made it but I live over 1,000 miles away. I send my best wishes. I would have loved to have heard about the AUGUSTUS and Alang. It’s really sad. Thank you for taking the time, and the finances to recover valuable treasures from aging beautiful liners before they are gone forever.
Jonathan Taub
August 6, 2012 at 8:22 pm
Another beauty we can only sail on in our dreams…
This is the look and feel of a true ship. That 1st Class bar reminds me of Harry’s Bar on the Fairsea. I can just imagine the salt in the air at the aft pool on a sea day.
Dan
August 6, 2012 at 8:25 pm
@Hank: Imagine if some of the Augustus fittings were incorporated into the Captain Cris Wilson’s Aurora? It would be considered the Mini-Augustus with most of the fittings making the public spaces onboard the vessel into a unique experience for all of us to enjoy. I think that some of the stuff that Peter has saved could make their way to the ship. Provided that Captain Wilson is interested.
Ross Berry
August 6, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Does anyone know what happened to the interior of the France/Norway ?? There seems to be no mention anywhere of the fixtures fittings and artwork…
Dan
August 7, 2012 at 1:59 am
@Ross Berry: With regards to the interior fittings of the SS Norway, I believe that Andrew Shaw has most of them. But there are reports that some of the more valuable stuff that was on the ship from its days of the SS France were removed long before the ship was beached. I am sure that Peter will provide some details to that information.
Justin Higner
August 7, 2012 at 7:23 pm
Mr. Knego, it comes from the heart on these events. Remember,I’m 28, am an artist and liner buff ( I build custom model ships decorated inside and out according to my own aesthetics), and have already seen multiple ships sadly yet poetically sent away with remnants of the cultures they left behind in homes like yours and mine. I can’t imagine going aboard those beached ships as they were pulled apart. I know, as I read my Cruise Travel, when the modern cruise ships of today are scrapped, hardly anyone will care about them as the liner was. What always impressed me about the liners were their abilities to be floating expressions of a host company and host country’s culture and history–of artistic and style aesthetics, making each ship utterly different from each other. I guess the demise of the Augustus was the last straw for me, so I hope and can certainly predict that a National Museum of Ocean Liner Art and Culture should open somewhere, perhaps in Washington or New York. Or even opened aboard the SS United States (Docked at Newport-News)–and/or the Queen Mary herself. I am finally grateful for the artifacts and ships that have survived, especially the Nomadic, Rotterdam, and Queen Mary. Hopefully, the Kungsholm of 1965 will be preserved in Sweden. My hopes are also for continued preservation of the Jadran “Capt. John’s Restaurant”, Toronto–a ship hardly anyone here knows about, yet is a great example of post-art deco art. I was able to visit her a few years back, and hope to return soon. See some of my work on Facebook with my name–look up Ships and Art in My Albums
I hope to get a few of my best ones in museums too someday. Been doing it for nearly 20 years.
Kenneth Eden
August 8, 2012 at 5:38 am
Why is it that old office buildings, homes, schools and more can be rebuilt, refitted and retroed to suit a new purpose, a new school, nursing home, consdo’s and the like, even back in the 1970′s old ware houses were turned into “spaghetti factories”, restaurants serving vile pasta dishes, and yet, old liners and cruise ships do not share the same luxury of a new life after the good life at sea ceases. ROTTERDAM and QUEEN MARY and DELTA QUEEN are exceptions as we well know.
To refit the old liners and ships, those few that remain, into civilain life, bathrooms would have to ripped out, and made HP assesable, as in nursing home use, condo’s – every unit would need a kitchen, one main galley would not do – these ships were purpose-built, not intended to be used for land operations, and thats the rub.
Back in the day, 1970′s, Boston was considering replacing a putrid, disgusting city jail, housed on Deer Island, an isolated god forsaken place, with the SS LEONARDO DA VINCI, whereby the ship would become the new jail, and would be moored way out in the harbor, not docked. As putrid as Deer Island was reputed to be, the outcry for human suffering on a ship with inadequate infrastructure for housing inmates was strong, and the idea never came to fruition.
So, to seguay from Deer Island, to current Boston, the old Charles Street Jail, another fetid, putrid god awful place, a “nose holder” when you walked past it, the stench was so bad, was indeed turned into a luxury hotel in the late 1990′s. So, priorites are set, even an old sty like a prison or jail can find love in a new role, but, not a ship.
Lets look for a nice museum home for the old dears we love, at least we few can appreciate them.
geoff
August 14, 2012 at 12:53 am
I could have come to the speech i was across harbour in the Hyatt that night on the last night of our holiday
myself and family did the Queen MAry in the Wednesday, was great to finally meet her, but the self guided tour was a bit disapointing and hard to navigate!!!
i think i would have preferrd the guided tour, but the ladies wanted to see the Pricess Di exhib, and we wanted the aquarium combo so the ticket booth issued us self guide tickets.
Hank
August 14, 2012 at 9:30 am
@Dan: Yes, that would be very nice if some AUGUSTUS fittings made their way onto the AURORA. By the way, does anyone know how AURORA is doing? I haven’t heard anything about the ship for months. Does anyone know if the AURORA is still in San Francisco?