RMS Ivernia - one of the "600 footers"

Between 1954 and 1957, Cunard took delivery of 4 sister ships from John Brown & Co, Clydebank, for the Canadian liner service. The Ivernia was delivered in 1955, refitted in 1963 and renamed Franconia, becoming a full-time cruise vessel from 1970. Laid up in 1971, she was sold in August 1973 to the Soviet State Shipping Co. and renamed Fedor Shalyapin, taking her first voyage from Southampton to Sydney in November 1973 and was then employed on cruising in Australian waters and from European ports. In 1995 she was laid up in the Ukraine and was sold, like her sisterships, to Indian breakers, arriving at Alang in February 2004, where she was dismantled on the beach. Thus, the four sisters began their careers at the same shipyard and ended at the same breakers beach.