The beautiful three funnelled sisters Queen of Bermuda and Monarch of Bermuda had cruised for most of the 1930s with happy holidaymakers from New York to Bermuda for the Furness Bermuda Line of Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd. They had been employed on strenuous trooping and repatriation duties from 1940 to 1946 but required very extensive overhauls before restarting their long interrupted cruises to Bermuda. The Monarch of Bermuda returned to the Tyne for renovation at the end of 1946, but suffered a disastrous fire on 24th March 1947 and was almost totally destroyed, but fortunately her turbines and electric motors suffered little damage, and she was sold to the Ministry of Transport for rebuilding at Southampton into the Australian emigrant carrier New Australia. Queen of Bermuda did however restart the New York to Bermuda service in February 1949.

A replacement was ordered immediately for the ‘Monarch’ from the Walker Naval Yard on the Tyne at a cost of £2.5 million, and was launched on 27th July 1950 as the smaller Ocean Monarch of 13,581 grt but still able to accommodate 414 First Class passengers. Parsons geared turbines drover her twin propellers on trials on 23rd March 1951 at a speed in excess of her service speed of 18 knots, and she sailed from London on 17th April 1951 for her Transatlantic positioning voyage to New York under the command of Capt. Leslie F. Banyard with nineteen passengers including the Chairman of Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd., Sir Ernest H. Murrant. She arrived at New York at noon ten days later to the usual welcome and water cannon salute from tugs, fireboats and pleasure boats. She was greeted by the flagship Queen of Bermuda, inbound from Hamilton, in a similar manner afforded to Queen of Bermuda by Monarch of Bermuda in 1933, and she tied up at Pier 95, West 55th Street.

She sailed on her maiden voyage from New York on 3rd May 1951 on an eight day cruise to Bermuda and Nassau. During her inaugural season, she also completed four twelve day cruises from New York to the Saguenay river and the St. Lawrence, as well as nine day cruises to Nassau and Havana, and several experimental cruises from Boston (Mass.). She always called at St. George’s harbour on Bermuda as she drew only 24 feet of water compared to the 39 feet draft of her running mate Queen of Bermuda, which docked at Hamilton in Bermuda.

Bermuda And Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd.

Bermuda was discovered by the Spanish explorer Juan de Bermudez (1449-1570) and the island was later named after him. In 1505, while sailing back to Spain from a provisioning voyage to Hispaniola in the galleon La Garca, he discovered the island. Ten years later, he returned to Bermuda and landed a dozen pigs and sows as food for any visiting or unlucky seafarers wrecked on the island. Bermuda is a sub tropical island lying approximately 550 miles from New York and 580 miles east of the South Carolina coast. It is considered a special case in the cruising industry as Nassau in the Bahamas and Miami and Port Everglades to the south in Florida are ports for Caribbean cruises.

The first capital of the island was St. George’s in 1612 after the island had first been settled by the British three years earlier, and it is the oldest continuously inhabited English town in the New World. The main port of Hamilton is one of nine parishes on the island and was named for the Scottish aristocrat James Hamilton, Second Marquess of Hamilton (1589-1625) when he purchased the shares originally held in the Virginia Company by Lucy, Countess of Bedford. The Somers Isle Company took over the administration of the island in 1614 and managed it until 1684 and the island is still known as the Somers Isle. The Law of Nations of 1650 prevented pirates and robbers landing in Castle Harbour from stealing or misappropriating land on Bermuda. Today, the island is an overseas territory of the U.K. with a population of 70,000 and flies the Red Ensign with on the fly the island coat of arms of a red lion holding a shield with a gold baroque border and depicting the wreck of one of the first ships to reach Bermuda. The motto of the island is ‘Whither the Fates Carry Us’.

Bermuda has a sub tropical climate warmed by the Gulf Stream keeping the winters very mild. Summer temperatures average 30 degrees Centigrade (86 degrees Fahrenheit), with the winter temperature only ever falling as low as eight degrees Centigrade. Bermuda residents wear the eponymous Bermuda shorts all the year round. Bermuda was formed as the high point of the caldera of a submarine volcano that forms a seamount. It has 64 miles of beautiful and gorgeous yellow and pink sandy coastline with a total area of 20.6 square miles. It is an archipelago of 138 islands with bridges and causeways linking seven of the islands to form the principal mainland. The economy of Bermuda is based on offshore insurance and reinsurance as well as ship management and tourism, and has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world.

Tourist attractions include the Royal Naval Dockyard and its attendant military garrison, the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, Bermuda Aquarium, Bermuda Botanical Gardens, Horseshoe Bay, Spanish Point, Boaz Island, Ireland Island, two lighthouses dating from the 19th century including the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, the taller of the two, built in 1844 by the Royal Engineers and automated in 1964 but approached by 185 steps, as well as Tom Moore’s Tavern, originally a private house and now a busy restaurant. The huge rubber trees in Par-la-Ville Park that entranced Mark Twain (1835-1910) are still there today.

Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd. acquired the goodwill and assets in 1919 of the Quebec Steamship Co. Ltd. with their New York to Bermuda and Caribbean islands services. The three ships which commenced a New York to Bermuda service were the Bermudian of the Quebec company renamed Fort Hamilton, and Fort St. George and Fort Victoria purchased from the Adelaide Steamship Co. Ltd. of Australia as Wandilla and Willochra. Fort St. George was employed during the slack season of the Bermuda trade in the Saguenay river tourist trade, proving herself very popular there. A new company was set up by Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd. at this time as the Bermuda and West Indies Steamship Co. Ltd., and to add to the appeal of this naturally beautiful island of Bermuda the company laid out an eighteen hole golf course.

In 1927, it was decided by Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd. to develop this growing Bermuda trade by greatly increasing passenger capacity. An order was placed with Workman, Clark & Co. Ltd. of Belfast for a liner with accommodation for 616 First Class and 75 Second Class passengers. She was named Bermuda at her launch at Belfast on 28th July 1927 and was completed on 14th December 1927, with her maiden voyage from New York to Bermuda on 14th January 1928. She was the first passenger liner to be fitted with four cylinder Doxford oil engines driving four propellers. She had a short and dramatic career, catching fire at Hamilton in June 1931, and she was so badly damaged she had to be sent home to Belfast for repairs by her builders. However, on 19th November 1931 shortly before the completion of repairs another fire occurred, gutting her completely and she sank at her berth. The wreck was sold to her builders by the company and she was raised on 24th December 1931 to allow her engines to be removed before a final voyage to a scrapyard. Even this could not be completed for en-route to Rosyth breakers in June 1932 the tug Seaman lost the tow, and the wreck ran aground on the appropriately called Badcall Islands in Eddrachilles Bay on the West coast of Scotland and became a total loss.

Fortunately, a running mate had already been ordered from the Walker Naval Yard of Vickers Armstrong Ltd., Newcastle, and she was launched into the Tyne on 17th March 1931 as Monarch of Bermuda. She was completed on 7th November 1931 after achieving nearly 21 knots on trials off Newbiggin. She was driven by powerful Fraser & Chalmers steam turbines linked to General Electric motors passing their power to four propellers. She had two inordinately high masts and with her three funnels was just what was required to persuade wealthy Americans to holiday in Bermuda. She had accommodation for 830 First Class passengers in staterooms, of which a few could be converted to house 31 Second Class passengers. She proved to be a very great success, helped even more by her prompt rescue of 71 survivors from the burning American liner Morro Castle off New Jersey on 8th September 1934.

An exact sister was then ordered from the Barrow yard of Vickers Armstrong Ltd., and she was launched there as Queen of Bermuda on 1st September 1932 and completed on 14th February 1933. She had a similar interior layout to her sister, but differed by having her mainmast sited further forward on Sun Deck and closer to the superstructure. She exceeded her sister’s trials speed by achieving 21.07 knots and went on to have a long career of 35 years. The three funnelled pair were initially registered at Hamilton but this was changed to London in 1937. They maintained a regular peacetime service to Bermuda up to 1939 for the company in conjunction with the Hotel Bermudiana Co. Ltd., owned by Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd., which built three large hotels on the holiday island. Passengers carried by Furness Bermuda Line increased from 34,102 in 1933 to 55,798 in 1936 and were still well above 50,000 in the 1938 and 1939 seasons with fares starting from as little as $50. Passengers were allowed to use the liners Queen of Bermuda and Monarch of Bermuda as hotels at Bermuda from 16th July 1938 for a further payment.

Design And Specification Of Ocean Monarch

Ocean Monarch had a length overall of 516 feet, moulded beam of 72 feet, moulded depth to upper deck of 39 feet and a maximum draft of 24 feet. A gross tonnage of 13,654 with a service speed of 18 knots with steam produced in four watertight boilers and passed to four steam turbines of 11,500 shp and twin propellers, the machinery also coming from the Barrow yard. She had a bunker oil capacity of 2,106 tonnes and a large fresh water capacity of 1,938 tonnes, some of which she carried to Bermuda from New York in a subsidy contract arrangement with the Bermudan Government to supply fresh water to hotels. A large amount of lighter steel was used in the construction of the Promenade Deck and other parts of the superstructure in place of mild steel. The fo’c’stle and Promenade Deck had a length of 427 feet and was cut away aft in way of number three hold, as also was the stern part of ‘A’ Deck.

She had three holds served by derricks on two sets of posts with a general cargo capacity of 95,130 cubic feet and an insulated cargo capacity of 15,500 cubic feet. She was subdivided by eight main bulkheads up to ‘B’ deck, and transversely by various deep tanks for the carriage of fuel oil, fresh water and ballast water. The Navigating Bridge Deck above Sun Deck had the dayroom and bedroom of her Master on the starboard side, and that of the Staff Captain on the port side of the wheelhouse and chart room. The radio room and gyroscope room were in front of her large funnel, and the navigating and engineer officers were accommodated on Boat Deck, with their combined lounge forward on this deck. A large open sports area aft on Boat Deck was for the use of passengers.

She was designed with six passenger decks with accommodation for 414 First Class passengers, all in outside staterooms. These decks were named Boat Deck, Sun Deck which was the main social meeting point in the ship along with Promenade Deck, ‘A’ Deck, ‘B’ Deck, and ‘C’ Deck. The Sun Deck featured the Grand Lounge forward, then the Grand Entrance and information bureau and purser’s office, with the adjacent Smoking Room, and then aft the gorgeous Coral Café with large dance floor and immediately aft of this a part covered verandah. There were also fourteen staterooms in the central portion of Sun Deck. A wide promenade surrounded the public rooms and was enclosed at the forward end. The aft end of this promenade extended in two wings to overlook the open swimming pool on the Promenade Deck below.

The Promenade Deck was almost entirely occupied by outside First Class staterooms with the Ship’s Shop, Beauty Parlour and Barber’s Shop up forward, and a large open swimming pool aft. ‘A’ Deck and ‘B’ Deck were noted for their beautifully decorated two deck high Dining Room, and Cinema/Theatre. The Dining Room extended to the full width of the ship, and was entered via the smart Foyer and Cocktail Bar. There were additional outside staterooms forward of the Dining Room and on the port side of ‘C’ Deck. All of the First Class staterooms had fully equipped bathroom facilities and were connected by telephone to the ship’s telephone exchange for room service. The main public rooms are now described in some detail:-

The Grand Lounge at the forward end of Sun Deck extended to the full width of 72 feet of the ship and had a height of eleven feet. The lounge was decorated in the 1950s Art Deco style and the forward end conformed to the wide sweep of the bridge front. The surrounds of the tall forward windows and the fitted jalousie shutters were in sycamore wood set over a low base of prima vera, which was also used in the under frieze. In the centre of the forward curved boundary of the room was a low fireplace surmounted by a Chinese lacquer painting by the artist F. H. Coventry. On either side of the fireplace were two cupboards, one of which was a bookcase for this elegant room. At the after end of the room were two sets of glass fronted doors on either side of the service pantry. One of the features of the room was a combined mirror and clock of dimensions seven feet by 4.5 feet set in a golden sunburst cut into the glass and silvered in the four metallic colours of silver, gold, deep pink and grey-blue. The furniture and card tables were made from hardwoods such as sycamore with rich bandings of ash and prima vera.

The Grand Entrance Hall was immediately abaft the Grand Lounge with an Information Bureau on the rear of the service pantry of the Grand Lounge. Screens separated the Hall from the Smoking Room immediately aft of the Hall, and double glazed doors at the sides giving access to the sheltered promenading spaces. Decoration included carvings of the characters of Prospero and Miranda from the play ‘The Tempest’ by Shakespeare, and the room was panelled in veneers of maple, aspen and peroba woods with an abundance of silver bronze decorative features.

The Smoking Room consisted of a central portion flanked by larger rectangular wing spaces. A lovely curvaceous sweeping bar at the after end featured rich elm burr veneers with cross bandings of Scotch elm and sycamore. The elbow rail, foot rest, recessed coves and plinth of the bar were in the silver bronze, while the top surface of the bar was in matt finish black plastic. On either side of the bar were rich panels executed in neo-Gothic style embodying representations of the briar rose, grapevines and convolvulus. Opposite the bar, the panelling of rich elm burr featured a long appliqué profile of Ocean Monarch set against an inlaid outline background of the Caribbean islands. This elegant room featured furnishings, tables and chairs in walnut and sycamore with coverings in burgundy, green and golden tan leather with cushions of multi coloured plaid tapestry. Woven curtains of a very contemporary pattern of circles and waves were draped over the full length of the side windows.

The Coral Café was another very elegant room at the rear of the Sun Deck, and featured a lovely large elliptical wooden dance floor decorated in a key pattern and inlaid with golden mottled marble motifs. Large numbers of tables and chairs for four passengers were placed at both sides of the dance floor, with the ship’s orchestra at the forward end of the room, and a bar and pantry at the aft end on either side of glazed screens and double doors leading to the partly covered verandah area. A shallow domed recess in the raised part of the ceiling conformed to the elliptical shape of the large dance floor. The Coral Café could also be used as a concert hall or conference room as it was fully air conditioned and had colourful furnishings and upholstery, and curtains of a floral pattern in which green and gold were the predominant colours. The side windows had manganese bronze frames with polished cast bronze handles and stays to set off this room built for entertainment.

The Dining Room on ‘B’ Deck extended to the full width of the ship, and was entered from the elevators through a large elegant Foyer with a cocktail bar at one side. The Foyer was a convenient waiting area for groups of passengers meeting up before dining, and featured contemporary but dramatic floor patterns on which large square carpets were laid to hold the elegant sofas, carver chairs and circular small tables for placing drinks from the cocktails bar. This bar had round bar stools, and a peach and golden sunburst at its top level inlaid with a clock, with curved ends to the bar and high curved and polished supports at its extremities to the full height of the room.

The Dining Room was entered through either side of the engine exhaust casing, and had comfortable armchairs at the circular, rectangular and square tables for 255 passengers. The central portion of the room of this two deck high room featured a coffered ceiling with many rectangular small glass panels lit from behind and providing a good measure of diffused lighting. Carved mural appliqué decorative motifs featured nymphs and sirens in bas relief finished in gold and silver, and cavorting around decorative clocks to form the sides and aft end of the room. Walnut veneer wood from Australia, floral motifs, and coloured leather panels of various types provided extra decoration in this grand room. At the after end, port and starboard service doors from the galley were screened by ornamental panels in glass and silver bronze. The armchairs were of toned sycamore with leather coloured upholstered seats and back panels in either blue or warm pink. The peach pastel tones of the painted ceiling, peach mirrors and glassware produced a very effective colour harmony of the room.

The Cinema/Theatre was also two decks high as in the Dining Room, with a central aisle and many sloping rows of seats five wide on either side to provide seating for 136 passengers. The sloping floor was arranged on a false deck to give the rake necessary for unobstructed vision. The screen was covered by a very 1950s Art Deco curtains, and there was a clock on the left hand side wall of the screen. The curtains were operated by remote control from the projection room. The upper pelmet and drapes were in rich silk and velvet, and lower plinth of the screen was decorated in rich elm burr and toned sycamore. Colour change footlights were arranged with the dimmer control of the general lighting. The walls of the cinema were finished on the lower part in squares of dark courbaril, and at the upper part in two shades of beige acoustic tiles. At the dividing line of these two decorated parts of the wall were many wall brackets to give pleasant indirect lighting in the excellent cinema and theatre.

The spacious outside Staterooms were designed at the outset to be able to be converted into sitting rooms with the minimum of trouble and inconvenience to staff and passengers. There were three types of stateroom, namely:-

• One-plus-one and convertible to sitting rooms
• Two-plus-one permanent bedrooms
• Two-plus-one and convertible to
• sitting rooms

In addition, there were a few two-plus-two staterooms at the forward end of Promenade Deck. All of these combinations were well furnished with elegant dressing tables, wooden cupboards, sofas, easy chairs, and a multitude of lights and standard table lamps in lieu of berth lights. A variety of woods were used including ash, burr, ivory or white sycamore, French walnut, sapele, and Canadian maple, and the rooms were painted in a variety of colours including rose pink, blue and gold, or beige. The soft furnishings were supplied from eleven different upholstery schemes including wool tapestry and silk brocade with harmonised curtains, and fawn, cream or blue carpets woven in wavy patterns. A toilet and shower cubicle finished in linette formica panelling in four colours of either blue, green, grey and pink was provided for every stateroom, in addition to wall mounted oscillating cooling fans and thermostat controlled heating arrangements. Toilet fittings were ivory in colour and washbasin taps were white metal, with some of the double staterooms enlarged to allow the fitting of baths.

All in all, every stateroom was beautifully finished and had the all important feature of outside vision from generous sized windows that were fitted with curtains and pelmets.

Career Of Ocean Monarch

Ocean Monarch plied the Bermuda holiday trade from New York for nine months each year with wealthy Americans, who tipped the stewards well. In the three month summer season she cruised from New York to the Caribbean islands, with for example a choice of thirteen islands on five cruises of fifteen days duration during her summer seasons. The ports of call were Bermuda (St. George’s), St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Maarten, San Juan (Puerto Rico), Pointe a Pitre (Guadeloupe), Fort de France (Martinique), Castries (St. Lucia), St. Vincent, Barbados, Port of Spain (Trinidad), Aruba and Kingston (Jamaica). Ocean Monarch and Queen of Bermuda were delayed at New York on 8th March 1955 when their seafarers walked off the vessels in a dispute, stranding holidaymakers waiting for their holiday to begin. The company gave way to the demands, and later in August 1955, Ocean Monarch again was delayed, this time by Hurricane Edith at Bermuda on her cruise from New York to Halifax (NS), Quebec and Bermuda. Ocean Monarch also pioneered Caribbean cruising from Port Everglades in Florida, and she was commanded during the 1960s by Capt. Arthur Anderson and Capt. Ian R. C. Saunders.

She returned to the same dry dock at Palmer’s Hebburn on the Tyne for refits and special surveys in which she had been given her guarantee dry docking by her builders in 1951. She returned in 1956, 1959 and 1961, the latter work carried out in conjunction with a much more extensive refit to her running mate, Queen of Bermuda.

The ‘Queen’ lost all of her three funnels during a reconstruction by the Belfast yard of Harland & Wolff Ltd. in October 1961, replaced with a new broader modern raked funnel as well as a new bow, new air conditioning and new boilers. The ‘Queen’ resumed her Bermuda service in April 1962, and Ocean Monarch was given a full renovation refit at the Harland & Wolff Ltd. yard at Belfast in 1963.

However, after only three more years of the formerly very profitable Bermudan and West Indies cruises, the Furness, Withy management decided to pull out of the trade, citing air travel as the reason why bookings had slumped. Passenger numbers had slumped to only 30,857 during 1965, and Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd. informed the Bermudan Government that they intended to pull out of the trade at the end of the 1966 season. A small subsidy of $150,000 per annum had been paid to the company by the Bermudan Government, largely as payment for the carriage of fresh water by the company vessels to hotels on the island as Bermuda has little fresh water.

F. G. Harris, the New York general manager of Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd. commented, “Our ships are no longer the essential means of communication they were when they were built”.

Queen of Bermuda sailed out of Hamilton harbour for the last time on 23rd November 1966 with 594 passengers and reached New York on the morning of Friday 25th November. She disembarked her passengers at North River Pier 88, the French Line berth. Interestingly, some months earlier the company moved its operations from Pier 95, where company ships had berthed for over fifty years, to Pier 88.

Queen of Bermuda arrived at Faslane on the Clyde for scrapping on 6th December 1966 after a long career afloat of almost 35 years since her launching on 1st September 1932 at Barrow.

Ocean Monarch had been laid up on the Fal on 22nd September 1966 after her last season of West Indies cruises from New York. She was put up for sale after a career of only fifteen years, and prospective buyers from the world of cruising were expected to flock to inspect her as she was a very well known and elegant cruise ship with full air conditioning and spectacular Art Deco public rooms and features.

Overseas Charter Cruising

The eventual buyer of Balkanturist of Bulgaria was unexpected, and the name Varna was given to the Bermudan cruise ship Ocean Monarch of Furness, Withy & Co. Ltd., which was purchased while laid up on the Fal in August 1967. She became the national cruise ship of Bulgaria and Bulgarian art was exchanged for Art Deco British and American art in her public rooms. She cruised in the Black Sea to Turkish, Georgian, Russian, Ukrainian and Romanian ports as well as Mediterranean ports with technical management by Navibulgar, together with overseas charter cruising in her summer cruising seasons. Varna wore the yellow funnel with a central red band of Navibulgar, which were seen at Southampton in May 1970 while on a short cruise charter. She earned much valuable Western currency for Balkanturist and Bulgaria in her charter role, mainly earned on St. Lawrence and New England cruising from Montreal, and she returned to Varna for lay up at the end of each summer season.

Varna returned to the St. Lawrence river on 20th June 1970 to start a series of seven day cruises from Montreal. She was initially chartered by Gala Navigation Inc., a division of the Ville Marie Travel Bureau of Montreal, and her cruise fares started at $195. She departed Montreal every summer Saturday morning for the Saguenay river, St. Pierre et Miquelon and Gaspe. Some longer cruises also included St. George’s harbour on Bermuda, which she visited again in September 1971, the first time she had returned to the holiday island for five years. Varna was chartered by another Montreal travel agent in the summer 1972 season for similar St. Lawrence and longer cruises. She sailed from Montreal on 12th September 1972 at the end of her charter summer season for the Azores, Lisbon, Malta and Piraeus, where her passengers disembarked. She did not return to the St. Lawrence or Bermuda ever again as in the 1973 summer season she was chartered by Sovereign Cruises of Reading, a British cruise company, but after only two Mediterranean cruises the charter was cancelled.

Varna returned to her namesake port in Bulgaria for a long lay up that was to last five years as OPEC oil price hikes for bunker fuel had made her uneconomic to operate.

She was sold to the Greek owners of Dolphin (Hellas) Shipping S.A. in 1978 and moved to lay up at Perama from Varna. She was renamed Venus for a possible charter to World Cruise Line for a return to New York to Bermuda cruising, but this never took place.

She was renamed Riviera with the intention of operating a series of fifteen day cruises, these again did not take place and she continued in lay up at Perama until sold again in 1981 and given the name of Reina del Mar for a summer 1981 cruise programme on charter to Sur-Seereisen of Germany.

Unfortunately, she was gutted by fire on 28th May 1981, which broke out in the boiler room while she was lying at Ambelakia for modifications for the summer season. She was towed out of Ambelakia but the tow parted and the liner ran aground on Salamina Island. After being refloated she was moved to a position near to the liner Rasa Sayang, the former Bergensfjord and also gutted by fire.

On 1st June 1981 a further fire broke out on the former Ocean Monarch, and she was moved to a position off Kynosoura but capsized three days later and sank on her port side, and her yellow funnel and white hull soon became badly blackened.

Postscript

Ocean Monarch and her running mate of Queen of Bermuda and their Furness, Withy predecessor liners were extremely successful cruise ships in their niche Bermudan holiday trade. Today, the chief port of Bermuda is Hamilton followed by St. George’s and King’s Wharf, all three are used by cruise ships, ro-ro and general cargo ships. There is also a Freeport on Ireland Island, but the Hamilton waterfront is restricted in the number of cruise ships it can accommodate to, normally, two big cruise ships every day during the summer season. The number of cruise ship passengers each year totals one half of a million, while those arriving by air are around one quarter of a million. Imports heavily outweigh exports as there are almost no goods of agricultural or manufactured origin on the island.

The Government of Bermuda (Department of Marine and Port Services) today operates eight small cross harbour passenger ferries for tourists and local residents, with names such as Bermudian of 480 grt and built in 1988, as well as three tugs for berthing the many cruise ships that call at Hamilton. The Department of Maritime Administration is responsible for the registration of ships at Hamilton. Shipping companies operate from the large office blocks in Hamilton, those that have been resident or are resident have included Arlington Tankers Inc., Bermuda Export Sea Transfer Ltd., Bermuda Worldwide Shipping Ltd., Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (Bermuda) Ltd., BW Group Ltd., Container Ship Management, Frontline Tankers Ltd., Gearbulk Holdings Ltd., Golar LNG Ltd., Golden Ocean Group Ltd., Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd., Meyer Shipping, Sea Containers Ltd., and Shell Bermuda Overseas Ltd.