Shaw Savill's Magnificent Seven

Corinthic Athenic Ceramic Gothic Persic Runic Suevic  by Andrew Bell and Murray Robinson.

In May 1946, amid the hardships of post-war Britain, the splendid new passenger liner Corinthic was launched into the Mersey.  Vanguard of a class of seven, she offered first-class sea travel reminiscent of the halcyon days of the 1930s.  Corinthic was followed by sisters Athenic, Ceramic and the Gothic, and by three cargo-only ‘Big Ics’, Persic, Suevic and Runic.

'Shaw Savill's Magnificent Seven’ not only gives full accounts of their careers, which in two cases were unusually notable, but offers much more besides.  The authors have drawn together a treasure-house of memories, facts and photographs from those who designed, built and sailed ‘the Big Ics’.  They tell fascinating stories of ordering and constructing the ships, life on their bridges, in the passenger lounges and the crew mess rooms, and work in the engine rooms and holds.

The most famous of the class was the Gothic, which had the extraordinary distinction in 1953-54 of serving as royal yacht for the very first visit by a reigning British monarch to the Commonwealth countries of the southern oceans.  But each of the ships had their stories, including that of the stranding of the Runic on Middleton Reef and of the fires on the Corinthic and Gothic.

By the authors of ‘A Tasman Trio’, ‘Shaw Savill's Magnificent Seven’ is a masterly account which successfully summons up the immediate post-war era of sailing in and working on the last of the classic cargo-passenger ships. Co-author Murray Robinson is a New Zealand Ship & Marine Society member and lives on the Kapiti Coast. The book is illustrated with his paintings of 'the Big Ics.'

The Governor-General of New Zealand has given his personal foreword for the book.

A hard cover, A4 book of 168 pages awash with plans, photographs and paintings in colour and black and white, ‘