This 1940-built visitor had fulfilled a number of different roles before it started cruising.
Compared to today there were not many cruise ships around.
Since then, cruising has developed into a very lucrative and fast-growing field for many operators, and this is evident, locally, with seasonal cruise ship visits increasing in recent years.
In the 2010-11 season Port Chalmers received 54 calls. Several other calls were cancelled because of weather.
Dunedin had eight calls, and in the season that starts this week, three smaller ships are listed to make a further eight.
Port Chalmers on the other hand is down for a record season with 19 ships scheduled to make 76 visits.
And on 12 days, including Christmas Day, there will be two cruise ships in port at the same time.
Newcomer Sea Princess starts the ball rolling when it berths next Thursday.
The same vessel is also down to close the season on its 11th visit on April 19, 2012.
This 77,499gt vessel joins its slightly smaller 77,441gt sister ships Sun Princess and Dawn Princess on the Australia-New Zealand seasonal circuit.
Registered at Hamilton, Bermuda, and operated by Princess Cruises, these 2250-berth ships were built by the Fincantieri yard at Monfalcone.
Sun Princess was completed in November, 1995, Dawn Princess during April, 1997, and Sea Princess in November, 1998.
In 2003 this vessel was transferred to P&O Cruises and operated as Adonia before reverting to its former name two years later.
The earlier sisters are two of four cruise ships returning this season that have become regular visitors over the past few years. Sun Princess has already made 25 visits and Dawn Princess 18.
They are both down to each make a further nine calls.
Running neck-to-neck on 24 visits are Diamond Princess, with four more to come, and Holland-America Line's (HAL's) Volendam, with 10 more to come.
Making their local debuts are HAL's Zaandam, Seabourn Cruises' Seabourn Odyssey and Cunard's new Queen Elizabeth.
Other first-timers on the list are Royal Caribbean's Radiance of the Seas, and Celebrity Century from the affiliated Celebrity Cruise ship fleet.
Also heading to the lower harbour are Saga Holidays' smaller Spirit of Adventure, and Oceania Cruises' Regatta.
Oldest on the list is the 1973-built Albatros, operated by Phoenix Seereisen.
Readers might remember this vessel as it called in the 1990s as Royal Viking Sea and as the second Royal Odyssey.
The other ships all making return visits are Pacifics Dawn, Jewel, Pearl and Sun, Seven Seas Voyager and Silver Shadow.
Lissa Topic, which discharged at Ravensbourne last week, and is now berthed at Port Chalmers is another handymax bulk carrier that is loading logs there.
It is a 30,363gt, 52,038dwt, Liberian-flag vessel completed by the Tsuineishi yard at Namakuma in June, 2003.
It is a unit of a fleet controlled by Marfin Management SAM, of Monte Carlo, one that can trace its history back to 1925 when Ante Topic entered the shipowning field at Trieste.
The ship is the first with the Topic suffix to have been seen here June, 1991, when Rosina Topic visited Ravensbourne.
Another earlier ship with the same name had also berthed there in April, 1971.
Other visitors from the fleet were Olga Topic and Serafin Topic.
