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The P&O (Peninsular & Occidental, not to be confused with the British P&O Lines) Steamship Company owned this long-serving liner and operated it from Florida throughout its 37-year career, except for four years during World War II. Originally Florida connected Tampa, Key West and Havana. When Flagler's overseas railroad line to Key West was destroyed by a hurricane in 1934, service was transferred to a Miami-Havana route. In 1954 a weekly Miami-Nassau roundtrip was tried briefly to compete with Eastern Steamship Line, but Florida soon returned to three weekly Miami-Havana round-trip sailings.
Visit Havana... "Paris of the Americas" ss Florida Luxury Liner
Lv. Miami
Mon., Wed. & Fri.
6:00 PM
Ar. Havana
Tue., Thu. & Sat.
8:00 AM
Lv. Havana
Tue., Thu. & Sun.
6:00 PM
Ar. Miami
Wed., Fri. & Mon.
8:30 AM
The ship was transferred from American to Liberian registry in 1955 in response to costly American labor issues. Finally near the end of the decade, with growing unrest in Cuba, Florida was permanently assigned to twice weekly Miami-Nassau cruise service until its final layup in 1966.
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Most of the 196 staterooms had an upper and lower berth and wash basin. Some triples also had a sofa bed, and a few were quads with an additional upper berth, with only about 42 cabins having some kind of private bathroom. Public rooms included a dining room, cocktail lounge and small ballroom. By the 1960's, Florida was easily the most spartan of the cruise ships sailing out of Miami. Nevertheless, there were loyal fans who wouldn't think of sailing on a different line.
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