"Passersby gawked at the derelict, rusting monster, wondering how glorious its past had been, how majestic it may once have looked, and why the heck it was here."

The Windsor Star Newspaper
Wednesday, August 2, 1995

The 520 foot,, seven-story former Second World War troop ship was originally built as the Marine Star (C4-S-B5). It was a Liberty ship, built in 1945 in Chester, Pa. by the Sun Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company. As a U.S. troop carrier, she made just one trip across the Atlantic before the war ended.

She was eventually bought by a Detroit industrialist who spent $8 million in 1955 to convert the USS Marine Star into a cruise-ferry ship. Now named Aquarama, she took passengers between Detroit and Cleveland in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The Aquarama had nine decks containing four restaurants, four bars, movie theatres, recreation areas and room for 160 cars and 2,600 passengers.

Unfortunately, Aquarama was remembered as much for its mishaps as for its Great Lakes grandeur.

Newspaper stories nicknamed it the Crash-o-rama and described it as the most ill-tempered ship on the lakes after it rammed the sea wall of what is now Windsor's Dieppe Gardens. It also crashed into the Detroit News dock on the Detroit side and bumped into a U.S. Navy cruiser near Cleveland. And in 1957, its gigantic wake was blamed for nearly drowning a two-year-old girl at an Amherstburg beach and swamping two small fishing boats.

Aquarama has been idle since 1962 and was removed from registry as "Out of Documentation" in 1978. She reverted back to her present name Marine Star in 1995.

After a 30-hour journey from Windsor, Marine Star arrived in Buffalo on August 3, 1995.