Abbot World Cruise, 1954
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George Knutson Color Film
This was the second of Abbot’s five major Cold War cruises. It was Abbot’s only circumnavigation cruise, and its only visit to Japan following World War II.
See the 1954 cruise book for descriptions and more photos, and the ships’s chronology for exact dates.
These videos are copies of the original 8mm 1954 color film shot by George Knutson, and were compiled in 2012 and 2013. We have edited nearly 45 minutes of raw footage down to 25 minutes, balanced the color and improved the contrast in several scenes.
About the video formats
Abbot videos are offered in several formats; your web browser will automatically pick the best for your device.
Videos in the seldom-used Ogg/Theora format were phased out from this site beginning in October 2023.
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For best results, use the most recent web browser available for your device. Macs, PC’s and tablets are the best way to view the films, but they will also play with lower picture quality on smart phones. If you have a slow internet connection, allow plenty of time for a video to download before trying to play it, otherwise the playback will unexpectedly stop and start as data is downloaded.
The videos have been tested on these web browsers: Firefox version 29.0, Mac and Windows 7; Safari 7.0.1 Mac, Windows 7 and iPhone iOS 7; Google Chrome 31.0.1650.63, Mac; and Internet Explorer 10, Windows 7. Newer versions of each of these browsers will also work.