MS Veronica

Mona Lisa departing Helsinki, Finland during the summer of 2005.
History
Name:
  • 1966—1979: Kungsholm
  • 1979—1995: Sea Princess
  • 1995—2002: Victoria
  • 2002—2007: Mona Lisa
  • 2007—2008: Oceanic II
  • 2008—2010: Mona Lisa
  • 2010 onwards: Veronica
Owner:
Operator:
Port of registry:
Builder: John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland[4]
Yard number: 728[4]
Laid down: January 1964
Launched: 14 April 1965 by Mrs. Annabella Broström[5]
Completed: November 1965
Maiden voyage: 22 April 1966[5]
Out of service: September 2010
Identification:
Status: Beached in Alang India awaiting scrapping.
General characteristics
Tonnage:
  • As built, 26,678 GRT
  • 1975, 18,174 GRT
  • 1978, 27,670 GRT
  • 28,891 GRT (as of 2008)[6]
Length: 201.33 m (660 ft 6 in)
Beam: 26.57 m (87 ft 2 in)
Draught: 8.56 m (28 ft 1 in)
Installed power: 25,200 SHP
Propulsion: Two Gotaverken diesels, twin screw
Speed:
  • 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) (service)
  • 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) (maximum)
Capacity:
  • 108 1st class, 605 tourist class (transatlantic service)
  • 450 (cruising as built)
  • 782 (as of 2008)
Crew: 417

MV Kungsholm was built in 1966 by the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland as a combined ocean liner / cruise ship for the Swedish American Line.[5] She was later rebuilt as a full-time cruise ship. She also sailed under the names MV Sea Princess, MV Victoria, MV Oceanic II.[2] and MV Mona Lisa as a cruise ship owned by Leonardo Shipping[7] and operated under charter by Lord Nelson Seereisen .In September 2010 she was retired from service as she did not fulfill requirements to SOLAS 2010 and her charter with Lord Nelson Seereisen had ended.[8] She was bought by the Korean Daewoo company and moved to Duqm, Oman, where she has been opened as the Veronica floating hotel until October 2013. She was then laid up for two years until sold to ship breakers in Alang, India in late 2015. She was beached in Alang at 19th November 2015.[9]

Statistics

Kungsholm at Hamburg, West Germany 1970.

Kungsholm was launched in 1965, built by John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland.[4] She was fitted with two Swedish built Götaverken nine cylinder engines have a combined output of 25,200 SHP, which gave her a service speed of 21 knots, although she achieved 25 knots during her sea trials.[5] The ship was equipped with Denny Brown stabilizers and was one of the handful of British built liners to have a bulbous bow. The vessel met all updated SOLAS requirements as of the 1992 amendments.

The ship's original Gross Registered Tonnage was 26,678. After rebuilding for service with P&O, her tonnage was increased to 27,670. Currently, the ship is measured at 28,891 GRT. She is 201 meters (660 ft) long with a breadth of 26.5 meters.

The ship's passenger capacity was 713 as a transatlantic liner, but only 450 as a cruise ship before the addition of extra cabins increased the number of berths to 730. She carries 417 crew members. The maximum capacity utilizing upper (passenger) and lower (crew) berths is 994 persons.

Currently, the 790 passenger vessel has 397 passenger cabins (292 outside, 105 inside), all equipped with televisions, safe boxes, hairdryers and additional amenities. Sixty-eight of the cabins also have refrigerators.

The ship currently has 8 passenger decks, 4 passenger elevators, 2 outdoor and 1 indoor swimming pool, a sauna and a massage parlor. She has 3 restaurants, 4 lounges, 4 indoor bars, 1 outdoor bar and a 300-passenger capacity theater. There is also a fitness center, hair salon and a fully equipped hospital.

History

Sea Princess at Messina, Italy 1986

As Kungsholm, the ship first entered service for the Swedish America Line in 1966 as a transatlantic ocean liner, the last liner built for the Gothenburg - New York City run. Although built for transatlantic service, she was also designed to spend a large proportion of the year cruising.[5]

In 1975, the Swedish America Line closed its passenger services and Kungsholm was sold to Flagship Cruises, who retained her name and used her for cruising from the United States. She was re-registered in Liberia and measured at 18,174 GRT under Liberian rules.

Sea Princess in Venice, Italy 1986.

In 1978 she was purchased by P&O and was sent to Vegesack for rebuilding by Bremer Vulkan. She had her appearance dramatically altered by the removal of the forward (dummy) funnel, reshaping of her remaining funnel, and the addition of extra cabins. Under UK registry her tonnage had increased to 27,670 and she had accommodation for 750 passengers. She was renamed Sea Princess and was initially based in Australia, taking over from the SS Arcadia which was scrapped in 1979. The Australian cruising role was taken over by SS Oriana in 1981 and from then Sea Princess alternated between deployments with P&O's UK fleet and the subsidiary Princess Cruises fleet. As her deployments changed, so did the colour of her funnel; buff (yellow) for P&O, white with the Sea Witch logo for Princess Cruises.[10]

In 1995 she was renamed Victoria and for the rest of her career with P&O Cruises operated with its UK fleet out of Southampton. The name change was to allow the then new addition to the Princess Cruises fleet to be named Sea Princess.[5][10]

In 1999/2000 Victoria was chartered for the Union-Castle Line centenary voyage and had her funnel repainted in that company's livery.[5]

In 2002 she was sold by P&O and sailed for Holiday Kreuzfahrten as Mona Lisa until 2006, bearing a large image of the painting of the same name on her funnel.[5] Holiday Kreuzfahrten was declared bankrupt in September 2006. Following the bankruptcy of Holiday Kreuzfahrten, Mona Lisa was briefly laid up at Pireus, Greece,[3] but in November 2006 she was chartered for use as a hotel ship in Doha, Qatar for the duration of the Asian Games. The charter to Qatar ended on 1 January 2007.[2][3]

Oceanic II in Sydney Harbour in November 2007.

In 2007, the ship was chartered by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCCL) and was renamed Oceanic II. From 30 April to 28 May 2007, Louis Hellenic Cruises sub-chartered the ship as a temporary replacement for the MV Sea Diamond, which went aground off the coast of Santorini, Greece and sank earlier in April. Following this she was operated by Pullmantur Cruises (a subsidiary of RCCL) for the 2007 northern hemisphere summer season.[3]

The ship was refitted to become an educational vessel for The Scholar Ship international education program, a cooperative venture between seven major world universities and RCCL. The Scholar Ship offered undergraduate and graduate semester programs during four-month voyages. The inaugural voyage embarked in September 2007, with a second voyage in early 2008. In June 2008 the discontinuation of the program was announced.

Oceanic II reverted to the name Mona Lisa prior to her charter to German tour operator Lord Nelson Seereisen, which ran from 28 April to 31 August 2008.[1] On 4 May 2008 Mona Lisa was grounded in the Irbe Strait while leaving Riga. She suffered no major damage,[11] but the passengers were evacuated from the ship on 5 May after unsuccessful efforts to free the ship from the sand bank.[12] Mona Lisa was eventually pulled free from the sandbank on 7 May 2008. She subsequently sailed to a drydock in Ventspils, Latvia for inspection and returned to normal cruise traffic on 8 May 2008.[3]

Mona Lisa departing Kiel, Germany

Following the completion of her charter to Lord Nelson Seereisen, Mona Lisa was chartered to Peace Boat for the duration of the 2008/2009 northern hemisphere winter season.[2] For the duration of the 2009 northern hemisphere summer season she again returned to the fleet of Lord Nelson Seereisen.

From 26 January to 23 March 2010, Mona Lisa was used as floating accommodations while docked at the Squamish port in British Columbia, Canada. During the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Vancouver and Whistler, approximately 1,400 crew, volunteers and paid staff were housed aboard.[13]

Retirement

She resumed her voyages with Lord Nelson Seereisen during 2010 from May until August. Her future after termination of her charter to Lord Nelson Seereisen in August 2010 was uncertain as she did not comply with the new SOLAS regulations coming into effect in October 2010.[14] A letter of intent was signed between the ship's owners and Swedish entrepreneur Lars Hallgren for the acquisition of the ship in 2010. Hallgren planned to use the ship as a floating hotel in Gothenburg. Should his plans have been realized, certain features of the Kungsholm's original appearance, such as her two funnels, would have been restored.[7] Mr. Hallgren withdrew his offer to purchase Mona Lisa because the City of Gothenburg would only lease dock space for the ship to be berthed in Gothenburg for five years,[7][15] and scrap buyers inspected her in the following weeks.[16] However, the city of Stockholm expressed a sudden interest in letting Lars Hallgren berth and preserve Mona Lisa there, first for use as a student accommodation ship and then for use a permanently berthed hotel and museum.

Mona Lisa made her way from Germany to Piraeus, in September, 2010. Mona Lisa left Piraeus on October 11, bound for the Suez Canal and for use as an accommodation ship in Oman.[17] Mona Lisa arrived in Oman on October 26, 2010, where she will spend the next five years as a luxury Floating Hotel in the scenic wilayat of Duqm, in the Sultanate of Oman, housing tourists as well business guests from Duqm and the nearby areas.[18][19] She is now owned by DSME (Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering) Oman LLC. She operates under the name Veronica.

In November 2015 it was reported that although it was still hoped to take her back to Sweden as a hotel ship she had in fact been sold for scrap and was being towed by the tug 'Kamarina' to the ship breaking yard of Alang. She arrived at Alang in tow of 'Kamarina' on November and has been anchored off the beach since awaiting permission to be run aground and for a high tide.

Ship Model

A scale model of Mona Lisa inside the cruise ship (taken while in Qatar)

References

  1. 1 2 "Cruise ship runs aground". news.com.au. News Limited. 5 May 2008. Archived from the original on May 6, 2008. Retrieved 6 May 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Boyle, Ian. "Kungsholm". Simplon Postcards. Retrieved 20 January 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Asklander, Micke. "M/S Kungsholm (1966)". Fakta om Fartyg (in Swedish). Retrieved 20 January 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 "mv Kungsholm built by John Brown Clydebank". Clydebuilt Ships Database. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Othfors, Daniel. "Kungsholm (IV)/Sea Princess (I)/Victoria (II)/Mona Lisa". The Great Ocean Liners. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
  6. ↑ "Mona Lisa (6512354)". Equasis. French Ministry for Transport. Retrieved 2012-May-03. (registration required (help)). Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  7. 1 2 3 "Kungsholm to Gothenburg". A Tribute to the Swedish American Line (in English and Swedish). Retrieved 1 April 2008.
  8. ↑ Salship
  9. ↑ Goossens, Reuben. "The End has come for the wonderful MS Kungsholm IV / Veronica". SaveTheClassicLiners.com. ssMaritime. Retrieved 14 November 2015.
  10. 1 2 Knego, Peter. "P & O Lines' Victoria". Maritime Matters. Archived from the original on 13 November 2007. Retrieved 31 March 2008.
  11. ↑ "Karille ajanutta risteilijää irrotetaan Latvian edustalla". YLE Uutiset / Ulkomaat. Yleisradio Oy. 30 April 2008. Retrieved 4 May 2008.
  12. ↑ "Stranded cruise ship evacuated off Latvia". Associated Press / msnbc. 5 May 2008. Retrieved 20 January 2009.
  13. ↑ "Cruise ship docks at Squamish Terminals".
  14. ↑ Reinikainen, Kari (28 February 2009). "At least 7 old cruise ships face uncertain future due to SOLAS 2010". Cruise Business Online. Cruise Media Oy Ltd. Retrieved 19 July 2009.
  15. ↑ "Hope For The 'HOLM'? MONA LISA's Appeal To Stockholm — Updated". MaritimeMatters. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  16. ↑ "Brokeback PLATINUM". MaritimeMatters. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  17. ↑ "MAESTRO And MONA". MaritimeMatters. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  18. ↑ "Alang Autumnal". MaritimeMatters. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  19. ↑ "Arrival in Oman". MaritimeMatters. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
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