Mona Lisa (ship)
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Mona Lisa, (formerly Kungsholm, Sea Princess and Victoria) is a former Ocean Liner now operating for Holiday Kreuzfahrten as a cruise ship
History
The Kungsholm first entered service for the Swedish America Line in 1966 as a trans- atlantic liner, the last liner built for the Gotheburg- New York run. 1975 saw the dissolving of the Swedish America Line and the sale of Kungsholm to Flagship Cruises, who retained her name. In 1978 she was purchased by P&O and had her appearance dramatically altered by the removal of her dummy funnel, reshaping of her remaining funnel, and the addition of extra cabins. She was renamed the 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. In 1995 she was renamed Victoria and for the rest of her career operated with P&O's UK fleet out of Southampton. The change was to allow the then new addition to the Princess Cruises fleet to be named Sea Princess.In 1999/2000 Victoria was chartered for the Union-Castle Line centenary voyage and had her funnel repainted in that company's livery. In 2002 she was sold by P&O and since then has sailed for Holiday Kreuzfahrten as Mona Lisa, bearing a large image of the painting of the same name on her funnel.
Statistics
Launched in 1965, and built by John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland. Unusually for a passenger ship, especially one built as a trans-atlantic liner, she was fitted with slow speed two stroke diesel engines. Her two Swedish built Gotaverken 9 cylinder engines have a combined output of 25,200 SHP which give her a cruising speed of 20 knots, although she achieved 25 knots during her trials. Original Gross Registered Tonnage was 26,700; after remodelling by P&O this increased to 27,670 GRT. Her passenger capacity was 713 as a trans- atlantic liner, but only 450 as a cruise ship before the addition of extra cabins increased the number of berths to 730. Length is 201m, breadth 26.5m.External Links
- [Holiday Kreuzfahrten site] website
- [Union-Castle Line Centenary voyage site] website
References
- [Maritime Matters site] website
- [Great Ocean Liners site] website
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