Mona Lisa (ship)

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An artist's rendering of The Scholar Ship. Used by permission.

M/S Mona Lisa, (formerly Kungsholm, Sea Princess and Victoria) is an ocean liner built in 1966. She was later furbished as a cruise ship, and is currently being rebuilt for use as ocean-going educational vessel by The Scholar Ship international education program.

1 History
2 Statistics
3 External links
4 References

[edit] History

As the Kungsholm, the ship first entered service for the Swedish America Line in 1966 as a transatlantic ocean liner, the last liner built for the Gotheburg- New York run. Although mainly used in transatlantic traffic, her interiors had been designed with alternative cruising in mind.

In 1975, the Swedish America Line dissolved and the Kungsholm was sold to Flagship Cruises, who retained her name and used her for cruising from the United States.

Sea Princess at Messina, Sicily

1978 she was purchased by P&O and had her appearance dramatically altered by the removal of her forward (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 name 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 sailed for Holiday Kreuzfahrten as Mona Lisa until 2006, bearing a large image of the painting of the same name on her funnel. Holiday Kreuzfahrt was declared bankrupt in 2006.

In 2007, the ship was leased by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., and was refitted to become an educational vessel for The Scholar Ship international education program, a cooperative venture between seven major world universities and RCI. The Scholar Ship offers undergraduate and graduate semester programs during four-month voyages that commence in September and January of each year.

During the summer seasons, the ship will sail commercially for the RCI-owned Pullmantur Cruises as Oceanic II.

[edit] 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 current tonnage is 29,000.

Length is 201m, breadth 26.5m. 29,000 tons.

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. Her current 398 staterooms can accommodate 796 passengers with 416 crew berths.