MS Athena
Encyclopedia
MS
Ship prefix
A ship prefix is a combination of letters, usually abbreviations, used in front of the name of a civilian or naval ship.Prefixes for civilian vessels may either identify the type of propulsion, such as "SS" for steamship, or purpose, such as "RV" for research vessel. Civilian prefixes are often...
Athena is a cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
owned and operated by Classic International Cruises
Classic International Cruises
Classic International Cruises is a British-Australian owned shipping company operating five luxury cruise ships, most notably their flagship, the rebuilt ocean liner MS Athena. -History:...
. She was built in 1948 as the MS Stockholm by Götaverken
Götaverken
Götaverken was a shipbuilding company that was located on Hisingen, Gothenburg. It was founded in 1841, and went bankrupt in 1989.The company was founded in 1841 by a Scottish businessman called Alexander Keiller under the name Keillers Werkstad i Göteborg, and was aimed at industrial production...
in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
for the Swedish America Line. Since her career with SAL she has sailed under the names MS Völkerfreundschaft, MS Volker, MS Fridtjof Nansen, MS Italia I, MS Italia Prima, MS Valtur Prima and MS Caribe, before beginning service under her current name.
As Stockholm she was best known for colliding with the SS Andrea Doria
SS Andrea Doria
SS Andrea Doria[p] was an ocean liner for the Italian Line home ported in Genoa, Italy, most famous for its sinking in 1956, when 46 people died. Named after the 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the ship had a gross register tonnage of 29,100 and a capacity of about 1,200 passengers and...
in 1956, resulting in the sinking of the latter ship.
Service history
At 525 feet (160.02 m) with a gross tonnage of 12,165, Stockholm was the smallest passenger ship operating on the North Atlantic route at the time. However, she was the largest ship built in SwedenSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
at the time. Originally designed to carry 395 people, a 1953 refit expanded Stockholm's capacity to 548 people.
Collision with the Andrea Doria
On the night of July 25, 1956, at 11:10 PM, in heavy fog in the North Atlantic OceanAtlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
off the coast of Nantucket, the Stockholm and the Andrea Doria
SS Andrea Doria
SS Andrea Doria[p] was an ocean liner for the Italian Line home ported in Genoa, Italy, most famous for its sinking in 1956, when 46 people died. Named after the 16th-century Genoese admiral Andrea Doria, the ship had a gross register tonnage of 29,100 and a capacity of about 1,200 passengers and...
of the Italian Line
Italian Line
The Italian Line or Italia Line, also known as the Italia di Navigazione S.p.A., was a passenger shipping line that operated regular transatlantic services between Italy and the United States, and Italy and South America...
collided in what was to become one of history's most famous maritime disasters.
Although most passengers and crew survived the collision, the larger Andrea Doria luxury liner capsized and sank the following morning. Owing to the collision, 50% of the Andrea Doria
Lifeboat (shipboard)
A lifeboat is a small, rigid or inflatable watercraft carried for emergency evacuation in the event of a disaster aboard ship. In the military, a lifeboat may be referred to as a whaleboat, dinghy, or gig. The ship's tenders of cruise ships often double as lifeboats. Recreational sailors sometimes...
s were unusable. However, a number of ships responded and provided assistance, which averted a massive loss of life like that suffered by the Titanic over 40 years earlier.
Five crewmembers on the Stockholm were killed instantly and several more were trapped in the wrecked bow
Bow (ship)
The bow is a nautical term that refers to the forward part of the hull of a ship or boat, the point that is most forward when the vessel is underway. Both of the adjectives fore and forward mean towards the bow...
. Despite its having sunk about three feet (0.9 m), the crippled Stockholm helped in the rescue and ended up carrying 327 passengers and 245 crewmembers from the Andrea Doria, in addition to her own passengers and crew. After Andrea Doria sank, Stockholm sailed to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
under her own power and arrived on July 27. The crushed bow portion was repaired at a cost of US$1 million three months later.
History after the collision
On January 3, 1960, the Stockholm was sold to the East German government, who renamed the ship Völkerfreundschaft and operated her as an ocean liner until 1985. In 1985 she was transferred to a Panamanian company "Neptunas Rex Enterprises". Her name was reduced to Volker, and by the end of the year she was laid up in SouthamptonSouthampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
, England. She was later used as a barracks ship in Oslo for asylum seekers in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
under the name Fridtjof Nansen.
The Stockholm was sold to Italian interests in 1989 and towed to Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, the Andrea Doria's home port. When she first arrived, the press called the Stockholm the "ship of death" (La nave della morte). She was rebuilt from the waterline up and given a modern cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
design. Named the Italia I, then Italia Prima, she later sailed as Valtur Prima primarily to Cuba, and was laid up there in 2001. Acquired by Festival Cruise Line in 2002 and renamed Caribe she continued to sail to Cuba. Since 2005, the Stockholm sails as the Athena and is registered in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
. She is now flagged out of Cyprus operating for Classic International Cruises.
On 3 December 2008 MS Athena was attacked by pirates
Piracy in Somalia
Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been a threat to international shipping since the second phase of the Somali Civil War in the early 21st century...
in the Gulf of Aden
Gulf of Aden
The Gulf of Aden is located in the Arabian Sea between Yemen, on the south coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and Somalia in the Horn of Africa. In the northwest, it connects with the Red Sea through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, which is about 20 miles wide....
. There were reported to be 29 pirate boats surrounding the ship at one stage until a US Navy P-3 Orion
P-3 Orion
The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engine turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner. The aircraft is easily recognizable by its distinctive tail stinger or...
maritime patrol aircraft circled above which led to some of the pirates to flee. The crew prevented the pirates from boarding by firing high pressure water cannons at them. No one was injured and the ship escaped without damage and continued on her voyage to Australia.
Statistics
| PUBLIC ROOMS | Capacity | Deck |
|---|---|---|
| Olissipo Restaurant | 520 | Atlantic |
| Lotus Pool Grill | 210 | Calypso |
| Calypso Show Lounge | 480 | Calypso |
| Sirene's Bar | 150 | Calypso |
| Muses Night Club | 80 | Promenade |
| Captain's Club | 30 | Calypso |
| Tychon Card Room | 40 | Calypso |
| Ithaca Library | 16 | Calypso |
| Cyclope's Auditorium | 260 | Promenade |
| OTHER LEISURE AREAS | Deck |
|---|---|
| Emporio Boutique | Calypso |
| Fitness Centre | Observation |
| Beauty Salon | Observation |
| Sauna | Observation |
| Photo Shop | Calypso |
| Circe's Casino | Calypso |
| Chapel | Mediterranean |
| Medical Centre | Pacific |
| OPEN LEISURE AMENITIES | Deck |
|---|---|
| Swimming pool | Calypso |
| Elpinor Bar | Calypso |
| Aeolos Bar | Navigators |
| Barbecue | Calypso |
External links
- Goldberg, Mark H. (2002). Ship Profile - MS Caribe. CruisePage.com. Accessed June 6, 2005.
- Ljungström, Henrik. Stockholm. The Great Ocean Liners. Accessed June 6, 2005.
- Official page at Classic International Cruises
- SS Maritime page detailing the name changes with photos
- Presentation of the Athena, with picture