MS Sapphire is a 1967 Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 built 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...

 that most recently operated for Louis Cruise Lines

Louis Cruise Lines

Louis Cruises is a Cyprus-based cruise line that operates cruises from Cyprus, France, Italy, India and Greece . The company also charters several ships to Thomson Cruises...

, now laid up at Eleusis Bay awaiting sale.

Construction

The Sapphire was ordered as one of two sisters for the Italian company Sunsarda SpA in 1963 as Italia, and was one of the first purpose-built cruise ships. Her interiors were designed by Gustavo Finali and Romano Boico, who designed the interiors for other famed Italian liners, such as the SS Raffaello and her sister SS Michelangelo. Her funnel and engines were placed towards her stern, a design similar to that of the SS Oceanic of 1965. Fitting out had to be halted as both her future owners and Felszegi, the builders, went bankrupt, and consequently her planned sister was never built. Eventually her incomplete hull was purchased by Crociere d'Oltremare. Her on board features as built included self operational air conditioning, closed circuit televisions, a radio, and telephone in most of her staterooms.

History

Italia was never operated for Crociere d'Oltremare, who chartered her to a Genoa based company called Fratelli Cosulich for three cruise voyages in the Mediterranean, and in turn was chartered to Princess Cruises

Princess Cruises

Princess Cruises is a British-American owned cruise line, based in Santa Clarita, California in the United States. Previously a subsidiary of P&O Princess Cruises PLC, the company is now one of ten cruise ship brands operated by Carnival Corporation & PLC and accounts for approximately 19% share...

. During her delivery voyage to Princess from Trieste to California the "camp classic" film Valley of the Dolls

Valley of the Dolls (film)

The soundtrack was released in 1967. Dionne Warwick sang the title track; however, her version is not on the soundtrack. Warwick was signed to Scepter Records at the time and could not contractually appear...

 premiered on board in the ship's movie theater. Princess renamed her Princess Italia and had the ship sail to Mexico out of Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. In 1968 the logo on the ships funnel was changed from red and yellow triangles to Princess's now signature "sea witch" logo.

In 1969 Princess Italia began to operate cruises in Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, and continued both itineraries until 1973, when Crociere d'Oltremare canceled her charter to Princess. She was subsequently chartered to Costa Cruises

Costa Cruises

Costa Cruises is a British-American owned Italian cruise line, based in Genoa, Italy.Founded in 1924, the company originally operated cargo ships, until the introduction of passenger services in 1947, with regular services between Italy and South America...

, who changed her name back to Italia and operated her on cruises out of San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...

. In 1977 Costa purchased the ship and began chartering her to various companies. This ended in 1983 when Costa sold Italia to Ocean Cruise Line. Ocean Cruise Line renamed her Ocean Princess and had her do cruises in the Mediterranean during the summer, and in the Caribbean and Latin America during the winter. In March 1993, while cruising through the Amazon, the Ocean Princess struck a sunken wreck on the river bottom, causing her engine room and lower decks to flood. All passengers and crew were rescued unharmed, but the ship herself was declared a Total Constructive Loss.

After repairs she was purchased by Sunshine Cruise Line and due to re-enter service as Sea Prince in 1995, but a fire broke out on board, and she was again offered for sale. She was in the end purchased by the Cyprus based cruise line Louis Cruises, who had her named Princesa Oceanica after a major refit. But Princesa Oceania did not keep her new name for long, as she was chartered to the British cruise company Thomson Holidays, who would rename her Sapphire. Sapphire went on to cruise with Thomson until 2002, when she was returned to Louis. Under the ownership of Louis she retained the name Sapphire. The itinerary of Sapphire before she was retired included cruises around the Greek Islands, as well as cruises calling in Lebanon and Syria and various ports of Greece.

The future

In her current construction Sapphire does not fulfill the new regulations of SOLAS 2010

International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea

The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea is an international maritime safety treaty. The SOLAS Convention in its successive forms is generally regarded as the most important of all international treaties concerning the safety of merchant ships.- History :The first version of the...

, a program that has caused the scrapping of many vintage cruise ships owned by Louis Cruise Lines, including the Ivory and Serenade

MV Serenade

The MV Serenade was a French ocean liner and later cruise ship, operating until 2008 when she was sold for scrap.-Ocean liner service:...

. Because she has not been upgraded to meet these new safety requirements, Sapphire will be retired from service by Fall 2010. She has finished her last cruises and is tied up alongside the SS Emerald at Eleusis and for sale.