Swan Hellenic is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 cruise line

Cruise line

A cruise line is a company that operates cruise ships. Cruise lines have a dual character; they are partly in the transportation business, and partly in the leisure entertainment business, a duality that carries down into the ships themselves, which have both a crew headed by the ship's captain,...

 specialising in tours of historical or cultural interest aimed at the upper end of the cruise market.

History

It began in the 1950s when the Swan travel agency, operated by two brothers by the name of Swan, was asked to organise a tour for visitors interested in the antiquities of Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. The archaeologist, Sir Mortimer Wheeler

Mortimer Wheeler

Brigadier Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH, CIE, MC, FBA, FSA , was one of the best-known British archaeologists of the twentieth century.-Education and career:...

, was employed as guest lecturer.

From this developed a full programme of cruises, in which well known academics, writers and clergymen were regularly featured as guest lecturers, both on board ship and on site. The company prided itself on never repeating, exactly, any itinerary, but it concentrated, as the name suggests, on classical sites in the Aegean sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

, around the coats and islands of modern Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 and Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. It also, however, visited classical and other ancient sites in north Africa (including Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

) and the eastern Mediterranean. Unlike most commercial cruises, in which the on board entertainment is as important as the destinations visited, Swan Hellenic cruises landed almost every day in order to visit historic sites, and travel between sites was undertaken by the ship overnight. The operation was characterised by an English ethos of high culture, although it had an international following.

Recent history

Swan Hellenic was acquired from the Swan family by P&O in 1983. More recently, it became a subsidiary of the world's largest cruise operator, the British-American Carnival Corporation & plc

Carnival Corporation & plc

Carnival Corporation & plc , is a American-British Company, and the world's largest cruise ship operator. It is a dual listed company, with headquarters at Carnival Place in the Miami suburb of Doral, Florida, USA, and at Carnival House in Southampton, England, UK...

. Under Carnival, the characteristically small 300-passenger ship Minerva

Minerva (ship)

The first Minerva is a cruise ship built in 1989, and originally intended as a Soviet research vessel, the Okean. The deal to purchase her fell through and she was purchased by Swan Hellenic in 1996, and renamed Minerva. She is 436 feet long, has a beam of 65.6 feet and measures 12,500 gross tons...

, was replaced in 2003 by the 600-passenger Minerva II. This led to criticism that the intimacy of the original cruise concept had been compromised. In April 2007, Carnival ended its operation of Swan Hellenic, and transferred Minerva II to the Princess fleet, with the new name Royal Princess. This was reported at the time as the end of Swan Hellenic. Its demise was apparently compounded when Martin Randall Travel

Martin Randall Travel

Martin Randall Travel is a cultural tour operator in Britain. It specializes in small group tours, music festivals and Mediterranean cruises. It was named AITO Travel Company of the Year in 2005, 2007 and 2008, based on client surveys.-History:...

 launched a series of cruises to fill the niche Swan Hellenic had left.

However, on 15 March 2007, Lord Sterling

Jeffrey Sterling, Baron Sterling of Plaistow

Jeffrey Sterling, Baron Sterling of Plaistow, GCVO, CBE , is a British businessman. He was executive chairman of the shipping line P&O from 1983 to 2005, having joined the board as a non-executive Director on 6 February 1980...

, the former chairman of P&O

Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company

The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which is usually known as P&O, is a British shipping and logistics company which dated from the early 19th century. Following its sale in March 2006 to Dubai Ports World for £3.9 billion, it became a subsidiary of DP World; however, the P&O...

, announced that he was buying the Swan Hellenic brand and intended to relaunch the cruise line as soon as a suitable vessel could be located. Swan Hellenic was subsequently acquired by the All Leisure Holidays Group Plc, who also own Voyages of Discovery who ran the ship Explorer II (previously Minerva

Minerva

Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...

).

The company website states that Swan Hellenic cruises started up again in 2008.

Current fleet

Ship	Built	Entered service for Swan Hellenic	Gross Tonnage Gross tonnage Gross tonnage is a unitless index related to a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage...	Former Names	Notes
Minerva Minerva (ship) The first Minerva is a cruise ship built in 1989, and originally intended as a Soviet research vessel, the Okean. The deal to purchase her fell through and she was purchased by Swan Hellenic in 1996, and renamed Minerva. She is 436 feet long, has a beam of 65.6 feet and measures 12,500 gross tons...	1990	2008		Minerva, Saga Pearl, Alexander von Humboldt, Explorer II	Operated for Swan Hellenic 1996-2003

Former Ships

Ship	Built	Swan Hellenic Service	Gross Tonnage	Former Names	Notes
Miaoulis	1952	1954			Originally built for the Greek Government, owned by Nomikos Lines
Ankara	1927	late 1950s-1974			Built in the USA for New York and Miami S.S. Co., later Clyde Mallory Lines, sold to Turkey in 1948
Orpheus	1948	1974–1996		Munster (4), Theseus	Previously Liverpool to Dublin ferry, as Orpheus chartered from Epriotiki Lines
Minerva Minerva (ship) The first Minerva is a cruise ship built in 1989, and originally intended as a Soviet research vessel, the Okean. The deal to purchase her fell through and she was purchased by Swan Hellenic in 1996, and renamed Minerva. She is 436 feet long, has a beam of 65.6 feet and measures 12,500 gross tons...	1990	1996–2003		Minerva, Saga Pearl, Alexander von Humboldt, Explorer II	Now, once again, operating for Swan Hellenic
Minerva II	2001	2003–2007		R Eight	Now operating for 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...  as Royal Princess Royal Princess MS Adonia is a cruise ship of the P&O Cruises fleet. The ship was built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique at their shipyard in St. Nazaire, France. At 30,000 tonnes, Adonia is the smallest of seven ships currently in service with P&O Cruises...