Santorini Ship Sinking

[level_head]

The Sea Diamond, a ship operated by Louis Cruise Lines, sank Thursday in the crater of the Greek island of Santorini, which was once the volcano island of Thera before exploding about 3,600 years ago.

Comments

[pengolodh_sc]

The ship was originally built 1986 as the Birka Princess for 24-hour cruises in the Baltic ocean, and did that until 2004 when sold to her current Cypriotic owners Louis Cruises and renamed Sea Diamond. The ship had a large rebuild in 1999, changing her looks quite a bit, and also apparently deleting her cardeck - the cardeck was for the benefit of cruise passengers on the 24hour cruises, who would have the opportunity to park their car onboard. Passenger capacity after the rebuild was 1537 passengers.

On this page there are many images of the ship (click on them for larger versions). The first four are of her prior to the reconstruction, and in some of the images can be seen quite clearly the large loading-ramp aft on the port side, leading to the former cardeck. Among the images are links to photos of her interior following the reconstruction, and also deckplans from after her sale to Louis Cruises.

The ship was something of a celebrity in Sweden, as it was a TV-star. The Swedish TV-series Rederiet ran on Swedish TV for ten years, and dealt with intrigues in and around the fictional shipping-line Dahlens both in the main office and onboard the company's flagship, the cruiseferry Freja. Birka Princess was always used for the exterior shots of Freja.

[level_head]

Interesting, thanks!

This makes a sad sort of epitaph -- especially for an English speaker.2007 04 06. Sjönk fartyget på morgonen på ca 140 meters djup utanför Santorini.
===|==============/ Level Head