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Back to Princesa Victoria page 1
Please allow photographs some time to load........ All text and photographs (unless stated otherwise) © Paul Timmerman; photographs on this page made during ship visit in 1981 when she sailed as The Victoria for Chandris Cruises . They had
the Dunnotar Castle towed to Schiedam,
The Netherlands where the Wilton Feijenoord shipyards
started conversion work to make her a full time cruise
ship. In the process she received new Fiat diesels and new propellers. Inside she was completely stripped, and her accommodations and public rooms were rebuilt from scratch.
In 1960
work on her was finished and she made her second maiden voyage from Le Havre to
New York. She was renamed Victoria. Everyone who knew her from her former life
as Dunnotar Castle was impressed by this radically changed ship. As cruising was
growing in popularity in America in those days, she quickly became a very
popular ship. In 1964, Incres Line was taken over by Swedish Clipper Line, being well known for operating the famous Stella Polaris (see ship description), one of the first luxury cruise ships in history. Card Room Ten
years later, dark clouds were on the horizon for Incres. Fuel prices had
skyrocketed, and operators with one or two vessels were in for a struggle in
order to survive. Incres went bankrupt in 1975 and Victoria was laid up in New
York. In November that same year, she was bought by Chandris. Other interested parties had been Home Lines, Epirotiki and Costa. But she went to Chandris. She was towed to Piraeus and refitted there, being in a neglected state. She was renamed The Victoria.
From
1976 until 1993 she proved to be a very popular Chandris-ship, spending her time
in the Mediterranean, Scandinavia and the Caribbean.
Suddenly,
she was sold to Cypriot-based Louis Cruise Lines who
operated
her on
short cruises out of Cyprus/ Limassol to Israel and Egypt,
mainly in the summer season
In 2000, she served as a hotel ship in Lissabon during the Olympic Games. She was laid up at the port of Limassol, Cyprus since then. Louis did not put her in active service again on short cruises. There have been many political problems over the years in the area (Israel, Egypt, the recent war in Irak) affecting passenger loads on short cruises from Cyprus. So she lied idle together with her fleetmates Princesa Amorosa (recently sold for scrap) and Princesa Cypria. Then, in a surprise move, Louis acquired three cruise ships from British Airtours/ Sun Cruises which decided to stop cruising activities at the end of 2004. With these new and more economical vessels added to the fleet, Louis decided to dispose of the old girl and Princesa Victoria was sold to Indian ship breakers in 2004. After so many years of service Princesa Victoria certainly deserved to be preserved in a static role as a floating hotel or museum.........
Click on thumbnail for larger image
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