One of the first brochures in my collection dating from 1975 – it is of a Dutch tour-operator specialized in cruising, Zeetours- some last minute cruise news is included the last page: a Greek shipping Tycoon, John Carras would introduce two brand new vessels, Danae and Daphne. Both 5 -star de luxe vessels, measuring 10,160 GRT. They would be top of the bill in luxury cruising, carrying around 500 passengers.
Originally, Danae and Daphne had been reefers sailing on the Australian and New Zealand run as Port Sydney and Port Melbourne. So they were rebuilt vessels and not newbuildings. Introduced in 1955 with a length of 162m, a beam of 21 m and a draught of almost 8m, they carried 12 passengers. At the start of the seventies these vessels were no longer profitable as modern tonnage with far greater freight capacitiy, higher speed and a more economic fuel consumption was introduced by the competition.
John Carras bought both vessels, planning at first to convert them to ferries, running between Piraeus and Limassol under the names of Akrotiri Express and Therisos Express. But he changed his mind and both were extensively rebuilt in two deluxe cruiseships Danae and Daphne at his yard in Piraeus, keeping only their hull and original machinery intact. A new company was founded to operate the new ships, Carras Delian Cruises. Both ships were top of the bill de luxe vessels at the time, in the cinema, passengers could adjust seat heating for every seat separately! Furthermore interior decorations were of the highest standard, the etched glass panels in the dining room and the heavy brass lighting in the corridors are just two examples hereof. They attracted a wealthy clientele. In the seventies, when I visited Danae in Amsterdam I was approached by an American passenger asking me where the ship had docked, he had no idea. Moments later someone wanted to know where he could get the latest information about his stocks and bonds on Wall Street (which was actually on display next to the ships’ reception).
From a 1978 brochure:
Danae and Daphne stayed together in their early careers as cruise ships. Daphne ex Akrotiri Express made her maiden voyage in July 1975, sailed mainly in European waters, but later repositioned to the Caribbean for a series of cruises from Cuba, quite a novelty in those days. Both ships were the first western cruise ships to visit ports in communist countries Cuba and China. After a charter to Lauro Lines in 1978, a year later Costa Cruises chartered her for five years when it became clear that Carras’ original plans with Delian Cruises were not very successful financially. One of the reasons Carras Delian Cruises was not successful was that cruise ships which are not operated on regular routes, cannot benifit from arrangements made in its regular ports, refueling and provisioning where this can be done at the lowest possible costs. For each cruise, separate arrangements need to be made which is not cost effective. And both vessels did not attract enough passengers in this high-end part of the market.
Daphne was purchased outright by Costa in 1984 who operated her in Alaskan waters in summer and in the Caribbean during the winter months, mostly on weekly cruises out of San Juan.
Danae’s conversion was completed one and a half year after that of her sister’s and she departed on her first cruise in January 1977, an 88-day cruise to the Far East. After a short spell with Carras Delian Cruises, and like her sister a five year charter to Costa, she was also sold to Costa in 1984. However, Costa kept Danae in European waters, apart from an annual world cruise.
In 1990, Costa wanted to expand outside their own company and entered a venture with a Russian company Sovcomflot, called Prestige Cruises. It was agreed that both companies would “donate” two vessels and Costa would take care of marketing Prestige Cruises, as the new company was called. It operated Costa vessels Daphne and Danae and the Sovcomflot Fedor Dostejewski and Maxim Gorky. However Sovcomflot had trouble ending the current charters of their ships to Neckermann and Phoenix Reisen and decided to end the venture within a year. Costa agreed.
From here on Daphne and Danae went their own way so to speak, as in 1997 Daphne was sold to Leisure Cruises, a daughter company of Swiss Air. She was renamed Switzerland and spent her time sailing in European waters. Suddenly in 2001 Swiss Air went bankrupt and three months later, Danae was sold to a Greek company, Majestic Cruises. Renamed again to Ocean Monarch she was chartered mainly to British operator Page and Moy and German Hansa Kreuzfahrten. As a result of the tsunami in December 2004, Majestic Cruises offered their ship for 8 weeks to serve as a hospital ship to the badly stricken island of Sri Lanka. She was renamed Hellenic Aid for the time being. Over 2000 people received medical care on board. In September that same year, she was chartered for hospital ship duty once again, this time to serve in New Orleans which had been hit by hurricane Katrina. However, this charter fell through and the veteran ship quietly disappeared into lay up in Eleusis Bay… It was feared she would be one of the next victims of the very hungry Indian shipbreakers at Alang. However, at this time, Cypriot based Louis Cruise Lines were in the process of taking over Golden Star Cruises whose Aegean I had been forced into lay up at the time as there was a dispute concerning the right of ownership of this vessel. Golden Star needed a stand-in vessel fast and after a quick refit she was ready for the job. Competing with the more modern Sea Diamond (former Birka Princess), the ship sailed filled to capacity, much to anyone’s surprise. It was announced she would sail again in 2007 for a newly formed subsidiary of Majestic Cruises together with Blue Monarch, ex World Renaissance, but one of Majestic’s other vessels Lili Marleen, on charter to German operator Holiday Kreuzfahrten was suddenly returned to her owners when Holiday was suddenly declared bankrupt and she wasn’t needed anymore. So again, the future of Ocean Monarch looked very bleak again…
But, yet another party was interested in her and in 2007, she was sold to Clasic Intrernational Cruises from Portugal. Formerly Arcalia Shipping, this company was founded in 1985 and had started as a single-ship company, with the classic Portuguese liner Funchal. She was given a refit and sailed for CIC as Princess Daphne until 21012 when the high maintenance bills of its ageing fleet became too much for the company (and both sons of the founder Mr. Potamianos who had passed away did not have the skills to run a shipping company) and it declared bankruptcy. Princess Daphne was seized at Souda and offered for sale. She was bought by Indian shipbreakers and shortly thereafter left for Alang where in 2014 a long career came to an end.
Danae continued…..
After the agreement between Costa and Sovcomflot ended and Prestige Cruises was discontinued, she was refitted in Genoa for her next round the world cruise when arsonists set her on fire (it was believed) on Dec 1991. Danae was badly damaged and her sister Daphne took over. Capricorn Maritime acquired her from Costa, renamed her Anar and renamed her again after she had arrived under tow in Piraeus to Starlight Princess. In 1994, a company called Flax International bought her and had her refitted. A new operator from Greece, Sunshine Cruises released a brochure including cruises by two vessels Starlight Princess and Sea Princess (former Italia of 1967, later known as Sapphire Princess), but this never came to pass.
Then Baltic Line from Sweden took her over in 1994 and renamed her Baltica. During the next two years Baltica was arrested several times, once in Kiel for technical deficiancies, and later in Genua for unpaid bills. The future had looked bright for Baltica for a short period, but now she found herself again in lay up in Greece. In July of 1996 Arcalia Shipping from Lisbon acquired her and started operating her under the Classic International Banner together with other classics like Funchal, Arion and Athena. Danae needed to be refitted for compliance to the new SOLAS rules of1997. Sometimes chartered out, but most of her time was spent in Europe and the Caribbean. Alas, in 2012 it became clear that operating five classic cruise ships had been to much of a financial burden for the company and Classic International was declared bankrupt. All of it vessels except Princess Daphne were sold to a Portuguese entrepreneur Rui Alegre, owner of Portuscale Cruises. From this moment on, problems mounted as Lisboa, as she had been renamed, was found to have serious structural issues as became clear during a refit in 2014. A French operator that would charter her, canncelled this charter because of her technical problems.
This was money Portuscale could have used very well as at the time the company was struggling financially. Then, when another charter of Athena to German operator Ambiente was less than successful because of low bookings, Portuscale sold Lisboa to the scrappers in India to generate some much needed cash.
