With many thanks to Mario Bounas VP marketing of Swan Hellenic for providing photographs of SH Minerva for use in this article!
During the 1950s, a British travel agency Swan’s Tours started organising cruise holidays to historical sites in Greece. With archeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler (a famous British archaeologist noted for his discoveries in Great Britain and India) acting as a guest lecturer during these cruises, of which each itinerary was unique, they became a great success. Soon, other guest lecturers as well as destinations like Turkey and Egypt were added. The company was later renamed Swan Hellenic.
Swan Hellenic started operations with a just two years old ship, the Miaoulis chartered from Nomikos Line in 1954, but she was too small and the company needed another ship. In 1959 the well-known 6,178 GRT Turkish Maritime Lines Ankara, built in 1927 was chartered and would sail for Swan Hellenic until 1974. She was replaced by the the Orpheus, a former B&I ferry which was sold to Greek Epirotiki Cruises in 1969 and was rebuilt into a cruise ship.
Swan Hellenic’s program can be regarded as the start of destination-oriented cruising on a larger scale. In 1983, the company was sold to P&O and later was part of the Carnival corp. family of companies after Carnival had acquired P&O Princess Cruises. From 1996, Orpheus was replaced by Minerva, Swan’s first vessel actually owned by the company. She was an intimate 300-passenger cruise ship and was succeeded by the Minerva II in 2003. Minerva II was a former Renaissance Cruises R-class ship, R Eight, and of course the main reason for this swap was that now capacity was doubled to 600 guests, which was not appreciated by all of Swan’s guests as they liked the smaller more intimate vessel better. April 2007, the Swan Hellenic brand was discontinued, their ship being transferred to Princess Cruises to become their Royal Princess (see Royal Princess photo page for interior photographs).
Immediately, Lord Sterling, former CEO of P&O acquired the Swan Hellenic brand and its client base and planned to relaunch it asap. Shortly thereafter, All Leisure Holidays Group took over the Swan Hellenic heritage and Minerva (I) again sailed for the company from 2008 until 2017 when ALG went into administration.
February 2017, G Adventures acquired the Swan Hellenic brand, and announced operations would be resumed summer 2018, but nothing happened and all remained quiet until July 2020 when former cruise industry executive Andrea Zito purchased Swan Hellenic from G Adventures together with a group of business associates. Zito is the CEO of the new company. Plans are to start actual operations of the revived Swan Hellenic company (being a British cruise line with offices in London, Monte Carlo and Dusseldorf) when their first-ever newbuilding, to be named SH Minerva comes online.
Vodohod (founded 2004) is Russia’s largest river cruise line with headquarters in St. Peterburg and Moscow. They originally ordered the Vega-class vessels, but decided to start entering the cruise industry by teaming up with Swan Hellenic instead. Both companies have several shareholders in common.
Swan’s first newbuilding, to be constructed by Helsinki Shipyard, is scheduled for launch in August 2021 and will be taken into service following November, A sistership of the Vega-class ships (as this new class of luxury expedition ships is called) will be launched in January 2022 and will join the fleet 3 months later, in April 2022. A third sistership will follow at the end of 2022. They will all be registered in Valletta, Malta. SH Minerva will follow a naming tradition being the third vessel to bear the name, Minerva being the goddess of wisdom, learning and arts. She will be an expedition vessel capable of sailing worldwide in all regions no matter what climate conditions they have, ice-regions or tropical weather, SH Minerva will cope with it effortlessly.
Swan Hellenic’s SH Minerva will have a a PC5 class (ice-strengthened) hull and is fitted with extra-large stabilizers to make your journey as smooth as possible.
Propulsion will be by 4,6 MW diesel-electric hybrid engines, aided by a 3 MW maximum battery package, her speed will be 14 knots (26 km/h), draught 5,7 m (19 ft), LOA 113 m (371 ft) and she will have a GRT of 10,500.
Her crew will include an expedition team comprising expert guides and lecturers, the overall crew numbering 120 representing an incredible crew to guest ratio as the crew almost equals the number of guests, reflecting the high level of service provided.
SH Minerva‘s cruise program will commence with two 16-days voyages to Antarctica, South America and the UK Falkland Islands with fares starting from Euro 15,815. Other regions she will visit are the Arctic region, the Russian Far East and also, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the British Isles. The number of destinations will grow when the two sisterships ordered will be taken into service.
SH Minerva, Swan’s 5-star Scandi-design boutique ship provides 76 staterooms for a total of 152 guests (max.), consisting of 70 cabins and 6 suites. Apart from Oceanview cabins, all staterooms have large balconies. They have been decorated in pastel colours, natural textures, and feature multiple lighting options to change the atmosphere as desired and even a holographic fireplace….
An overview of available staterooms and suites:
- Oceanview 19 m2
- Balcony category-D5 28 m2, located forward and aft, bedroom with living room area, a luxurious bathroom and a 6m2 balcony
- Balcony category-M5 28 m2, like category-D5 but located midships
- Balcony category-D6 28 m2 ,like the previous categories but located on deck six
- Suite 44 m2 These suites feature a supersized bed and separate living room with a realistic holographic flame-effect fireplace, a luxurious ensuite bathroom and a 12 m2 private balcony.
- Premium Suite 49 m2 SH Minerva’s grandest suites featuring a supersized bed, a separate living room with fireplace and a luxurious ensuite bathroom, spacious walk in wardrobe and a 12 m2 private balcony.
SH Minerva’s interior spaces are designed by Tillberg Design of Sweden, a company with an abundance of experience in this field and known for its interiors created for luxury cruise ships and land based hotels. They were instructed by Swan Hellenic to create an on board atmosphere of sophisticated elegance and comfort and to emphasize the spectacular surroundings the ship will visit by seeing to it that public spaces provide wide open, unobstructed views throughout the ship with the destination always in view.
Outdoors on her top deck, she will have a helicopter-deck for use in case an emergency arises, aft a marina for launching zodiacs, inflatable speedboats used for landings and scenic cruising, a sun deck with a swimming pool, jacuzzi, pool bar and grill, while indoors the Observation Lounge -the focal point of the ship- furnished with super comfy plush sofas and easy chairs is the place to relax and enjoy the scenery with its large picture windows. It also features small niche outdoor seating areas. The Observation Lounge serves multiple functions as it has a large LED screen for lectures as well as a piano and pop-up screens for entertainment use. The Swan Restaurant, the main dining room large enough to serve all guests in one seating, has -like SH Minerva’s other public spaces- been decorated with warm natural materials like for example an ample use of wood. With a clever use of table furnishings and lighting the mood changes swiftly from casual comfortable to a rich and luxury atmosphere at dinner time.
Her health center consists of a spa, gym and sauna with the ships trademark floor-to-ceiling windows and of course SH Minerva, being an expedition vessel has mud room, the Basecamp room midships where guests can change into their expedition outfits, board the ship’s Zodiacs, have coffee together and discuss that day’s excursions and where the expedition gear is stored.
Finally the Club Lounge, a more intimate room aft on Deck 7 with a marvellous holographic fireplace and 24 hour food service with its panoramic views provides a great alternative to the larger Observation Lounge.
When a virtual tour of SH Minerva was released at the end of November 20202, Swan Hellenic CEO Andrea Zito commented: “We’re delighted with the way these designs have come together, creating unique experiences that honour Swan Hellenic’s cultural expedition heritage while bringing it bang up to date — in comfort, services and above all vision, transforming the inward-looking paradigm of classic cruise ships into a world of casual comfort and elegance that looks outwards to see what others don’t.”
A third expedition cruise ship designed with the same distinctive comfort and style as her sister ship Swan Hellenic has ordered from Helsinki Yard, Finland, will be slightly larger, accommodating 192 guests in 96 cabins and suites. She will be a Polar Class 6 vessel, meaning she will be able to navigate in medium first-year ice during the summer and autumn. Propulsion will be upgraded to a 4.6-megawatt diesel-electric hybrid propulsion system with a 3-megawatt battery package, which will enable her to sail completely under battery power for brief periods.
Starting with SH Minerva to be followed by her two sisters, Swan Hellenic will cater for adventurous guests with a passion for cultural exploration and it will offer meticulously planned unique itineraries exploring nature, wildlife and cultures in the world’s most remote regions. Its beyond any doubt that Swan Hellenic will set the bar extremely high for its competitors in this fast growing (over 40 vessels on order at the time of writing /2020) market of expedition cruising.
