MV Kungsholm was built in 1966 by the John Brown & Company shipyard in Clydebank, Scotland as a combined ocean liner / cruise ship for the Swedish American Line. She was later rebuilt as a full-time cruise ship sailing under the names MV Sea Princess, MV Victoria, MV Oceanic II. and MV Mona Lisa. In September 2010 she was retired from service as she did not fulfill requirements to SOLAS 2010, becoming the floating hotel Veronica, before being scrapped in 2016.
Design and construction
The Kungsholm was designed by the longtime Swedish American Line technical director Eric Christiansson, who had designed all Swedish American Line new-builds since 1938, and introduced the trademark double stack, streamline profile to the majority of the new ships. John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland was selected to construct the new Kungsholm, and she was launched in 1965. She was fitted with two Swedish built Götaverken nine cylinder engines have a combined output of 25,200 SHP, which gave her a service speed of 21 knots, although she achieved 25 knots during her sea trials. The ship was equipped with Denny Brown stabilizers and was one of the handful of British built liners to have a bulbous bow. The vessel met all updated SOLAS requirements as of the 1992 modifications.
The ship's original Gross Registered Tonnage was 26,678. After rebuilding for service with P&O, her tonnage was increased to 27,670. Later she was measured at 28,891 GT. She is 201 meters (660 ft) long with a breadth of 26.5 meters.
The ship's passenger capacity was 713 as a transatlantic liner, but only 450 as a cruise ship before the addition of extra cabins increased the number of berths to 730. She carries 417 crew members. The maximum capacity utilizing upper (passenger) and lower (crew) berths is 994 persons.
History
Kungsholm - Swedish American Line
As Kungsholm, the ship first entered service for the Swedish America Line in 1966 as a transatlantic ocean liner, the last liner built for the Gothenburg – New York City run. Although built for transatlantic service, she was also designed to spend a large proportion of the year cruising.
Kungsholm - Flagship Cruises
In 1975, the Swedish America Line closed its passenger services and Kungsholm was sold to Flagship Cruises, who retained her name and used her for cruising from the United States. She was re-registered in Liberia.
Sea Princess - P&O Princess Cruises
Rebuilding
In 1978 she was purchased by P&O and was sent to Vegesack for rebuilding by Bremer Vulkan. She had her appearance dramatically altered by the removal of the forward (dummy) funnel, reshaping of her remaining funnel, and the addition of extra cabins. Under UK registry her tonnage had increased to 27,670 and she had accommodation for 750 passengers.
She was renamed Sea Princess and was initially based in Australia. From 1981 Sea Princess alternated between deployments with P&O's UK fleet and the subsidiary Princess Cruises fleet. Multiple episodes of The Love Boat were filmed on board when deployed in Australia. As her deployments changed, so did the colour of her funnel; buff (yellow) for P&O, white with the Sea Witch logo for Princess Cruises.
Victoria - P&O Cruises
In 1995 she was renamed Victoria and for the rest of her career with P&O Cruises operated out of Southampton. The name change was to allow the then new addition to the Princess Cruises fleet to be named Sea Princess.
In 1999/2000 Victoria was chartered for the Union-Castle Line centenary voyage and had her funnel repainted in that company's livery.
Mona Lisa - Holiday Kreuzfahrten
In 2002 she was sold by P&O and sailed for Holiday Kreuzfahrten as Mona Lisa until 2006, bearing a large image of the painting of the same name on her funnel. On 12 May 2004, during a heavy foggy day, the Mona Lisa got stuck in the San Marco basin in Venice, in front of St Mark's square. Holiday Kreuzfahrten was declared bankrupt in September 2006. Following the bankruptcy of Holiday Kreuzfahrten, Mona Lisa was briefly laid up at Pireus, Greece, but in November 2006 she was chartered for use as a hotel ship in Doha, Qatar for the duration of the Asian Games. The charter to Qatar ended on 1 January 2007.