Company type | Cruising |
---|---|
Industry | Cruise line |
Founded | 1985 |
Defunct | 20 December 2012 |
Headquarters | Neutral Bay, Australia |
Area served | Australia, Europe, Asia, Africa [1] |
Services | Cruises |
Owner | World Cruises Agency |
Website | https://web.archive.org/web/20100221212405/http://uk.cic-cruises.com/ |
Classic International Cruises was a British-Australian owned shipping company operating five luxury cruise ships, most notably its flagship, the rebuilt ocean liner Athena . [2] The company only operated cruise ships that are former ocean liners, the classic ships of their day (hence the company's name).
Classic International Cruises was seemingly founded in 1985, with the purchase of Funchal as the Arcalia Shipping Company Ltd, which eventually became Classic International. They operated the one ship until 1994, when they bought the Princess Danae. The Princess Danae entered service with an all-white hull and a sailing ship logo on her funnel. Funchal was given a yellow and blue striped funnel and a white hull, but by 2000 her livery was changed to what now all Classic International ships have. [3] Since 2000 they have purchased 3 ships, Arion, Athena and Princess Daphne, the near-identical sister of Princess Danae. [4] With their main headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal, the company also has several branches based in Paris, France, Piraeus, Greece, Neutral Bay, Australia, Stockholm, Sweden, and London, England. [5]
Due to unpaid bills by the line, the company's four ships, Princess Danae, Princess Daphne, Athena & Arion were all arrested, the only ship not arrested was Funchal which was laid up pending refurbishment for SOLAS. [6] [7]
On 20 December 2012, it was resolved to place the company into liquidation. [8]
In the beginning of 2013, the recently created cruise company Portuscale Cruises, led by the Portuguese entrepreneur Rui Alegre, bought Princess Danae, Athena, Arion and Funchal, assuming as well the liabilities of Classic International Cruises. [9]
Ship | Built | In service | Tonnage | Status as of 2023 | Image |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Funchal | 1961 | 1985–2013 | 9,563 GRT | Formerly a Portuguese passenger liner and presidential yacht. Transferred to Portuscale Cruises in 2013, keeping the same name, and currently is in lay up. | |
Princess Danae | 1955 | 1994–2013 | 16,335 GRT | Rebuilt 1972, identical to Princess Daphne. Transferred to Portuscale Cruises in 2013 and renamed Lisboa, Scrapped in Aliağa, Turkey, in 2015. | |
Arion | 1965 | 1999–2013 | 5,888 GRT | Originally Yugoslavian passenger ship Istra. In 2013, transferred to Portuscale Cruises and renamed Porto. Scrapped in 2018. | ![]() |
Athena | 1948 | 2005–2013 | 10,603 GRT | Originally Swedish ocean liner Stockholm, rebuilt 1994, under charter to Phoenix Reisen in 2009. In 2015, transferred to Cruise & Maritime Voyages and renamed Astoria. Currently laid up in Rotterdam. | ![]() |
Princess Daphne | 1955 | 2008–2013 | 15,833 GRT | Rebuilt 1972, renamed Princess Daphne 2009. Scrapped in Alang, India, in 2014. | ![]() |
An ocean liner is a type of passenger ship primarily used for transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes. The Queen Mary 2 is the only ocean liner still in service to this day, serving with Cunard Line.
P&O was a British shipping and logistics company dating from the early 19th century. Formerly a public company, it was sold to DP World in March 2006 for £3.9 billion. DP World currently operates several P&O branded businesses, P&O Ferries, Istithmar P&O Estates, and P&O Maritime Logistics. It also operates P&O Heritage, which is the official historic archive and collection of P&O.
Flandre, later called Carla C, Carla Costa, and Pallas Athena, was an ocean liner and cruise ship that took passengers on transatlantic voyages and on Caribbean and Mediterranean cruises from 1952 to 1994. She was operated by the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT), Costa Cruises, and the Epirotiki Line.
Ellerman Lines was a UK cargo and passenger shipping company that operated from the late nineteenth century and into the twentieth century. It was founded in the late 19th century, and continued to expand by acquiring smaller shipping lines until it became one of the largest shipping firms in the World. Setbacks occurred through heavy losses to its merchant fleet in the First and Second World Wars but were overcome in each case.
MS Song of Norway was one of the first ships purpose-built as a cruise ship. She was the first ship of Royal Caribbean International when she entered operation in 1970. She was sold for scrap in 2013 and broken up in 2014, after serving her last years as a gambling ship.
RMS Empress of Britain was a transatlantic ocean liner built by Fairfield Shipbuilding at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland in 1955-1956 for Canadian Pacific Steamships (CP). This ship — the third of three CP vessels to be named Empress of Britain—regularly traversed the trans-Atlantic route between Canada and Europe until 1964, completing 123 voyages under the Canadian Pacific flag.
MS Nordic Pearl is a cruiseferry owned by DFDS Seaways and operated on their Copenhagen–Frederikshavn-Oslo service. She was built in 1989 by Wärtsilä Marine, Turku, for Rederi AB Slite as MS Athena for use in Viking Line traffic. Between 1993 and 2001, she sailed as MS Langkapuri Star Aquarius. From 2001 to 2011 she sailed as MS Pearl of Scandinavia and from 2011 to 2025 she sailed as MS Pearl Seaways.
RMS Sylvania was an ocean liner built in 1957 by John Brown & Company, in Glasgow, Scotland for Cunard. She was the last Cunard vessel built specifically for transatlantic crossings. The ship was later heavily rebuilt as a cruise ship, and sailed under the names SS Fairwind, SS Sitmar Fairwind, SS Dawn Princess and SS Albatros before being scrapped in 2004. She was renamed SS Genoa for her last voyage.
MS Cunard Princess was a cruise ship, previously owned an operated by the Israel-based Mano Maritime. She was built 1975 by the Burmeister & Wain shipyard in Copenhagen, Denmark, for Cunard Line as MS Cunard Conquest, but her interior fittings were subsequently installed at the Navali Mechaniche Affini in La Spezia, Italy. Following re-delivery from Navali Mechaniche Affini in 1977 the ship was renamed MS Cunard Princess. In 1995, the ship entered service with StarLauro Cruises, briefly retaining her previous name before being renamed MS Rhapsody. In 2009 she was sold to Mano Maritime and sailed as Golden Iris until 2018, when she was laid up at Chalkis Shipyard, Greece. In 2021 she was renamed Gold Club. After four years lay-up, she was sold in 2022 to Turkish shipbreakers and beached at Aliağa for recycling.
MV Funchal is a Portuguese ocean liner that was built in 1961.
MV Astoria is a ship that was constructed as the transatlantic ocean liner Stockholm for Swedish American Line, and rebuilt as a cruise ship in 1993. Ordered in 1944, and commenced service in 1948, at 76 years old, she is the oldest deep water passenger liner still around in a non retired status. As Stockholm, she was best known for an accidental collision with Andrea Doria in July 1956, resulting in the sinking of the latter ship and 46 fatalities off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States.
MS Astor was a cruise ship that most recently sailed for Cruise & Maritime Voyages' Transocean Cruises subsidiary, under which she operated voyages to Europe, South Africa, and Australia.
The MV Porto was a Portuguese-owned cruise ship. She had operated by Portuscale Cruises until sold for scrap in 2017.
MS Golden Princess was a casino cruise ship owned by Eurasia International, operated on short casino cruises out of Hong Kong. She was built in 1967 by the Wärtsilä Hietalahti shipyard in Helsinki, Finland as Finlandia for the Finland Steamship Company. In 1975 she was sold to Finnlines, who converted her into the cruise ship Finnstar in 1978. In 1982 she entered service for Pearl Cruises as Pearl of Scandinavia. In 1988 she was renamed Ocean Pearl. In 1994 she entered service with Croisières Paquet as Pearl. Between 1995 and 1998 she sailed for Costa Cruises as Costa Playa. In 1998-1999 she sailed as Oriental Pearl for Mega Wave International, and in 1999-2000 as Joy Wave for Costa Cruises. In 2000 she was sold to Eurasia International and entered service under the name Golden Princess. In 2009 she was sold for scrap to China.
The MS Princess Daphne, formerly Ocean Monarch, Ocean Odyssey, Switzerland, Daphne, Akrotiri Express. was a medium-sized cruise ship. She had originally been the refrigerated cargo ship Port Sydney. Her sister ship was Princess Danae, which was built as Port Melbourne.
Sitmar Cruises and its predecessor Sitmar Line were company names derived from the acronym for the Società Italiana Trasporti Marittimi. SITMAR originally was an Italian shipping line founded by Russian émigré Alexandre Vlasov, however the company's headquarters were later transferred to Monaco. Vlasov initially operated cargo services from 1937, gradually replacing these with passenger services from 1947 until 1988, when SITMAR was sold to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O). After the sale, most of the former SITMAR ships were transferred to the fleet of P&O subsidiary Princess Cruises, while one, TSS Fairstar, became the sole vessel of the newly created P&O-Sitmar Cruises. The only ship originally ordered by SITMAR still sailing, is the MS Ambience for Ambassador Cruise Line.
MS Italia was a cruise ship built in Italy in 1967. She sailed in the Mediterranean, Caribbean, and Pacific under various names and operators, and was scrapped in May 2012.
Port Line was a passenger and cargo shipping company, initially formed as the Commonwealth and Dominion Line in 1914, and in operation in one form or another until 1982.
The MS Princess Danae was a cruise liner. The ship was designed by Harland & Wolff as a freighter in Belfast built and ran in 1954 as Port Melbourne, a fast cargo liner for Port Line's UK-Australia express service. She was planned to be rebuilt as a car ferry, the Therisos Express, but instead became the cruise ship Danae. In later years, she was named Starlight Express, Baltica, and then Princess Danae.
Portuscale Cruises was a Portuguese shipping company. It was the first Portuguese company specifically dedicated to maritime cruises.