Cruise ship “Aquamarine” at Hong Kong, June 1980
Owner: Arkley Navigation Ltd., Hong Kong (Kavounides Shipping Co. Group, Greece)
Flag: Greece
Builder: Soc. Espanola de Construccion Naval, Bilbao, Spain (Hull-104)
Gross tons: 9,232
Deadweight: 3,300
Length overall: 147.8 m
Max. draft: 5.5 m
Engines: 2 x 8-cylinder B&W 8-50VTBF-110 diesels, total 9,200 b.h.p.
Speed: 17 knots
Completed August 1962 as “Princesa Isabel” for Compania Nacional de Navegação Costeira, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (450 passengers)
Ownership transfered to Lloyd Brasileiro November 1966
Laid up at Rio early 1968
Sold October 1969 to Dominion Navigation Co, Melbourne, Australia (a joint venture between Jardine Matheson of Hong Kong & HC Sleigh of Australia), renamed “Marco Polo”; towed to River Clyde for an 7-month refit (pseengers reduced to 375); commenced Far East cruises out of Melbourne June 1970.
Sold May 1978 to Arkley/Kavounides; suffered heavy damage in heavy weather the following month; repaired & refitted at Greece & returned to Far East cruising under name “Aquamarine” but this was not successful.
Laid up at Hong Kong 27 April 1980 (a few weeks before this photo)
Arrested 1981 & sold at auction to the Commercial Bank of Greece; sailed to Eliseus, Greece, & laid up there in August
Sold 1988 to Epirotiki Lines, Piraeus, renamed “Odysseus” & refitted at Perama (passengers now 486)
In December 1995 Epirotiki merged with Sun Line of Greece to form Royal Olympic Cruises.
After bankruptcy of ROC, sold by ausction to Mantovana Holding Ltd, Panama, April 2005; renamed “Lucky Star” the following month. Operated as a casino ship first off Macau, then off Singapore in 2006
Arrived at Alang, India, for scrapping January 2008 under the name “Lucky”