Ship History

RETURN TO THE HOMEPAGE                                                                                                                                                                                                                       RMS SYLVANIA 1956

Design and Construction (1951 – 1954):

In the final weeks of 1951, Cunard Line announced that they had decided to build a completely new class of ships for the service between Liverpool and Montreal. This initial announcement only mentioned two ships, though this was soon extended to include two further ships. They were to be the largest Cunard liners ever built purely for the company’s Canadian service. The ships were to be built by John Brown & Co. Ltd, Clydebank, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. All four ships in this new class were built to meet the requirements of Canada’s rapidly growing population and increasing volume of overseas trade. The basic design of the ships combined a large passenger capacity, in maximum comfort, with space for a substantial amount of cargo – all within the biggest dimensions which would permit safe navigation of the St Lawrence River up to the terminal port of Montreal.

It had been announced on the 25^th November 1953, that the first two vessels were to be named Saxonia and Ivernia. In March 1955, Cunard Line gave John Brown & Co. Ltd the confirmation of their order for the final ship of the quartet, Sylvania. Her keel was laid on the 9^th November 1955 in the adjacent berth to the Carinthia, which was just a month away from her launching. At the time there were doubts about whether the Carinthia would be ready for her launch, due to serious industrial disputes at the shipyard. Later, there were similar difficulties with the launch of the Sylvania, which was scheduled for the 22^nd November 1956. Thankfully work was a month ahead of schedule and in the end the industrial troubles did not delay her. Mrs Norman A. Robertson, wife of the Canadian High Commissioner in London, performed the ceremony. Sylvania proved to be the unique ship of the quartet as her launch was carried out in good weather. The Sylvania sailed from Glasgow on the 3^rd June 1957 on her sea trials off the Scottish coast.

Her maiden voyage began from Greenock on the 5^th June 1957 sailing to Quebec and Montreal. The round trip ended in Liverpool on the 20^th June. The Sylvania had the same profile as her three sisters and her internal arrangement followed the same pattern as that of Carinthia. The four ships, while identical on the outside were in fact two pairs and remained so for their entire lives.

With the Sylvania in service, the four new ships maintained their regular services to Canada and Cunard was justifiably proud in advertising 6 sailings each month on the route with Sylvania occasionally calling at Greenock. After barely 5 months in service, in early November, the Sylvania encountered a severe storm while en route to Canada and suffered some damage as a result. On the 17^th December 1957 she made her first arrival at New York and on the 21^st she departed on a Christmas and New Year cruise to Port au Prince, Curacao, Cristobal and Havana – where she spent New Year’s Eve – and Nassau. However, as with the Carinthia the previous year, it was just a token gesture towards cruising and on the 10^th January 1958 Sylvania resumed her transatlantic service and on the 5^th April she returned to the Canadian route.

Sylvania was destined to serve the Canadian route for only a relatively short time. It was reported on the 30^th November 1960 that as from the following April she would replace the Britannic (then on her final voyage) in the company’s Liverpool to New York service. Actually Sylvania had already begun her scheduled winter run to New York; her final voyage to Canada had taken place during the first weeks of November. On replacing the Britannic on the New York run, she made regular calls at Cobh and occasional onces at Greenock and Halifax. She remained in this service through the summer and winter of 1961 and 1962. There were occasional diversions, on the 22^nd March 1962 she left New York for Greenock and Liverpool but also called at Bermuda; and on the 6^th April she made a call at Amsterdam on her way back to New York. During 1963, like her sister Carinthia, she made two further calls at Bermuda as part of her Atlantic crossings, one on the 23^rd February and then in March a longer stay over the 23^rd and 24^th. In April, she had a sailing delayed due to engine problems but otherwise Sylvania appears to have led a relatively trouble free career on the Atlantic run. There were further minor changes to her route at the end of May and in July 1964 when she visited Boston.

Towards the end of 1963, having observed the success of refitting the first two of the quartet, Cunard announced that both the Carinthia and Sylvania would undergo refits which would enhance their Tourist Class accommodations. 80 Tourist Class cabins were to be refitted in a style similar to that of the rebuilt ships, giving them private bathrooms as well as new décor. Sylvania’s refit was scheduled to take place in Liverpool from the 23^rd December to the 6^th February 1964.

While upgrading of both ships was doubtless a welcome move, it was far from enough to make them readily competitive with other ships then in service or being built. Both ships were pure transatlantic liners and not suited to seasonal cruising. Quite simply in the end the quartet had not been as successful as Cunard had hoped. Even when faced with that fact, and having transformed Saxonia and Ivernia into the more cruise orientated Carmania and Franconia, the shipping line seemed reluctant to rebuild the Carinthia and Sylvania to make them fully compatible with the two earlier ships.

Even Cunard Line’s direct competitors on the UK to St Lawrence route, Canadian Pacific, were beginning to find it difficult to maintain a regular three ship service by this time. In September 1963 they withdrew the Empress of England from the Atlantic and placed her on full time cruises. In the end even a two ship service was more than they needed and in 1964 they sold the Empress of Britain to Greek Line. Only the splendid and relatively new flagship, Empress of Canada, remained as the Saxonia sisters’ competitor on the UK to Canada service.

While the Carmania and Franconia had been sent cruising, the Carinthia and Sylvania continued with their year round transatlantic service. By this time it had become clear to the directors of Cunard Line that the demand for transatlantic voyages in the mid winter was declining rapidly and the decision was taken to send the Carinthia and Sylvania on a series of winter cruises. It fell to the Sylvania to initiate these and she sailed from Liverpool on the 10^th February 1965 on what was only the second cruise of her career – a long 27 day cruise through the Mediterranean calling at Gibraltar, Naples, Pireaus, Alexandria, Beirut, Haifa, Messina and Lisbon. She also made a Christmas cruise from Liverpool, leaving on the 22^nd December for Madeira, Tenerife, Las Palmas, Casablanca and Gibraltar. After her Christmas cruise, Sylvania sailed for Southampton, arriving there for the first time on the 26^th January 1966. On the 28^th January she departed on a cruise to the Atlantic Isles, Casablanca and Lisbon and following this sailed on a month long cruise of the Mediterranean. She then made two shorter trips, one to the Atlantic Isles and the other taking her into the Mediterranean once again, before resuming her transatlantic service to New York on the 20^th April 1966.

In early May 1966, Britain was hit by the National Seamen’s Strike. This was to have a devastating effect, practically bringing all ports around the country to a standstill and virtually immobilising many shipping lines. The strike dragged on for over six weeks, not ending until the 1^st July. Ports such as Southampton presented an incredible sight. Never had so many liners been gathered together in one place at the same time. In some instances they were berthed three abreast. All four of the Saxonia sisters were caught by the strike action. Both Carinthia and Sylvania were stopped in Liverpool. So for several weeks, there was no Cunard Line service across the Atlantic to either New York or Canada. With this most prestigious player temporarily out of action, it was left to the liners of Holland America, Norddeutscher Lloyd, French Line and the United States Lines to fill the gap. By mid July, everything had returned to normal, but with so many weeks with its fleet out of action, it had an unfortunate effect on the finances of Cunard.

Unlike the Carinthia, the Sylvania did have her black hull repainted white, during her annual refit and overhaul in December 1966. Cunard had planned an extensive programme of cruises for her, somewhat more imaginative than had been operated by the other ships. These were to keep her busy throughout the whole winter and through until May 1967. On the 13^th January she left Southampton on what was her most glamorous cruise: 36 days to the Caribbean. Now she headed south to Las Palmas and then on the southerly route to Trinidad, Barbados, Fort de France, Antigua, St Thomas, San Juan, Nassau, Port Everglades, Bermuda and back to Southampton via Madeira.

On her return Sylvania made headline news when Cunard announced that she would be equipped with a SRN-6 hovercraft! Carried on her foredeck it would be used to take cruise passengers on sightseeing excursions during the following programme of cruises. This was in part an experiment to study the practicalities of giving other ships similar hovercraft. However it did not have much success and no hovercraft were fitted aboard other cruise ships. Sylvania left Southampton on the 23^rd February 1967, complete with hovercraft, for a Mediterranean cruise. The voyage ended in Gibraltar and the passengers flew home from there, thus this was the first fly-cruise. A further four Mediterranean cruises followed with passengers being flown out to Gibraltar to join the ship. The last of these sailed from Gibraltar on the 18^th April for Malaga, Famagusta, Beirut, Haifa, Naples, Messina, and Lisbon and returned to Southampton on the 10^th May 1967.

Shortly after her return to Southampton, Sylvania reverted to her Atlantic service to Quebec and Montreal. On the 15^th June, in the early stages of a return voyage, she ran aground off Trois Rivieres. There appeared to be no damage but she was stuck fast and efforts to refloat her were unsuccessful. On the 17^th June it was decided to lighten her by disembarking all passengers and pumping her bunkers into barges. She was finally refloated the following day and on the 19^th June returned to Montreal. It was not until the 26^th June that she was dry docked and there must have been some hull damage as she stayed in dry dock until the 29^th June. She was not ready to resume her aborted voyage until the 4^th July 1967.

Sylvania was luckier than the Carinthia as her refit early in 1967 meant that her career continued for 6 months longer than that of her sister. She sailed from Southampton on her last trip to Montreal on the 20^th October but returned to Liverpool. It was from there that she left on her last Atlantic crossing on the 30^th November 1967 but to New York instead of Canada. She sailed via Cobh and Halifax and also called at these ports on the return leg. She arrived back in Southampton on the 20^th December and two days later sailed on a Christmas cruise to Lisbon, Madeira, Tenerife, Casablanca, Gibraltar and Cadiz. Sylvania’s remaining months were spent as a cruise ship. On the 10^th January 1968 she sailed on a month long voyage out to the Caribbean. From the end of February through to early May she undertook a series of cruises that were similar to those of 1967 based around the Mediterranean. Her final Cunard cruise departed Gibraltar on the 24^th April 1968 and called at Barcelona, Naples, Palma, and Lisbon ending in Southampton on the 7^th May 1968. She was then laid up alongside her sister and Caronia at berth 101 in Southampton Western Docks.

The Sitmar Line Years (1968 – 1988):

Carinthia and Sylvania were destined to spend over two years laid up in Southampton’s 101 berth in Western Docks. On the 31^st January 1968 a contract for their sale was signed in London. The pair had been bought for just £1 million each and the buyers were reported to be the Fairland Shipping Corporation and the Fairwind Shipping Corporation. Carinthia was to be renamed Fairland and Sylvania would be renamed Fairwind. But they would in fact be sailing for Sitmar Line, Italian based but controlled from Monaco. The sale was completed on the 2^nd February 1968 and included a clause which prevented the two ships from operating on any of Cunard’s regular routes such as those from the UK to Canada or the USA. They were also precluded from sailing on cruises from British ports.

Societa Italiana Trasporti Marittimi SpA, otherwise known as Sitmar Line, had been formed in 1938 by Alexandre Vlasov. For many years, Sitmar Line was involved in the Australian migrant and low fare around the world tourist trades. By the late 1960s, the liner had disposed of several of their older ships and were looking for higher quality ships with which to maintain their service between northern Europe and Australia. At the time they had the Australian government contract to carry migrants from Southampton out to Australia, so the two redundant Cunarders appeared to fit their requirements exactly and would have made fine fleetmates for the company’s Fairstar, the former Bibby Line troopship Oxfordshire.

Having given the two ships new names suited to the emigrant service, the new owners seemed to do nothing with them other than repaint the funnels in their colours, buff with a large blue V (for Vlasov). The fact was that almost as soon as Sitmar had bought the two ships the Australian government, instead of renewing their contract had awarded it to Chandris Line. Without that valuable contract the Fairland and Fairwind sat, looking forlorn, becoming a feature of the Southampton waterfront as Sitmar worked out other ways of employing them. It was becoming ever more obvious that the migrant contract would remain with Chandris and that by the time it ended aeroplanes would have taken over.

In the end Sitmar Line unveiled a plan to rebuild the two ships totally into deluxe cruise ships and tenders for the work were requested from several European shipyards. Their new plan of employment was to be based in Los Angeles and sail to San Francisco and Vancouver before crossing the Pacific on what would have been the most exotic of liner voyages – lasting a month, it would have called at Honolulu, Papeete, Raitea, Pago Pago and Suva before arriving in Auckland and then Sydney. After about three months of cruising from Sydney a return voyage would be made to California. Cruises were also scheduled out of Los Angeles. While one ship would be cruising from Sydney, the other one would be doing the same from Los Angeles.

These trans pacific voyages were due to start in May 1972. The contract for the rebuilding of the ships was awarded to Arsenale Triestino, San Marco of Trieste in Italy. On the 6^th January 1970, the Fairwind left Southampton under tow and arrived in Trieste on the 18^th January. She was soon joined by the Fairland on the 21^st February. While the ships were being rebuilt, Sitmar continued to market their proposed Pacific liner service and cruises. Sitmar Cruises Inc. was established to operate the two ships. However despite their efforts Sitmar found that they could not arouse sufficient interest. Long haul Pacific cruises out of Los Angeles and San Francisco at that time were dominated by the Mariposa and Monterey. They were well established ships, having sailed for Matson Line for several years, and had now been taken over by Pacific Far East Line, who continued to operate them on the same service. Meanwhile the P&O empire was well established in Australia and also operated trans-Pacific services. Also Shaw Savill and Lloyd Triestino were well known on Pacific routes. Therefore Sitmar decided to market the new ships purely as cruise ships. It was decided to base the two ships in Los Angeles and cruise to Mexico in the winter and to Alaska in the summer.

The conversion of Fairland and Fairwind was little short of remarkable. The conversion of the Fairwind had progressed at a much slower rate than that of her sister and it was not until June 1972 that she was completed. Again the work had been extensive, stripping her back to the original structure before effecting another remarkable transformation. She sailed from Trieste on the 14^th June 1972, virtually a replica of Fairsea.

The initial voyage of the Fairwind out to Los Angeles was even more extensive than that of her sister. She made calls at Cadiz and Port Everglades. There her official maiden voyage began when she left on the 3^rd July 1972 for St Thomas, La Guaira and St Anna Bay, then through the Panama Canal and up to Acapulco and finally Los Angeles. She departed on her first Mexican Riviera cruise on the 14^th August 1972.

By 1975 Sitmar ceased all liner operations , severing their links with the long voyages from Britain to Australia. The name Sitmar Line ceased to exist and from then on the company was known as Sitmar Cruises and concentrated on the Australian and American cruise markets. This gave them time to continue establishing the Fairstar on the Australian cruising scene and the Fairwind and Fairsea in America. In February 1973 the Fairwind was transferred to Port Everglades and she operated Caribbean cruises. Meanwhile the Fairsea continued to enjoy huge popularity and success on the West Coast with her summer cruises from San Francisco to Alaska and her winter cruises to Mexico from Los Angeles.

The reputation of Sitmar Cruises continued to grow, Fairsea and Fairwind were staffed by dedicated crews and were superbly maintained. Both Fairsea and Fairwind compared very favourably with new vessels then entering service. The Sitmar ships with their sturdy, deep draft, North Atlantic hulls and strong bows built to withstand any seas, ensured their passengers a far more comfortable voyage than the new cruise ships could offer. Before very long, both Fairsea and Fairwind were operating longer cruises. Both had already experimented with 17 day trans-Canal cruises and from the very outset Sitmar had promoted the idea of longer cruises by the combination of two itineraries. Now as well as operating the standard 7 day trips that most of their competitors focussed on, Sitmar expanded into cruises of 10, 11 and 14 days as well. The spaciousness of the ships made them ideal for these longer voyages, though it would be several years before they sailed beyond the Caribbean, Mexico or Alaska. While both ships moved, on a seasonal basis, it seemed that Fairsea was to remain the ‘Alaska ship’ and each summer found her heading north. Eventually, she made Vancouver rather than San Francisco for her Alaska cruises. This diversity of cruises, coupled with the overall comfort of the ships and Sitmar’s good service, helped give the line its enviable reputation.

Fairwind and Fairsea, once outmoded Atlantic liners, had taken Sitmar Cruises to the very pinnacle of success and popularity. By 1975 the company was looking to expand its fleet. In 1980 they decided to order their first ever purpose built passenger ship. The contract was signed in October 1980 with Constructions Navales et Industrielles de la Mediterranee of Toulon for a vessel of 38,000 tons. She was to be named Fairsky. She would be powered by steam turbines as the other ships of their fleet were steam turbine powered and the Sitmar engineers were already familiar with this technology.

In April 1984 the new ship was finally delivered to Sitmar Cruises. Her design was greatly inspired by the Fairwind and Fairsea and she was very similar in layout to the former Cunarders. With the new flagship entering service, Sitmar refitted the Fairwind and Fairsea in a similar style. The refits were carried out at Norfolk, Virginia, USA and the Fairwind was the first to undergo the transformation. The process began on the 2^nd April and took until the 26^th April 1984. The Fairsea underwent her transformation from the 2^nd May 1984. Both ships had the public rooms along their Promenade Decks totally rebuilt and other rooms were redecorated. At the same time the cabins were refurbished. Once again the former Cunarders were looking at their best.

With three ships now in service in the American cruise market, Sitmar rearranged the itineraries slightly. Fairsky took over the role of the Fairsea on the US West Coast with sailings to Mexico and Alaska. Fairsea moved to the Los Angeles to Panama Canal and Curacao cruises during the winter and then returned to the Mexico cruises between May and October. Fairwind continued to sail out of Port Everglades to the Caribbean. In 1986 with the increased popularity of the Alaskan cruises, the Fairsea was redeployed on these cruises. But while the Fairsky was based at San Francisco, the Fairsea sailed from Seattle and made 10 day cruises. There were more changes at the end of the Alaskan season as Fairsky replaced Fairwind in the Caribbean and Fairwind transferred to the trans-Canal cruises. Fairsea now maintained a regular series of cruises throughout the winter months from Los Angeles to Mexico. A similar programme operated in 1987.

In 1988 in anticipation of their large new cruise ships soon to enter service, Sitmar embarked on a programme of updating their image. The buff funnels were repainted deep blue and the V logo was replaced with a stylised swan in white and red. As a result of this rebranding all the ships were renamed with the addition of the Sitmar name as a prefix.

As it turned out the Fairwind would be the only ship in the fleet to have the misfortune to suffer this ill thought out concept. In February 1988, Fairwind made the first of two cruises up the River Amazon. This must have been one of the most exotic and exciting cruises so far made by a Sitmar ship. It began from San Juan and called at Belem, Santarem, Boca Do Valerio and Manaus, from where the passengers were flown home. Meanwhile, another load of passengers was flown into Manaus to join the ship for the return. A similar cruise was undertaken two months later in April .

During that summer, Fairwind developed mechanical problems. During a Mexican Riviera cruise in June 1988, one of her propeller shafts broke. She had to be towed to a San Francisco shipyard for lengthy repairs. With her schedule disrupted she then had to be towed from San Francisco to Port Everglades. It was there in August that she was repainted in her new look livery and given the extended name Sitmar Fairwind. She was destined to spend only a few weeks in this new identity. She was hardly into her new schedule of cruises from Port Everglades when further mechanical problems struck and she broke down off Nassau in late August. She had to be towed again up to New York where she underwent a month of repairs at New York Shipyards Inc. (formerly the Todd Shipyards) in Brooklyn’s Erie Basin. This further repair work meant that her official maiden arrival in New York had to be cancelled.

Princess Cruises (1988 – 1993):

By this time Sitmar had already unveiled an ambitious programme for 1989. However everything soon changed when on the 28^th July 1988, P&O announced that they were taking over Sitmar Cruises. Under this new ownership all Sitmar ships were to adopt the identity of P&O’s subsidiary, Princess Cruises. Sadly this was the end of Sitmar Cruises as it became merged with Princess Cruises. However in Australia the Fairstar would continue to be marketed under the brand P&O Sitmar, as Sitmar was still the dominant cruise operator in Australia.

In September, following dry docking in Brooklyn to repair her faulty propeller shaft, Sitmar Fairwind arrived at her Manhattan berth, but now she was carrying a new name on her bows, Dawn Princess. Her funnel now carried the Princess Cruises logo. In New York she boarded passengers for a series of cruises to New England and Canada with calls at Newport, Bar Harbour, Halifax, Sydney, Quebec and Montreal. It was ironic that her first cruise under British ownership should return her to familiar waters of her Cunard years.

Both ships continued to operate the schedules planned for them under Sitmar. Sadly as part of the new P&O empire it was likely that these aging ships would not stay long in the fleet. Thus the stately former Cunarders were to be seen in several new ports around the world.

For Dawn Princess, her 1989 European programme marked a return to many areas that she had not visited since she was known as Sylvania. The first cruise was a Mediterranean cruise departing Lisbon on the 4^th May 1989 for Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Livorno, Naples, Dubrovnik and Venice. After making four Mediterranean cruises, Dawn Princess headed north calling at Southampton on the 3^rd July 1989. Her last appearance there had been in Janaury 1970 as she was preparing to leave for Italy and her dramatic rebuild. This time she remained there until the 6^th when she departed for Copenhagen. Her first northern cruise was a one and only trip up the Norwegian fjords and included calls at Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen, Geirangerfjord, Honningsvaag, Trondheim, Sognefjord and back to Copenhagen. She then made three cruises to the Baltic cities.

By the 16^th September, Dawn Princess was back in Lisbon ready to undertake two more Mediterranean cruises. By this time both ships were showing their age and as a result Dawn Princess had to cut short one of her Alaska cruises in August 1991. In late 1990 they were sent for dry docking in Portland, Oregon, USA. There asbestos was removed and replaced with a fibre glass substitute.

Happy Day Shipping (1993 – 1997):

In 1993 Princess Cruises announced that they would be retiring the Dawn Princess from service that June at the end of her series of cruises to Mexico. She was sold to Happy Days Shipping, a company associated with Vlasov group. So by a strange quirk of fate she became a Sitmar ship again. But from the 18^th August 1993 she was renamed Albatros and chartered to the German tour company, Phoenix Reisen, and would sail as fleetmate to their other chartered ship, the striking Maxim Gorkiy.

On the 18^th June 1993 she was handed over to her new owners in San Francisco. The next day she sailed for Los Angeles where she was dry docked and given a complete overhaul by the Southwest Marine Inc. shipyard. On the 13^th July she sailed for Lisbon where some further work was undertaken as she lay alongside the Alcantara Dock. On completion of the work in Lisbon she sailed for Bremerhaven.

Her passenger compliment had been reduced to 720, when with Princess Cruises she had been able to accommodate 870 passengers. She had 340 crew and her officers were both German and Italian. Phoenix Reisen had announced an extensive cruise programme for their newly chartered ship. After an initial series of 9 cruises from Bremerhaven, they planned to send her on a 100 day World Cruise departing on the 5^th January 1994. Albatros sailed from Bremerhaven on the 18^th August 1993 on her first cruise to the Norwegian Fjords. Later in 1993, between the 27^th October and the 30^th November she underwent a further refit by the T. Mariotti company in Genoa. The work mainly involved restyling her interiors to better suite her German passengers.

From the 23^rd November to the 2^nd December 1994, she was chartered to a company called Arena Travel for a cruise from Genoa to Livorno, Palma, Almeria, Cadiz, Lisbon and Vigo ending in Dover. Earlier in 1994 Phoenix had announced that she would again sail on a World Cruise in early 1995. This would be a 144 day voyage calling at 64 ports in 37 different countries on 5 continents. Although she was by now almost 38 years old, this former Cunarder was visiting new places. She departed on her World Cruise from Genoa on the 6^th January 1995. It was intended that she would sail across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, up the west coast of the USA to San Francisco. From there she would sail to Hawaii and then down through the South Pacific to Australia. After this she would sail through South East Asia and on to Japan, Korea, China and Vietnam followed by a crossing of the Indian Ocean to Colombo, Cochin and Bombay. The final leg of the epic journey would be through the Suez Canl and back to Genoa arriving on the 30^th May 1995. However just 8 days from the end of her cruise on the 22^nd May a near disaster struck.

A flash fire broke out in the boiler room. While the blaze was quickly put out this left the ship partly flooded and the boilers were shut down as a safety precaution. Albatros was all but powerless and awaited a salvage tug. On the 24^th May help arrived and the stricken Albatros was towed to Jeddah. Astonishingly the passengers and the ship were met in Jeddah by HM King Fahd of Saudi Arabia himself! He treated all the passengers like his personal guests and at his expense they were put up in luxury hotels and a reception was held in their honour at a famous restaurant during which they were all presented with flowers and minted coins commemorating the event. The next day they were flown home on two chartered flights, also paid for personally by the King! Eventually the ship was towed to Livorno for initial repair work and then to Marseilles where further work was done and more asbestos removed. It was not until the 26^th July that the work was completed. Albatros then resumed her schedule with an 18 day cruise to Spitsbergen departing Bremerhaven on the 29^th July 1995.

On the 7^th May 1997 she had sailed from Bremerhaven on a two week cruise around the British Isles, calling at Invergordon, Kirkwall, Oban, Belfast, Liverpool, Dublin, Cobh, the Isles of Scilly, Cowes, Tilbury, Amsterdam and then back to Bremerhaven. The call at Liverpool, her former homeport was on the 13^th May 1997. The last time she had been in the Mersey had been in 1967. Now she made a grand sight anchored opposite the famous Liver Building. As his last duty in office, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool went on board the ship to welcome her passengers to the city.

On the 15^th May she arrived in Cobh. She arrived in the Isles of Scilly but the seas were very rough. While heading through St Mary’s Sound the ship shuddered and rolled slightly. It turned out that she had hit North Bartholomew Rock. The cruise had to be aborted, her passengers were disembarked and taken to Penzance and then to London for their journey on to Germany. On the 25^th May she set sail under her own steam with a tug in attendance bound for Southampton for dry docking and repairs. It was the 12^th July before she was repaired, it had been the most serious incident of her career. What had saved her from becoming a total loss was the additional strength built into the hull to help withstand the ice of the St Lawrence River. She returned to service with a cruise from Bremerhaven on the19th July bound for Norway but shortly after leaving port she experienced difficulties with her boilers and had to return to her berth. She was finally able to depart the next day.

Phoenix Reisen (1997 – 2004):

By 1997 Phoenix Reisen had bought her from Happy Days Shipping, but there were still occasions when she would be chartered to other operators. On the 1^st – 14^th December 1997 she sailed from Dover under charter to Equity Cruises, bound for northern Spain, Portugal, Madeira, the Canaries and Morocco. There were further charters to British tour operators in 1998. On the 5^th July 1998 she left Dover on a cruise to Norway under charter to The Cruise Collection; and on the 10^th September she sailed on a Baltic cruise with both British and German passengers. In November she sailed on four Mediterranean cruises.

On the 7^th November 1999 Albatros departed Genoa on a 100 day world cruise to see in the 21^st century. A further extensive cruise programme followed mainly in Europe and on the 17^th December 2000 she sailed from Genoa on another World Cruise lasting 130 days. In November 2000 Phoenix announced an extensive cruise programme for the Albatros taking her up to 2003. On the 23^rd December 2003 Phoenix Reisen announced that they were acquiring a new ship to replace the Albatros and as a result had sold the former Sylvania for scrap. She was renamed Genoa and set sail from Genoa bound for Alang, India via the Suez Canal for scrapping. She arrived on the 10^th January 2004 and was beached for scrapping to commence.