MS Kungsholm (1928)

MS Kungsholm was a passenger liner owned and operated by the Swedish American Line from 1928 to 1941 on transatlantic services from Gothenburg to New York as well as cruising out of New York. It was built at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, Germany.

Trans Atlantic passenger service

Kungsholm operated on the trans Atlantic service with some cruise operations just prior to World War II.

In June 1938, as flagship of the Swedish American Line, she visited Wilmington, Delaware with the Crown Prince Gustav and Crown Princess Louise of Sweden. members of the Royal Swedish Commission, the Commission of the Republic of Finland and tourists aboard. The visit was in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Swedish landing with the Crown Prince's son having to do the honors ashore as the prince was suffering from a kidney attack. For a brief time 1940-41, as Kungsholm was cruising the Caribbean after war broke out in Europe, the author J. D. Salinger was employed aboard as entertainment director.

Kungsholm

Kungsholm (Swedish language for "King's Island") may refer to any of these passenger ships:

MS Kungsholm (1952)

MS Kungsholm was a combined ocean liner / cruise ship built in 1953 by the De Schelde shipyard in Vlissingen, The Netherlands for the Swedish American Line. Between 1965 and 1981 she sailed for the North German Lloyd and their successor Hapag-Lloyd as MS Europa. From 1981 until 1984 she sailed for Costa Cruises as MS Columbus C. She sank in the port of Cadiz, Spain after ramming a breakwater on 29 July 1984. The vessel was refloated later that year, but sent to a Barcelona shipbreaker in 1985 for scrapping.

Concept and construction

After the end of World War II the Swedish American Line, the company that had been pioneers of cruising during the 1920s, was left in a difficult situation. MS Stockholm, the large newbuild that had been planned during the late 1930s, never entered service for them because of the war, with the remaining fleet consisting of ageing ships. The company took delivery of their first post-war ship, the fourth MS Stockholm, in 1948. She was a small cargo/passenger liner far removed from the luxury of her pre-war predecessors.

MS Veronica

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. She also sailed under the names MV Sea Princess, MVVictoria, MV Oceanic II. and MV Mona Lisa as a cruise ship owned by Leonardo Shipping and operated under charter by Lord Nelson Seereisen .In September 2010 she was retired from service as she did not fulfill requirements to SOLAS 2010 and her charter with Lord Nelson Seereisen had ended. She was bought by the Korean Daewoo company and moved to Duqm, Oman, where she has been opened as the Veronica floating hotel until October 2013. She was then laid up for two years until sold to ship breakers in Alang, India in late 2015. She was beached in Alang at 19th November 2015.

Statistics

The Kungsholm was launched in 1965, built by John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland. 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 amendments.