Another veteran, classic cruise liner of special interest has featured in the latest casualty reports.
A week ago yesterday, Mona Lisa (28,871gt) went aground on a sandbank in the Irbe Strait, between Latvia and the Estonian island of Saaremaa, while on a voyage from Kiel to Riga.
The ship was carrying 651 mostly elderly passengers, a crew of 327, and was being marketed by the German-based Lord Nelson Seereisen.
All passengers were evacuated from the ship, which sustained minimal damage.
After being successfully refloated three days later, Mona Lisa was towed to the Latvian port of Ventspils before sailing back to Germany.
Today the ship is one of only three transatlantic passenger liners built by the John Brown yard at Clydebank that are still in existence.
Queen Mary is permanently berthed at Long Beach, California, and in a few months' time the sea-going career of Queen Elizabeth 2 will end when the ship arrives at its new permanent home in Dubai. Mona Lisa was built as Kungsholm for the A/B Svenska-Amerika Linien (the Swedish-America Line).
The company was founded at Gothenburg on December 14, 1914, to operate passenger and cargo services between Gothenburg and New York.
And as it turned out, Kungsholm was the last passenger ship to be built for the company.
Launched on April 14, 1965, the ship was delivered, behind schedule, in March, 1966.
This had forced the cancellation of a 56-day cruise and the builders also incurred a severe financial loss on the contract.
The then 26,678gt ship was designed for a dual-purpose role.
As a North Atlantic passenger liner, 750 passengers were carried in two classes, but for cruising, mainly from New York, berths were limited to 450 passengers.
In February 1967 the ship called at Auckland and Lyttelton in the course of a world cruise.
A twin-screw vessel, Kungsholm had a service speed of 21 knots and was powered by two 9-cylinder Gotaverken diesels, having a combined output of 25,200bhp, supplied by the A/B Gotaverken works at Gotheburg.
After being withdrawn from service in September 1975, the ship retained the name when sold to Flagship Cruises Ltd.
But after three years' service under the Liberian flag, was sold and delivered to P&O in September, 1978.
The ship was then refitted at the Bremer Vulkan yard at Vegesack before returning to service as Sea Princess, with a new profile and only one funnel.
During the refit the forward dummy funnel was removed, thus marring the former appearance of a graceful looking vessel.
Renamed Victoria in 1995, the ship remained in the P&O cruise ship fleet until 2002 when it was sold and renamed Mona Lisa.
Since then it has been owned by Leonardo Shipping Inc and registered at Nassau.
Last year it was briefly renamed Oceanic II when chartered by the Louis Cruise Line to replace its ill-fated Sea Diamond, which sank after striking rocks off Santorini Island on April 6, 2007.
Incidentally Mona Lisa is one of two passenger vessels built for SAL that still exist.
The other operated by CIC Classic International Cruises is the oft-renamed Madeira-registered Athena.
Completed by A/G Gotaverken in February 1948, it was originally the 12,644g Stockholm that collided with and sank the 29,082gt Italian liner Andria Dorea off Nantucket on July 26, 1956.
As Italia Prima the cruise ship visited Port Chalmers on February 22, 1996, and again on February 21, 1997.
