MV Santa Cruise
ex Costa Allegra, Alexandra, Regent Moon, Annie Johnson
© Nigel Thornton
Steel twin screw motor vessel, originally built in 1969, as the container ship ANNIE JOHNSON by Oy Wartsila Ab. Abo, Finland (Yard No 1170) for Johnson Line Ab, Stockholm
Technical Data
- Original Cost: $130 million
- Length on deck: 174.25m(571.8 ft)(1969) overall, 174.25m (1990)
- Breadth of hull: 25.75m(84.4 ft) extreme)(1969), 25.75m (1990)
- Draught: 10.39m(34.09 ft) maximum (1969), 8.20m (26.1’)(1990)
- Tonnage: 16,289 gross(1969), 28,430 (1990)/10,155 net/14,700 deadweight, 16,080, 7,391 (1990)
- Engines: Two 16PC2-V and Two 12PC2-V Wartsila-Pielstick Diesels (1969)/Four 6R46 Wartsila diesels (1990)
- Propulsion/Propellers: (19,139kW) (1969), 19123kW) (1990)/2
- Speed: 23 (1969),19 (1990)
- Capacity: 6 passengers (1969) containers 885 (20ft) (1969), 1066 passengers (1990)
- Passenger decks: 8
- Crew: 400 (1990)
- Call Sign: SLFT (Annie Johnson), ICRA (Costa Allegra)
- IMO Number: 6916885
- Registry: Stockholm/Sweden 🇸🇪, Panama 🇵🇦, Napoli/Italy 🇮🇹, Monrovia/Liberia 🇱🇷, Genova/Italy 🇮🇹
- Sister Ship: Costa Marina (1169)
History
April 29th 1969: Launched.
December 4th 1969: Delivered to Johnson Line Ab, Stockholm, together with her sister ship AXEL JOHNSON, was introduced into service for round the world container traffic.
© Bob Scott (September 1977) (Left) © John Jones (Tilbury 04/04/1981) (Right)
© Simonwp (Felixstowe, 17/06/1986)
August 8th 1986: Sold to Peleus Marine, Co, Ltd Limassol, Cyprus (Regency Cruise Line, Piraeus, Greece) she was renamed REGENT MOON.
August 10th 1986: Left Gothenburg for Piraeus.
August 25th 1986: Arrived at Piraeus, intended plans to convert her to a cruise vessel did not materialise and she was laid-up in Perama.
1988: Sold to Compania Naviera Panalexandra SA, Panama, renamed ALEXANDRA and continued to be laid up.
August 28th 1990: Sold to Costa Crociere, Naples, Italy.
© Michael Neidig (Antwerp 28/08/1990)
🆕 © Fotoflite
September 4th 1990 – November 16th 1992: Rebuilt and lengthened at Mariotti Vravet, Genoa, Italy.
© Frank Heine (Genoa, 26/07/1992)
© Carlo Martinelli (Genoa, 13/08/1992)(Left)(Genoa, 01/12/1992)(Right)
© Carlo Martinelli (Genoa, 22/11/1992)
November 1992: Renamed COSTA ALLEGRA.
November 23rd 1992: Maiden cruise from Genoa to St Thomas. In the winter months she continued to cruise the Caribbean, whilst the summer months were spent in Europe.
1994: Re-flagged to Liberia, home port of Monrovia
© Mikkel
© Nigel Thornton (Dover, 18/09/2004)
April 30th 2006: Completed its refit and sailed from Savona, Italy, on a 30-day repositioning cruise to Asia. Carnival Corporation announced in March that its Italian-based subsidiary Costa Cruises, would become the first western cruise line to offer cruises voyages from Shanghai marketed exclusively to Chinese passengers. She would operate a series of 24 five-day cruises from Shanghai to Nagasaki, Japan, and Cheju, South Korea beginning in July. Costa created a new division, Costa Asia, with offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai opened in April of this year. She underwent a major renovation, at Genoa’s Mariotti shipyard, to appeal to Chinese passengers.
© Frank Heine (Limassol, 07/11/2010)
© Frank Heine (Piraeus, 03/08/2011)
© Frank Heine (Limassol, 04/11/2011)
February 27th 2012: The ship lost all power after a fire on board and was towed into port in the Seychelles capital, Victoria.
March 15th 2012: Costa made the decision not to repair her and so she was advertised “For Sale” either for further service or scrap.
September 2012: Sold to Turkish owner and renamed SANTA CRUISE.
October 13th 2012: Towed from Genoa.
October 24th 2012: Arrived at Aliaga.
© Petros Psarras
All information is believed to be correct and no responsibility is accepted for any errors or omissions. All items included in this article are subject to © copyright. We would like to take this opportunity of thanking: Fotoflite, Frank Heine, John Jones, Carlo Martinelli, Mikkel, Michael Neidig, Petros Psarras, Bob Scott and Simonwp their assistance in producing this feature.