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M/S Sea Diamond in Santorini
History
Greece
Name	M/S Sea Diamond
Owner	Elona Maritime, Ltd., Valletta, Malta
Operator	Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines
Ordered	1984
Builder	Valmet, Vuosaari shipyard, Helsinki, Finland
Yard number	321
Laid down	1984
Launched	1985
Acquired	2006
Fate	Sank on April 6, 2007, off the coast of the island of Santorini in Greece.
Status	Sunk
General characteristics
Tonnage	22,412 GT (63,464 m³)
Displacement	11,680 metric tonnes
Length	142.9 m (468 ft, 10 in)
Beam	24.7 m (81 ft, 44 in)
Draught	6.15 m (20 ft, 2 in)
Propulsion	4× Wärtsilä-Vasa 12V32 diesel engines
Speed	22.0 knots (40.7 km/h)
Complement	1,537 passengers, ~ 391 crew

M/S Sea Diamond was a cruise ship operated by Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines. The ship sank on April 6, 2007 after running aground near the Greek island of Santorini the previous day.

History

Originally named M/S Birka Princess, the ship was built by the Finnish state-owned company Valmet at their Vuosaari shipyard in Helsinki at a cost of 350 million Finnish markka (60 million euros). She was delivered in 1986 and operated for Birka Line in the Baltic Sea cruiseferry market, sailing on 24-hour cruises between Stockholm in Sweden and the Åland Islands in Finland. Between 1990 and 2003 she also made longer cruises around the Baltic Sea during the summer season.

Between 1992 and 2002, the ship was used to portray the fictional ship M/S Freja in the Swedish TV soap opera Rederiet.

As originally built, she had a small car deck, with space for 80 passenger cars and a ramp on the port side in the rear. Like most cruiseferries in the Baltic Sea, she was built to ice class 1A.

In 1999 she was extensively refitted at Lloyd Werft in Germany at a cost of 29 million United States dollars. The fore superstructure was extended and streamlined and a total of 62 new passenger cabins were added, including a new deck of cabins above the bridge. In October 2004, when the new M/S Birka Paradise was delivered, the Birka Princess started making two-night cruises from Stockholm to Turku, Helsinki and Tallinn, as well one weekly 24-hour cruise from Stockholm to Mariehamn. The new itineraries proved largely unsuccessful, and on January 2, 2006, the ship was laid up in Mariehamn and put up for sale.

In February 2006 she was sold to the Cyprus-based Louis Cruise Lines for 35 million United States dollars. A new swimming pool was installed and the sundeck area increased at Turku Repair Yard, Naantali. She entered service in the Mediterranean Sea as the second former Birka Line ship in the Louis Cruise Lines fleet, after M/S Princesa Marissa, the former M/S Prinsessan/Finnhansa. After the sale she was registered in Valletta, Malta. She changed flags in late 2006. At the time of her sinking she was owned by Elona Maritime Ltd., a company based in Malta, but registered at Piraeus, Greece.

Sinking

On April 5, 2007, at around 4 p.m. EEST (13:00 UTC) the ship ran aground a reef east of Nea Kameni, within the caldera of the Greek island of Santorini, began taking on water, and listed up to 12 degrees to starboard before her watertight doors were closed. The 1,195 passengers, mostly Americans, were initially all reported to be safely evacuated in three hours with four injuries. The ship was towed off the rocks, and her list stabilized. Later, it was reported that two French passengers were missing. Some passengers, including a group of 77 students from Paisley Magnet School in North Carolina, were evacuated from the car ramp through the former car deck onto boats, but some passengers had to climb down rope ladders from the higher decks. Pictures taken by a passenger during evacuation are available

The large amount of water taken on board led to the cruise ship sinking shortly before 7 a.m. EEST on 6 April 2007, only a few hundred metres from the shore. Video footage shows that, toward the end, the ship completely inverted before settling stern first onto the sea floor. It was later reported that the bow of the ship was in water only 70 meters deep, but it was feared that the wreck would soon sink deeper into the submerged caldera of the volcanic island. It has been speculated, that the deep, almost vertical shore of the bathtub-like caldera made it impossible to beach the ship, and save her from complete loss.

In order to avoid an oil spill, plans have been made to recover around 450 metric tonnes (496 tons) of fuel from the ship's tanks.

Casualties

Two French citizens, Jean Christophe Allain, aged 45, and his daughter Maud, 16, are listed as missing. Mrs. Allain said her cabin filled with water when the ship struck rocks and that she narrowly escaped. She was not sure whether her husband and daughter made it out because things happened so suddenly. Her son was on deck at the time and was evacuated safely. The family were accommodated in cabin 22-04, an 'outside' standard cabin on the starboard side of the vessel on deck 2, the lowest passenger deck on the vessel.

Divers examined the wreck on April 6 to gather information on the ship's current position and to seek the missing two. The underwater search of this cabin recovered nothing. Divers continued searching on April 10, but nothing was reported. Later in the same day, local governors apologized to the French family for their missing relatives.

Investigations

On April 7, Greek authorities announced that they were charging the captain and five other officers with negligence. State television reported they were charged with causing a shipwreck through negligence, breaching international shipping safety regulations and polluting the environment. Additional charges could be made dependent on the fate of the two missing passengers. All six were released until further notice but if convicted they could face a five-year prison sentence.

See also

• The Mikhail Lermontov was a Soviet cruise ship which ran aground on well charted rocks and subsequently sank in Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand under similar circumstances to the M/S Sea Diamond.
• List of ship and ferry disasters
• List of shipwrecks

References

1. ^ Vessel SEA DIAMOND - DNV Exchange
2. ^ Birka Princess in Fakta om fartyg Template:Sv icon
3. Turister saknas efter "Frejas" förlisning - Aftonbladet Template:Sv icon
4. Birka Princess - Work carried out at Lloyd Werft
5. Birka Line to sell one of its two cruise vessels to Cyprus - Helsingin Sanomat, February 14, 2006
6. 2006-03, M/S Sea Diamond - Ex M/S Birka Princess
7. Maltese Company Registry, registration number C 38209
8. Cruise Ship Evacuates 1167 Passengers off the Greek Island Santorini
9. TA NEA 10.04.2007
10. ^ Two missing at Greek cruise site
11. Mostly Americans aboard evacuated Greek cruise
12. Dobbs Ferry tourists return today from ill-fated cruise
13. Hundreds rescued from cruise ship
14. Cruise Liner Sunk in Santorini
15. 77 students, parents and teachers from Paisley Magnet School had to be rescued
17. Two missing at Greek cruise site
18. . Cruise ship sinks after hitting Mediterranean reef (Images)
19. Two passengers missing after luxury cruise liner sinks in the Aegean Sea
20. ^ Άκαρπες οι έρευνες Template:El icon
21. Louis Cruise Lines Sea Diamond Deck Plans
22. Greek rescue teams search for two missing people, BLN - International, April 6, 2007
23. Greek cruise ship's personnel face negligence charges over sinking, USA Today, 2007-04-07

External links

Template:Wikinews2

• The cruise vessel Sea Diamond
• Louis Hellenic Cruises statement on m/v Sea Diamond incident
• Cruise Liner Sunk in Santorini Template:El icon
• Ship Profile

Amateur video

• Videos by member of student group
• View from island: April 5, evacuation, April 6, sinking

• Current events
• Cruise ships
• Cruise ships of Finland
• Cruise ships of Greece
• Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines
• Maritime incidents in 2007
• Ships built in Finland
• Shipwrecks in the Mediterranean