MS Birka Princess
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MS ''Sea Diamond'' was a
cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as ...
operated by Louis Hellenic Cruise Lines. She was built in 1984 by
Valmet Valmet Oyj is a Finnish company and a developer and supplier of technologies, automation systems and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. Valmet has over 200 years of history as an industrial operator. Formerly owned by the S ...
,
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
for Birka Line as ''Birka Princess''. The ship ran aground near the
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
island of Santorini 5 April 2007, and sank the next day leaving two passengers missing and presumed dead.


History

Originally named ''Birka Princess'', the ship was built by the Finnish state-owned company
Valmet Valmet Oyj is a Finnish company and a developer and supplier of technologies, automation systems and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. Valmet has over 200 years of history as an industrial operator. Formerly owned by the S ...
at their
Vuosaari shipyard Vuosaari shipyard was a shipyard located in the district of Vuosaari in Helsinki, Finland. Built by the Finnish state-owned company Valmet Oy in the early 1970s, the shipyard delivered 33 newbuildings and participated in building around 100 oth ...
in
Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
Vessel SEA DIAMOND
-
DNV DNV (formerly DNV GL) is an international accredited registrar and classification society headquartered in Høvik, Norway. The company currently has about 12,000 employees and 350 offices operating in more than 100 countries, and provides serv ...
Exchange at a cost of 350 million Finnish markka (
€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...
58,9 million). 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
Åland Åland ( fi, Ahvenanmaa: ; ; ) is an autonomous and demilitarised region of Finland since 1920 by a decision of the League of Nations. It is the smallest region of Finland by area and population, with a size of 1,580 km2, and a populat ...
in Finland. Between 1990 and 2003 she also made longer cruises around the
Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...
during the summer season. Between 1992 and 2002, the ship's exterior was used to portray the fictional ship MS ''Freja'' in the Swedish TV
soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
''
Rederiet ''Rederiet'' (''High Seas'' or ''The Shipping Company'') was a (318 episodes) Swedish soap opera that aired on Sveriges Television between August 1992 and April 2002. The cast featured many popular and renowned Swedish actors. The 45-minute epi ...
''. As built, she had a small
car deck Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...
, with space for 80 passenger cars and a
ramp An inclined plane, also known as a ramp, is a flat supporting surface tilted at an angle from the vertical direction, with one end higher than the other, used as an aid for raising or lowering a load. The inclined plane is one of the six clas ...
on the
port side A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
in the rear. Like most
cruiseferries A cruiseferry is a ship that combines the features of a cruise ship and a Ro-Pax ferry. Many passengers travel with the ships for the cruise experience, staying only a few hours at the destination port or not leaving the ship at all, while ot ...
in the Baltic Sea, she was built to
ice class Ice class refers to a notation assigned by a classification society or a national authority to denote the additional level of strengthening as well as other arrangements that enable a ship to navigate through sea ice. Some ice classes also have ...
1A. In 1999 she was extensively refitted at Lloyd Werft in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
at a cost of approximately
US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
26 million.Louis Takes Delivery of a New Large Cruise Ship
- Press release, 17 March 2006 (PDF) The fore superstructure was extended and streamlined and 62 new passenger cabins were added, including a new deck of cabins above the
bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
. In October 2004, when the new MS ''Birka Paradise'' was delivered, the ''Birka Princess'' started making two-night cruises from Stockholm to
Turku Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...
, Helsinki and
Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...
, as well one weekly 24-hour cruise from Stockholm to Mariehamn. The new itineraries proved largely unsuccessful, and on 2 January 2006, the ship was laid up in Mariehamn and put up for sale. In February 2006 she was sold to the
Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
-based
Louis Cruise Lines Celestyal Cruises (formed in 2014) is a succession to Louis Cruises and Louis Cruise Lines. The Cruise line was a subsidiary of Louis plc (Founded in 1935 as the first travel agency in Cyprus) until November 2021 when Searchlight Capital Partners ...
for US$35 million (€29.4 million). As built, the ship only had an indoor pool in the
sauna A sauna (, ), or sudatory, is a small room or building designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions, or an establishment with one or more of these facilities. The steam and high heat make the bathers perspire. A thermometer in a ...
section on deck 2 in the bow of the ship. A new outdoor swimming pool was installed and the sundeck area increased at
Turku Repair Yard sv, Åbo Reparationsvarv Ab , native_name_lang = , romanized_name = , former_name = , type = , traded_as = , ISIN = , industry = ship and boat repair and maintenance , genre = , fate = , predecessor = Wärtsilä Marine , succe ...
,
Naantali Naantali (; sv, Nådendal) is a town in southwestern Finland, and, as a resort town during the summer, an important tourist centre of the country. The municipality has a population of (), and is located in the region of Southwest Finland, west ...
. She entered service in the
Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...
as the second former Birka Line ship in the Louis Cruise Lines fleet, after MS ''Princesa Marissa'', the former MS ''Prinsessan''/''Finnhansa''. After the sale she was registered in
Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an administrative unit and capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 wa ...
,
Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
. She changed flags in late 2006. At the time of her sinking she was owned by Elona Maritime Ltd, a company based in Malta,
,
Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...
.
Art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
work on the ship included two
relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
s by ceramic artist Åsa Hellman.


Sinking

On 5 April 2007, at around 16:00
EEST Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes it ...
(13:00 UTC) the ship ran aground on a well-marked volcanic reef east of
Nea Kameni Nea Kameni is a small uninhabited Greek island of volcanic origin located in the Aegean Sea, within the flooded Santorini caldera. Nea Kameni and the neighbouring small island Palea Kameni (the new and old burnt islands) have formed over the ...
, within the
caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...
of the Greek island of Santorini, began taking on water, and listed up to 12 degrees to starboard before her watertight doors were reportedly closed (a report which was later refuted when the wreck was examined). The 1,153 passengers, mostly Americans and 60 Canadians, were initially all reported to be safely evacuated in three-and-a-half hours, with four injuries. Some passengers, including a group of 77 students from Paisley Magnet School in
North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
, were evacuated from the car ramp through the former car deck onto boats, but some passengers had to climb down rope
ladder A ladder is a vertical or inclined set of rungs or steps used for climbing or descending. There are two types: rigid ladders that are self-supporting or that may be leaned against a vertical surface such as a wall, and rollable ladders, such ...
s from the higher decks. The ship was towed off the rocks, and her list stabilized. Later, it was reported that two French passengers were missing. The large amount of water taken on board led to the ship sinking shortly before 7:00 EEST on 6 April 2007, only a few hundred metres from the shore. Video footage shows that, toward the end, the ship completely capsized before settling stern first onto the sea floor. It was later reported that the tip of the
bulbous bow A bulbous bow is a protruding bulb at the bow (or front) of a ship just below the waterline. The bulb modifies the way the water flows around the hull, reducing drag and thus increasing speed, range, fuel efficiency, and stability. Large ships w ...
was only 62 metres (203 feet) below sea level, but the stern was in water up to 180 metres (590 feet) deep. It is feared that the wreck would soon slide deeper and sink into the submerged caldera of the
volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...
island. It has been speculated that the deep, almost vertical shore of the bathtub-like caldera made it impossible to
beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc sh ...
the ship and save her from becoming a total loss.


Missing

Two French citizens, Jean Christophe Allain, aged 45, and his daughter Maud, 16, were listed as missing. Allain's wife 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 the events happened so suddenly. Her son was on deck at the time and was evacuated safely. The family were accommodated in cabin 2014, an outside standard cabin on the starboard side of the vessel on deck 2, the lowest passenger deck. Divers examined the wreck on 6 April to gather information on the ship's current position and to seek the missing passengers but the search of the cabin recovered nothing. Divers continued searching on 10 April, but nothing was reported. Later in the same day, local governors apologized to the French family for their missing relatives. The black box containing the recordings of the conversations before the crash was discovered on 15 April, while the bodies of the two missing persons were never found.


Investigations

On 7 April, 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 depending 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. On 13 April 2007, it was reported that investigators using a remotely controlled submarine found the ship's data recorder ( VDR). In a struggle to protect the data, they secured it in a special sterilized bin and the authorities were to have transferred it to the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
in order to reveal the saved
data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete Value_(semiotics), values that convey information, describing quantity, qualitative property, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of sy ...
, an action that only the manufacturer of the VDR can perform. The Greek Merchant Marine Ministry said the recorder could reveal details of the sinking of the ship which could be used in the prosecution of crew members. DNV, one of the world's leading classification agencies, stated in their press release that "At the time of the accident, DNV had issued class certificate, safety management certificate and ship security certificate. Sea Diamond had no overdue surveys and no condition of class". For the Sea Diamond to have been issued a Class certificate, her water-tight doors would have to have been fully operational. Investigations carried out by the defense team of the Master of the Vessel and Louis Cruise Lines, after a lawsuit had been filed against them, have included a new
hydrographic survey Hydrographic survey is the science of measurement and description of features which affect maritime navigation, marine construction, dredging, offshore oil exploration/ offshore oil drilling and related activities. Strong emphasis is placed ...
of the area of the accident in Santorini. This survey was carried out by Akti Engineering, and discovered discrepancies between the actual mapping of the sea area and the official charts used by the ''Sea Diamond'' (and all other vessels) at the time of the accident. The detailed survey claimed that the reef, which the ''Sea Diamond'' struck is, in fact, lying at from shore and not at a distance of , as is incorrectly marked on the nautical chart. The official chart also shows the depth of the water at the area of impact varying from , whilst the recent survey shows that it is only .Louis press release: M/V Sea Diamond Struck the Reef and Sunk Due to Incorrect Mapping of the Area
Retrieved 2 November 2007 The findings obtained by Akti Engineering have since been passed on to the Hellenic Hydrographic Office of the Hellenic Navy and other responsible authorities, with the aim that the necessary changes to maritime charts should be made and similar accidents to be prevented. According to a branch reviewing source, the Hellenic Hydrographic Office initially rejected the new mapping, but a later study confirmed the findings of Akti. A Greek scuba diver gathering evidence for a judicial investigation of the ''Sea Diamond'' shipwreck died in October 2007 from
decompression sickness Decompression sickness (abbreviated DCS; also called divers' disease, the bends, aerobullosis, and caisson disease) is a medical condition caused by dissolved gases emerging from solution as bubbles inside the body tissues during decompressio ...
after ascending too quickly.


Aftermath

In order to avoid an oil spill, plans were made to recover some of fuel from the ship's tanks. As of 20 September 2007, fuel had started to leak into other parts of the ship, but not yet into the surrounding environment. In June 2009, some of the fuel was pumped off the wreck. On 14 May 2007, it was announced that Louis Cruise Lines had bought M/S ''Silja Opera'' (renaming it M/S ''Cristal'') to replace the ''Sea Diamond''. On 19 June 2007, the owners, operator and captain of the ''Sea Diamond'' cruise ship were fined €1.17 million for causing marine pollution. On 21 August 2007, a lawsuit was filed in
United States federal court The federal judiciary of the United States is one of the three branches of the federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government. The U.S. federal judiciary consists primar ...
on behalf of the passengers who were aboard the ship when she sank. After six years in the courts, the ''Sea Diamond'' captain and an insurance company employee were given 12- and 8-year jail sentences, respectively.


Raising

After the sinking there was much demand from the residents of Santorini for the wreck be raised and removed. Further questions were posed but never answered as to why the ship was moved to deeper water to be allowed to sink in the first place. In May 2011, the Greek government claimed that removing the ''Sea Diamond'' would be "too costly" and said that the 150-million-euro cost of raising the ship should be the responsibility of the insurers and company that owned the ship. The latter two have no plans to raise the ship, however. In October 2017 the Merchant Marine Ministry of Greece announced the wreck will be raised, out of environmental and navigational concerns. It is an
artificial reef An artificial reef is a human-created underwater structure, typically built to promote marine life in areas with a generally featureless bottom, to control erosion, block ship passage, block the use of trawling nets, or improve surfing. Many ...
for now.


Images from ''Birka Princess''

Images from ''Birka Princess'' taken one week after her maiden voyage in April 1986 Image:Birka Princess 1986b.jpg, ''Birka Princess'' in the
Sea of Åland The Åland Sea (or the Sea of Åland; sv, Ålands hav, fi, Ahvenanmeri) is a waterway in the southern Gulf of Bothnia, between Åland and Sweden. It connects the Bothnian Sea with the Baltic Sea proper. The western part of the basin is in Swed ...
Image:Birka Princess 1986a.jpg, ''Birka Princess'' main staircase


See also

* Lists of ship and ferry disasters *
Lists of shipwrecks This is an index of lists of shipwrecks, sorted by different criteria. By location * List of shipwrecks of Africa * List of shipwrecks of Asia * List of shipwrecks of Europe ** List of shipwrecks of France ** List of shipwrecks of the Uni ...
* ''
Costa Concordia ''Costa Concordia'' () was a cruise ship operated by Costa Crociere. She was the first of her class, followed by sister ships ''Costa Serena'', '' Costa Pacifica'', ''Costa Favolosa'' and ''Costa Fascinosa'', and ''Carnival Splendor'' built for ...
'', an Italian cruise ship which grounded and capsized in January 2012, killing at least 32 people * SS ''Heraklion'', a Greek car ferry which capsized and sank in the
Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...
in 1966. * MS ''Mikhail Lermontov'', a Soviet cruise ship which ran aground on well-charted rocks and subsequently sank in the
Marlborough Sounds The Marlborough Sounds are an extensive network of sea-drowned valleys at the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. The Marlborough Sounds were created by a combination of land subsidence and rising sea levels. According to Māori ...
,
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, in 1986 under similar circumstances to the ''Sea Diamond''. * MS ''Express Samina'', a Greek car ferry which hit a pair of rocky islets and sank near the
Cyclades The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name ...
island of
Paros Paros (; el, Πάρος; Venetian: ''Paro'') is a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. One of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of ...
in 2000.


References


External links


The cruise vessel Sea Diamond

Cruise Liner Sunk in Santorini



New Twist in Sea Diamond Sinking?

Το ναυάγιο του MS Sea Diamond
- MARINEWS


Amateur video and photos


Videos by member of student group
* View from island
April 5 2007 evacuationApril 6 2007 sinking

Pictures taken by a passenger during evacuation

Amateur photos before the incident

Two short video clips of Birka Princess
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sea Diamond 2007 in Greece Ships of Celestyal Cruises Cruise ships of Finland Cruise ships of Greece Maritime incidents in 2007 Ships built in Helsinki Maritime incidents in Greece Shipwrecks in the Aegean Sea 1985 ships Valmet Sunken cruise ships