Leda
1952
(Risawoleska RI-143)
- Type: Passenger ferry / general cargo
- Displacement: 6,670 tons
- Dimensions: 438 x 57-2 x 30 ft.
- Machinery: Parsons geared steam turbines, twin screw, 13,000 shp = 22 knots
- Passengers: 503 (119 first class, 384 tourist class)
- Cars: 18 (stowed in three holds)
- Builder: Swan Hunter, Wallsend-on-Tyne, England, 1952
- Notes: Built for Det Bergenskes Dampskibsselskab (BDS), Bergen. Sailed twice-weekly Bergen-Stavanger-Newcastle, 1953-1974. First Norwegian vessel built with stabilizers. Removed from service 1974, she had a long and varied career with many name and ownership changes. Used as an accommodation ship for oil rig workers to 1979. Renamed Najla 1979. Purchased 1980 by Dolphin (Hellas) of Piraeus, renamed Albatros, and rebuilt at Perama to become a cruise liner, sailing in the Mediterranean and to South America 1981-84, under the successive names Alegro and Albatross. Chartered 1985 to American Star Line (Greek owned) and renamed Betsy Ross and then in 1989 as Amalfi, but laid up in Venice. Sold at auction in 1990, renamed Star of Venice; suffered a fire in 1991, but repaired only to become a police hostel at Genoa in 1992, and then at the maximum-security prison island of Pianosa which housed terrorists and Mafia members. Laid up again at Venice, used briefly for cruising in 1998 but in very poor material condition, and then again as a hotel ship at Ravenna. Towed to Aliaga, Turkey for breakup in 2001, she was the scene of some Greenpeace demonstrations in 2002 as she was being scrapped.
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