MS Princess Danae

The MS Princess Danae was a cruise liner. The ship was designed by Harland & Wolff as a freighter in Belfast built and ran in 1954 as Port Melbourne, a fast cargo liner for Port Line's UK-Australia express service. She was planned to be rebuilt as a car ferry, the Therisos Express, but instead became the cruise ship Danae. In later years, she was named Starlight Express, Baltica, and then Princess Danae.^[1]

Costa Danae in 1982

Princess Danae

MS Princess Danae in Corfu harbor, 2008.
History
Name	Port Melbourne (1955-1972) Therisos Express (1972–1975) Danae (1975–1992) Starlight Express (1992–1994) Baltica (1994–1996) Princess Danae (1996–2013) Lisboa (2013–2015) [1]
Namesake	Lisbon (Lisboa in Portuguese)
Owner	Portuscale Cruises
Operator	Port Line (1955–1972) Delian Cruises (1975–1979) Costa Cruises (1979–1990) Prestige Cruises (1990–1992) Classic International Cruises (1996–2012) Portuscale Cruises (2013–2013) Unknown French Operator (2015–2015) [1][2]
Port of registry	1955–1972: London, United Kingdom 1994–2001: Panama, Panama 2001–2015: Madeira, Portugal
Builder	Harland and Wolff
Launched	10 March 1955
Christened	1955
Completed	1955
Maiden voyage	1955
In service	1955
Out of service	2015
Identification	IMO number: 5282483 MMSI number: 255987000 Callsign: CQTK
Fate	Scrapped at Aliağa, Turkey in 2015.
General characteristics
Tonnage	16531 t
Length	162.30 m
Beam	21.34 m
Draught	7.65 m
Decks	8
Installed power	9708 kw
Propulsion	2 × Wallsend-Doxford 6 cylinder Diesel
Speed	15.5 kn
Capacity	670 passengers

Port Melbourne

Costa Danae

From 1994 until 2012, the ship was operated by Classic International Cruises as the Princess Danae. In late summer of 2012, the ship was detained in Dublin, Ireland for the non-payment of a fuel bill.^[3] Early in 2013, she was bought by the recently created Portuguese cruise company Portuscale Cruises and renamed Lisboa. She was scrapped at Aliağa on 24 July 2015.^[4]

Her sister ship was the Princess Daphne, built as Port Sydney.