kingdom area served worldwide products cruises parent all leisure holidays group website www.swanhellenic.com swan hellenic ship minerva then explorer ii at anchor at grytviken south georgia in november 2007 . swan hellenic is a british cruise line specialising in tours of historical or cultural interest aimed at the upper end of the cruise market . contents 1 history 2 recent history 3 fleet 3.1 current fleet 3.2 former ships 4 references history edit it began in the 1950s when the swan s tours travel agency operated by a father and son w.f. swan and r.k. swan was asked to organise a tour for visitors interested in the antiquities of greece . the archaeologist sir mortimer wheeler was employed as guest lecturer . from this developed a full programme of cruises in which well known academics writers and clergymen were regularly featured as guest lecturers both on board ship and on site . the company prided itself on never repeating exactly any itinerary but it concentrated as the name suggests on classical sites in the aegean sea around the coats and islands of modern greece and turkey . it also however visited classical and other ancient sites in north africa including egypt and the eastern mediterranean . unlike most commercial cruises in which the onboard entertainment is as important as the destinations visited swan hellenic cruises landed almost every day in order to visit historic sites and travel between sites was undertaken by the ship overnight . the operation was characterised by an english ethos of high culture although it had an international following . recent history edit swan hellenic was acquired from the swan family by p & o in 1983 . more recently it became a subsidiary of the world s largest cruise operator the british american carnival corporation & plc. under carnival the characteristically small 300 passenger ship minerva was replaced in 2003 by the 600 passenger minerva ii . this led to criticism that the intimacy of the original cruise concept had been compromised . in april 2007 carnival ended its operation of swan hellenic and transferred minerva ii to the princess fleet with the new name royal princess . this was reported at the time as the end of swan hellenic . its demise was apparently compounded when martin randall travel launched a series of cruises to fill the niche swan hellenic had left . 1 however on 15 march 2007 lord sterling the former chairman of p & o announced that he was buying the swan hellenic brand and intended to relaunch the cruise line as soon as a suitable vessel could be located . 2 swan hellenic was subsequently acquired by the all leisure holidays group plc who also own voyages of discovery who ran the ship explorer ii previously minerva ship . the company website states that swan hellenic cruises started up again in 2008 . fleet edit current fleet edit ship built entered service for swan hellenic gross tonnage former names notes image minerva 1990 1996 2003 2008 present 12 500 gt minerva saga pearl alexander von humboldt explorer ii sailed as saga cruises saga pearl for the summer of 2003 then sailed as abercrombie & kent explorer ii from 2003 to 2005 and sailed as phoenix reisen alexander von humboldt from 2005 to 2008 . former ships edit ship built swan hellenic service gross tonnage former names notes image miaoulis 1952 1954 1 714 gt originally built for the greek government owned by nomikos lines . ankara 1927 1959 3 1974 6 178 gt built in the usa for new york and miami s.s. co. later clyde mallory lines sold to turkey in 1948 chartered from turkish maritime lines for a total of 105 cruises . orpheus 1948 1974 1996 4 145 gt munster 4 theseus previously liverpool to dublin ferry as orpheus chartered from epriotiki lines . minerva ii 2001 2003 2007 30 277 gt r eight royal princess operated by princess cruises 2007 2011 . now sails as adonia for p & o cruises . references edit the daily telegraph 18 december 2006 . new cruises hope to match swan . news story . retrieved 2009 02 25 . the cruise ship report 15 march 2007 swan hellenic despite losing its only cruise ship gets new life retrieved from the cruise ship report on 18 march 2007 colin stone . swan hellenic refines the art of discovery cruising . magazine article . retrieved 2014 02 12 . v t e tourism in the united kingdom tourism economy of the united kingdom nations and regions england hotels in england lists of tourist attractions in england list of national trust land in england list of national trust properties in england london tourist board resorts in england tourism in leeds tourism in london tourism in yorkshire visitengland welcome to yorkshire northern ireland hotels in northern ireland list of museums in northern ireland nature reserves in northern ireland list of tourist attractions in ireland list of national trust properties in northern ireland northern ireland tourist board scotland lanarkshire area tourism partnership minister for energy enterprise and tourism resorts in scotland scotlandwhisky scottish youth hostels association visitscotland visitscotland.com wales capital region tourism forgotten landscapes project list of museums in wales south west wales tourism partnership tourism partnership north wales visit wales companies current ace cultural tours alan rogers travel group carnival corporation & plc cunard line city sightseeing cosmos holidays cox & kings ebookers.com ffestiniog travel flight centre great rail journeys hays travel hogg robinson group holidaybreak nst holidayextras.com kuoni travel lastminute.com martin randall travel pgl superbreak swan hellenic thomas cook group club 18 30 netflights tui group thomson holidays trailfinders traveleyes turquoise holidays wilderness journeys defunct clarksons travel group court line directline holidays easycruise first choice horizon travel kiss flights lunn poly mark hammerton mytravel palmair thomas cook & son xl leisure group organisations camping and caravanning club the caravan club 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