Ocean Countess

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Ocean Countess is a cruise ship operated by Monarch Classic Cruises. She was built in 1975 as the luxury cruise ship Cunard Countess for Cunard Line. Countess was well-known for her amenities, which, during the time that the ship operated under that name, were of a high standard, and included an onboard hospital. Countess had a sister ship which was almost a carbon copy, but not as famous: the Cunard Princess.

[edit] History

Cunard Countess was built in Denmark during the middle 1970s. The ship was prepared for passenger use in Italy.

Soon afterwards, Cunard Countess began service with Cunard, after being registered in the Bahamas. Cunard Countess became one of the better-known cruise ships to cross the Caribbean sea and middle Atlantic ocean, becoming a staple at the San Juan ship dock in Puerto Rico, at Miami, Santo Domingo and many other places around the area. The Cunard Countess was notably one of the few ships to regularly visit the Caribbean island of Grenada during the revolutionary period of that island (1979-1983) and thus played a major role in supporting the local tourist industry during those years.^{[citation needed]}

At more than 17,000 gross tons, Cunard Countess was an imposing ship.^{[citation needed]} One of her strongest competitors in the Caribbean during the 1980s was the equally famous and large Carla C. Today's cruise ships are much larger, ranging from 40,000 tons to 160,000 tons.

In 1996, before Carnival's buy-out of Cunard in 1998, Cunard Countess was sold to Awani Cruises, and renamed Awani Dream II. The Awani cruise company ran into financial trouble and soon after, the ship moved to the Royal Olympic cruise company, as Olympic Countess. It was charted as Ruby for Louis Cruise Lines for the summer of 2007.

[edit] External links

v • d • e Cunard ships

Present ships	RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (1967) · RMS Queen Mary 2 (2004) · MS Queen Victoria (2007)

Future ships	MS Queen Elizabeth (2010)

Past ships	RMS Britannia (1840) · SS Servia (1881) · RMS Etruria (1884) · RMS Umbria (1884) · RMS Campania (1892) · RMS Lucania (1893) · RMS Carpathia (1903) · RMS Carmania (1905) · RMS Lusitania (1907) · RMS Mauretania (1907) · RMS Ascania (1911) · RMS Albania (1911) · RMS Laconia (1912) · RMS Alaunia (1913) · RMS Aquitania (1913) · SS Orduna (1914) · RMS Albania (1920) · RMS Antonia (1921) · RMS Scythia (1921) · RMS Andania (1922) · RMS Berengaria (1922) · RMS Laconia (1922) · RMS Lancastria (1922) · RMS Majestic (1922) · RMS Ascania (1923) · RMS Aurania (1924) · RMS Carinthia (1925) · SS Laurentic (1927) · RMS Britannic (1929) · RMS Olympic (1934) · RMS Queen Mary (1936) · RMS Mauretania (1939) · RMS Queen Elizabeth (1940) · RMS Caronia (1949) · RMS Saxonia (1954) · RMS Ivernia (1955) · RMS Carinthia (1956) · RMS Sylvania (1957) · MS Cunard Adventurer (1971) · MS Cunard Ambassador (1972) · MS Cunard Countess (1975) · MS Cunard Princess (1976) · MS Sagafjord (1983) · MS Caronia (1983) · MS Royal Viking Sun (1994)