Swan Hellenic - is it all over after 50 years in business?

**Ally** · 11-24-2006, 04:08 AM

SWAN HELLENIC, the cruise line that specialises in lecture tours to the sites of antiquity, is to close next spring after 50 years in business.

Its latest and largest ship, Minerva II, is being transferred by the company’s owners, Carnival, to a sister line, Princess Cruises, from 7 April.

“We are now effectively for sale,” said Pam Perry, who organises the guest-speaker programme, on Wednesday. The formula of visits to ancient sites, combined with on-board lectures on their significance, grew out of visits made by the founder, Ken Swan, to archaeological sites with Sir Mortimer Wheeler, who became its first guest speaker.

“They realised that the easiest way to visit many archaeological sites, especially those in Greece, like Delphi, was often from the sea,” Mrs Perry said.

Guests who cruised with Swan Hellenic could attend up to three talks a day when the ship was at sea. Many of the talks were given by members of the clergy, she said.

“By tradition, there is always a member of the clergy on board, not only to preside over church services but also to be a guest speaker.”

Speakers had included the late Lord Runcie, former Archbishop of Canterbury; Lord Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford, and several current members of the House of Bishops. The present Bishop of London had been a guest speaker “on many, many occasions”, she said.

The last voyage, which begins on 24 March, sails from Barbados to Cadiz, and is being accompanied by the Revd Dr Rupert Bursell, QC, Diocesan Chancellor of Oxford, and a long-standing supporter of the voyages.

Andrew Magowan, the sales and marketing director, said that the company was contacting all the names on its database to keep them abreast of developments. Although the parent company, Carnival, had made a commercial decision to transfer Minerva II to the sister company, “it does not mean it is all over for Swan Hellenic. We will just have to see,” he said on Wednesday.

“It is big and popular, and Carnival is constantly looking for ways to continue the Swan Hellenic brand.”

(SHC)