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Mona Lisa (ship)
Encyclopedia
MV
Mona Lisa is a cruise ship
that was last owned by Leonardo Shipping and operated under charter by Lord Nelson Seereisen http://www.lord-nelson-seereisen.de/. She was built in 1966 by the John Brown & Company
shipyard in Clydebank
, Scotland as the combined ocean liner
/ cruise ship MS Kungsholm for the Swedish American Line
. She was later rebuilt as a full-time cruise ship. She has also sailed under the names MV Sea Princess, MV Victoria and MV Oceanic II. In September 2010 she was retired from service as she did not fulfill requirements to SOLAS 2010 and her charter with Lord Nelson Seereisen had ended. Interest in preserving her had been expressed.
, Clydebank
, Scotland
. Unusually for a passenger ship at the time, especially one built as a trans-Atlantic liner, she was fitted with slow-speed two stroke diesel engines. Her two Swedish
built Götaverken
nine cylinder engines have a combined output of 25,200 SHP
, which gave her a service speed of 21 knots, although she achieved 25 knots during her sea trials. The ship is equipped with Denny Brown stabilizers and currently has a maximum cruising speed of 21 knots. The vessel met all updated SOLAS
requirements as of the 1992 amendments.
The ship's original Gross Registered Tonnage
was 26,700. After rebuilding for service with P&O, her tonnage was increased to 27,670 GRT. Currently, the ship is measured at 28,891 GRT. She is 201 meters (660 ft) long with a breadth of 26.5 meters.
The ship's passenger capacity was 713 as a trans Atlantic liner, but only 450 as a cruise ship before the addition of extra cabins increased the number of berths to 730. She carries 417 crew members. The maximum capacity utilizing upper (passenger) and lower (crew) berths is 994 persons.
Currently, the 790 passenger vessel has 397 passenger cabins (292 outside, 105 inside), all equipped with televisions, safe boxes, hairdryers and additional amenities. Sixty-eight of the cabins also have refrigerators.
The ship currently has 8 passenger decks, 4 passenger elevators, 2 outdoor and 1 indoor swimming pool, a sauna and a massage parlor. She has 3 restaurants, 4 lounges, 4 indoor bars, 1 outdoor bar and a 300 passenger capacity theater. There is also a fitness center, hair salon and a fully equipped hospital.
- New York
run. Although built for transatlantic service, she was also designed to spend a large proportion of the year cruising.
In 1975, the Swedish America Line dissolved and the Kungsholm was sold to Flagship Cruises, who retained her name and used her for cruising from the United States
.
In 1978 she was purchased by P&O
and had her appearance dramatically altered by the removal of her forward (dummy) funnel, reshaping of her remaining funnel, and the addition of extra cabins. She was renamed the Sea Princess and was initially based in Australia
, taking over from the SS Arcadia
which was scrapped in 1979. The Australian cruising role was taken over by SS Oriana
in 1981 and from then Sea Princess alternated between deployments with P&O's UK
fleet and the subsidiary Princess Cruises
fleet. As her deployments changed, so did the colour of her funnel; buff (yellow) for P&O, white with the Sea Witch logo for Princess Cruises
.
In 1995 she was renamed Victoria and for the rest of her career with P&O Cruises
operated with its UK fleet out of Southampton
. The name change was to allow the then new addition to the Princess Cruises
fleet to be named Sea Princess
.
In 1999/2000 Victoria was chartered for the Union-Castle Line
centenary voyage and had her funnel repainted in that company's livery.
In 2002 she was sold by P&O and sailed for Holiday Kreuzfahrten as Mona Lisa until 2006, bearing a large image of the painting
of the same name on her funnel. Holiday Kreuzfahrten was declared bankrupt in September 2006. Following the bankruptcy of Holiday Kreuzfahrten the Mona Lisa was briefly laid up at Pireus, Greece, but in November 2006 she was chartered for use as a hotel ship in Doha
, Qatar for the duration of the Asian Games
. The charter to Qatar ended on 1 January 2007.
In 2007, the ship was chartered by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
(RCCL) and was renamed Oceanic II. From 30 April to 28 May 2007, Louis Hellenic Cruises sub-chartered the ship as a temporary replacement for the MV Sea Diamond, which went aground off the coast of Santorini
, Greece
and sank earlier in April. Following this she was operated by Pullmantur Cruises
(a subsidiary of RCCL) for the 2007 northern hemisphere
summer season.
The ship was refitted to become an educational vessel for The Scholar Ship
international education program, a cooperative venture between seven major world universities and RCCL. The Scholar Ship offered undergraduate and graduate semester programs during four-month voyages. The inaugural voyage embarked in September 2007, with a second voyage in early 2008. In June 2008 the discontinuation of the program was announced.
The Oceanic II reverted to the name Mona Lisa prior to her charter to German tour operator Lord Nelson Seereisen, which ran from 28 April to 31 August 2008. On 4 May 2008 the Mona Lisa was grounded in the Irbe Strait
while leaving Riga
. She suffered no major damage, but the passengers were evacuated from the ship on 5 May after unsuccessful efforts to free the ship from the sand bank. The Mona Lisa was eventually pulled free from the sandbank on 7 May 2008. She subsequently sailed to a drydock in Ventspils
, Latvia for inspection and returned to normal cruise traffic on 8 May 2008.
Following the completion of her charter to Lord Nelson Seereisen, the Mona Lisa was chartered to Peace Boat
for the duration of the 2008/2009 northern hemisphere
winter season. For the duration of the 2009 northern hemisphere summer season she again returned to the fleet of Lord Nelson Seereisen.
From 26 January to 23 March 2010, Mona Lisa was used as floating accommodations while docked at the Squamish
port in British Columbia
, Canada
. During the 2010 Winter Olympics
and Paralympics
in Vancouver
and Whistler
, approximately 1,400 crew, volunteers and paid staff were housed aboard.
regulations coming into effect in October 2010. However, a letter of intent had been signed between the ship's owners and Swedish entrepreneur Lars Hallgren for the acquisition of the ship in 2010. Hallgren was planning to use the ship as a floating hotel in Gothenburg
. Should his plans have been realized, certain features of the Kungsholms original appearance, such as her two funnels, would have been restored. Mr. Hallgren withdrew his offer to purchase the Mona Lisa because the City of Gothenburg would only lease dock space for the ship to be berthed in Gothenburg for only five years,
and scrap buyers are to inspect her in the following weeks. However, the city of Stockholm
had expressed a sudden interest in letting Lars Hallgren berth and preserve Mona Lisa there, first for use as a student accommodation ship and then for use a permanently berthed hotel and museum. Mona Lisa made her way from Germany
to Piraeus
, where she should have arrived by September 10, 2010. Mona Lisa left Piraeus on October 11, bound for the Suez Canal
and for use as an accommodation ship in Oman
. Lars Hallgren later confirmed that Mona Lisa would not be preserved in Stockholm. It was rumored that she is heading to Far Eastern interests who have purchased her for use as a luxury hotel in Oman. Mona Lisa arrived in Oman on October 26, 2010, where she is planned to spend the next five years as a luxury Floating Hotel in the scenic wilayat of Duqm, in the Sultanate of Oman, housing tourists as well business guests from Duqm and the nearby areas. She is now owned by DSME Oman LLC. (Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Oman LLC).
Ship prefix
A ship prefix is a combination of letters, usually abbreviations, used in front of the name of a civilian or naval ship.Prefixes for civilian vessels may either identify the type of propulsion, such as "SS" for steamship, or purpose, such as "RV" for research vessel. Civilian prefixes are often...
Mona Lisa is a cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
that was last owned by Leonardo Shipping and operated under charter by Lord Nelson Seereisen http://www.lord-nelson-seereisen.de/. She was built in 1966 by the John Brown & Company
John Brown & Company
John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a pre-eminent Scottish marine engineering and shipbuilding firm, responsible for building many notable and world-famous ships, such as the , the , the , the , the , and the...
shipyard in Clydebank
Clydebank
Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, Clydebank borders Dumbarton, the town with which it was combined to form West Dunbartonshire, as well as the town of Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire, and the Yoker and...
, Scotland as the combined ocean liner
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...
/ cruise ship MS Kungsholm for the Swedish American Line
Swedish American Line
Swedish American Line was a passenger and cargo shipping line. It was founded in December 1914 under the name Rederiaktiebolaget Sverige-Nordamerika, beginning ocean liner service from Gothenburg to New York in 1915...
. She was later rebuilt as a full-time cruise ship. She has also sailed under the names MV Sea Princess, MV Victoria and MV Oceanic II. In September 2010 she was retired from service as she did not fulfill requirements to SOLAS 2010 and her charter with Lord Nelson Seereisen had ended. Interest in preserving her had been expressed.
Statistics
The Kungsholm was launched in 1965, built by John Brown & CompanyJohn Brown & Company
John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a pre-eminent Scottish marine engineering and shipbuilding firm, responsible for building many notable and world-famous ships, such as the , the , the , the , the , and the...
, Clydebank
Clydebank
Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, Clydebank borders Dumbarton, the town with which it was combined to form West Dunbartonshire, as well as the town of Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire, and the Yoker and...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Unusually for a passenger ship at the time, especially one built as a trans-Atlantic liner, she was fitted with slow-speed two stroke diesel engines. Her two Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
built Götaverken
Götaverken
Götaverken was a shipbuilding company that was located on Hisingen, Gothenburg. It was founded in 1841, and went bankrupt in 1989.The company was founded in 1841 by a Scottish businessman called Alexander Keiller under the name Keillers Werkstad i Göteborg, and was aimed at industrial production...
nine cylinder engines have a combined output of 25,200 SHP
Horsepower
Horsepower is the name of several units of measurement of power. The most common definitions equal between 735.5 and 750 watts.Horsepower was originally defined to compare the output of steam engines with the power of draft horses in continuous operation. The unit was widely adopted to measure the...
, which gave her a service speed of 21 knots, although she achieved 25 knots during her sea trials. The ship is equipped with Denny Brown stabilizers and currently has a maximum cruising speed of 21 knots. The vessel met all updated SOLAS
International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea is an international maritime safety treaty. The SOLAS Convention in its successive forms is generally regarded as the most important of all international treaties concerning the safety of merchant ships.- History :The first version of the...
requirements as of the 1992 amendments.
Gross Register Tonnage
Gross register tonnage a ship's total internal volume expressed in "register tons", one of which equals to a volume of . It is calculated from the total permanently enclosed capacity of the vessel. The ship's net register tonnage is obtained by reducing the volume of non-revenue-earning spaces i.e...
was 26,700. After rebuilding for service with P&O, her tonnage was increased to 27,670 GRT. Currently, the ship is measured at 28,891 GRT. She is 201 meters (660 ft) long with a breadth of 26.5 meters.
The ship's passenger capacity was 713 as a trans Atlantic liner, but only 450 as a cruise ship before the addition of extra cabins increased the number of berths to 730. She carries 417 crew members. The maximum capacity utilizing upper (passenger) and lower (crew) berths is 994 persons.
Currently, the 790 passenger vessel has 397 passenger cabins (292 outside, 105 inside), all equipped with televisions, safe boxes, hairdryers and additional amenities. Sixty-eight of the cabins also have refrigerators.
The ship currently has 8 passenger decks, 4 passenger elevators, 2 outdoor and 1 indoor swimming pool, a sauna and a massage parlor. She has 3 restaurants, 4 lounges, 4 indoor bars, 1 outdoor bar and a 300 passenger capacity theater. There is also a fitness center, hair salon and a fully equipped hospital.
History
As the Kungsholm, the ship first entered service for the Swedish America Line in 1966 as a transatlantic ocean liner, the last liner built for the GothenburgGothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
- New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
run. Although built for transatlantic service, she was also designed to spend a large proportion of the year cruising.
In 1975, the Swedish America Line dissolved and the Kungsholm was sold to Flagship Cruises, who retained her name and used her for cruising from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company
The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which is usually known as P&O, is a British shipping and logistics company which dated from the early 19th century. Following its sale in March 2006 to Dubai Ports World for £3.9 billion, it became a subsidiary of DP World; however, the P&O...
and had her appearance dramatically altered by the removal of her forward (dummy) funnel, reshaping of her remaining funnel, and the addition of extra cabins. She was renamed the Sea Princess and was initially based in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, taking over from the SS Arcadia
SS Arcadia (1954)
SS Arcadia was a passenger liner built for P&O in 1954 to service the UK to Australia route. Towards the end of her life she operated as a cruise ship, based in Sydney, until scrapped in 1979.-History:...
which was scrapped in 1979. The Australian cruising role was taken over by SS Oriana
SS Oriana (1959)
SS Oriana was the last of the Orient Steam Navigation Company's ocean liners. She was built at Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria and launched on 3 November 1959 by Princess Alexandra...
in 1981 and from then Sea Princess alternated between deployments with P&O's UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
fleet and the subsidiary Princess Cruises
Princess Cruises
Princess Cruises is a British-American owned cruise line, based in Santa Clarita, California in the United States. Previously a subsidiary of P&O Princess Cruises PLC, the company is now one of ten cruise ship brands operated by Carnival Corporation & PLC and accounts for approximately 19% share...
fleet. As her deployments changed, so did the colour of her funnel; buff (yellow) for P&O, white with the Sea Witch logo for Princess Cruises
Princess Cruises
Princess Cruises is a British-American owned cruise line, based in Santa Clarita, California in the United States. Previously a subsidiary of P&O Princess Cruises PLC, the company is now one of ten cruise ship brands operated by Carnival Corporation & PLC and accounts for approximately 19% share...
.
In 1995 she was renamed Victoria and for the rest of her career with P&O Cruises
P&O Cruises
P&O Cruises is a British-American owned cruise line based at Carnival House in Southampton, England, and operated by Carnival UK. Originally a constituent of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, P&O Cruises is the oldest cruise line in the world, having operated the world's first...
operated with its UK fleet out of Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
. The name change was to allow the then new addition to the Princess Cruises
Princess Cruises
Princess Cruises is a British-American owned cruise line, based in Santa Clarita, California in the United States. Previously a subsidiary of P&O Princess Cruises PLC, the company is now one of ten cruise ship brands operated by Carnival Corporation & PLC and accounts for approximately 19% share...
fleet to be named Sea Princess
Sea Princess
Sea Princess is a operated by the Princess Cruises line. She has three sister ships: and Dawn Princess in the Princess Cruises fleet and Oceana in the P&O Cruises fleet.-History:...
.
In 1999/2000 Victoria was chartered for the Union-Castle Line
Union-Castle Line
The Union-Castle Line was a prominent British shipping line that operated a fleet of passenger liners and cargo ships between Europe and Africa from 1900 to 1977. It was formed from the merger of the Union Line and Castle Shipping Line...
centenary voyage and had her funnel repainted in that company's livery.
In 2002 she was sold by P&O and sailed for Holiday Kreuzfahrten as Mona Lisa until 2006, bearing a large image of the painting
Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
of the same name on her funnel. Holiday Kreuzfahrten was declared bankrupt in September 2006. Following the bankruptcy of Holiday Kreuzfahrten the Mona Lisa was briefly laid up at Pireus, Greece, but in November 2006 she was chartered for use as a hotel ship in Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
, Qatar for the duration of the Asian Games
Asian Games
The Asian Games, officially known as Asiad, is a multi-sport event held every four years among athletes from all over Asia. The Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation from the first Games in New Delhi, India, until the 1978 Games. Since the 1982 Games they have been organised by the...
. The charter to Qatar ended on 1 January 2007.
In 2007, the ship was chartered by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is a Norwegian / American company based in Miami, Florida. It is the world's second-largest cruise line operator, after Carnival Corporation & PLC. As of March 2009, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd...
(RCCL) and was renamed Oceanic II. From 30 April to 28 May 2007, Louis Hellenic Cruises sub-chartered the ship as a temporary replacement for the MV Sea Diamond, which went aground off the coast of Santorini
Santorini
Santorini , officially Thira , is an island located in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from Greece's mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago which bears the same name and is the remnant of a volcanic caldera...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and sank earlier in April. Following this she was operated by Pullmantur Cruises
Pullmantur Cruises
Pullmantur Cruises is a cruise line headquartered in Spain. It began operations in the late 1990s as an offshoot of the Madrid-based travel agency Pullmantur. Pullmantur Cruises, through its parent company, was purchased by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in 2006.- Overview :Pullmantur Cruises is the...
(a subsidiary of RCCL) for the 2007 northern hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
summer season.
The Scholar Ship
The Scholar Ship was a recognized academic program aboard a modified passenger ship hosting both undergraduate and postgraduate students on semester-long voyages around the world. Participants from diverse cultural backgrounds came together to create a transnational learning community designed to...
international education program, a cooperative venture between seven major world universities and RCCL. The Scholar Ship offered undergraduate and graduate semester programs during four-month voyages. The inaugural voyage embarked in September 2007, with a second voyage in early 2008. In June 2008 the discontinuation of the program was announced.
The Oceanic II reverted to the name Mona Lisa prior to her charter to German tour operator Lord Nelson Seereisen, which ran from 28 April to 31 August 2008. On 4 May 2008 the Mona Lisa was grounded in the Irbe Strait
Irbe Strait
Irbe Strait, also known as Irben Strait , forms the main exit out of the Gulf of Riga to the Baltic Sea, between the Sõrve Peninsula forming the southern end of the island Saaremaa in Estonia and Courland peninsula in Latvia. It is 27 km wide at its narrowest point...
while leaving Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
. She suffered no major damage, but the passengers were evacuated from the ship on 5 May after unsuccessful efforts to free the ship from the sand bank. The Mona Lisa was eventually pulled free from the sandbank on 7 May 2008. She subsequently sailed to a drydock in Ventspils
Ventspils
Ventspils is a city in northwestern Latvia in the Courland historical region of Latvia, the sixth largest city in the country. As of 2006, Ventspils had a population of 43,806. Ventspils is situated on the Venta River and the Baltic Sea, and has an ice-free port...
, Latvia for inspection and returned to normal cruise traffic on 8 May 2008.
Following the completion of her charter to Lord Nelson Seereisen, the Mona Lisa was chartered to Peace Boat
Peace Boat
is a global non-government organization headquartered in Japan established for the purpose of raising awareness and building connections internationally among groups that work for peace, human rights, environmental protection and sustainable development. "Peace Boat" may also refer to one of the...
for the duration of the 2008/2009 northern hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
winter season. For the duration of the 2009 northern hemisphere summer season she again returned to the fleet of Lord Nelson Seereisen.
From 26 January to 23 March 2010, Mona Lisa was used as floating accommodations while docked at the Squamish
Squamish, British Columbia
Squamish is a community and a district municipality in the Canadian province of British Columbia, located at the north end of Howe Sound on the Sea to Sky Highway...
port in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. During the 2010 Winter Olympics
2010 Winter Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...
and Paralympics
2010 Winter Paralympics
The 2010 Winter Paralympics, officially the X Paralympic Winter Games, or the 10th Winter Paralympics, were held in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia, Canada from March 12 to 21, 2010. The Opening Ceremony took place in BC Place Stadium in Vancouver and the Closing Ceremony in Whistler...
in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
and Whistler
Whistler, British Columbia
Whistler is a Canadian resort town in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains in the province of British Columbia, Canada, approximately north of Vancouver...
, approximately 1,400 crew, volunteers and paid staff were housed aboard.
The future
She has resumed her voyages with Lord Nelson Seereisen during 2010 from May until August. Her future after termination of her charter to Lord Nelson Seereisen in August 2010 is uncertain as she does not comply with the new SOLASInternational Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea
The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea is an international maritime safety treaty. The SOLAS Convention in its successive forms is generally regarded as the most important of all international treaties concerning the safety of merchant ships.- History :The first version of the...
regulations coming into effect in October 2010. However, a letter of intent had been signed between the ship's owners and Swedish entrepreneur Lars Hallgren for the acquisition of the ship in 2010. Hallgren was planning to use the ship as a floating hotel in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
. Should his plans have been realized, certain features of the Kungsholms original appearance, such as her two funnels, would have been restored. Mr. Hallgren withdrew his offer to purchase the Mona Lisa because the City of Gothenburg would only lease dock space for the ship to be berthed in Gothenburg for only five years,
and scrap buyers are to inspect her in the following weeks. However, the city of Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
had expressed a sudden interest in letting Lars Hallgren berth and preserve Mona Lisa there, first for use as a student accommodation ship and then for use a permanently berthed hotel and museum. Mona Lisa made her way from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to Piraeus
Piraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
, where she should have arrived by September 10, 2010. Mona Lisa left Piraeus on October 11, bound for the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
and for use as an accommodation ship in Oman
Oman
Oman , officially called the Sultanate of Oman , is an Arab state in southwest Asia on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by the United Arab Emirates to the northwest, Saudi Arabia to the west, and Yemen to the southwest. The coast is formed by the Arabian Sea on the...
. Lars Hallgren later confirmed that Mona Lisa would not be preserved in Stockholm. It was rumored that she is heading to Far Eastern interests who have purchased her for use as a luxury hotel in Oman. Mona Lisa arrived in Oman on October 26, 2010, where she is planned to spend the next five years as a luxury Floating Hotel in the scenic wilayat of Duqm, in the Sultanate of Oman, housing tourists as well business guests from Duqm and the nearby areas. She is now owned by DSME Oman LLC. (Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Oman LLC).