Swan Hellenic has acquired SH Diana from Helsinki Shipyard. The Finnish shipbuilder exercised the right to sell the ship by tender, provided for by the shipbuilding contract, after the original buyer failed to take delivery of the ship. Having received bids for the auction of NB 518, Helsinki Shipyard declared Swan Hellenic the winner. The shipyard and Swan Hellenic will enter into a new agreement for the completion of the vessel, which is scheduled to be delivered in March 2023, in time to start cultural expedition cruises of the Mediterranean from the beginning of April as planned.
Andrea Zito, CEO of Swan Hellenic, said: “We are happy to have secured SH Diana, a Polar Class PC6 vessel with state-of-the-art ship technology and sustainability that will enter service as planned in April. We look forward to welcoming our guests aboard SH Diana to experience our cultural expedition cruises in the historic regions for which they were first conceived.”
In addition, in a bid to take its cruise guests’ explorations further and deeper—including into deep space—Swan Hellenic has teamed up with SETI Institute to explore space at sea. The SETI Institute is a space and earth science research organization supporting NASA and NSF programs. The collaboration will take SETI Institute researchers to the most remote and inhospitable corners of the planet, including Antarctica, where the Swan Hellenic fleet is present for several months every year. Passengers can benefit from presentations on explorations around earth and beyond, with SETI Institute equipment, including an advanced telescope, installed onboard.
The experts initially scheduled for Swan Hellenic’s 2023 cultural expedition cruises include Dr. Simon Steel, director of education and outreach, and deputy director of research. He is an astronomer and astrophysicist who specializes in studying galaxies. Plans are in the works for him to accompany SH Vega on cultural expedition cruises of Antarctica, the British Isles and Iceland.
Bill Diamond, president and CEO of the SETI Institute, is finalizing arrangements to accompany Swan Hellenic’s “Arctic Odyssey” cruise aboard SH Diana in June. Diamond has worked predominantly in applied technologies and has over 20 years of experience in photonics and optical communications, plus more than a decade in X-ray and semiconductor processing technologies.
Zito said: “We are immensely proud of this new partnership. The presence of the SETI Institute’s eminent scientists on board our cultural expedition cruises, imparting their expert knowledge of astrobiology, geology, physics, chemistry and astronomy, completes another facet of the quest to take our guests to see what others don’t.”
For more information, visit www.swanhellenic.com.
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