SS Principe Perfeito

SS Principe Perfeito was passenger ship built in 1961 by Swan Hunter on the River Tyne. She first entered service for the Companhia Nacional de Navegacao, often abbreviated as CNN.

The first voyage of Principe Perfeito, which began in Lisbon to Africa with calls at nine different ports and then ended at Beira Harbour, was a run that would become her usual voyage.

In July 6 1964, the Príncipe Perfeito transported the president of the Portuguese Republic, Americo Tomas in an official trip to Mozambique.

During her service years with her original owners the Principe Perfeito was generally used for passenger service, Troop transport, making cruises only occasionally. In 1974, the CNN merged with three other major shipping companies, Companhia de Navegação dos Carregadores Acoreanos, Companhia Colonial de Navegação and Empresa Insulana de Navegação to form the Companhia Portuguesa de Transportes Marítimos, or CTM. This move was made in order to streamline operations during the 1973 oil crisis and due to severe competition from airlines. Despite this major change she continued her original route. Due to political instability in the Portuguese African colonies Principe Perfeito was laid up at Lisbon in 1976.

That April she was sold to the Panamanian company Global Transportation Incorporated, who sent her back to her builders with the intention of converting Principe Perfeito into the accommodation ship Al Hasa.

These plans never materialized and ownership of the vessel was passed on to the Sitmar Line, who renamed Fairsky with the intent of rebuilding her into a cruise ship, as they did with the SS Fairwind. However the company decided to build an entirely new ship (resulting in the Fairsky of 1984). With this decision Sitmar renamed her Vera in 1981. She was sold to the John Latsis company Bilinder Marine Corporation in 1982, who renamed her Marianna IX after one of his daughters. She entered a new role as an accommodation ship at Jeddah and then Rabigh. In 1984 her name was changed to Marianna 9. She was sent to Kalamata to house earthquake victims in 1986, but was later returned to Rabigh. In 1992 she was laid up at Eleusis alongside the RMS Windsor Castle. She remained there until 2001 when she was sent to the scrapyards at Alang, India.