Achille Lauro

Passenger ship built in 1947 by N.V. Koninklijke Maats. "De Schelde", Vlissingen, as the Willem Ruys for N.V. Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd, Rotterdam. Her dimensions was 631'2"×82'0"×29'2" and tonnage: 23112 GRT and 12401 NRT.

1938 January: Ordered to be built, but lay uncompleted on the stocks at N.V. Koninklijke Maats. "De Schelde", Vlissingen, for the duration of the war.
1947: Launched and delivered to N.V. Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd, Rotterdam.
1964 January: Sold to Achille Lauro, Naples.
1965: Renamed Achille Lauro.
1965 August 29: Suffered considerable damage after a serious fire while at Palermo.
1966 April: Back in service.
1972 May 19: The bridge and accomodation was damaged by fire.
1975 April: Collided with the livestock carrier Yousset which was sunk.
1981 December 3: A fire occurred in a bar and three passangers were killed during the evacuation.
1985 October: Taken by Arabian terrorists in the Mediterranean who murdered an American passenger.
1994 November 30: Caught fire off the coast of Somalia en route from Genoa to the Sychelles. The ship was abandoned without loss of life.
1994 December 2: The burnt out hulk sank.

Pictures

At the Port of Istanbul, from Ata Bilgili at the University of New Hampshire, USA.
On fire, another picture from Ata Bilgili.

Updated 1996-03-18 by Lars Bruzelius

Sjöhistoriska Samfundet | The Maritime History Virtual Archives.