A cruise on the Symphony

The Maiden Arrival of the Symphony.
12-03-95 to 14-03-95. Durban-Durban

The loss of the Achille Lauro in 1994, left a sizable gap in the cruising market in South Africa. Fortunately, local agent Starlight Cruises and StarLauro were quick to fill this gap. The ship chosen was the SYMPHONY, more recently known as the Enrico Costa. Strangely enough, the Amerikanis, which was booked to do cruises in our waters, could have filled this gap but had been withdrawn by Chandris.

The Symphony was originally built for Societe Generale de Transports Maritimes a Vapeur S.A. as the Provence, by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, England. Intended for the South American service, she was completed in March 1951. Her principle dimensions were: length 579ft. beam 73ft. draught 25,43ft. She was powered by Parsons steam turbines, single reduction geared to drive twin screws, developing 15000 s.h.p. giving a cruising speed of 18 Knots.

She undertook her first voyage for Costa Cruises under charter on April 5, 1957. Finally purchased by Costa in 1965 and refitted, her accommodation being altered to provide 218 1st class, and 980 tourist class berths, her name was changed by Costa to Enrico C. In 1972 she was again refitted to cater for 750 single class passengers in 373 cabins, she was based in the Mediterranean and operated under the name Enrico Costa with a revised GRT of 16 495 tons.

Ironically the Enrico was scheduled to visit South Africa in the early 1990's as competition for the Achille, however the holding company, Tollgate Holdings collapsed following massive fraud by its management. This resulted in the cancellation of the ship and smiles all around for Starlight Cruises.

The ship was recently acquired by StarLauro and was not totally prepared for the coming season with a scratch crew and portions of the ship unpainted.

Obviously her refit was not 100% completed and she was rushed to South Africa. She had been re-engined in 1989/1990 and passed all safety inspections in South Africa and Europe. The inspections in South Africa being particularly stringent as a result of remarks made by irresponsible "shipping historians" in South Africa.

Symphony

Rudi, Eric and myself made the 5 hour, 570 kilo trip to Durban on the evening of 27 December to see the vessel. Due to bad weather the ship was 3,5 hours late arriving. She eventually made her appearence, listing to starboard and with clouds of black smoke erupting from her funnel. First impressions are of a classic old lady with beautiful lines and promising decks. Once on board however, chaos reigned. Passengers were not yet disembarked due to problems with a stowaway. Cabins were not yet made up and crew were all over cleaning and making the ship ready for the soon to embark passengers. We had caught them unprepared! As preferred we had no guided tour, so we commenced from the lower deck, working our way upwards. We were in for a surprise on this ship, her lower deck inside berths were really claustrophobic, with very low deckheads and a plethora of passages. There was a definite shortage of maps below deck and it was very difficult to find your way around. The lowest three passenger decks; Capri, Bordighera and Amalfi are given over to cabins while the upper and promenade deck have the restaurant, and "taverna" respectively. A narrow promenade deck runs around the vessel, giving access to the very busy foredeck. The Lounge deck has the balance of public rooms and two pools aft while the sun deck has another pool and a lido area where a buffet would be served.

There is no denying that the Symphony is an old ship, she has that solid feel about her and there is still a lot of woodwork present in her public rooms. I get the impression that she was left to decline somewhat in her latter years and not enough time has elapsed for her new owners to really make something out of her.

Sailing was delayed by two hours, causing the light to fail and the passengers to get more impatient, after all they had been waiting for a long time to get on board. Eventually, after 17H30 she singled up and with much fanfare and blowing of horns pulled out into the harbour and sailed out of the channel. The reason for our being there was gone, so we left too!

Lots of unfair criticism was leveled at the ship before she had a chance to arrive, true, she is an old ship, yes she is not the QE2. However the Titanic was a new ship, and the QE2 has some real plumbing problems. I can only wish Symphony all the best for the future. Personally I would not like to do a long cruise on her in a lower deck cabin, it would be too uncomfortable! however her lovely open decks and cool promenades make her the ideal ship for our warm climate. Her size will help her in rough weather and if she can make a success of what has so far been a disastrous season she can only go from strength to strength.

The Symphony will only be doing one season in our waters and will be replaced by StarLauro's newest acquisition. It was announced that the Cunard Princess had been purchased and will be replacing the Achille Lauro, operating under the new name of Rhapsody. Unfortunately this "upmarket" ship may force the prices upwards, taking cruising out of reach to all but those who can afford it.