Costa Marina / Costa Allegra
Costa Marina and Costa Allegra are part of a class of five containerships. They were built for the Johnson Line of Sweden around 1970. Axel Johnson, the later Costa Marina, was the first one that was launched, on the 16th of january 1969. She was followed by Annie Johnson, the later Costa Allegra that was launched on the 29th of april of the same year. A thirth ship was launched the same year under the name Margaret Johnson. In 1970, San Fransisco was launched followed by Antonia Johnson in 1971.
The history of the Johnson Line started in 1890 when a company named AB Nordstjernan was founded by Axel Johnson. In this year he bought his first ship, the former HAPAG-ship Cyklop. He renamed this ship after his wife, Annie Therese. A year later, he had a ship built named after himself, Axel Johnson. In 1904, the company opened a route to South America and this route was named Johnson Line. The company grew fast within the first decades of the twentieth century, opening several route's to the Pacific and South and North America. There was no real naming strategy, although the Johnson Line ships were named after family members of the Johnon family. Throughout the years, the company bought their own shipyard and they were involved in the steel industry. In the late 1940's, a route to the Far East was also opened and AB Nordstjernan became one of the largest shipowning companies of Scandinavia. In 1966, Johnson Line ordered their first containerships from Wärtsilä in Finland and those were to become the Axel Johnson-class. In 1982, Johnson Line merged with Svea Line, also member of AB Nordstjernan and became part of the Silja Line. In 1990 Johnson Line merged with another Silja Line company, Effoa and formed Effjohn. So, in 1990 Johnson Line ceased as an independent company.
The ships of the Axel Johnson-class were around 16.000 tons and had a lenght of around 175 meters. They had room for 4 passengers. Of course, they looked very different from the cruiseships they would become later.
In 1986, three of the Johnson Line class were sold to be rebuilt as cruiseliners for the Regency Cruise Line that was formed in 1984. Axel Johnson was to become Regent Sun, Annie Johnson was to become Regent Moon and Margaret Johnson was to become Regent Sky. Non of these ships ever entered Regency's fleet although rebuilding began on the first two ships. Margaret Johnson's was not rebuilt, and her main engines, auxiliary engines, control room and gear were rebuilt in Regent Star, the former Holland America liner Statendam. The rest of the ship was scrapped.
Rebuilding started first on Axel Johnson on the Mariotti-wharf in Genoa, Italy. The ship was eventually sold in 1988 to Costa Cruises and when she re-entered service in july 1990 she bore the name Costa Marina. She was the first ship for Costa that had he name started with Costa as prefix, former ships of this Italian company were always named after family members of the Costa family, like the Johnson Line had also done. She emerged some centimeters shorter then before, her tonnage was increased to 25.441 and she had space on board for 1025 passengers. As seen above, the former containership emerged as a nice looking cruiseliner, still a little boxy in some ways but quite nice rebuilding was done to her. Her funnel is easily recognizable because it consists out of three funnels in one, a Costa Cruises feature on all of the ships of that time. Also, her name was not spelled entirely in capital letters, also something Costa did not do because the ships bore the names of the Costa family. Later ships of the line did not have this anymore so Costa Marina is the last ship named in this former tradition.
Her sister Annie Johnson was rebuilt too, only her rebuilding started later and she emerged as Costa Allegra sailing her first cruise on the 23th of november 1992 from Genoa to Saint-Thomas. Her intended name was Costa Azzura, but this was later altered. This ship is, with 187,69 meters, a little longer and larger then Costa Marina, but both of them look pretty much the same and have the same things to offer for their passengers. Both ships sailed worldwide cruises, mostly Caribbean in winter and European in summer.
When Costa Cruises built more and more larger cruiseships, these rather small but very popular ships were used for several specific markets between 2002 and 2006. They were both used in the German market and also in the Asian market, sailing around Thailand and China. From 2006 onwards, the ships again started sailing worldwide cruises. Recently, Costa Allegra was chartered to TMR of France who re-opened the Croisères Paquet name (also known as Paquet Cruises) from the 7th of may 2010 onwards. For this purpose, the ship is renamed Allegra. Costa Marina remaines in the Costa fleet for now, being a unique small ship in the fleet of modern megaliners.
Picture 1 shows Costa Marina near Spaarnwoude on the Northsea Channel in Holland in 2008.
Picture 2 shows Costa Allegra near Buitenhuizen, a little more eastwards at the same channel in 2004.
