T.S. EUGENIO C
Costa Armatori S.p.A. (Linea "C")
Genoa, Italy
Photo taken in
Istanbul, 1986.
Built: 1966 by Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico, Monfalcone, Italy. Refurbished in 1990, in December, 1994 and between September 1999 and May 2000.
Technical:
Overall length: 217.5 m Beam: 29.3 m Draft: 8.6 m Gross Tonnage: 32753 tons Passengers: 1636 Power: 2 Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico steam turbines, 40456 kW. Service Speed: 27 knots Operating Routes: She served in the
European-South American passenger trade in her first years under
Costa management, mostly
between Genova and Buenos Aires, Brasil. Later, she was used in worldwide
cruising and extensive Mediterranean cruising between 1985 and 1998 by
Costa. Under Direct Cruises, she did Mediterranean and Scandinavian
cruises out of Glasgow and Liverpool. In the beginning of 1998, she was used in gambling cruises out of New York City.
Under Premier management, she operated mostly in the Caribbean and in US and Canadian Northern Atlantic. Sister Ships: None. However, M.S. Oceanic is often considered to be a similar
ship since she was designed by the same naval architect with similar
lines. Former Names: None Later Names: T.S. Eugenio
Costa (1984),T.S. Edinburgh Castle (1996), T.S. The Big Red Boat II (2000, although her legal name is still T.S. Edinburgh Castle), T.S. Red Boat (April, 2005, for scrapping) History and Current Status: She was built for Costa
Armatori S.p.A between 1964
and 1966 to replace the aging M.S. Federico C in the European-South American route. In the
70's while still making regular crossings, Costa slowly turned her into cruising
because of the decline in the regular ocean crossing. In 1985, when the South
American route disappeared completely, T.S. Eugenio C started doing full time
cruising, mostly in the Mediterranean and Europe, but also to the Americas.
Flagship of the Costa fleet, she was one of the most luxurious liners afloat and
very succesfull. In 1984, her name was changed to T.S. Eugenio Costa, following the
trend set forth by the other Costa ships, but the Costa part did not get written
on the hull until 1987. In 1996, due to her age and mechanical problems, Costa
decided to sell her. Lowline Shipping Ltd. of United Kingdom purchased her,
renaming her T.S. Edinburgh Castle. Chartered to Direct Cruises, she was used on
European budget cruises out of England for a while. When Direct Cruises got purchased
by Airtours in 2000, the charter did not get renewed, Lowline filed for bankruptcy and
T.S. Edinburgh Castle's ownership got transferred to Cammell Laird of UK, the
parent company of Lowline. In May 2000, Premier Cruise Lines chartered her and started using her in low budgeted,
middle-class oriented cruises along the
Eastern seaboard of the United States. One good thing about this short era was
that T.S. Eugenio Costa was sailing with her half-sister, T.S. Oceanic (or The
Big Red Boat!) under the Premier management. This low-priced cruise move did not give the results
expected by Premier and they went bankrupt in September 2000. T.S. Eugenio Costa
got arrested in Halifax, Canada, for Premier's debts. After another short while
spent at the Navy
Homeport on Staten Island, NY, she got chartered out to Big Red
Boat II Ltd. to operate in cruises out of Port Canavarel, FL, but this effort
failed. She then joined the other members of the Premier fleet for lay-up at Freeport, Bahamas,
in November 2000. In December 2000, there were rumors that the Imperial
Majesty Lines were going to charter her but that never materialized either. To
summarize, she has been laid up since! Update, February, 2005: MaritimeMatters.com announced that the Big Red Boat II is being boiler retubed for
the voyage to South Asian shipbreakers as this will be more cost-efficient than towing. Her departure
from Freeport is expected in the very near future.
Update, April 18th, 2005: The Big Red Boat II is already at Gibraltar on own power, on her way to Alang scrappers.
Update, May 4th, 2005: MaritimeMatters.com announced that the Big Red Boat II will be beached at Alang in one month's time! This however
contradicts with the April 2005 report above, which stated that she was already in Gibraltar, since it would not take one month from Gibraltar to Alang!
On top of this, she is still for sale on several websites with the promise of delivery to any port in the world. what is going on here???
Update, May 21st, 2005: A website that has her still for sale announced that she passed the Suez Canal on her way to Alang.
Update, June 5th, 2005: The Big Red Boat II arrives at Alang.
(email all info about her to ata.bilgili@dartmouth.edu) Notes: The good old T.S. Eugenio C of Linea "C"!
I still remember the first time I received a postcard of her from Costa
back in 1979. I had asked them the current name of Compagnie Generale
Transatlantique's T.S. Flandre (T.S. Carla C, back then), and they had
gotten back
to me with a bunch of catalogues and postcards of the great Costa vessels
of the time (Costa had always been a great provider of free documents and
postcards back in the 70's and 80's). I had not seen T.S. Eugenio C before
in real life, so it was a great pleasure for me to find out
that this flagship with similar design parameters to T.E.S. Canberra of
P&O was
going to stop by Istanbul during the summer of 1980. I could not see her
that year, but I was able to see her many times in the mid 80's. With her
characteristic yellow funnels angled away from the decks, sleek
design and beautifully shaped bow (one of the best looking bows ever), she
was one of my all time favorite ships. No wonder she was called "The
ship of the future" back in 1966!... While she was being used extensively in the Mediterranean cruises
between 1985 and 1987, I had many opportunities to contemplate her and in
one of them, coming back from Istanbul Technical University, I was able to
take these photographs of her in Costa colors. I am happy I did! I bumped
into her in Newport, Rhode Island, in the Summer of 2000, while she was
sailing under the colors of the Premier Cruise Line, and I hated
everything that was done to her, from the pinkish red hull color
(see pictures below) to the name: The Big Red Boat II!... Such a sad name for
a classy lady like Eugenio C... What did they think she was, a bathtub toy?... Since the bankruptcy of Premier late 2000, T.S. Eugenio C has been laid up in
Freeport, Bahamas. She is offered for charter or sale as of
January 2002. Considering that she was having engine, A/C and other
fitting problems while she was operating for Premier, it looks
unlikely that she will be sold for cruising again. I hope that I am
wrong and that she will be purchasd by a cruise company like her half-sister,
T.S. Oceanic, that returned to active service on March 21st, 2001, to make
Mediterranean cruises under the management of the Pullmantur of Barcelona, Spain.
The day she will be scrapped will be sad one...
And as expected, the Eugenio C headed for scrappers in India in the
beginning of April 2005 and arrived at Alang in the beginning of June.
The "ship of the future" is now a "ship of the past"! Luckily, we have photographs and imaginations that last, as long as we last! So long, Eugenio C!
Links: Line Drawings:
- 1966-1996: Costa Armatori S.p.A., Genoa, Italy.
- 1996-September, 1999: Lowline Shipping Ltd., Amersham, UK, on charter to Direct Cruises.
- September, 1999-September, 2000: Cammell Laird (parent company of Lowline Ltd.), Merseyside, UK, chartered to Premier Cruise Line.
- September, 2000-April, 2005: Laid-up in Halifax, Canada, then Freeport, Bahamas, awaiting sale/charter under the management of the
International Shipping Partners, (USA, UK and Denmark)
-April, 2005: Sold for scrap to Indian shipbreakers at Alang.
- T.S. Eugenio C postcards from Simplon Postcards.
- Navi' D'Italia's T.S. Eugenio C page.
- Philippe Brebant's T.S.
Eugenio Costa photo.
- Shipphotos.co.uk's T.S. Edinburgh Castle.
- Frederick Bartoli's T.S. Edinburgh Castle.
- Cruiseserver.net's Premier Cruises and T.S. The Big
Red Boat II information page.
- Vintageliners' T.S. The Big Red Boat II page.
- A Sealetter.com article: "Remembering Premier Cruise Line, by Lisa Plotnick.
- International Shipping Partner's T.S. The Big Red Boat II sale/charter assistance
page.
- Costa Armatori S.p.A. (Costa Cruises).
From Associazione Navimodellisti
Bolognesi. 
From a Direct Cruises catalogue.
Other Pictures:
