MS Dunnottar Castle

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The ship as The Victoria in 1985
History
Name	Dunnottar Castle (1936–58) Victoria (1958–75) The Victoria (1976–93) Princesa Victoria (1993–2004)
Namesake	Dunnottar Castle (1946–58)
Owner	Union-Castle Mail SS Co Ltd (1936–58)
Operator	Union-Castle Line (1936–39, 1942–58) Royal Navy (1939–42) Incres SS Co (1958–64) Clipper Line (1964–75) Chandris Lines (1975–93) Louis Cruise Lines (1993–2004)
Port of registry	London (1936–58)
Route	Tilbury – South Africa (1936–39, 1948–58)
Builder	Harland and Wolff
Yard number	959
Laid down	1935
Launched	25 January 1936
Completed	27 June 1936
Maiden voyage	July 1936
Out of service	2004
Identification	UK official number 164637 (from 1936) Call sign GYVM (from 1936) IMO number: 5379717 (from 1969)
Fate	Scrapped at Kumar Steel Breakers Yard in India, 2004
General characteristics
Tonnage	as built: 15,007 GRT tonnage under deck 11,585 9,181 NRT
Length	540.0 ft (164.6 m)
Beam	71.9 ft (21.9 m)
Draught	28 ft 2 in (8.59 m)
Depth	37.8 ft (11.5 m)
Decks	3
Installed power	1,931 NHP
Propulsion	twin screw, built with Burmeister & Wain 2-stroke diesel engines, replaced in 1959 with Fiat diesel engines
Speed	16 knots (30 km/h) as built, later 18 knots (33 km/h)
Capacity	285 first class, 250 tourist class as built, 696 single-class at the time of scrapping
Crew	250 as built
Sensors and processing systems	direction finding equipment; echo sounding equipment; submarine signalling equipment
Armament	as AMC: BL 6 inch Mk XII naval guns QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns
Notes	sister ship: Dunvegan Castle

MS Dunnottar Castle was a British-built passenger ship with a career of more than six decades that included periods as an ocean liner, an armed merchant cruiser (AMC), a troop ship and several decades as a cruise ship. As a cruise ship she was renamed Victoria, then The Victoria and finally Princesa Victoria.

Harland and Wolff built Dunnottar Castle and her sister ship Dunvegan Castle in Belfast in 1936. Union-Castle Line operated Dunnottar Castle on scheduled services between Tilbury and South Africa until 1939, when the Admiralty requisitioned her and commissioned her as HMS Dunnottar Castle. From 1949 to 1958 she served again on Union-Castle's liner route between Britain and South Africa.

The ship's long career in cruising began in 1958 in the ownership of the Incres Steamship Company, who had her extensively remodelled and renamed her Victoria. Clipper Line bought her in 1964 and sold her in 1975 to Chandris Lines, who modified her name to The Victoria. In 1993 Louis Cruise Lines bought her and renamed her Princesa Victoria.

The ship was laid up from 2002 and scrapped in India in 2004.