Description

MS STOCKHOLM PASSENGER SHIP

FULLY BUILT AND READY TO DISPLAY MUSEUM QUALITY SHIP MODEL

Open die cut side hull windows, NOT painted like those built by most other companies.
Dimension Approx.: 32″L x 5.75″W x 15″H
The model is already built, NOT a model ship kit

The ship that would one day be known as Astoria began her life as the MS Stockholm, launched in Gothenburg on 9 September 1946 for the Swedish American Line. At just 525 feet and 12,165 gross tons, she was the smallest liner on the North Atlantic run — but the largest passenger ship ever built in Sweden, fitted with the country’s most powerful diesel engines. Designed by Eric Christiansson, she carried 395 passengers and made her maiden voyage to New York in February 1948.

For several years she crossed the Atlantic, later taking on warm‑weather cruises as her small size made winter crossings difficult. But everything changed on 25 July 1956, when Stockholm collided with the Italian liner Andrea Doria in heavy fog off Nantucket. The impact crushed her bow, killed five crew members, and fatally damaged Andrea Doria. As the document notes, “the crippled Stockholm helped in the rescue and ended up carrying 327 passengers and 245 crew members from Andrea Doria.” She limped into New York two days later, her bow rebuilt soon after.

In 1960, she was sold to East Germany and renamed Völkerfreundschaft, sailing from Rostock to communist‑aligned ports. She crossed the U.S. blockade during the Cuban Missile Crisis, appeared in an East German disaster film, and survived several Cold War maritime incidents — including collisions with a West German submarine chaser in 1968 and submarine U‑26 in 1983.

Sold again in the mid‑1980s, she briefly served as the Norwegian barracks ship Fridtjof Nansen before being purchased by Star Lauro Lines. Towed to Genoa in 1993, she underwent a massive rebuild into a modern cruise ship. Though transformed, her original bow, anchor, and signature portholes remained recognizable. She reentered service as Italia I, later Italia Prima, Valtur Prima, and Caribe.

In 2005, she became Athena, surviving two Atlantic hurricanes and a 2008 pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden. After further ownership changes, she was renamed Azores in 2013 and then Astoria in 2016 under Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV). She became the last surviving ship of the Swedish American Line still afloat.

The COVID‑19 pandemic ended her cruising career. CMV collapsed, crew members staged a hunger strike over unpaid wages, and the ship was arrested in the UK before being laid up in Rotterdam from late 2020 onward. After years of failed sales and storm damage, she was finally auctioned in June 2025 and sold for scrap.

On 4 July 2025