Enrico Costa.jpg


In our new book Great Mediterranean Passenger Liners, Italy's Costa Line occupies a prominent position. In the Eighties, Costa had the largest cruise fleet in the world, but mostly second-hand, largely rebuilt and modernized ships.


One of these was the 17,000-ton Enrico Costa, built in 1950 but for the French as the Provence and for the Marseilles-South America service.

I well remember when she came to New York in the summer of 1962 under charter to Caribbean Cruise Lines. She ran a season of 7-night New York-Bermuda-Nassau cruises, which were quite attractively priced for the time: $175 and up.