the beautiful portuguese liner "INFANTE DOM HENRIQUE"

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"INFANTE DOM HENRIQUE" was built for the Portuguese COMPANHIA COLONIAL NAVEGACAO in 1961 by Belgium shipyards COCKERILL, she left for her maiden voyage on the 21st September 1961, she was operated by CCN on the Lisbon to Angola, South Africa and Mozambique route, she was as built 23145 GRT and had a cruising speed of 20 to 21 knots propelled by steam turbines. After the Portuguese former colonies were granted independence and of course the advent of the jumbo jet, the ship was laid up in Lisbon in 1976 and she remained there until 1977 when she left for Sines in Southern Portugal to serve as an Hotel Accommodation, this was really a period of exile for the ship as the real goals where never achieved and she was kept in a poor  state been completely negleted, I visited the ship a few times when she was there, one of them in 1985 with Luis Miguel Correia who is responsible for the last picture, INFANTE was bought in 1986 by George Potamianos and was to be converted into a cruise ship and become the "VASCO DA GAMA"

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