Anniie Johnson III (Left), Costa Allegra (Right) Photo:Rickard Sahlsten & Peter Asklander

The headlines from several media sources (see here or here) have referred to the Costa Allegra, the cruise ship adrift in the Indian Ocean after an engine room fire, as a sister ship to the Costa Concordia.  A sister ship is generally defined as a “a ship of the same class as, or of virtually identical design to, another ship.”  To their credit, several newspapers have changed their headlines, no doubt after fact checkers pointed out that the two cruise ships are not anywhere close to being “sister ships.”  Second cousins, perhaps.

The Costa Allegra is an unusual ship.  She was built in 1969 and served for almost two decades as a container ship, the Annie Johnson III,  for Rederi AB Nordstjernan.  In 1986, she was sold to Antonis Lelakis, who planned on converting her to a cruise ship for Regency Cruises.  These plans fell through and she was passed between different owners until acquired by Costa in 1990.  Costa converted the ship at the T. Mariotti shipyard in Genoa, Italy. She entered service as Costa Allegra in 1992.

The Costa Allegra does have a near sister ship, the MS Harmony Princess (ex-Costa Marina,) which was originally the container ship Axel Johnson, a sister ship to the Annie Johnson III.  The Costa Marina was converted two years prior to the Costa Allegra and is roughly 20 meters shorter. The Costa Marina was sold in November 2011 to Polaris Shipping and operated by Harmony Cruise.  The Costa Allegra was rumored to be for sale during 2012.