| Gross tonnage | 12,100 GT |
|---|---|
| Length | 125 m |
| Beam | 23 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 192 |
| Passenger capacity (max) | 276 |
| Crew | 141 |
| Service speed | 14.5 knots |
| Builder | Helsinki Shipyard |
| Yard | Helsinki |
| Launched | 2023 |
| Maiden voyage | 2023-04-15 |
| Class | Vega-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Swan Hellenic |
| Status | Active |
Overview
SH Diana is the third and largest of the expedition ships built at Helsinki for the revived Swan Hellenic, and the ship whose existence was most in doubt. Ordered in October 2020 as one of the very few cruise-ship orders placed during the pandemic, she was being built under a leasing structure that collapsed when sanctions were imposed on the Russian-owned leasing company behind it. The unfinished ship was put out to tender by the yard, and Swan Hellenic bought her at auction in December 2022 — securing, by an improbable route, the flagship it had ordered.
She entered service in April 2023 as a 12,100 GT ship for 192 guests: a cultural expedition ship, in Swan Hellenic's phrase, intended to combine polar capability with the line's older tradition of expert-led, educational cruising. The dataset records no IMO number for her; none was confirmed in the sources used by the dataset builders, so the spec box omits it.
Key specifications
The dataset gives her as 12,100 GT, 125 m long and 23 m in beam, with 192 guests in double occupancy, a crew of 141 and a speed of 14.5 knots. Contemporary delivery reporting rounds her to 12,145 gross tons and 410 feet, and gives a crew of 140 or 141 depending on the source — the dataset figure is used here.
The comparison with her sisters is the point. SH Minerva and SH Vega are about 10,617 GT for 152 guests. Diana is a stretched, enlarged development of the same concept — more guests, and the first of the three fitted with large tender boats alongside expedition Zodiacs. She has 96 staterooms for her 192 guests.
Her polar rating also differs. Where the first two ships are Polar Class 5, Diana was reported as a PC 6 vessel.
Design and construction
All three Helsinki ships were built to a common engineering concept, developed to give a small expedition ship a worldwide operating programme. Diana's plant is a diesel-electric/hybrid installation of about 4.6 MW, with four Wärtsilä medium-speed engines, selective catalytic reduction, and a battery pack of about 3 MW intended to allow quiet, low-emission running. She was built with exhaust-gas cleaning, advanced wastewater treatment and water purification, and waste storage sized for operation in sensitive polar areas; contemporary reporting credited her with autonomy of about 40 days or 8,000 nautical miles.
Interiors, by the standards of expedition tonnage, lean towards the yacht: Scandinavian in palette, with wood and neutral tones, cabins and crew areas supplied by ALMACO, whose work on her was finished during her delivery voyage south.
Construction began under the original October 2020 order. When the leasing company GTLK Europe could not take delivery, Helsinki Shipyard ran a tender, reported several enquiries, and awarded the ship to Swan Hellenic in December 2022 on terms for completion and delivery in March 2023. She was floated out on 23 January 2023 and delivered on 31 March 2023.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
The SH prefix is Swan Hellenic's house style for its new fleet — SH Minerva, SH Vega, SH Diana — a series of classical names that echoes the line's educational origins. Diana follows Minerva and Vega as the third.
She left Helsinki on 1 April 2023, transited the Kiel Canal and sailed for the Mediterranean, with cabin finishing completed en route. Her maiden cruise began at Palermo in mid-April 2023 — the dataset gives 15 April 2023 as her maiden voyage — a cultural expedition voyage through North African and Iberian waters, after which she worked north along Europe's Atlantic coast. Her christening came afterwards, in Amsterdam on 4 May 2023, by her godmother, the travel industry executive Valerie Wilson.
Career by operator
She has carried one name for one operator, though her ownership history is more complicated than the table suggests.
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2023–present | SH Diana | Swan Hellenic |
The complication is behind the scenes: she was ordered for Swan Hellenic operation under a charter from a leasing owner, and became Swan Hellenic's own ship only when the line bought the unfinished hull at the yard's auction in December 2022. Her operating career itself has been unbroken since April 2023, and as the largest ship in a three-ship fleet she is the line's flagship.
Onboard character
Diana's character is that of a small, quiet, expert-led ship rather than a resort. Ninety-six staterooms, a high crew ratio — 141 crew for 192 guests — and public rooms scaled to lectures, briefings and dining rather than to shows. Contemporary accounts of her first season emphasised how much she feels like a yacht: warm wood, neutral colours, generous sockets and storage in cabins designed for long expedition voyages, and observation space prioritised over entertainment space.
Technically, her character is defined by the ability to operate silently or near-silently in sensitive places — battery running in port or in a marine reserve was an explicit design goal — and by the mix of large tenders and Zodiacs, which lets the same ship run a cultural port call and a polar landing on one voyage.
Major refits and incidents
No refit is recorded; she is a new ship. The major event of her career so far is commercial rather than nautical: the failure of the original leasing structure, the yard's tender for the unfinished ship, and her purchase by Swan Hellenic in December 2022. Had that tender gone elsewhere, she would have entered service under another name for another operator, and this page would be about a different ship.
No casualty, fire or grounding is recorded in the sources used for this guide.
Sister ships and class
The dataset records her class as Vega-class, the Helsinki Shipyard series built for Swan Hellenic. Her sisters are SH Minerva, delivered in December 2021, and SH Vega, delivered in July 2022, both of about 10,617 GT and 152 guests. Diana is an enlarged third member of the series rather than a true identical sister — longer, heavier and with a third more guests — and contemporary reporting on the series treats the three as one family with the third ship scaled up.
Fate and where she is now
SH Diana is in active service with Swan Hellenic, recorded in the dataset as status active and fate "Operating". She is the largest ship in the revived line's fleet. Her delivery also closed a chapter for her builder: she was the last cruise ship on Helsinki Shipyard's order book, and the yard's future after her handover was reported as lying in repair work and luxury yachts.
Sources: https://allthingscruise.com/swan-hellenic-announces-sh-diana-floated-out-of-dry-dock-and-on-schedule-for-spring-maiden-season/, https://www.marinelink.com/amp/news/helsinki-shipyard-delivers-third-504168