Swan Hellenic is a British boutique adventure cruise line specialising in taking guests to the furthest reaches of the world, for jaw-dropping experiences that are completely unlike those offered on any other cruise. CEO Andrea Zito spoke with Imogen Ward about how Swan Hellenic’s vessels are making the world a better place with every guest journey. Article by Richard Hagan.
Swan Hellenic offers guests the unique opportunity to travel by sea to some of the world’s most remote, awe-inspiring culturally-diverse locations, whilst simultaneously allowing guests to contribute legitimately useful citizen science to the world’s scientific databases. And of course, all this while ensconced in comfortable luxury.
The company delivers these experiences via its fleet of three custom-built polar-classed vessels: SH Vega, SH Minerva and SH Diana.
All three ships were built by Helsinki Shipyard (Hietalahti) in Finland, where building the world’s best icebreakers is basically a national sport. Collectively, Finnish shipyards have built approximately 60% of the world’s icebreakers, while Finnish designers have designed about 80% of the global icebreaker fleet. It is the ideal place to have bespoke ice-class vessels built.
It is also a fittingly illustrious starting point for the latest episode in this storied cruise line’s own journey.
A swan song revived
Established in the 1950s as Swan Tours in Britain, the company pioneered cultural expedition cruising by taking travellers to historic and archaeological sites, accompanied by expert guest lecturers. The success of Swan Tours over the decades eventually led to its acquisition by several other parties and even its temporary shutdown, until the brand was bought and re-launched in 2019 by current CEO Andrea Zito and his team.
Right from the start, Mr Zito was clear on the new company’s vision: “Our idea was to offer an experience that gives our guests a deep understanding of the destination, with a particular focus on the cultural aspects of the location.”
The company’s cruise philosophy centres on what it calls its four main pillars. These are the living world (flora, fauna, marine biology etc), the non-living world (geology, meteorology, vulcanology, oceanography, etc), humans in the present, and human history (for example, the study of archaeology, human migration and evolution).
Keeping those pillars in mind, Swan Hellenic’s cruise 2026/7 season itinerary takes in a number of the world’s most epic and interesting locations for the study of those four pillars, ranging from more well-known hubs (like Europe), to more exotic ones including Antarctica, the Arctic and Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and even Latin America.
Ice-capable fleet
To ensure its guests are able to cross oceans to reach these destinations safely and comfortably, Swan Hellenic’s three ships are all engineered and manufactured to the highest global standards including the safe return to port notation, implying fully separated and redundant generators and propulsion rooms. The fleet, which are all sister ships, is very similar. SH Vega and SH Minerva are both 113.5m long (372ft) with a breadth of 24.3m (79.7ft), accommodating 152 guests, plus a staff complement of 117.
SH Diana – the newest ship of the three – is slightly longer, for a total length of 124.9m (409.7ft), while the breadth is unchanged. Diana can accommodate 192 guests plus a staff complement of 127.
All three hulls are Polar Class, meaning they are specifically designed to operate safely in icy polar regions. The International Maritime Organisation’s Polar Code is the mandatory international framework for ships operating in Arctic and Antarctic waters. It classifies ships into Polar Class (PC) categories based on the strength of their hull, structural framing and machinery to handle ice pressure.
SH Vega and Minerva are Polar Class 5 (PC5). PC5 refers to vessels that are designed for year-round operation in medium first-year ice. PC5 ships are purpose-built ice-strengthened expedition ships with the ability to safely forge through substantial ice packs. But they are designed primarily as open-water cruise vessels with serious ice capability rather than dedicated ice-clearing machines.
SH Diana, meanwhile, is PC6 perfectly suitable for standard polar summer cruising seasons.
The whole fleet is powered by Electric Propulsion Motors powered by Tier III diesel generators that deliver a service speed of twelve knots. All engines feature selective catalytic purifiers, as well as urea injection where needed to ensure a vast reduction in nitrogen oxide emissions.
Careful naval architecture and hydrodynamic testing of the fleet’s hull design ensure that the fleet enjoys an impressive 40-45% reduction in fuel consumption compared to vessels built/designed 20years ago.
In future, the fleet will be fitted with large battery banks that will allow for several hours of silent electric cruising – ideal for marine sanctuaries – as well as for emissions-free port visits. The batteries are expected to deliver a further 5% fuel saving.
Staying with the machinery, all three ships boast high-tech water treatment facilities. “Our grey and black water is treated by our advanced treatment plant, ensuring that the water we discharge back into the ocean is almost drinking water grade. The water quality exceeds the requirements of both Alaska and the Baltic Seas,” said Mr Zito.
On deck, the company has managed to almost completely eliminate single-use plastics on its fleet.
Notably, in building SH Diana, Swan Hellenic also commissioned two purpose-built 45-passenger tenders – Castor and Pollux – for use outside polar regions. They are designed to comfortably take guests ashore in destinations where port facilities are available.
“SH Diana is one of very few cruise vessels with purpose-built tenders and certainly the first with this feature amongst recent expedition ship newbuilds,” Mr Zito explained.
Citizen science on board
A particularly unique aspect of Swan Hellenic’s guest offering is that it offers its guests the opportunity to participate in various oceanic research programmes. This citizen science genuinely contributes to global ocean research data, and Swan Hellenic’s guests thoroughly enjoy it.
When the vessel encounters humpback whales, for example, guests are encouraged to photograph the whales’ flukes for submission to Happywhale, an organisation that tracks whale health and global movements based on the unique identifiers on the fluke.
While underway, guests are treated to lectures by esteemed intellectuals from various fields. And in various parts of the world, the vessels also collect water samples from remote regions around the world that it later submits to European labs.
“We are effectively participating in one big research project to monitor ocean temperatures and other meteorological data,” Mr Zito said. “We are proud that Cruising4Oceans is now a GlobalCoast pilot site supported by the UN Ocean Decade – and our passengers are very happy to participate too.”
Concluding, Mr Zito highlighted his enthusiasm for the guest experience offered by his teams: “We are very gratified by the fact that we have begun receiving a lot of returning guests. Meanwhile, we are consistently ranked at the top in the online ratings site Cruise Critic where our score is around 4.8 out of five. I’m proud of our crew, our people and our operation.”