Sailing south from Iloilo to Zamboanga the ships have the tendency to sail direct south until they near the Zamboanga coast and then veer Southwest and from there Zamboanga is just a handful of nautical miles away. But on this day 16 years ago a Sulpicio Lines liner failed to reach Zamboanga because nearing the part of Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte that juts into the sea which is called Dulungin Point fire suddenly engulfed the ship. With fast rescue and being near land none of the passengers and crew perished but the ship was declared to be BER or Beyond Economical Repair and thus ended the life and career of one of the biggest and fastest liners to sail the Philippine seas.
The said ill-fated ferry was the Princess of the World of Sulpicio Lines Inc. which came to our country in 1996. The ship was the former Marimo of the Kinkai Yusen Kaisha (KYK) of Japan and she was built by Naikai Zosen in its yard in Setoda, Japan in 1972 and possessing the permanent ID number IMO 7127194. This ferry was a ROPAX (RORO-Passenger Ship) with the external measurements of 166.0 meters in Length Over-al (LOA), a Length Between Perpendiculars (LPP) of 155.0 meters and a Breadth of 24.1 meters. Her cubic volume was 9,235 tons in Gross Register Tonnage (GRT) with a Deadweight Tonnage of 3,611 tons which is the carrying capacity. Powered by twin NKK-Pielstick engines with a total of 18,800 horsepower, her top speed in Japan was 21 knots.
In 1995 prior to selling Marimo passed on to the Rio Grande Shipping Overseas Corp. S.A. of Panama retaining the same name. From there she passed on to Sulpicio Lines which was then in an expansion spree to counter the formation of the giant shipping company William, Gothong and Aboitiz Inc. (WG&A) which was a merger of three liner companies (with its formation Sulpicio Lines lost the title of βbiggest shipping company of the Philippinesβ). Initially, Princess of the World took over the route of Cotabato Princess which was Manila-Iloilo-Cotabato. Sulpicio Lines then needed to counter the 20-knot liners of WG&A to Zamboanga which was a lucrative and prestigious route. And so the Princess of the World was made to run at 20 knots although on paper her power relative to her size and her age might indicate a 20-knot speed could stress her engines
There were only a few additions to the superstructure of Marimo in her conversion to the Princess of the World and it was mainly the completion or extension of her upper deck. So she remained a two-passenger-deck ship but part of the structure on the navigation deck for the was also converted to passenger use. But still her passenger capacity did not reach 2,000 persons and hence among big liners then she was one of the lowest in passenger capacity. She had beautiful interiors and accommodations as she retained many of her features in Japan. Only her open-air Economy accommodation was the completely new addition in the country. With additions to the superstructure her Gross Tonnage (GT), the new cubic measure rose to 10,709 tons.
The Princess of the World was one of the only few ships in the Sulpicio Lines fleet (after M/V Princess of the Universe) that has an onboard Basketball/Volleyball Court on its topmost deck together with a Children’s Playground near the vessel’s funnel area. The vessel has 3 main dining lounges: Windows First Class Lounge exclusive for the Royal Suite, Suite, Cabins and other high end accommodations, La Mesa Dining Saloon for the Tourist, Tourist Deluxe and other mid-end accommodations, while the Autumn Dining Saloon for those in the Economy and other regular accommodations found onboard the vessel. The vessel also features a Disco Bar Area, Gym, Gift Shop and Salon and Beauty Center onboard the ship. During its heyday, Sulpicio Lines has positioned to have Conference Rooms onboard its vessels for it to be able to cater business meetings at the same time enjoying a cruise-like experience in the sea.
However, a few years after her fielding engine trouble began to bug her with one engine only running with the second one cutting later and then she would run at only about 16.5 knots which is not surprising because the Manila Bay 1 of Carlos A. Gothong Lines Inc. (CAGLI) which was about the same size as her but with 20,000 horsepower with not so much metal added too ran only at 18 knots maximum. If only one engine was running she could barely make way with 10 knots. With this kind of reliability Sulpicio ships going to Zamboanga always changed except the Princess of the Pacific that went to Dadiangas (General Santos City).
That was the reason why sometimes the Princess of the Caribbean or the Princess of the Ocean was on her route aside from the Cotabato Princess and she can also be seen in Cebu because of the rigmarole, the reason I cannot fix her in one route. But then the Princess of the Pacific grounded on Nonas Island off Antique and so she replaced that ship on the Dadiangas route. This ship was headed there when she had that mishap.
It was on Tuesday, July 07 2005 while she was on its way to Zamboanga Port from the Iloilo, when the vessel encountered a tragic fire incident off the Dulungin Point near the town of Siocon in Zamboanga del Norte. The vessel caught fire at around 12:30 PM noon time. The vessel was carrying 109 crew members, 108 passengers and five anti-terrorist sea marshals. The fire engulfed the vessel’s passenger accommodation areas including the vessel’s navigational bridge. Luckily, all of the 200 plus passengers and crew members onboard were rescued and none of them died in that tragic fire incident.
After the accident, the Princess of the World was towed near Varadero de Recodo in Zamboanga City. She was never repaired where she was declared to be beyond economic repair (BER) and later the Dadiangas route was given to the newly-arrived Princess of the South which like her did not have many alterations to increase passenger capacity. By that time the bottom fell already for liner ridership with the advent of the budget airlines and the intermodal buses and trucks.
That ends the story of one of the well-loved Sulpicio Lines vessel that served the Southern Mindanao route – M/V Princess of the World.
Philippine Ship Spotters Society 
I was one of the crew that time princess of the world caught fire…uve done your research well just a little correction.la mesa dining is for tourist and tourist deluxe and automn for economy passengers..
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We love you. Thank you so much for remembering our first ship together for us.
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