P&O Cruises have announced the name to be given to their new ship, due to be delivered in spring 2015, as Britannia. Although this may have better suited a Cunard ship, this will not be the first Britannia to fly the P&O house flag, as a ship of that name was delivered by Cairds of Greenock in 1887.
At just 6,000 tons and carrying fewer than 400 passengers, the earlier Britannia would have been dwarfed by the new ship, currently under construction by Fincantieri in Italy, which will have lower berths for 3,600 passengers and a gross tonnage of 141,000. As a near sister to the recently delivered Royal Princess, she will have her interior design tailored for her employment in the British cruise market, and will reintroduce the forward facing Crows Nest, lacking on the other recent ships.
She is also expected to have significantly more single cabins than any of her fleet mates.
