RMS Sylvania was an ocean liner built in 1957 by John Brown & Company, in Glasgow, Scotland for Cunard.

[3][6] The new ships reflected the economics and travel patterns of the post-war world—they were not built exclusively as passenger liners, but also included cargo-carrying facilities.

The outer dimensions of the ships were defined by the Saint Lawrence Seaway, as they had to be able to navigate from the Atlantic Ocean up to Montreal.

In keeping with the then-current Sitmar Line livery, Fairwind had a buff funnel with a large V (for Vlasov) painted on it.

Despite the dominance of the tourist class, her interiors were built to the elegant standards maintained by Cunard on their previous ships.

[6] The public spaces were also altered radically in the 1970–71 refit, with three swimming pools added to the rear decks,[2] and the accommodations brought up to the high standards expected by the North American cruise passengers.

On 26 June 1957 she joined her sisters on their northern hemisphere summer service from Liverpool to Montreal via Greenock and Québec.

[3] At some point during her career with Cunard, Sylvania also served on the Rotterdam—Southampton—Le Havre—Québec—Montreal route[2] and winter crossings between Liverpool and Halifax via Greenock.

[2][3] On 15 June 1967, she was on a regular run from Montreal to Southampton when she ran aground on a shoal in the St. Lawrence River roughly 10 nautical miles (19 km; 12 mi) from Trois-Rivières, Quebec.

[11][12] Due to heavy losses Cunard withdrew Sylvania and her sister ship Carinthia from service in December 1967.

[1][3][8] The sisters were re-registered to Liberia and renamed Fairwind and Fairland, respectively, with the intention of converting them into immigrant liners for the service from Europe to Australia and New Zealand.

[13] Having failed to keep the immigrant subsidiaries, Sitmar decided to convert their recently acquired ships for cruise service instead.

Following an impact with a sandbar during an Amazon cruise in 1988, Fairwind sailed through the Panama Canal en route to Los Angeles.

[1][2][7] Dawn Princess was renamed Albatros after the sale to V-Ships and she was chartered to Phoenix Reisen, a German cruise operator and travel company, initially for five years from 27 March 1993 onwards.

[1] On 16 May 1997 Albatros, carrying 800 people, hit Bartholomew's Ledge, St Mary's Sound, Isles of Scilly.

[1] In November 2003 Albatros suffered severe machinery problems, hence Phoenix Reisen decided to terminate her charter contract, while V-Ships concluded that the price of repairing the 46-year-old ship would be too high.