A Da Vinci Lost

There was a time when the 33,000-ton passenger liner Leonardo da Vinci was one of the Italian Line's gems. Last week, after the ship had sat idle for two years in the port of La Spezia, fire broke out on board; when the flames were doused four days later, the Leonardo had leaned over on its starboard side and settled in 40 ft. of water in the port's main channel.

Withdrawn from transatlantic service in 1975 because of huge deficits, the Leonardo was decommissioned in 1978. At one point there had been hope that the vessel, with accommodations for 1,326 passengers, could be converted into a floating hotel. Its sister ships, the Raffello and the Michelangelo, were purchased by Iran before the 1979 revolution for $18 million each, and are now used as floating barracks. The Leonardo's estimated scrap value: a little more than $1 million.

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