Brush Up on Your History Before You Sail Off : Cruises: It helps to know something about the age and history of the ship before you plunk your money down. Brochures can be misleading.

But two key questions remain unanswered: How old is your ship? And should that worry you?

An old cruise ship doesn't necessarily mean that the ship is a floating firetrap, or a rust bucket on the verge of submerging.

Still, it's important to know at least \o7 some\f7 of the history surrounding the ship you're about to board. The bottom line is that as a passenger, it's not only nice to know where your ship has been and how old it is, but that information can also be important in helping you decide which cruise to take.

Some cruise line brochures and advertisements have been guilty of using misleading words to sell their cruise ships. For example, a few years back, one Greek cruise line advertised sailings on the South American Riviera aboard their "new" ship, the Pegasus.

The ship was hardly new. In fact, it had already sunk once before--as the Sundancer, on June 29, 1984, near Vancouver, Canada. It was then resold to Epirotiki Lines in Athens, refloated and towed south out of Canada, through the Panama Canal and across the stormy winter swells of the North Atlantic--a slow journey that ended 52 days later in Piraeus, Greece. The ship was fixed, then advertised as the "new" Pegasus.

In 1985, when the Italian liner Achille Lauro was hijacked by terrorists in the eastern Mediterranean, most of the press described the vessel as a "luxury cruise ship."

But the ship was already 50 years old when the hijacking occurred, and it had a history of severe problems. The ship had suffered a number of fires and at-sea collisions. (Its sister ship, the Angelina Lauro, caught fire and sank in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1974.)

In 1982, the ship's parent company declared bankruptcy. The ship itself was seized after Italian government authorities determined there had been "irregularities" in its casino operations. The Achille Lauro was later sold to Chandris lines and used for inexpensive Mediterranean sailings at the time of the hijacking.

Part of understanding a cruise ship's history is looking at the number--and type--of owners who have sailed her.

In fact, with few exceptions, most cruise ships older than 10 years have probably been owned at least twice.

Functionally, older ships are potentially more troublesome. Plumbing is a major headache on older ships, followed by electrical problems. Maintenance costs are, not surprisingly, higher, which can mean--in some cases--that certain maintenance items are deferred because of the expense.

Some important questions to ask: Is the ship you're booked on a ship that was built by the line that operates it? If so, chances are that the crew has been thoroughly trained on its equipment--and the engineering staff probably wrote the manuals.

If it wasn't, how many years has the ship sailed with this line? If the answer is less than three years, you're dealing with a crew that is still getting to know an older ship.

Interestingly, Carnival Cruise Lines, now the largest cruise line in the world, began with an older ship. In 1972, the company bought its first vessel, the Empress of Canada.

On its maiden voyage, the ship ran aground. After an extensive refit (and subsequent renovations in recent years), the ship sailed again. It's called the Mardi Gras, and still sails with Carnival.

In 1975, Carnival bought the Empress of Britain (now called the Carnivale). And in 1977, the company purchased a ship called the S.A. Vaal, a liner that had been sailing between England and South Africa, and renamed her the Festivale. Since then, Carnival has built all of its own ships.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has built its ships to specifications particular to the markets and cruise areas on its itineraries. RCCL was the first cruise line to build a ship for warm-weather cruising.

Holland America has built many of its own ships, the most famous of which is the Rotterdam. The first Rotterdam sailed in 1873. Since then, there have been four other Rotterdams, including the current Rotterdam V, which was brought into service in 1959 and is still sailing. Companies such as Holland America maintain the names of their ships, though the ships themselves are different.

The current Westerdam was once the Homeric before being purchased by Holland America in 1988.

Problems often occur with successive ownership changes. To what extent are needed renovations--especially safety standard improvements--\o7 not\f7 performed because the new owner lacks proper capital, or because the new owner is not required to upgrade the ship under current laws?

By contrast, many states require new hotel owners to upgrade their purchases to comply with existing building, fire and safety codes as a condition of purchase.