As one of the many sources for naming ships, the word princess has been favoured as a prefix or suffix by owners of passenger vessels.
Local records show that since January 1991, and when used as a suffix, it has appeared here with 134 visits from 13 cruise ships.
But when used as a prefix the word has been linked to tragedy, particularly with short-sea ferries.
The latest of these, the sinking of Princess Ashika on August 5 with its serious loss of life, has devastated the Tongan community.
The 677gt, 50.5m long ferry was completed at Takamatsu by the Shikoku Dockyard, in July 1972, as Olive Maru No 1.
Renamed Princess Ashika in 1985, it operated for Patterson Bros, of Fiji, until taken over a few weeks ago by the Shipping Corporation of Polynesia.
The ill-fated vessel commenced sailing in Tongan waters on July 7.
A week after the disaster, another sunken princess was back in the news.
It was reported from the Philippines that two private salvage firms had started work on lifting the passenger Ro/Ro vessel Princess of the Stars.
Divers will dismantle part of the vessel, which only has part of the bottom hull visible above the surface, to enable it to be righted and towed to shore.
The operation also means that hundreds of bodies are likely to be recovered more than a year after the vessel sank.
The 23,824gt vessel dating from 1984, capsized off the coast of San Fernando, Romblon, at the height of typhoon Fenghshen on June 12, 2008.
At the time, Princess of the Stars was on a voyage from Manila to Cebu City. Of more than 800 passengers and crew on the ship, there were only 52 survivorsThe ship was also carrying 10,000kg of the pesticide endosulfan and other dangerous cargo.
Navy divers who gained entry to the ship on September 24, recovered the dangerous cargo and 199 bodies.
The loss of the vessel placed yet another black mark against its owners, Sulpicio Lines Inc, who had bought the vessel in 2004.
On September 18, 1998, their 13,734gt Princess of the Orient capsized in a typhoon near Fortune Island.
Of the 388 passengers and 102 crew members the ship was carrying, 150 perished.
The ship was also on a voyage from Manila to Cebu.
But to digress, the loss of Sulpicio's Dona Paz goes down as the worst peacetime disaster in maritime history.
While on a voyage from Talcoban City to Manila it caught fire after colliding with the small tanker Vector on December 20, 1987.
The manifest showed that the small 2602gt vessel was carrying 1493 passengers and a crew of 60.
But after illegally taking on more passengers at other ports, the ship was seriously overloaded.
The death toll is recorded as being a staggering 4341.
Now it is back in time to the loss of the 2694gt Princess Victoria and 133 lives on January 31, 1953.
Among the earlier Ro/Ro vessels to be built, in 1947, this British Railways vessel was on a regular voyage from Stranraer to Larne when in severe weather conditions the stern doors were stove in, allowing water to enter the vessel and bring about its demise.
Here on its first visit, to Ravensbourne last week, was the 28,647gt, 50,985dwt, Marshall Islands-flagged Peregine, owned by Peregine Shipping LLC.
The vessel has carried this name for the last four years but was formerly the Panama-flagged Sea Beauty.
The 189.99m-long bulker was delivered by the Oshima Shipbuilding Company in April 2001.
