Cruise Lines of New York. Under this new ownership, the ship was renamed America once again in an attempt to capitalize on its American heritage despite being registered as a Greek vessel. The ship's hull was painted dark blue and the funnels were repainted in a blue-and-red color scheme.America set sail on her first cruise on 30 June 1978. Its refit, however, had not been completed by the time of the sailing. The ship was in an extremely bad condition, with piles of soiled linen, worn mattresses, and scattered piles of trash everywhere, together with a pungent smell of kitchen odors, engine oil, and the sounds of plumbing back-ups. In addition, water in overhead pipes leaked and dripped all over the decks. Along with these many maintenance issues, attempts to spruce the ship up led to other problems, such as the many layers of paint visible on the ship's outer bulkheads as well as on the lifeboat davits and gear. Additionally, the public rooms aboard were carelessly repainted, as seen from how the America's stainless-steel trims were then scarred with paint-brush strokes. Due to overbooking and her state of incompletion, a number of passengers "mutinied," forcing the captain to return to New York, having only barely passed the Statue of Liberty. Nine hundred-sixty passengers were offloaded upon docking. On a second sailing that day, an additional 200 passengers left via tender at Staten Island.America finally left for a five-day cruise to Nova Scotia on 3 July 1978. Upon arrival, she was met with $2.5 million in claims from passengers. Further issues saw the cancellation of all further sailings, and America was impounded on 18 July 1978 for non-payment of debts. America also received an inspection score of six out of a possible 100 points by the US Public Health Service. On 28 August 1978, America was ordered to be sold at auction by the United States district court. Second Chandris career (1978–1980) Chandris Lines repurchased America for $1,000,000 and renamed her Italis. Her forward dummy funnel had become severely corroded due to years of neglect and was removed as part of an ambitious plan to modernize her silhouette by adding streamlined superstructure above the bridge, but this 'new look' was never completed. She retained the dark blue hull adopted by Venture Cruise Lines.Italis first operated under Chandris as a hotel ship from 23 June - 20 July 1979 when it