(FORTUNE Magazine) – Holland America Line In June the giant Dutch cruise company (1986 revenues: $304 million) paid some $40 million for half of a business that specializes in romance and nostalgia. Miami-based Windstar Sail Cruises wafts passengers around the Caribbean and the South Pacific on two 440-foot schooners, the world's longest sailing vessels. The $35-million, French-built craft have powerful engines but cruise two-thirds of the time under sail, relying on computers to trim 22,000 square feet of flapping Dacron. Tickets for seven-day sprees, which include scuba diving and sightseeing, cost $2,635. Founder and co-owner Karl Andren, who also owns Circle Line, a tour boat operator in Manhattan, claims Windstar's sales will nearly triple to $50 million in 1988, when a third ship will join the white-winged fleet.

Intermedics Inc. Not long ago Intermedics of Angleton, Texas, was staggering toward bankruptcy. The nation's second-largest manufacturer of pacemakers, after Medtronic, it had diversified into swimming pool filters and other tangential ventures that led to a loss of $20 million on sales of $218 million for the fiscal year ending in November 1985. Then Richard Gilleland left American Hospital Supply to take on Intermedics' case as CEO. He slashed perks, cut 14 of 20 corporate jobs, and sold off failing operations to repay debt. Security analysts expect Intermedics to earn $17 million on sales of $190 million this year. The company's stock, which hit an all-time low of 6 3/8 last year, is beating along steadily at $24 a share. It could suffer a blip in 1988, when Intermedics pays up for losing a patent suit over one of its pacemakers.

Commodore Environmental Services Inc. Commodore Environmental Services is cleaning up by cleaning up. The New York company removes health-threatening asbestos insulation from old commercial buildings. A New York City law enacted this spring requires landlords to strip out the asbestos before they can get building permits for most renovations, and similar laws are pending in other cities. Industry analysts project that Commodore, which began operating in 1986, will earn about $11 million this year on sales of $70 million, mainly by acquiring smaller asbestos-abatement companies on the East and West coasts. The company's stock has moved from an offering price of pennies a share to $6 recently.

Niugini Mining Ltd. Niugini Mining Ltd. has discovered a mammoth gold deposit inside the rim of an extinct volcano on Lihir, one of 600 islands that compose the South Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea. The company owns 20% of the mine, scheduled to $ open late in 1989; British Petroleum owns the rest, and Kennecott, BP's mining subsidiary, will run the show. The Lihir trove is ''epithermal,'' created by millenniums of eruptions that deposited high concentrations of gold. Analysts think the find could total 30 million ounces, one-third of the reserves in South Africa's Driefontein mine, the world's largest. Niugini Mining -- the name is pidgin English, an official language of Papua New Guinea -- has no sales or earnings but has just struck what looks like another volcanic gold mine in the Tabar Islands, some 40 miles from Lihir. American Depositary Receipts for the company's stock trade at a glittering $10.50 over the counter. Miners digging into the volcanoes could find rocks that are too hot to handle, and timid investors may feel the same way about Niugini's stock.