Seabourn Legend

Seabourn Legend is a Norwegian Registry cruise ship built at Schichau Seebeckwerft Bremerhaven,in Germany. Her maiden voyage was in January 1996 under the name “Royal Viking Queen” and was re christened by Linn Brynestad, wife of Atle Brynestad, Chairman of Cunard Line Limited.The ship was refurbished in 1999.

SHIP PARTICULARS
Tonnage	10,000 tons
Length	440 feet
Breadth	63 feet
Cruise Speed	18 Knots
Air Condition	Throughout
Passenger Decks	4
Guest Capacity	208
Swimming Pools	1
Whirlpools	2
Lounges	2
Restaurants	1
Pool Bars	1
Elevators	3
Also  Casino, Sauna, Gymnasium, Medical Facilities, Beauty Salon, Laundry Service, 24 Hour Room Service and Dry Cleaning, Business Centre, Shop and Boutique.

More Photos

 

Emma Maersk – World’s Largest Container Ship

 

Since September 1, 2006 Dutch company Maersk Line operates the Emma Maersk vessel, built by Odense Steel Shipyard. The Emma Maersk is the first in a new series of PS-class vessels and is one of the most environmentally friendly container vessels ever built. As part of Maersk Line’s fleet of modern container vessels, she will set new standards for global shipping. Measuring 397 metres long, 56 metres wide and a deadweight of 156,907 tonnes, the Emma Maersk is the world’s largest container vessel. The vessel is able to carry 11,000 twenty-foot containers (TEU).

Thanks to high-scale automation and complete monitoring by advanced computer systems, the vessel can be operated by a crew of just 13. Reduced solvent content paint and environmentally friendly silicone antifouling paint below the waterline reducing water resistance and cutting the vessel’s fuel consumption by 1,200 tonnes per year.

The Emma Maersk entered in worldwide service network on the Europe – Far East service. With the refit of the supertanker Knock Nevis (458 meters long – 564,763 tonnes) as an offshore platform, Emma Maersk became the longest ship in use

 

More details about this ship, please click here.

Punkaharju

S/S Punkaharju is an inland water ship which makes charter cruises from Savonlinna. This vessel was designed by Eemil Kiiveri who got his scholarship in shipyard of Lehtoniemi in the town of Varkaus. He draw the ship in that manner that it needs less power motor to cover a distance. Vessel was damaged badly in fire in 1913, and at that time its steam engine was changed to more efficient.During the war vessel participated in evacuation transports.

Nowadays, this ship is owned by Oy Vip Cruise Ltd.

Previous Names

S/S Taimi III (?-1999), S/S Punkaharju, S/S Kerttu (?-1934), S/S Osuuskunta I (1905-?)

 

More Details

Building place: Ship yard of Lypsyniemi, Savonlinna (Eemil Kiiveri)

Building year: 1905/1926

Length – 22.5m Breadth – 4.95m Draught – 2.00 m

Type of motor: Compound steam engine

Owners: Oy Vip Cruise Ltd, Savonlinna 1999-to present

Home port: Savonlinna

Operating: Scenery Cruises

Passengers: 75

Amenities: Restaurant

Freedon of the Seas

This post is my first entry for this blog. I want to make this post sort of remarkable one. It took me nearly a day thinking which ship I have to post. Finally, I came up with Freedom of the Seas – presently the largest cruise liner – owned and operated by RCCL. This ship is the first to be launched under the Genesis Project. The Freedom of the Seas was built at the Aker Finnyards drydock in Turku, Finland which also is building the other ships of the Freedom Class. Upon her completion she became the largest passenger ship ever built, taking that honor from Cunard’s Queen Mary 2. Freedom is 2.4 meters narrower than QM2 at the waterline, 6 meters shorter, and has 1.5 meters less draft. Freedom however is the larger ship in gross tonnage. While her tonnage rating was estimated to range from 154,000 gt[1] to 160,000 gt,[2] her official rating by Det Norske Veritas, a Norwegian marine classification society, is 154,407 gt, [3] compared with QM2’s 148,528 gt. Freedom has the highest gross tonnage of any passenger ship yet built. The ship features three swimming areas; an interactive water park, a dedicated adult pool and the main pool. There are 2 whirlpools cantilevered out from the ship’s sides. The Royal Promenade sports a coffee shop, Sorrento’s Pizzeria, a Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream shop, Vintage’s winery, the Bull and Bear Irish pub, and many Duty-free shops. The 13th deck features a sports area with amenities such as a rock climbing wall, the FlowRider (an onboard wave generator for surfing), a miniature golf course and a full size basketball court. Other items include an ice skating rink, a casino, a Johnny Rockets, Wi-Fi capabilities throughout the ship, flat panel televisions in all staterooms, and cell phone connectivity. The layout is nearly identical and the promenade is back, as is the rock-climbing wall, the ice-skating rink, Johnny Rockets, the Promenade Cafe, Ben & Jerry’s, etc. It is almost as if Voyager of the Seas was simply super-sized, and beefed up with innovative spaces and concepts. Freedom was docked at Blohm und Voss in Hamburg, Germany on 17 April 2006 for final touches prior to her official handover to Royal Caribbean International on 24 April 2006. She then departed to Oslo, Norway on 25 April for official festivities. She then sailed for Southampton, England on 27 April and arrived at 9am on 29 April. She sailed on her first transatlantic crossing on 3 May 2006. Freedom arrived in New York Harbor USA for her official naming ceremony on 12 May 2006 which was broadcast live on NBC’s The Today Show from Cape Liberty Cruise Port in Bayonne, New Jersey (the ship’s official New York berth), and thereafter travelled to Boston for the weekend of May 19-22. She began operations out of Miami with her first cruise and maiden voyage on June 4, sailing to western Caribbean locations in Mexico, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica as well as Labadee, in Haiti, one of Royal Caribbean’s private resorts. The added width of the ship is utilized by the interior promenade extending through the upper decks of the ships. This gives all upper level cabins a window, either to the port or starboard side or inwards to the promenade. This design was first used in the cruiseferry M/S Silja Serenade and her sister ship in 1990. In 2009 Freedom and her sister ships are expected to be surpassed as the world’s largest passenger ships by her owner’s new Genesis class of ships.

Facts and Figures

-She has 30 lifeboats.

-She is about 229 ft. longer, about 108,000 gross tons larger, and can accommodate 2,147 more passengers than RMS Titanic.

-Her operating costs are $1 million per day.

-She hosted her first all gay cruise on January 26, 2007.

-She has 750,000 lightbulbs and 4,700 works of art, and uses 35,000 kg of ice daily.

-The largest suite is 113 square meters, sleeps 14 people and has five flat panel TVs, a private whirlpool, and a wet bar.

-Rooms for the maiden voyage were priced from $1,900 to $22,000 for the week. As routine service continues, starting room rates are expected to descend as low as $700 for cruises scheduled in the autumn of 2007.

-The ship consumes approximately 28,000 gallons of fuel per hour.

 

More details and photos about this ship here.

Queen Mary 2

The RMS Queen Mary 2 (QM2) is a Cunard Line ocean liner named after the earlier Cunard liner Queen Mary, which was in turn named after Mary of Teck. At the time of her construction in 2003, the QM2 was the longest, widest and tallest passenger ship ever built, and at 148,528 gross tons, was also the largest. She lost that last distinction to Royal Caribbean International’s 154,407 gross ton Freedom of the Seas in April 2006, but QM2 remains the largest ocean liner (as opposed to cruise ship) ever built, and her height, length, and waterline breadth are unsurpassed by any other passenger ship. QM2’s luxuries include 15 restaurants and bars, five swimming pools, a casino, a ballroom, a theatre, and a planetarium.

 

Characteristics

The Queen Mary 2 is the current Cunard flagship and makes regular transatlantic crossings. The ship was constructed to complement the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) — the Cunard flagship from 1969 to 2004 – replacing it on the transatlantic route. The first RMS Queen Mary sailed the Atlantic from 1936 to 1967.

The prefix “RMS” on the QM2 originally stood for “Royal Mail Steamer”, but now stands for “Royal Mail Ship”. The QM2 is not a steamship like her predecessors, but is powered by gas turbines and diesel engines that produce the power to drive her four electric podded propulsors. Also like her predecessors, she is a transatlantic ocean liner, as opposed to a cruise ship, though she is used for cruising purposes from time to time.

History

The vision of a 21st century ocean liner — bigger than any that had gone before — started as the brainchild of Carnival CEO Micky Arison, who has stated that his company bought Cunard to create Queen Mary 2, not vice versa.

Cunard completed a design for a new class of 84,000-ton, 2,000-passenger liners on 8 June 1998, but immediately revised them upon comparing those specifications with Carnival Cruise Lines’ 100,000-ton Destiny-class cruise ships and Royal Caribbean’s 137,200-ton Voyager of the Seas.

Six months later, on 10 December Cunard released details of “Project Queen Mary”, the project to develop a liner that would complement Queen Elizabeth 2. Harland and Wolff of Northern Ireland, Aker Kværner of Norway, Fincantieri of Italy, Meyer Werft of Germany, and Chantiers de l’Atlantique of France were invited to bid on the project. If construction began immediately, the liner could be in service by 2002. But it was not until 6 November 2000 that a contract was signed with Chantiers de l’Atlantique, a subsidiary of Alstom. This was the same yard that built Cunard’s one-time rivals, the SS Normandie and SS France of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique.

Her keel was laid down on 4 July 2002, in Saint-Nazaire, France. Approximately 3,000 craftsmen spent some 8 million working hours on the ship, and a total of 20,000 people were directly or indirectly involved in her design, construction, and fitting out. In total, 300,000 pieces of steel were assembled into 94 “blocks” off of the drydock, which were then stacked and welded together to complete the hull and superstructure. She is so much larger than those that Chantiers normally build that the shipyard treated her as “1.6 ships.”

The QM2 was floated on 21 March 2003. Her sea trials were conducted between 25 September-29 September and 7 November-11 November 2003, between Saint-Nazaire and the off-shore islands of Ile d’Yeu and Belle-Ile. The final stages of construction were marred by a fatal accident on 15 November 2003, when a gangway collapsed under a group of shipyard workers and their relatives who had been invited to visit the vessel. 48 people on the gangway fell over 15 m (50 ft); 32 were injured and 16, including a child, were killed.

Construction was completed on schedule. Due to the size of the ship, the luxury of materials, and the fact that, due to her nature as an ocean liner, she required 40% more steel than a standard cruise ship, the final cost ended up being approximately $300,000 US per berth – nearly double that of ships such as Voyager of the Seas, Grand Princess, or Carnival Conquest.

Cunard took delivery in Southampton, England on 26 December 2003. On 8 January 2004, the liner was named Queen Mary 2 by her namesake’s granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

More details and photo gallery  here.

Knock Nevis – The World’s Largest Ship

Knock Nevis has a deadweight of 564,763 tonnes and a summer displacement of 647,955 t when laden with nearly 650,000 m³ (4.1 million barrels) of petroleum. It sits 24.6 metres in the water when fully loaded, which makes it impossible for her to navigate even the English Channel, let alone man-made canals at Suez and Panama.

The Knock Nevis is a Norwegian owned supertanker, formerly known as Seawise Giant, Happy Giant, and Jahre Viking. It is 458 metres (1504 feet) in length and 69 m (226 ft) in width, making It the largest ship in the world. It was built between 1979 and 1981, damaged during the Iran-Iraq War, and refloated in 1991. It sits 24.6 metres in the water when fully loaded, which makes it impossible for her to navigate even the English Channel, let alone man-made canals at Suez and Panama. When laden, she sits 24.6 metres in the water, a depth great enough to deny her entry to most of the world’s major ports.

History:

The supertanker was built at Sumitomo Corporation’s Oppama shipyard in Japan for a Greek owner who refused to take delivery of the vessel due to extensive vibration issues related to faulty gear design. Following an unsuccessful arbitration against the yard, the vessel was sold to Chinese interests. The unfinished ship was bought by a Hong Kong shipping magnate Tung Chao Yung (shipping line OOCL) who had her extended by several metres, thus increasing her load-carrying capacity and making her the largest ship ever built. The ship was finally floated two years later and named Seawise Giant. This is a pun on the name of the owner, who abbreviates his name as C. Y. Tung. Tung Chao Yung experienced significant financial difficulties as a result of the lengthening and was eventually supported through contacts with the government of the People’s Republic of China .At first, she operated between the Middle East and the USA but from about 1986 she was used as a floating storage ship and transhipment terminal in Iran during the Iran-Iraq War. In May, 1988, the ship was attacked and heavily damaged by bombs dropped from Iraqi jets while lying at the Iranian Hormuz terminal in the Strait of Hormuz. At the end of the Iran-Iraq War in late 1989, the wreck (which had by then been towed to Brunei) was bought by a Norwegian limited liability partnership (“KS-company”) managed by Norman International. They had the wreck repaired by the Keppel Shipyard in Singapore, and renamed Happy Giant. However in 1991, before the repairs were completed, the KS-company became managed by Norwegian shipping company Jørgen Jahre, and the vessel was delivered from Keppel Shipyard as the Jahre Viking. During the late 1990s, the majority of the KS-company was bought by Norwegian shipowner Fred Olsen through his company First Olsen Tankers.

In March 2004, the ship was sent by her new owner, Fred. Olsen Production a.s (FOP), a wholly owned subsidiary of First Olsen Tankers, to the shipyard Dubai Drydocks to be refitted as a floating storage and offloading unit (FSO).[1] There, she was given her current name, Knock Nevis. The ship is now permanently moored in the Qatar Al Shaheen oil field in the Persian Gulf, operating as a FSO.

 Read also here.

M/V Doulos – The World’s Oldest Active Ocean-Crossing Ship

                                                                                                                                                                   

This is MV Doulos, the world’s oldest active passenger ship. This 1914 built, 428 by 55 foot, 6,670 gross ton missionary ship MV DOULOS is used as a floating bookshop owned and operated by a German charity Gute Bücher für Alle (Good Books for All). The crew of this ship are volunteers who do not get paid. The ship gets part of its support for maintenance and running the ship through donations and low prices book sales. I have been on this ship sometimes in 1998 ( I am not sure of my figures..) when she make her call in Manila. I bought from the ship 7 books at a low price. Until, today those books I bought are still in my archive. Here in the photo, a man looking around for books in the ship’s library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

History:

The Medina was built in 1914 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company for the Mallory Steamship Company of the United States. She was a freighter serving the Atlantic; during World War II she served with the United States Coast Guard. The Panamanian company Naviera San Miguel SA acquired the Medina in 1948; they renamed the ship the Roma, and converted her into a passenger ship with cabins for 287 people, and dormitories for an additional 694 people. In 1952 Naviera San Miguel resold the Roma to Linea Costa, an Italian company. At this time the SS Roma, a steamship, was converted into a motor vessel and renamed the MV Franca C. She carried passengers between Italy and Argentina. In 1959, the Franca C was adapted into a cruise liner, principally cruising the Mediterranean. In 1977, Gute Bücher für Alle acquired the Franca C, and renamed her the Doulos. In her current role, she is manned by a volunteer crew and visits sea ports world-wide.

See also here.

Source: Wikipedia