On my recent visit to Barcelona, on 30 March I was able to photograph the cruise ship ORIENT QUEEN moving from the World Trade Centre Terminal to the Union Naval shipyard.This ship, now operated by Louis Cruise Lines in the Mediterranean, has a very interesting history.
She was constructed in Germany for Knut Kloster's Norwegian Caribbean Lines (NCL) following the successful introduction into Caribbean cruise service of the SUNWARD in December 1966 which led to the order of further ships. So STARWARD was delivered in 1968 as a tropical cruise ferry with scandinavian design. She was in fact a passenger cargo ro-ro ship with a cargo deck and cruise operations were combined with the transportation of cargo from Miami to the Caribbean Islands.
However, the passenger business grew at a faster rate than cargo and it was decided to convert the cargo deck to increase the passenger capacity in 1976. The ship´s first 27 years were spent cruising from Miami. In 1995 STARWARD was sold to Festival Cruises of Greece and renamed BOLERO. Early in 2004 she was laid up in Gibraltar following the demise of Festival and later that year she became the ORIENT QUEEN under ownership of the Lebanese company Abou Merhi Lines, returning to cruise service in the Eastern Mediterranean in 2005.
In August 2006 she was purchased by a company associated to Louis Cruises, retaining her name.
She is owned by Teal Shipping SA, a Marshall Islands company and it was interesting to see that while Piraeus was painted at the stern as port of registry, she was flying the Marshall Islands flag at the stern when the photos were taken.
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia
She was constructed in Germany for Knut Kloster's Norwegian Caribbean Lines (NCL) following the successful introduction into Caribbean cruise service of the SUNWARD in December 1966 which led to the order of further ships. So STARWARD was delivered in 1968 as a tropical cruise ferry with scandinavian design. She was in fact a passenger cargo ro-ro ship with a cargo deck and cruise operations were combined with the transportation of cargo from Miami to the Caribbean Islands.
However, the passenger business grew at a faster rate than cargo and it was decided to convert the cargo deck to increase the passenger capacity in 1976. The ship´s first 27 years were spent cruising from Miami. In 1995 STARWARD was sold to Festival Cruises of Greece and renamed BOLERO. Early in 2004 she was laid up in Gibraltar following the demise of Festival and later that year she became the ORIENT QUEEN under ownership of the Lebanese company Abou Merhi Lines, returning to cruise service in the Eastern Mediterranean in 2005.
In August 2006 she was purchased by a company associated to Louis Cruises, retaining her name.
She is owned by Teal Shipping SA, a Marshall Islands company and it was interesting to see that while Piraeus was painted at the stern as port of registry, she was flying the Marshall Islands flag at the stern when the photos were taken.
Texto e imagens /Text and images copyright L.M.Correia. For other posts and images, check our archive at the right column of the main page. Click on the photos to see them enlarged. Thanks for your visit and comments. Luís Miguel Correia
No comments:
Post a Comment