Random Ship Spotting - Part 4

The fourth in a series of articles looking at ships we have seen either at home or whilst on holiday.

MSC Musica, photographed in 2009 from one of Venice's water buses. We were low down on the water and she is towering above us! Built in 2006 by Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire, France, she had capacity to carry over 2,500 passengers with a crew of just over 1,000. She was the first of her class - the Musica Class - to be followed by Magnifica, Orchestra and Poesia. Refurbished in November 2019, she has 13 decks and can cruise at an average of 23 knots.

The MS Regatta, was also built at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire in 1998 as an R-class cruise ship for Renaissance Cruises. The second of her class she was imaginatively named R-Two. Renaissance Cruises were an American-owned company and finances affected by the Gulf War were finally disastrously run down after the 911 terrorist attack and the company went bankrupt, the ship being sold to Cruiseinvest and sailing as Insignia after a full year of being laid up. In 2003 she transferred to Oceania Cruises and was renamed as Regatta under which name and owner she still sails. A relatively small ship, for these days, she carries upto 824 passengers with 386 crew.

The ro-ro car and passenger ferry Metamauco, built in 1998 by the family-owned Cantiere Navale Visentini shipyard in Italy and operating in the Venetian Lagoon by Actv. This firm, the Company of the Venetian Transport Consortium runs all forms of public transport around the Venetian Lagoon and islands, including ferries, waterbuses, wheeled buses and trams.

Actv waterbus (vaporetto) Actv 87 on the main southern route from Venice towards the cruise port.

Two Blue Star ferries seen in Rhodes in 2010. Blue Star 1 on the left was built in the Netherlands in 2000 and carried upto 1600 passengers and 640 vehicles. In 2007 she had 15 new cabins added on an extension to deck 9. From 2021 she completed a two-year charter with Irish Ferries sailing between Pembroke and Rosslare. She kept her name throughout this charter and in 2023 returned to Blue Star and currently sails between Piraeus and Chania.

On the right is Blue Star's Diagoras, built in 1990 as the New Tosa in Japan for the Osaka-Kōchi route. She was bought after nine years on that route by Greek company, Dodekanisos Seaways, who shortly afterwards sold her on to DANE Sea line who renamed her Lindos. After some conversion work, she sailed between islands in the Dodecanese group in 2001 and was renamed again as Diagoras. DANE Sea line went bankrupt in 2004 and she spent the next two years laid up in Piraeus before Blue Star bought her in 2006. She operated on a variety of routes mainly in the Dodecanese group until being sold to a Moroccan company, Africa Morocco Link, in 2016, operating between Spain and Morocco. She was bought back by Blue Star in 2018 for whom she still sails.

Also in Rhodes in 2010 we came across the Delphin Voyager. Now this is a ship of many names. Built in Tokyo, Japan as Orient Venus for Japan Cruise Line in 1990, she spent fifteen years sailing in the Japanese cruise marketplace. In 2005 she was sold to First Cruise Line in 2005 and became Cruise One (how do they think of these names?) Chartered in 2007 to German company Delphin Kreuzfahrten as Delphin Voyager as seen above. The company became insolvent just six months after we saw her and she was taken to Perama a few miles from Piraeus in Greece until she was chartered for a five-month period in early 2011 to Hainan Cruises in China. She became the Hainan Express for that period to May 2011.

Then followed a charter to Quail/Happy Cruises under the name Happy Dolphin. She wasn't happy for long as Quail/Happy Cruises quickly went bankrupt in the same year. Another charter in 2012 took her to Turkey for the summer season crusing from Izmir under the name Aegean Paradise. In 2016 she was sold to a company and spent some time as a floating casino off Indonesia. She is apprarently still cruising as Aegean Paradise and 16 minutes ago as I now write, she was heading for Penang in Malaysia.

Costa Victoria pictured in Piraeus, Greece, in April 2010 with what appears to be a very determined Miss Franny walking along in her "danger flag" pants, keeping an eye on the workmen standing on a floating pontoon or raft doing something important to the side of the ship. I think the circles with the cross in them are safe targets for tugboats rather than "drill here" markings, but who knows... She was built in 1995 at Bremen in Germany, the first of two Victoria-class ships. The second was earmarked to become Costa Olympia but instead was sold to Norwegian Cruise Line, becoming Norwegian Sky. Meanwhile Costa Victoria started cruising with Costa Cruises in 1996, Costa's last new ship before the firm was taken over by Carnival Corporation in 1997.

Refits were undertaken in 2004 and 2013 to add balconies and remodel staterooms and public rooms to look "more Italian". In March 2020 a woman who had disembarked in Crete was found to be COVID positive and 726 passengers were subjected to quarantine. Her last scheduled stop of that cruise in Venice was cancelled and passengers eventually left the ship in Civitavechhia, Italy, after their quarantine period. She never carried passengers again. Three months later in June 2020 she was sold to an Italian firm for possible conversion to worker accomodation for shipyard workers in Genoa, but this never came to pass either. She was transferred to a subsidiary company and sent to Piombino from where she was towed to Aliağa, Turkey, for shipbreaking which took place in 2021.

A row of four ferries seen in Piraeus, Greece in 2010, belonging to the firm G.A. Ferries. On the left and laid up at the time is the Marina or to give it its full name,: Anthi Marina. She had been built as one of three ships for Townsend Thorensen and was originally the Spirit of Free Enterprise. One of her sister ships was the ill-fated Herald of Free Enterprise that capsized in the English Channel off Zeebrugge in 1987. Following this P&O bought out the company and all three ships were renamed, with Spirit... becoming Pride of Kent. In 1991 she was cut in half and an extension of 102 feet (31 metres) fitted into the centre of the ship.

In 1998 she became P&OSL Kent with the merger of P&O and Stena Line. This was shortened to P O Kent following the buyout of Stena Line's shares. She was sold to G.A. Ferries in 2003 and named Anthi Marina for whom she operated until being laid up in 2009 and was eventually scrapped in 2012.

Second in line is the Romilda with a similar background. Built in 1974 as Free Enterprise VIII and renamed in 1987 as Pride of Canterbury, she was transferred to G.A. Ferries in 1993, the second of their ferries to be named Romilda. She was sold to be scrapped in Turkey in 2011.

Third in line is the Rodanthi, built in 1974 in Japan for the Shin Higashi Nippon Ferry. She was bought by G.A. Ferries in 1989, chartered to CoTuNav (Tunisia Ferries) in 1995 then returned to Greece later the same year being laid up in Piraeus in 2009 and eventually scrapped in 2012

Finally, nearest the camera, we have Daliana another ship built for the Japanese domestic market as Ferry Pearl in 1970. She was bought by G.A. Ferries in 1988 and laid up with the others in 2009 - there were financial problems behind the laying up of ships. She was sold for scrapping in 2011.

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