Black Prince (ship, 1966)
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The Black Prince was a converted cruise ship former ferry, which for the Norwegian shipping company Fred Olsen & Co. was built.
history
The first years
The launch of the Black Prince took place on May 14, 1966 at the Flender shipyard , Lübeck , Germany . On October 19, 1966, the ship was put into service. It operated as a ferry between Las Palmas , Tenerife , Madeira and London during the winter and between Norway and the UK in the summer . In winter, a large amount of fruit was always transported in addition to the passengers.
The Black Prince had a sister ship , the Black Watch , which was also used as a ferry.
Venus
In 1970 the shipping company Fred Olsen & Co. received a new, if somewhat smaller, ship called the Blenheim . For this reason, a partnership was concluded with the shipping company Bergen Line to use the Black Prince . This ship now sailed the Newcastle upon Tyne - Bergen and Bergen - Amsterdam routes during the summer months under the name Venus . The routes were changed in winter: Venus drove between Rotterdam , Lisbon , Casablanca , Madeira, Las Palmas and Tenerife. The return trip took two weeks.
In 1975 this route was jointly marketed under the name Fred Olsen-Bergen Line . This was made visible by attaching three white stripes of the Bergen Line to the existing logo of Fred Olsen & Co.
The 1980s
At the beginning of the 1980s, the Danish DFDS expanded in the area of North Sea ferry traffic, so that capacity was needed. For this purpose, the Venus was chartered for the route Bergen - Newcastle upon Tyne and Bergen - Amsterdam. 1985 in chartered Norwegian -based Bergen Norway Line the ship for the route Bergen - Newcastle upon Tyne.
In 1986 the partnership between Fred Olsen & Co. and Bergen Line was ended. In order to reduce labor costs, Fred Olsen & Co. sold the ship in October 1986 to the subsidiary Fred, based in Manila , Philippines . Olsen Cruise Lines .
Cruise ship
In the course of 1986 the ship was converted into a pure cruise ship by the Wartsila Marine Turku Shipyard in Finland . The previous cargo areas were used to set up a fitness center , an indoor heated pool , a table tennis area , a badminton court and a children's play area. The tailgate was retained and converted so that it could be folded down horizontally. The result was a marina that could be used by passengers when they were berthed at sea. For this purpose, a portable staircase and a floating bathing area were lowered into the water, from which the guests could swim. Water sport activities such as jet skiing were also offered. The total capacity after the conversion was 441 passengers in one class.
On February 12, 1987, the Black Prince was put back into service as a cruise ship. On February 27, 1987, the first cruise started from Southampton towards North Africa and the Mediterranean. In 1990 the ship was transferred to the Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, Hvisten, Norway. This put the Danish and Swedish Seafarers' Union on the barricades, as they believed an underpaid Filipino crew was serving on the ship. When calling into Gothenburg , Sweden , many people demonstrated, which were joined by some dock workers. The vessel was then taken out of service and in Oslo , Norway launched .
In January 2001, after 35 years sailing under the Norwegian flag , the Black Prince was reflagged to the Bahamas , home to Nassau .
Sale to Venezuela
In 2010, the safety guidelines at sea ( SOLAS ) were tightened. As a result, a number of conversion work would have had to be carried out on the Black Prince , which, however, was discarded for reasons of cost. Therefore, the ship was decommissioned on October 16, 2009.
A little later, the Venezuelan shipping company Ola Cruises bought the ship and renamed it Ola Esmeralda . It has since been used for cruises along the coast of Venezuela . In November 2012 the ship was sold to Santo Domingo for scrapping.
Trivia
Shortly before decommissioning, the ship entered Lübeck on September 28, 2009 . 40 former employees of the Flender works, which went bankrupt in 2002 and who were involved in the construction of the ship, were invited to visit on board.
On October 6, 2009, the ship left the port of Funchal , Madeira , for the last time , where it has visited 594 times in more than 40 years. Several ships, including the Costa Europa and the Costa Luminosa, accompanied the departure.
The shipping company Ola Cruises is the first cruise operator from Venezuela.
See also
Web links
- Website of the shipping company Ola Cruises
- Information and technical data
- History and dates of the Black Prince
- Black Prince & Venus story
- M / S Black Prince.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c ship data at equasis.org. Accessed April 28, 2012 (registration required).