Discovery Sun
 The Discovery Sun off Lucayan Harbor, January 2008
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The Discovery Sun was a cruise ship of the Nassau- based Discovery Cruise Line , which entered service as Freeport in 1968 and could also be used as a ferry . In its more than forty years of service, the ship changed name and owner several times. It remained in service until September 2011 and was scrapped in Bangladesh in 2012 .
Planning and construction
The Discovery Sun was commissioned in July 1967 under the name Freeport and laid down on October 26, 1967 in the Lübecker Maschinenbau Gesellschaft in Lübeck . The ship was launched on April 20, 1968.
period of service
After sea trials in November 1968, the Freeport was delivered to the Freeport Cruise Line in Miami , where the ship arrived on December 5, 1968. Two days later it was put into service for short trips between Miami and Freeport . That same month, the name of the ship was in Freeport I changed.
In April 1973 the Finnish Birka Line took over the ship and started using it again in May under its old name Freeport in ferry operations between Stockholm and Helsingfors . In January 1974 it changed under the name Svea Star to Ab Svea , which chartered the ship to the Trave Line for the route from Helsingborg to Travemünde in March . On October 11, 1976, the Svea Star was decommissioned and offered for sale.
The new owner in November 1976 was Bremer Schiffahrts GmbH in Bremen , which used the ship for cruises to Canada . In March 1981 it was renamed Caribe Bremen . A few months later, in October 1981, the ship went to Scandinavian World Cruises under the name Scandinavian Sun , which after renovation work in Hamburg used it for short trips between Miami and Freeport. In 1988 Scandinavian World Cruises was bought and renamed SeaEscape, but the scope of the Scandinavian Sun was not changed by the takeover.
In 1992 the ship went to the Corona Line as Balanga Queen in order to be used again as a ferry between Karlskrona and Gdynia . From May to December 1994 the Estonian shipping company Tallink chartered the ship to use it between Tallinn , Helsingfors and Travemünde. Then the Balanga Queen was transferred to the Caribbean .
That same month, the newly formed Discovery Cruise Line took over the ship under the name Discovery Sun . It was used for cruises to the Caribbean, but could still carry up to 220 vehicles. In January 1995, the Discovery Sun was converted and henceforth used for casino cruises between Miami and Nassau.
On August 19, 2011, the Miami Dade police department was informed of a man armed with a pistol aboard the Discovery Sun who was carrying a bomb. At that time, the ship was on its way back from the Bahamas to Fort Lauderdale , where it should arrive at 10.30 p.m. local time. Instead, the Discovery Sun had to stop eighteen miles off the coast of Florida. The Coast Guard reached the ship around midnight, but could not find a bomb or explosives. The Discovery Sun was then allowed to continue. In the port of Fort Lauderdale, the ship was searched again unsuccessfully for the bomb.
On September 6, 2011, the Discovery Sun ended its last cruise and was subsequently retired. In the same month, the Discovery Cruise Line sold the ship for demolition in Bangladesh. On February 25, 2012, the Discovery Sun arrived in Chittagong after 44 years of service , where it was dragged onto the beach for demolition on February 29. The Discovery Cruise Line was disbanded shortly thereafter.
Web links
- the ship on faktaomfartyg.se (Swedish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martin Cox: MV DISCOVERY SUN In Bomb Scare. August 20, 2011, accessed April 5, 2016 .
- ↑ Arlene Satchell: Discovery Cruise Line to cease operations Sept. 6. July 27th 2011, accessed on April 5, 2016 .