Orient Queen

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Orient Queen (disambiguation) .

Orient Queen

The ship as Vistamar in Trondheim (2011)

Ship data flag  Bahamas other ship names Vistamar (until 2012) Orient Queen II (2012-2016) Med Queen (2016-2018) Ship type Cruise ship Callsign C6CT7 home port Nassau Owner Vistamar Canarias (1989–2001) Servicios Maritimos Litoral (2001–2002) Hotel Playaventura (2002–2007) Ellevi Shipping (2007–2012) Aml Shipmanagement Med Cruises Shipping company Abou Merhi Cruises Shipyard Union Naval de Levante ( Valencia , Spain ) Build number C 175 Order June 1987 Keel laying May 12, 1988 Launch December 1, 1988 Whereabouts capsized on August 5, 2020

Ship dimensions and crew length 120.80 m ( Lüa ) 99.84 m ( Lpp ) width 16.80 m Side height 6.60 m Draft Max. 4.60 m measurement 7.478 GT / 2.612 NRZ   crew 153

Machine system machine diesel-mechanical 2 × diesel engines ( Wärtsilä- Echevarria 12W22HF) Machine performance 3,900 kW (5,303 hp) Service speed 13 kn (24 km / h) Top speed 16.5 kn (31 km / h) propeller 2 × controllable pitch propellers

Transport capacities Load capacity 761 dw Permitted number of passengers 300 Pax cabins 154

Others Classifications DNV GL Registration numbers IMO no. 8701193

The Orient Queen was a cruise ship that was often used for expedition cruises . It had 154 cabins for up to 300 passengers . Until the beginning of 2012 it was chartered as Vistamar for the Bremen- based tour operator Plantour & Partner, after which it was on the road for Abou Merhi Cruises.

On August 4, 2020, the ship was badly damaged in the explosion in the port of Beirut and overturned .

history

The ship was ordered in June 1987. It was built under construction number C 175 at the Union Navale de Levante shipyard in Valencia for Mar Lines Universal Shipping. The keel was laid on May 12th, the launch on December 1st, 1988. The completion of the ship took place in July 1989. The ship started as Vistamar . The first captain was Raimund Krüger, who already accompanied the construction of the ship at the Spanish shipyard.

The ship was initially operated by Jahn Reisen . After two years, it was chartered by the Bremen reader travel organizer, Plantours & Partner. Some trips were carried out on a full charter from Seetours (Frankfurt) and the Bavarian Pilgrims Office.

With the Vistamar trips were offered in the Mediterranean , the Caribbean , on the Baltic Sea as well as in the Arctic and Antarctic . In the early 1990s, the ship was the first ship to sail the Amazonas (at that time to Manaus ) and Antarctica with expedition inflatable boats for individual shore excursions at three-star level. In 1997, Greenland was added as a new destination. In 2003 the Vistamar sailed the Amazon for the first time via Manaus to the Peruvian Iquitos (4400 river kilometers).

In the summer of 2012, Abou Merhi Cruises took over the ship, renamed it Orient Queen II (the first Orient Queen was in service for the shipping company from 2004 to 2006) and launched it under the Panamanian flag . After the renaming, there were weekly tours in the eastern Mediterranean , starting from Beirut . Between 2016 and 2018 the ship was briefly named Med Queen , before it was renamed Orient Queen in 2018 without the II as a name affix.

On August 4, 2020, the ship , which is now operated under the flag of the Bahamas , was badly damaged in the disaster of explosion in the port of Beirut and capsized the following day. Two people were killed on board and seven other crew members were injured.

Technical specifications

The ship was two Wärtsilä - diesel driven type 12V22HF. The motors acted on two controllable pitch propellers via reduction gears . The ship was equipped with an electrically powered bow thruster . Three generators powered by MAN 8L20 / 27 diesel engines were available to generate electricity on board . An emergency generator powered by a diesel engine was also installed.

literature

• Oldie on farewell course . Magazine An Bord 2/2011, pp. 16-19

Web links

Commons : IMO 8701193  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

• Ship's website
• Video of the overturned ship in the harbor basin
• Pictures of the capsized ship

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Administrative data. Equasis - France-Ministry for Transport, accessed June 8, 2012 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} 84131 Vistamar. In: Registro Italiano Navale . Retrieved August 17, 2020 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Micke Asklander: M / S Vistamar (1989). Facta om Fartyg, accessed June 8, 2012 (Swedish). 
4. ↑ About us - Orient Queen. Abou Merhi Cruises, accessed on August 8, 2020 . 
5. ^ Orient Queen Cruise Ship Damaged in Beirut Blast. In: cruiseindustrynews.com. August 4, 2020, accessed on August 5, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Oliver Schmidt: MS Vistamar ^{*** +} . Ship portrait. (No longer available online.) In: seereisenmagazin.de. October 2004, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on August 13, 2020 . 
7. ↑ Orient Queen II - Cruise Beyond Your Dream: Sailing from Beirut 8 Days. (PDF; 2.5 MB) prospectus. (No longer available online.) In: aboumerhicruises.net. 2013, archived from the original on December 11, 2013 ; accessed on August 9, 2020 (English). 
8. ↑ Franz Neumeier: Cruise ship Orient Queen, formerly Plantours' Vistamar, sinks after an explosion in Beirut. In: cruisetricks.de. August 5, 2020, accessed August 5, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Круизный лайнер Orient Queen затонул в Бейруте после взрыва. In: mk.ru . August 5, 2020, accessed August 5, 2020 (Russian).