Shelf Empress
_(2698463822)_(cropped).jpg) The Regal Empress in the port of Nassau, February 2008
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The Regal Empress was a last for short trips between Fort Lauderdale and Nassau inserted cruise ship of the shipping company Imperial Majesty Cruise Line , the 1953 Olympics for the Greek Greek line was put into service. The Regal Empress changed owner and name several times in its 56 years of service. Most recently she was considered to be one of the longest-serving passenger ships in the world.
Planning and construction
On March 3, 1951, the Greek Line signed the contract to build a new ship. It was built under hull number 636 at the Alexander Stephen and Sons shipyard in Glasgow and launched on April 16, 1953. The official christening of the ship, which had not been named up to that point in time, did not take place until delivery on October 12, 1953, as the official christening of the ship was canceled due to disagreements between the Greek Line and the Greek government. For this reason, the ship was registered in Liberia and not in Greece as originally planned. The Olympia was the first and only newbuild of the Greek Line and with a tonnage of 17,362 GRT the largest ship of the shipping company at the time.
period of service
Olympia
The Olympia was delivered to the Greek Line based in Monrovia on October 12, 1953 . She made her maiden voyage on October 15, 1953 on the route from Glasgow via Dublin to New York . On the following voyage, Bremerhaven became the starting point for the transatlantic crossing. Then the Olympia was used in the liner service between Piraeus and New York. In January 1954, the ship made a single voyage from New York to the West Indies . From 1961 the Olympia also served the ports in Limassol and Haifa . In addition, she was now also used for cruises in the winter months . In 1968 the ship, previously registered in Liberia , came under the Greek flag. Andros became the new home port . In 1970 the Olympia was converted into a cruise ship. She had eight decks accessible to passengers. On March 24, 1974, the ship ended its last voyage for the Greek Line and was then laid up in Piraeus .
Caribe
In 1981 Sally Shipping GmbH, based in Hamburg , bought the ship, which had been launched for seven years, and renamed it Caribe . After another year of lay-in, the ship, now registered in Germany , was towed to Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Hamburg in February 1982 , where renovation work was carried out on the ship from March to June 1983. It was u. a. the steam turbine drive was also replaced by a diesel drive.
Caribe I
Upon completion of the renovation work the ship in June 1983 was the Commodore Cruise Line based in Panama sold in Caribe I renamed. In the following ten years, the Caribe I was used for week-long cruises from Miami to the Caribbean . In May 1988, the modernized during the conversion in Hamburg chimney has been restored to a more conventional form, since the new design is not good for the classic look Caribe I fit.
Shelf Empress
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In 1993 the ship went to the Regal Cruise Line after the interim business closure of Commodore Cruises and was now used under the name Regal Empress . In 1997 the ship came to Mobile for modernization and received, among other things, new balcony cabins.
On April 18, 2003, the Regal Empress was arrested in Port Manatee for outstanding payment claims. The new owner of the ship was made in May 2003 by Imperial Majesty Cruises, who started using it for cruises to the Bahamas from June 2003 .
In October 2008, the Regal Empress was taken out of service and taken to Galveston to be used as a barge for victims of Hurricane Ike . However, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) refused, which is why the ship returned to Fort Lauderdale. On December 1, 2008, the Regal Empress was put back into service.
In March 2009, the ship was replaced on the route from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau by the Bahamas Celebration . The Regal Empress ended her last cruise on March 15th.
Scrapping
In March 2009 the ship was sold to an Indian scrapping yard and in April of that year it was transferred to India under the name Regal Tmpress , where it arrived in Alang on July 27, 2009 for scrapping . in August 2009 the Regal Tmpress was pulled ashore for scrapping. The dismantling work on the ship began in October 2009 and was completed by March 2010.
Furnishing
The Regal Empress had 450 cabins with a total capacity of a maximum of 1,307 passengers.
The public areas of the ship included several bars and lounges, a night club with a dance floor, a library, a casino and a cinema, which could also be converted into a disco if required. The dining room of the Regal Empress had a capacity of up to 540 people. A special feature of the interior was the dark wood paneling, which could be found in most of the cabins and public rooms and which dates from the ship's time as the Olympia .
On TV
The Regal Empress played an important role in 2007 in episode 90 of the American television series MythBusters - The Knowledge Hunters . One of the presenters of the show ( Tory Belleci ) tried to water-ski behind the Regal Empress with the help of a nearly one hundred meters long rope attached to the stern of the ship . The attempt succeeded on the second attempt.
literature
- Theodore W. Scull: Sailing The Regal Empress: Tradition And Good Value . In: Cruise Travel . Volume 15, No. 6 . Lakeside Publishing Company, Evanston May 1994, pp. 52 to 55 .
Web links
- Data of the ship , Fakta om Fartyg
- TSS Olympia , ssMaritime.com
- Olympia , postcard motifs of the ship
Individual evidence
- ↑ Regal Empress. Accessed December 31, 2015 .
- ↑ Rob O'Brien: REGAL History. 2008, accessed January 2, 2016 .
- ^ Reuben Goossens: MS Regal Empress. Retrieved September 27, 2013 .
- ^ Reuben Goossens: MS Caribe I. Retrieved January 2, 2016 .
- ↑ Harvey Rice: Empty ship could be Ike shelter, but may leave Galveston. October 30, 2008, accessed December 31, 2015 .
- ↑ Peter Knego: MV REGAL EMPRESS. Accessed December 31, 2015 .
- ↑ Sailing The Regal Empress: Tradition And Good Value . in: Cruise Travel . Volume 15, Number 6, Lakeside Publishing Company, Evanston May 1994, 54.
- ↑ Ken Conley: Episode 90: Supersized Myths. November 14, 2007, accessed January 2, 2016 .