Road to Mandalay

Road to Mandalay

The Road to Mandalay on the Irrawaddy

Ship data flag  Myanmar other ship names Nederland (1964-1987) Rhine Princess (1988) Globe (1989) Nederland (1989-1991) Elbresidenz (1991–1994) Ship type Cabin passenger ship home port Rangoon Owner Belmond Ltd. Shipyard Cologne shipyard, Ewald Berninghaus Launch April 19, 1964 takeover June 28, 1964

Ship dimensions and crew length 101.62 m ( Lüa ) width 11.60 m Draft Max. 1.45 m displacement 1000  t   crew 70

Machine system machine 4 × Deutz diesel engines, each 312 kW Machine performance 1,248 kW (1,697 hp) propeller 2 × Voith-Schneider drive 1 × bow thruster

Transport capacities Permitted number of passengers 82

Others Registration numbers * Europe no .: 4200200

The Road to Mandalay is a cabin ship built in 1963/64 for the Preußisch-Rheinische Dampfschiffahrtgesellschaft ( Cologne-Düsseldorfer from 1967 ) under the name Nederland , which, after renovation, has been operated by Belmond Ltd., based in London, since 1996 . for multi-day river cruises on the Irrawaddy between Yangon and Bhamo in Myanmar . The company is also the operator of the Eastern and Oriental Express .

history

Construction and commissioning

The Nederland at
Pfalzgrafenstein Castle (1967)

After the operating group Kölnische and Düsseldorfer Gesellschaft für Rhein-Dampfschiffahrt already operated two cabin passenger ships in 1960 and 1961, there was further demand in 1963 in this then still new tourism segment. According to the plans of the shipping company, the research institute for inland shipping in Duisburg carried out tests using models. The new ship was to be eight meters longer than the previously built Helvetia . As the first passenger ship on the Rhine, a bow thruster with Voith-Schneider drive was to be installed at Nederland . After the tests were completed, the Preussisch-Rheinische Dampfschiffahrtgesellschaft commissioned the Cologne shipyard, Ewald Berninghaus , to build the ship on July 29, 1963. The keel was laid under construction number 789 in October 1963, and the ship was launched on April 19 of the following year. The construction costs amounted to 7 million  Deutschmarks . The ceremonial baptism in the name of Nederland took place on June 28, 1964 in Bonn . Godmother was Lidia Luns - the wife of the then Dutch Foreign Minister and later NATO Secretary General Joseph Luns . The maiden voyage led from Bonn to Niederbreisig and back. From July 6, 1964, the ship was used in the plan service of the Cologne-Düsseldorfer Rheindampfschiffahrt operating group on the Rhine between Rotterdam and Basel .

The time with the Cologne-Düsseldorfer

The Netherlands of the Cologne-Düsseldorfer

The Nederland's Lounge (1967)

On May 16, 1967, ownership of the ship was transferred to the Cologne-Düsseldorfer Deutsche Rheinschiffahrt company, which was independent from that point in time . In the 1988 season she was chartered between May and September to the Dutch European Travel Service, which used her as the Rhine Princess . In the following year 1989, Globus Reisen chartered the ship from May to September and named her Globus for this period , after which she was anchored on the banks of the Düsseldorf City Hall until March 1990 as an accommodation ship for asylum seekers from the Balkans . Globus Reisen then chartered the ship again for the summer season.

Since the Cologne-Düsseldorfer no longer saw a need for the ship on the Rhine and at the same time there was an increased need for guest bed capacities in the new federal states due to German reunification , she decided to convert the Nederland into a purely hotel ship, in order to use it as a ship hotel after completion to anchor for 177 guests in Dresden . The Ruhrort shipyard in Duisburg began converting the Nederland on November 3rd of that year . The conversion work was completed after the transfer from January 25, 1991 by Shipyard De Hoop in Lobith . Then she was loaded onto a sea ​​pontoon on February 4th and towed to the port of Hamburg by two tugs belonging to the Bugsier-, Reederei- und Bergungsgesellschaft until February 10th . After the Nederland had been fully equipped to continue its voyage on its own, from February 25th it sailed over the Elbe to Dresden, where it did not arrive until March 14th after several breaks due to heavy ice drifts. The hotel ship opened on March 20, 1991 and only two weeks later it was renamed the Elbresidenz . 66 two-bed and 20 three-bed cabins were set up in the ship hotel. After three and a half years, the hotel was no longer profitable, so it was closed by the shipping company on November 24, 1994. Only a few days later, the Cologne-Düsseldorfer transferred the ship to the Hitzler shipyard in Lauenburg on the Elbe for renovation and dismantling work for the purpose of a possible later sale .

Conversion and use as a luxury river cruise ship in Myanmar

The Road to Mandalay (2009)

At full speed (2008)

The Road to Mandalay in Bagan

In order to gain a foothold in the then new tourism market of river cruises in Myanmar , the Orient Express Hotel Group needed a ship that could be converted to meet their needs. The Netherlands , which was still in the shipyard, seemed suitable, so that its parent company, Sea Containers Ltd. in London , bought the ship on January 12, 1995 for 5.3 million DM and commissioned the Hitzler shipyard to convert it into a luxury cruise ship in nostalgic colonial style according to their ideas . The shipyard rebuilt all decks of the ship under order number 809, installing 72 cabins, a new air conditioning system suitable for tropical conditions and a drinking water treatment system . The shipyard only used precious wood for the interior fittings . The commissioned work was completed on August 21, 1995.

The ship, renamed Road to Mandalay , was then loaded onto Condock IV , a self-propelled dock ship from Harren & Partner , at Blohm + Voss in Hamburg . The 33-day ferry trip to Yangon , via the Dover Strait , Mediterranean Sea and Suez Canal , began on August 30, 1995. After the Road to Mandalay was undocked at the beginning of October, it drove to its new home port, the Shwe Kyet Yet Pier, on its own in Mandalay . This was where the finishing touches took place, in which local artisans provided the walls of the common rooms with elaborate carvings and the cabins were given carpets and decorative fabrics woven especially for the ship, as well as furniture and carvings in the style typical of the country. The conversion and transfer costs for the ship totaled around DM 22 million.

The celebratory maiden voyage on the Irrawaddy from Mandalay to Bagan took place on January 31, 1996. Guests of honor included the British actress Helena Bonham Carter , Prince Michael of Kent and the Prince and Princess of Greece . The operator then used them as planned on the same route. During several modernization measures and after severe storm damage in 2008, the number of cabins was initially reduced to 66, then to 56 and finally to 43. The Road to Mandalay is used on the Irrawaddy on four, eight and twelve day river cruises.

Equipment and technology

The Road to Mandalay is a luxury four-deck cabin ship with 43 outside cabins. The aft areas in the lower and main decks are used to accommodate the 70-person crew. On the lower deck in the fore ship there is a wellness area to which four 10  m² single cabins are connected, from the central nave 16 deluxe two-bed cabins, each with an area of ​​18 m². On the main deck there are four 11 m² superior twin cabins, 18 state twin cabins with 23 m² each and the governor's double cabin, which is 29 m², is the largest. All units are air-conditioned and each have a shower / toilet, telephone and satellite TV . The reception is located in the middle of the deck. Behind a large viewing lounge in the fore deck of the upper deck is a bar, behind the hall in the middle with a small shop is the restaurant and kitchen. The sun deck is equipped with a swimming pool and another bar. The whole ship is decorated in the style typical of the country, the furniture is mostly made of teak wood - the wall paneling in the cabins and lounges are decorated with carvings typical of the country.

The ship will have four diesel engines á 312  kW of Deutz two Voith-Schneider drives driven. The bow thruster has a 161 kW drive. The ship is 101.62 m long, 11.60 m wide and 9.20 m high. The maximum draft is given as 1.45 m.

literature

• Georg Fischbach: The ships of the Cologne-Düsseldorfer 1826-2004 , self-published, Marienhausen 2004, ISBN 3-00-016046-9
• Stephan Nuding: 175 years of Cologne-Düsseldorf Rhine Shipping Company. A historical representation in pictures and text. Schardt, Oldenburg 2001, ISBN 3-89841-035-8 .

Web links

Commons : Road to Mandalay  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Operator's website for the Road to Mandalay (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Georg Fischbach: The ships of the Cologne-Düsseldorfer 1826-2004 , self-published, Marienhausen 2004, p. 732ff
2. ↑ Reference to the storm damage in 2008 on www.reisefieber.net ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 11, 2010 
3. ^ Deck plan of the Road to Mandalay , accessed November 11, 2010
4. ↑ Cabin description of the Road to Mandalay , accessed on November 9, 2010
5. ↑ Entry on Road to Mandalay in the Dutch inland waterway database at www.debinnenvaart.nl