Saga Pearl II
Saga Pearl II in the Kiel Canal
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The former Saga Pearl II is a cruise ship last used by Saga Cruises. Under the name Astor , the ship was the location of the television series Das Traumschiff, popular in Germany, in 1983/84 and, as Arkona, of the DFF television series Luv und Lee in 1990 .
history
December 16, 1980 the ship ran at the Howaldtswerken-German Werft AG in Hamburg with the hull number 165 (Bauname Hammonia ) for the HADAG Cruises Lines Ltd. from the stack .
During the equipment work, a comparatively harmless fire on board caused considerable smoke and water damage. This damage delayed the ship's maiden voyage . From November 24, 1981, the first test drive took place in the North Sea. After the trial, the ship was delivered on December 4, 1981 under the name Astor to KG Kymo Verwaltungs-Gesellschaft für Schiffsbeteiligungen , based in Hamburg. The ship started sailing under the German flag with home port Hamburg . Initially, the ship was chartered out to KR HADAG Seetouristik und Fährdienst AG as a cruise ship . The ship is often confused with the Astor , which entered service in 1987 , the successor ship with the re-assigned name.
The first trip took invited guests from Hamburg to Le Havre , Málaga and Genoa .
In order to avert the complete bankruptcy of HADAG, the ship was sold to the South African Marine Corp. shipping company on October 14, 1983 . Ltd. sold in Cape Town . The ship was handed over on February 7, 1984 in Hamburg. Extensive renovation and modernization work was then carried out in the shipyard so that the ship, which was originally built for 638 passengers, was only approved for 530 passengers. This conversion work was completed with the departure on April 1, 1984 to South Africa via Southampton . From July 1, 1984, the ship sailed under the flag of the Bahamas with home port Nassau .
On August 29, 1985, VEB Deutfracht / Seereederei Rostock (DSR) took over the ship for 165 million DM and put it into service under the name Arkona for the holiday service of the FDGB of the GDR . Before that, the German West Africa Line , based in Kiel, a subsidiary of the German Africa Lines , briefly owned the ship because the GDR did not want any direct relations with South Africa . Before the change of flag, the ship was overhauled at Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) for three million Deutschmarks. To this day, there are opinions that the sale of the ship to the GDR was part of a secret triangular deal between South Africa, the GDR and the HDW, which was significantly influenced or initiated by the Schleswig-Holstein state government or its Prime Minister Uwe Barschel and in which up to 150 million DM bribes are said to have flowed. The GDR got a cheap cruise ship, South Africa , which was under an arms embargo due to its apartheid policy , to submarine plans and the economically troubled HDW, 25.1% of which was owned by the state of Schleswig-Holstein, received urgently needed orders.
The Arkona replaced the friendship between the peoples sold by the GDR in the same year . In addition to vacation trips with GDR citizens in the Baltic Sea and to Cuba , it was mainly chartered out to Western tour operators to earn urgently needed foreign currency. After German reunification in 1990, the ship again sailed under the German flag. In 1998 the ship was bought by Arkona Touristik and started sailing under the Liberian flag with its home port Monrovia . In 2002 the ship was chartered under the new name Astoria for several years to the Bremen tour operator Transocean Tours . The Dutch Club Cruise Entertainment and Traveling Services Europe was the owner from early 2007 to mid-2009 . After the bankruptcy of this company, the ship, which was moored in Barcelona with engine damage, was towed to Gibraltar in July 2009 and auctioned there in August.
After a conversion for around 14 million pounds sterling , the ship came into service again from mid-March 2010 for around 450 passengers under the name Saga Pearl II under the flag of the Bahamas. From March 2012 it was flying the flag of Malta . In May 2012 the ship was renamed Quest for Adventure . At the end of 2013 it got its old name Saga Pearl II again .
On April 11, 2019, Saga Cruises decommissioned the ship in Portsmouth before it was replaced by the new Spirit of Discovery in the same year . In the same month it was renamed Pearl II . The ship is in Ambelakia on the Greek island of Salamis launched . She was bought by the Greek businessman Miltos Kambourides in April 2019 and is currently being converted into a private yacht at the Koros shipyard.
photos
Captain Karl-Heinz Hübscher (1985)
The Arkona before leaving Rostock
Arkona leaving Rostock
Rostock 1985: Farewell to Leningrad and Riga
Sundeck (1985)
Salon (1985)
The Arkona on a trip to the Baltic Sea in 1989
Arkona 1999 in Warnemünde
Astoria 2007 in Kiel
Saga Pearl II in front of Nordermole May 16, 2010
Saga Pearl II in Split on October 24, 2011.
Saga Pearl II in Split on October 24, 2011.
Quest for Adventure in Douglas Bay
Saga Pearl II (repainted), on July 2, 2016 in the North Sea
_IMO_8000214;_in_Split,_2011-10-24_(1).jpg)
_IMO_8000214;_in_Split,_2011-10-24_(2).jpg)
literature
- Gert Uwe Detlefsen: VEB Deutsche Seereederei Rostock. Detlefsen, Bad Segeberg [2005], ( German shipping companies. Volume 23), ISBN 3-928473-81-6 .
- Klaus Bröking: MS Astor - MS Astoria. A German story. Heel, Königswinter 2007, ISBN 978-3-89880-795-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Register entry. DNV GL, accessed June 25, 2019 .
- ^ Equasis - French Ministry for Transport: Administrative data of the "Saga Pearl II". Retrieved January 29, 2012 .
- ↑ When the GDR went on a cruise , NDR, October 14, 2015, accessed on September 30, 2018.
- ↑ Barschel's greatest secret. In: Der Spiegel, 34/1991.
- ↑ Klaus Bröking: How a submarine became a crusader. In: Westfälische Rundschau, March 31, 2008.
- ↑ André Germann: Future uncertain · Cruise oldie “Saga Pearl II” will be replaced in 2019 by “Spirit of Discovery” . In: Daily port report of September 27, 2018, p. 14
- ^ Saga Pearl II to Leave Fleet in 2019. Cruise Industry News, June 2, 2017, accessed June 2, 2017 .
- ↑ GREECE: ex MS Saga Pearl II is being converted into a private luxury yacht at the Koros shipyard, Ambelakia, Salamis. Retrieved July 8, 2020 .