Statendam (ship, 1957)
 The Statendam in Stockholm Harbor, June 1972
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The Statendam (IV) was a passenger ship put into service in 1957 by the Dutch shipping company Holland-America Line for the liner service from Rotterdam to New York and the fourth new build of the shipping company with this name. The ship, which was used exclusively for cruises from 1966 , remained in service for Holland America until 1982 and then moved under the name Rhapsody to the French provider Paquet Cruises. From 1986 it was in service as the Regent Star for Regency Cruises . After Regency Cruises went bankrupt in November 1995, the Regent Star lay unused in Greece . After nine years of time spent, the former was Statendam in April 2004 under the name Harmony 1 in Indian Alang scrapped.
The Statendam was at the time of their entry into the second largest unit of the Holland-America Line after the Nieuw Amsterdam . In 1958 she was the first ship of the shipping company to travel the world.
Planning and construction
The Holland-America Line had been planning a new large passenger ship since 1953 to complement the smaller Ryndam and Maasdam, which were commissioned in 1951 and 1952 . In 1954 the design began to take shape. The new ship should not only be bigger, faster and more elegant, but also far more luxurious than the other units in the fleet. The Statendam was commissioned from Wilton-Fijenoord in Schiedam under construction number 753 . It was not built on a slipway like most ships of its time , but in a dry dock . On June 12, 1956, the Statendam was launched, during which only the dock was flooded and the ship was towed to the equipment dock. The launch took place without any major celebrations, as the name was only announced before it was put into service and therefore no baptism ceremony took place. The test drive with a total of 264 shipyard workers and employees of the Holland-America Line took place on December 15, 1956, but it was not without problems: After the Statendam had to go through a heavy storm during the night, the machinery failed on the morning of December 16, which is why the ship had to be brought into port for repairs on December 17th by five tugs. On January 14, 1957, the second test drive took place with 476 people on board, this time without incident. On this second voyage, the Statendam was officially christened on January 19th by Crown Princess Beatrix, who was also invited on board . She was the fourth ship of the shipping company to bear this name. The name Statendam comes from the same peasantry .
period of service
Holland America Line
On January 23, the ship was finally taken over by Holland America Lijn and put into service on February 6 on the route from Rotterdam to New York.
Since the two predecessor ships Ryndam and Maasdam were able to achieve high occupancy rates, especially in the tourist class, the Statendam was mainly equipped with cabins from this category, while the first class only had capacity for 84 passengers. The high-quality equipment was a novelty: 90 percent of the cabins had their own bathroom with shower and toilet. The ship was also designed to be used for cruises in the winter months.
In addition to its use in liner services, the Statendam was also used for cruises in the winter months, as planned during its construction. In January 1958 she was the first ship of the Holland America Line to set out on a 110-day trip around the world.
After the liner service to New York became unprofitable, the Statendam changed its area of operation and has been used exclusively for cruises since 1966. On November 7, 1967, she and her fleet sister Maasdam were the first ship of the shipping company to call at Sydney Harbor . In September 1971 she went to the shipyard for modernization. The public areas, previously divided into two classes, have been converted for the cruise service without class separation. Part of the closed promenades have been removed to expand the lounges and common rooms. In addition, her hull, which was previously gray, was painted a dark blue. She was the first ship on the Holland America Line to receive this hull painting, which is still used today. She finally returned to the service in February 1972.
In December 1972 the ship was used for a conference of scientists and science fiction writers. The occasion was the start of the Apollo 17 space mission . In addition to the 100 guests invited on board on the topic of space travel, other celebrities were also present, including the American author Katherine Anne Porter . The journey, which was associated with losses for the Holland America Line, was later referred to as the Ship-of-Fools Expedition, which was based on Porter's best-known novel The Ship of Fools .
In 1973 the ship, previously only marketed in Europe , was also offered on the US market. After another nine years in service for Holland America, the Statendam was sold in October 1982.
Paquet Cruises
The French shipping company Paquet Cruises became the new owner . The ship was under the name Rhapsody for cruises in the Caribbean and Alaska in use from December . Previously, it was modernized and partially refurbished for several million dollars. This also resulted in several cabins for the disabled.
In March 1984, the Rhapsody hit the headlines after she ran into a coral reef on March 28 while cruising off Grand Cayman and was stuck there for the next six weeks before she could be towed free. The passengers were disembarked shortly after the accident and flown out with charter planes. A rescue attempt on April 2 with three tugs failed. After the Rhapsody could be towed free, she was taken to Galveston for repairs in June and put back into service in September 1984.
In February 1986, Paquet announced the planned sale of Rhapsody . Since no other ship in the Paquet fleet was stationed outside of Europe, the shipping company withdrew completely from the US market with this decision.
Regency Cruises
In May 1986 the Rhapsody was renamed Regent Star and sold to the Regency Cruises shipping company belonging to the Lelakis Group . The ship was towed to Perama and modernized there and equipped with a new diesel engine from the decommissioned Regent Sky (formerly Margaret Johnson ) container ship from 1970, which was scrapped a little later in Turkey . Lelakis originally planned to convert the container ship for the cruise service, which is why he bought it and renamed it. In addition, the ship received additional cabins through an extension at the bow. In July 1987 the Regent Star embarked on her first cruise for Regency Cruises. The ship was registered under the flag of the Bahamas , her officers and the captain came from Greece as with all other Regency units. At the beginning of her service, the Regent Star was very popular with the public and, like the Regent Sea, usually achieved a cabin occupancy of over 90 percent.
During her service with Regency Cruises, the Regent Star was used in the Caribbean as well as for cruises to Canada and Alaska. She was also deployed to South America, where she and the Regent Sea offered passages through the Panama Canal .
On July 22, 1995, during a cruise in Prince William Sound off Alaska, a fire broke out in the engine room of the Regent Star , causing the ship to lose its propulsion. The 1280 passengers on board were evacuated to the former fleet sister Rotterdam , who had come to the aid of the damaged ship. The cause of the fire was fuel that had leaked from a defective cylinder and ignited. Exactly one month earlier, several serious defects were found on the ship during a United States Coast Guard inspection on June 22nd.
After repairs, the Regent Star was able to be put back into service on September 1st, but only stayed in service for a few weeks. On October 30, 1995, Regency Cruises filed for bankruptcy . The ship, which was then on a cruise, was arrested and officially decommissioned on November 1, 1995. It was then transferred to Eleusis , where it was launched and offered for sale. Regency Cruises planned to reorganize and reopen after its bankruptcy, but this did not materialize.
Lay-in time and scrapping
In the following years, the ship changed hands several times, but was not put back into service despite several plans for future use. During her layover in Eleusis, she was anchored alongside two other classic passenger and cruise ships: The Americanis from 1952 and the Mediterranean Sky from 1953. While the Americanis was scrapped in 2001, the Mediterranean Sky capsized in the bay in 2002. Then she was next to the ferry Vega, which was put into service in 1975 .
On March 14, 2004, the Regent Star was finally towed to Alang, India, after more than seven years under the transfer name Harmony 1 and under the flag of St. Vincent and the Grenadines , where it arrived on April 20, 2004 and was taken to the beach for scrapping was pulled.
Furnishing
The Statendam's equipment included two dining rooms (divided into two classes until 1971), several lounges, bars, a Lido Cafe, an on-board shop, a show lounge with dance floor, a card room, a casino and a theater with 300 seats. The ship also had two swimming pools. The ship's floor plan was never changed for the passenger facilities except for the enlargement of some common rooms and lounges during the renovations in 1971 and 1986, only the names of the individual rooms changed depending on the owner.
The pool
One of the lounges
bar
First class dining room
Closed promenade deck
successor
In 1993 the Statendam received a successor with a new building of the same name (and meanwhile the fifth ship of this name). The ship remained in service with the shipping company until 2015, when it was sold as Pacific Eden to P&O Cruises Australia and has since been used for cruises off Australia .
In July 2016, construction work began at the Italian shipyard Fincantieri on the Nieuw Statendam (new Statendam) , which is due to enter service for Holland America in November 2018.
literature
- Stanford Horn: Paquet French Cruises RHAPSODY . In: Cruise Travel . Volume 7, No. 2 . Lakeside Publishing Company, Evanston Sep 1985, pp. 40-44 .
Web links
- technical data and history of the ship on faktaomfartyg.se (Swedish)
- History of the ship on ssmaritime.com (English)
- Postcard motifs of the ship on simplonpc.co.uk (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Statendam (1957-1982). Retrieved June 20, 2016 .
- ^ Reuben Goossens: Holland America Line SS Statendam. Retrieved November 28, 2016 .
- ↑ Henrik Ljungström: Statendam (IV) / Rhapsody / Regent Star. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on June 11, 2016 ; accessed on June 30, 2016 . 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.
- ^ The Maritime Executive: First Steel Cut for Nieuw Statendam. July 12, 2016, accessed December 1, 2016 .
- ^ William H. Miller: The Handsome Statendam . in: Holland America Liners 1950–2015 . Amberley Publishing Limited, 2016, ISBN 1445658844 .
- ^ Next Holland America Line Pinnacle-Class Ship to be Named ms Nieuw Statendam. May 20, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016 .
- ↑ Joe DePasquale: Holland America Line. Retrieved July 23, 2016 .
- ^ Reuben Goossens: ms Statendam. Retrieved December 2, 2016 .
- ↑ Eric Gus: SS Statendam (IV). December 21, 2010, accessed December 1, 2016 .
- ^ Michael AG Michaud: Reaching for the High Frontier. 1986, accessed December 20, 2016 .
- ↑ Another Favorite - Holland America's Statendam - 1957. January 31, 2012, accessed July 23, 2016 .
- ↑ Serita Stevens: Rhapsody in Blue . in: Cruise Travel . Volume 5, Number 2, Lakeside Publishing Company, Evanston October 1983, p. 25.
- ↑ Peter Knego: SS RHAPSODY. Retrieved June 30, 2016 .
- ↑ United Press International: Three giant tugs failed to dislodge the cruise ship. April 2, 1984. Retrieved November 29, 2016 .
- ^ Paquet to Withdraw from US Market? February 19, 1986. Retrieved November 29, 2016 .
- ↑ a b Micke Asklander: M / S MARGARET JOHNSON. Retrieved November 30, 2016 .
- ^ Jeannie Block: Regency Cruises . in: Cruise Travel . Volume 10, Number 3, Lakeside Publishing Company, Evanston Nov. 1988, p. 61.
- ^ Jeannie Block: Regency Cruises . in: Cruise Travel . Volume 13, Number 4, Lakeside Publishing Company, Evanston February 1992, p. 71.
- ^ Regent Star Fire July 22, 1995. Retrieved November 29, 2016 .
- ^ The Rise and Fall of: Regency Cruises. July 15, 2011, accessed November 29, 2016 .
- ^ Regency Files Chapter 11 . in: Cruise Travel . Volume 17, Number 4, Lakeside Publishing Company, Evanston February 1996, p. 42.
- ↑ Sound Grootenboer: M / S VEGA. Retrieved December 1, 2016 .
- ^ Micke Asklander: T / S STATENDAM. Retrieved November 30, 2016 .
- ^ Paquet French Cruises Rhapsody . in: Cruise Travel . Volume 7, Number 2, Lakeside Publishing Company, Evanston September 1985, p. 42.
- ^ Micke Asklander: M / S STATENDAM (1993). Retrieved December 2, 2016 .
- ^ Holland America Line: First Steel Cut for Holland America Line's ms Nieuw Statendam. July 16, 2016, accessed December 2, 2016 .
