The Varna (bulg. Варна ) was a cruise ship built in 1951 , which was in service as Ocean Monarch under the British flag until 1967 , under the Bulgarian flag until 1977 and under different names under the Greek flag until its sinking in 1981.
The Vickers-Armstrongs shipyard in Newcastle laid the keel of the ship on the order of the shipping company Furness, Withy & Co. under hull number 119 . When it was launched on July 27, 1950, it was named Ocean Monarch and, after the Second World War, was the shipping company's first cruise ship specially designed for the American market. The ship was 157.3 meters long, 22.0 meters wide and had a draft of 7.3 meters. It was measured with 13,654 GRT or 7135 NRT. Two Parsons geared turbines from Vickers-Armstrongs generated 11,500 hp and enabled a speed of 18.0 knots with two screws . The crew consisted of about 250 men and the ship was designed for 414 first class passengers.
history
British ocean monarch
On April 18, 1951, the Ocean Monarch started her maiden voyage from London to New York , where Furness, Withy & Co. stationed her permanently. It was there on May 3, 1951, that she began her first trip to Bermuda . For the next 15 years it operated regularly on the route between the ports of these two places. In addition to the cruise with the passengers, she also had the task of supplying the Bermuda with fresh drinking water. In 1966, the shipping company took them out of the service and let the Ocean Monarch on September 22 in the River Fal in Cornwall hang up .
Bulgarian Varna
In 1967 , the Bulgarian company Balkanturist from Varna was looking for entry into the cruise business in order to generate western foreign exchange . After the purchase of the Nessebar , the search for another suitable passenger ship struck gold with the launched Ocean Monarch . She was sold to the shipping company Navigation Maritime Bulgare and operated by Balkanturist. The new acquisition was named Varna after the city of the same name, Varna . On August 10, 1967, while in Falmouth , the crew hoisted the Bulgarian flag on the ship, which was the largest passenger ship in the history of Bulgaria. The Balkan tourist and shipping company initially used the Varna for cruises from Montreal . The ship wrote Bulgarian shipping history when the Varna anchored off the North Cape and Spitsbergen in 1968 and 1969 and was the first Bulgarian ship to reach the 80th parallel and the pack ice border . The main area of application of the cruise ship, however, was the Black Sea and the Mediterranean . The Warna was launched in Perama in 1970, chartered by Sovereign Cruises for two voyages in 1973 and sold to them in 1977.
Last years under the Greek flag
In the same year, the new owner named the ship Venus , and in 1979 sold the ship to Dolphin Shipping from Piraeus , who renamed it Riviera . In the same year the ship went for a tag in the yard and was named Reina del Mar . Shortly before cruise operations began, a fire broke out on May 28, 1981 while the main engine was being tested. The ship was towed from Ambelakia, ran aground on the island of Salamina and was towed free again. Eventually the ship capsized and sank on June 1, 1981 south of Kynosura .
literature
Arnold Kludas: The world's great passenger ships. A documentation. Volume V: 1950–1974 , Stalling Verlag; Oldenburg, Hamburg 1974, ISBN 3-7979-1844-5 .
Bruno Bock, Klaus Bock: The red merchant fleets. The merchant ships of the COMECON countries , Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Herford 1977, ISBN 3-7822-0143-4 .
