Seatrade Insider reports that Peace Boat has chartered the 22,945 GT, 1,258-berth Clipper Pearl from International Shipping Partners. According to the report, the ship will be renamed Clipper Pacific and, following the refit she is currently undergoing in Turkey, will sail to Yokohama in May.
Although not stated in the report, this suggests that the ship could replace the current Peace Boat vessel, the 32,327 GT, 959-berth The Topaz, on the world cruise scheduled to depart from Yokohama on 14 May.
Clipper Pearl was built in 1970 as Royal Caribbean’s Song of Norway, later operating as Sundream for Airtours Sun Cruises and Dream Princess and Dream for Caspi Cruises before being acquired by Clipper Group last year. ISP manages Clipper Group’s cruise assets.
The Topaz was built in 1956 as Canadian Pacific’s Empress of Britain, later operating as Greek Line’s Queen Anna Maria, Carnival’s Carnivale, FiestaMarina’s FiestaMarina and Epirotiki Cruises’ (later Royal Olympic Cruises) Olympic before being sold to Kyma Ship Management and renamed The Topaz in 1997. She was initially chartered to Thomson and has been chartered to Peace Boat since 2003.
I had the privilege of visiting The Topaz in New York in 2006 with the World Ship Society Port of New York Branch. You can view my illustrated tour of the ship here.
You can view the full story from Seatrade Insider here (free registration required).
I have contacted Peace Boat, ISP and Kyma Ship Management requesting further information and will update when I receive responses.
Update 11-Feb-08: The story has been confirmed by ISP. It also issued a press release, which you can download as a PDF here.
2 Comments
Monday, 11 February 2008 at 3:14 pm
Thanks for the update, I was wondering what had become of Dream since her problems in Greece last year. Do you have any idea what has happened to the former Sun Viking? In Ships Monthly it was reported that she was being converted to become a residence-type ship, however she is still showing on the Asia Cruises website as their casino ship Omar III. Any insight? Thanks.
Monday, 11 February 2008 at 10:31 pm
I’m afraid I’m not really clear on the status of the former Sun Viking. Since June she is Long Jie. Her owner is listed as Real Win Ltd, Singapore, with no other ships, and her manager as Sanyang Marine Pte Ltd, Singapore, which has a web site at . Its name also shows up in connection with four other ships, three oil products tankers and a landing craft, all registered to various companies in Singapore.
Here is a photo of her in November with her new name:
My suspicion is that she is still operating gambling cruises out of Singapore, but I’m not sure. It’s not always easy to keep track of these Asian ships.
Doug
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