Harwich Haven Ships and Yachts : Past and Present http://www.harwichhavenshipsandyachts.com/pastandpresent/index.php http://www.harwichhavenshipsandyachts.com/pastandpresent/index.php?entry=9
The Albatros Class were the main Trasmediterránea ships on the Canaries and Balearic routes for about 10 years until they were superceded in the late 1970s.




They were then used as relief ships on various routes until being sold in 1985
to Sol Mediterranean as the SOL CHRISTINA, serving Piraeus-Rhodes-Limassol-Alexandria.

In 1986 she was sold to Opale Lines and renamed KYPROS STAR. In 1987-88 she was chartered to Adriatica for their Brindisi-Patras service.



In 1989 she was sold to Majestic Cruises and converted to a cruise ship and renamed OCEAN MASJESTY.

In 1994 she was renamed Olympic, and then chartered to Epirotiki Lines who named her HOMERIC.



In 1995 she was renamed OCEAN MAJESTY and was chartered annually to Page & Moy during the summer months for cruises from the UK.



In August 2007, she had a minor collision with THOMSON SPIRIT in Geirangerfjord in western Norway.
The THOMSON SPIRIT was lying at anchor, when the OCEAN MAJESTY was attempting to anchor, but drifted down across the bow of THOMSON SPIRIT.
The OCEAN MAJESTY suffered the most damage, with one lifeboat crushed, several sets of davits bent, and at least two cabins were damaged.
Page & Moy cancelled the rest of the cruise and immediateley flew all of their customers home.
The ship had only completed four days of her nine day cruise.]]> http://www.harwichhavenshipsandyachts.com/pastandpresent/index.php?entry=8 Built in 1975 in Lubeck
Length Overall 182.4m
Beam 22.6m
Gross Tonnes 15657t
TOR BRITANNIA, and her sister, TOR SCANDINAVIA were built by Tor Line for the Goteborg-Amsterdam and Goteborg-Felixstowe services. She carried 1358 passengers, and had a speed of 26 knots.



In 1981 the the passenger operations of Tor Line were acquired by DFDS Seaways. The two ships were initially marketed as DFDS-Tor Line.



From 1983, TOR BRITANNIA operated some services between Harwich and Esbjerg, which due to her faster speed, was achieved much faster than running-partner DANA ANGLIA.



She later served on most other DFDS Seaways routes, including Harwich-Hamburg, and routes from Ijmuiden to Norway and Sweden. In 1991, Tor Britannia was renamed Prince of Scandinavia. Side sponsons were added in 2000 to conform to new stability regulations for Ro Ro ships.



2001 she operated between Newcastle and Ijmuiden.

In 2003, PRINCE OF SCANDINAVIA was sold to Moby Lines of Italy. After modifications, she re-entered service as the Moby Drea between Livorno and Olbia.
She is still in service.

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She operated in the Scandutch consortium, sailing between Gothenburg, Hamburg and Rotterdam to Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
She was originally 275.2 metres LOA, but was lengthened in the early 80's to 291 metres.
Her propulsion system consisted of 2 contollable pitch wing propellors and one fixed pitch centre propellor.

She was sold to Maersk Line in 1993 and renamed LADBY MAERSK.
She was resold in 1995 and renamed LADBY.
MSC purchased her in 1996 and she was re-named MSC CARLA.
She operated on the Europe to US East Coast service.


This photograph was taken as the MSC CARLA departed Felixstowe on her last voyage. I was piloting her to sea and the ship then called at Le Havre before crossing the Atlantic for United States.



On 24th November 1997, just a few days after leaving Le Havre, she broke in two in position 39.31N 025.01W, close to the Azores.
Initial reports suggested the crew were pushing the ship too hard in a heavy swell, but the fracture occured exactly where she was cut in two during the lengthening process. There was an obvious weakness at this point thus exonerating the crew from any neglect.


With the two sections floating freely, the crew (all safe in the aft section) ran the engines astern to keep clear of the bow.



Happily, the crew were all rescued by helicopter from the Azores. The forward section subsequently sunk, and the aft section was towed to Spain, and later scrapped.]]>