Louis Aura in Piraeus, 10 November 2013

This seems to be developing into a worrying trend, but once again I'd like to apologise for the recent lack of updates to this blog. Unfortunately the pace of updates will probably not change in the foreseeable future; in addition to my normal workload of writing articles for various maritime publications in both Finnish and English, I'm also currently working on not one but two books on maritime history. (The only reason I'm updating today is the fact that I'm down with a fever and don't trust my brain enough to write anything that would go to print).

But onwards to today's subject:

Louis Aura

IMO 6821080
Name history: Starward, Bolero, Orient Queen, Louis Aura
Built 1968, AG Weser Seebeckwerft, Bremerhaven, West Germany
Tonnage 15 781 GT
Length 160,13 m
Width 28,81 m
Draught 6,22 m
910 passengers
2 MAN diesels, combined 12 784 kW
2 propellers
1 bow thruster
Speed 21 knots

The history of the Louis Aura has already been covered in this previous entry, which includes photographs that are newer than the ones featured here.

As most readers will probably know, last autumn Louis Cruises unveiled their plan to rebrand their ships sailing in the Greek Isles (Louis Cristal, Louis Olympia and an upcoming third ship later unveiled to be the Explorer) as Celestyal Cruises. At the time it was reported that the cruises operated out of Cyprus by the Louis Aura would continue under the Louis Cruises brand, but most recent rumours indicate that these cruises will also be moved under the Celestyal Cruises umbrella. Which, should it prove true, will probably mean renaming the Louis Aura into Celestyal Aura or something similar.

The photographs below show the Louis Aura at the port of Piraeus on the afternoon of 10 November 2013, photographed from onboard the Rotterdam. Click on the individual images to see them in larger size.

At this point the ship had not yet been painted with the Louis Cruises hull markings evident in the photos of her poster here earlier. The ship looks much better like this.

Some Piraeus skyline for you.

Next time (when we get there...): a nice group photo of the Blue Star Patmos, Nissos Chios, Nissos Mykonos and Blue Star Delos at Piraeus.