Nordlys in Trondheim, 28 August 2017

I returned yesterday from a trip through various Norwegian cruise ports organized by Cruise Norway, and you can later on read more about the trip from Cruise Business Review. Sufficient to say for now that it was interesting, exhausting and at times eye-opening - and all this in superb company. The trip also gave some chances to photograph ships I don't normally see - the first of which is the subject of this entry.

Nordlys

IMO 9048914
Built 1994, Volkswerft Stralsund, Germany
Tonnage 11 204 GT
Length 121,66 m
Width 19,20 m
Draught 4,70 m
691 passengers
482 berths
50 cars
2 MaK diesels, combined 9 000 kW
2 propellers
2 bow thrusters
Speed 18 knots

The Nordlys was the last ship of Hurtigruten's first trio of 1990s newbuildings, built by the Volkswerft in Stralsund, in the former East Germany (the sister ships being the Kong Harald and Richard With). Her original owners were TFDS (Troms Fylkes Dampskibsselskap), though the name Nordlys (Norwegian for "Northern Lights") recalls that of a previous 1951-built BDS (Bergenske Dampskibsselskap) -owned Hurtigrute, which TFDS took over, alongside BDS's Hurtigruten share, in 1979.

The Nordlys entered service in April 1994 on Hurtigruten's Bergen-Kirkenes service, on which the ship remains to this day. There has been some drama to her career: in January 2006 she evacuated 680 people from Melkøya due to a heavy storm and in September 2011 an engine room fire onboard resulted in two deaths. Less dramatic were a sale in 2003 to KS Kirberg, with a 15-year charterback agreement (so actually due to end next year), and a series of brief winter lay-ups in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

The photos below show the Nordlys arriving at Trondheim in the morning of 28 August 2017 on a northbound crossing. Photographed from the Trondheim port cruise quay. As per the usual, click on the images to see them in larger size.

You can get nice photos if you get up early enough. Which I normally wouldn't do, but (fortunately or not) I didn't get to design the schedules of the trip.

The exterior design is fairly utilitatian, though I still quite like it. If I remember correctly, the funnel exhausts were a later addition to the original design.

Passing Munkholmen, a former monastery and prison on Trondheimsfjorden.

The island-passing photos were so good, I just had to include a second one!

Approaching the Hurtigruten terminal - and the run, giving less nice lighting.